May 2009
15 posts
1 tag
It's a priviledge, not a right
My dad was telling us (Sue and Sheldon came over for dinner) about how as a kid going through the ‘terrible 2s,’ I started saying “I want…” all the time. And my dad decided that it was time to teach me what a ‘want’ was and what a ‘need’ was. So the story goes that he went throught some examples with me - rice, chocolate… And then he...
Straight from the US
I’d heard nothing for a couple of weeks about my potential import from the US so I thought that it’d fallen through, after all, my friend didn’t come back to me saying that her friend’d bought one or brought it over. But it’s finally here. It’s sitting on my friend’s dining table and she says that I will love it! And I still don’t know what colour it...
Three cameras today, another one on the way
My dad wanted to go to the Leica store in Bloomsbury so we went yesterday. I happened to have my Voigtlander with me so took the opportunity to test out the Panasonic G1 with my Nokton 50mm f1.5 with it.
I was floored! I’d tried out the G1 with its kit lenses before and it was the usual digitised result. With the Nokton lens, the LCD display as well as the LCD viewfinder suddenly was so...
Two mad women wreak havoc on train
Okay, so maybe they’re not clinically insane… The first was an indignant woman who booked a sleeper train only to find out that she wasn’t on a sleeper berth. She unsuccessfully argued with the conductor who told her that she could go sort this out tomorrow morning. Now she’s seated upright in her seat; my mom can see her keep shaking her head.
Another woman was making a...
2 tags
TubEttiquette
The train’s pretty crowded for an early journey. A black (and another white) girl had their bags on the seatnext to them. I went up to the nearer one - Black Bag Girl - and she removed her bags. I sat down next to her, minding my own business. but then she started adjusting her tabloid-sized newspaper and shoving the page/corner into my personal space. I was deliberating whether to say...
Corrinne May - Beautiful Seed
I really like Corrinne May’s 3rd album. Beautiful Seed has a really nice drum section. Scars has a gorgeous piano part. The lyrics are also very telling. I can see her heart in her songs. She’s matured along with her music.
Contrast her with Half-Naked Banana Babe from City Harvest Church (Singapore); I attended CHC for 6 months or so and I don’t understand how she can make use...
People
Sometimes one meets nice, interesting people during the course of the day. I was on the Tube with the Parents today and we were talking about French - the language. This guy suddenly joins our convarsation when we’re talking about evening and night. It turns out that he’s a coffee trader; I forget that coffee is a commodity. He recommends Flat White in Soho and Monmourth Coffee and was...
1 tag
Inspiration and respiration
I find that i write more, and with more intensity or passion, or that my word form more coherent sentences when I’m angry; anger here is a loose descriptor encompassing emotions such as irritation, frustration, or active stress (as opposed to passive stress, but of course). I’m very intolerant of smokers because stereotypiclly and most of my experiences are that - (mostsmokers are...
1 tag
Miscellaney
Got to the train station at 7.20 today, later than yesterday. But surprisingly got a seat today. I’m sitting between a plus sized lady (I wouldn’t describe her as grossly fat) and a young woman hard at work getting her make up on. Her bag is a treasure trove as I watch her dig and unearth TWO different pots of blush (and she uses them both layering one over the other), foundation, wet...
2 tags
More in transit
I keep telling Andrew that he’d do well with a smart phone and a data plan. I managed to get so much of my thoughts down whilst on the tube (which was only delayed 10 minutes). Might I add that i stood the whole journey even though I left at 7.10 this morning; I might have got a seat if not for this mousy haired woman who pretty much charged for it when a man vacated. By the time more seats...
Minus 7, plus 7
As usual, I can’t believe the weekend has flown by at and is now in the past. And actually the whole of last week too.
Highlights of the past 7 days
There is a small possibility that I might be able to buy a KitchenAid from America if schedules coincide and luggage allowances permit. KitchenAids are waaaaaay cheaper in the States, almost half of what they are in London after factoring in...
Flowers
I wonder what flowers will be out and about when my parents arrive?
1 tag
The other half
The Hurlington Club, Putey Bridge, London, UK
So this is the other half. At the guards out front, I was halfway through telling my business there and who I wanted to see and he said, “So you’re here for a walk around… You have the look.” I think the “look” he was talking about was one of old money and of men and women in white tennis outfits, rich,...
1 tag
Does anyone know how to cut a pie/tart crust...
It’s becoming part of my weekend routine to bake something every weekend. This week, I made a tarte au citron or lemon tart. It was really good but because I didn’t have a loose bottomed tart pan, getting the tart out of the baking case was difficult. That was the first difficulty. The second was actually cutting the tart. I don’t know how th professionals do it such that the...
Yobs threw eggs at my window this quiet Friday night. It appears that they did it for no other reason than they were bored and thought it would be fun. I blame the parents for not teaching their kids - and it starts young. Kids here do not respect their parents and do not listen to authority. Parents here either dish out empty threats or clobber the living daylights out of their kids. Both...