The Emancipation of Me. ME!

As the old Nokia ad went, "Ah... it's lovely". And such a lovely day it turned out to be.

Never mind the lack of sleep (it was actually worth it).

Never mind having to carry dusty boxes, drag grimy equipment, and stain my nails black (I've fallen behind on my weight training and this is more butch than gym).

Never mind the heat wave that has transformed the valley into a perversely gigantic oven (notice our tourism officials have avoided the popular 'melting pot' term lately).

Never mind even all the pestering I will face over the next two months.

I've expressed my intentions - short, sweet and succinct. Notice has been given.

I'm officially on my way out and I am happy about that. Very happy indeed.

;-)

Legend

We must have the most cleverest translators here in our little country. So clever they can take a simple title like "300" and expand it to "300 Pahlawan Berani Mati" (300 Warriors Braving Death). Like, do they get paid by the number of words they use?

But oh, the movie.

Oh.

Oh.

OH...

Storyline: Pheh. Whatever. Nobody who'd want to watch it for the story would... actually, nobody would want to watch it for the story.

This movie is all about visual experience. And what a feast for the eyes it is indeed. Wanna know what a painting coming to life would look like? Watch this movie.

Practically every frame of almost every scene is just beautiful. The sunlight, the wheat, the mountains, the water, the sand, the cloths, the metals, the blood (every drop of it and I really do mean every drop)... everything is just rendered with such artistry you know that none of it can be real. Especially with the teeth - how anyone in that era could have such pearly white teeth (even though they smudged in black stuff in between the teeth) is beyond me.

Probably the only thing that looked ugly was the scene in which good king Leonidas climbed the mountain up to the Oracle. I mean those boulders and mountainside looked like they came out of a cheap stage production.

And of course, the battle scenes were lovely. Balletic, you could say. And very Matrix-like with the speed-up/slow-down sequencing. And like the kung-fu movies of yore (and today, come think of it), one man is enough to take down a hundred. Even a rhino and couple of dumb elephants get thrown in for a bonus.

I haven't said anything about the men. But, is there really anything I need to say about the men? Anyone who's heard of the movie would already know what to expect - no bare flesh ever gets exposed.

Unless it's got a six-pack ab that's hard enough to scrub elephant skin on.

Fifteenth Night

And so the new year as celebrated by us Chinese the world over comes to an end. Even now, as I'm typing this, I'm hearing sporadic bursts of fireworks as people in the valley finish up their stocks of illegal pyrokinetic explosives. Perhaps I'll get another city-wide show come midnight.

Or perhaps everyone will be too busy throwing leftover tangerines into rivers.

As the Chinese say, another year another year older. And here I am, another year older indeed. It says something when blowing out the candles on your cake creates enough smoke to set off smoke alarms. Probably something like, "Those bitches used really cheap candles".

I've joined the league of thirty-somethings now.

-waves hi to Jay-

I suppose one has to stop denying one's old when one starts buying real curtains for one's place.

The Chinese also say, "New year, new prospects". And this new year does hold several promising prospects. I just wonder where they lead to. Whatever it is, I'm pretty content to go with the flow for now.

In any case, I'm not thinking too much about it because I really don't have the time. I've got one night only, one night only... oops... digressed way off there. Way, way off.

I meant to say that I've been kind of busy and will continue being kind of busy for the next few weeks. It is, after all, March. The celebrations don't simply stop after these fifteen days.

In fact, Chinese New Year has ended just in time for me to rip open whatever few red packets I have collected, count the money, and go gift-shopping. March is the month of many birthday boys and girls - including my niece and my cousin's wife and first daughter (second one's due this month as well), as well as a number of friends including the pink pilot. Honestly, I'm having so much trouble keeping track - seems like in every one or two days, I'll remember another someone with a March birthday. Can we all just contra the presents and simply buy something for ourselves?

I'm secretly thankful some of them aren't here. Shhh! Don't tell them.

Anyway, for one last time (this year), Happy New Year! Hope everybody's had a porky great start to the year :)

Happy Chap Goh Meh!