In the past, people have told me that it's alright to make mistakes - everyone makes mistakes in their lives. But after today, im beginning to wonder if i stand out from the rest when it comes to making them. While it's probably true that most people make mistakes, i suppose most of them also avoid screwing up important events in their lives, no?
But me, im different. In particular, i seem to have a talent for making blunders, or getting myself into boo-boos, and not knowing it until im swimming in it. Case in point?
I went to the neighbourhood hairdresser's to cut my too-long hair (finally!). And because im one who tends to put blind faith in the work of others, all i told her was,
If i had to name the worst things in life, i'd say they are the hastily and haphazardly stitched-up wounds - cus while it's fine and good on the surface, you never know when they'll unravel to reveal the rotten and bleeding flesh under the skin.
A dear long-time friend of mine invited me to one of her church services yesterday evening, and during the service they played the following videos which i think is very apt on this day. I've used it in my psych presentations before, but still it didnt fail to bring on the tears when i watched it again. If you haven't guessed, it's the video of Rick Hoyt, a quadriplegic and how his father, Nick strived to give his son the normal life he wanted him to have.
Religious connotations aside, if u cld just take a moment, and appeal to your sense of empathy, do take some time to watch the video.
A tribute to all Daddies, for all the love and support they give by the sidelines, often without claiming credit for all that they have given.
I signed up for the Forest Adventure outing last thursday, and i've to say that apart from being loads of fun, it also showed me that im tougher than i think i am - with rope burns to show for it. I wasn't able to think properly while i was high up in the trees, so i thought i'd just share whatever coherent things i can remember of the adventure.
Before it began...
the obstacles didn't look all that scary. The flying fox was so low... *spies some kids in the trees at this point* If children can do it, i also can!
As i stood at the highest point of the 1st station...
my fear of heights, which had been dormant all this while, suddenly decided to wake up...
Methinks: OH. MY. SHITE.
As i psyched myself up for the first flying fox...
I finally managed to articulate my thoughts for the first time.
"fk fk fk fk fk fk fk...... "
Poor zy had to endure my extensive amt of verbal crap as i freaked out at almost every other station cus his turn was always right after mine =/
After taking the first plunge...
found out it wasn't so scary after all, cus it wasn't the sudden-drop kind. And i was feeling so proud of myself cus i didn't scream. In fact, it was pretty chillax as i glided across the reservoir with the wind in my face. Shiok!
At the highest point of Station 2...
if u've ever seen the look on the face of a kitten trapped high up in the tree, that's about how i looked. Had i not crapped at home earlier in the day, i might have in my pants in the trees.
Methinks: Don't let me die please...
What was the fear factor? Well, imagine crossing from one bloody tall tree to another on tiny, placed-too-far-apart trapeze swings which swayed very badly whenever the wind blew. That explained why i had rope burns, cus i was clinging on to the ropes too tightly.
5 minutes later...
I was still on the first trapeze swing... with 12 people waiting below the tree for me to take the second step.
After God knows how long...
I finally stepped on the last and final plank, before reaching out for Derek's hand and hauling myself to safety, long overdue.
Derek: Yeah!!! POTONG PASIR!!!
My arms were too wobbly for me to smack him for that.
At Station 4 (last stop)...
everything else in between was good, until i had to tarzan-swing from a veeeeeerrry high point over to a net on the opposite side. I expected it to be like one of those flying foxes, so i just steadied myself and went for the plunge... only to discover otherwise AFTER both my feet had left the platform. A ear-piercing shriek ensued.
Overheard from someone below as i hit the net, "Wow! That was a loud scream!!"
- 废话 OF THE YEAR.
Derek thanked me for making the adventure worth the 30 bucks it cost him. =.=
IN ALL, it was alot of fun as promised. In addition, i felt a great sense of achievement for not giving up at the most difficult obstacle i.e. the one i spent forever on. I could've turned back and taken the easier way out, but i didn't =) Have much to love Audrey for her encouragements! (...though it was a little disturbing to have her play hai3 dai4 with Derek while i was struggling not to fall off the trees)
For those of you who missed it, wished you were there.
- Special thanks to Zhengyu for enduring my verbal diarrhoea, for goading Audrey to play hai3 dai4 with Derek on the opposite side while i was trying so hard to focus, and for ensuring that i secured my carabenas at the right places at every station so i didn't fall off any trees and die in any freak accidents. -
I signed the papers yesterday.
Which, strictly speaking, means that i signed away the next 4 years of my time... or more tragically put, my youth (didn't realise the youth part until Cherie put it that way). I have the next six months to change my mind i.e. annull the marriage lol., but because i already know what i want out of the next 4 yrs of my life, it's quite unlikely that i will, so...
Mr M, im yours.
Attended my brother's POP last Sat. Was quite the 'eye-opener', considering that yours truly is a sucker for men in uniform. *YUMMY* Too bad they were mostly two years my junior...too young=(
Anyway, here's my smart-looking, hamsome (spelling error intended) brother, for whom i was worried cus i imagined he might kenna heatstroke/drop his gun/march in opposite direction and the likes. But thankfully the soldiers were blessed with great weather and he did everything correctly. So proud of him!
Well...from the looks of it, im sure if my mum could carry my brother and cradle him in her arms, she actually would.
(JUST KIDDING!! =P)
And she whom the brother agrees helped him take the best pictures that evening. Yours truly has alot to thank the brother for for getting her an invite so she cld look at all the hamsome men in uniform. SO HAPPY =P
Lastly, a lovely shot i managed to catch - my brother's platoon mate proposing to his gf. The rest of the guys popped the question for him while he whipped out the ring. hehe.. Cldn't help but feel really happy for (and secretly envious of) the lucky girl=)
I made a call to enquire abt that overdue letter and i ended up being very pissed off. In fact, i got so shocked and angry when i heard, that i had to quickly end the call cus i was really afraid that i'd start saying the wrong things out of anger. I don't want to talk abt what was it that caused such wrath, cus it's a sensitive issue; and more importantly, it's because i know that the more i talk abt it, the angrier im gonna get.
But really. The first thought that went through my mind when i heard - no offense to anyone reading this - was this:
WHAT. THE. FRIGGING. FK DID YOU TELL ME??
Feeling moody at the moment at the prospects... just let me mope for a while.
*mope mope mope mope mope mope mope mope*
"......Muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh my mope-r face"
I've had the opportunity to catch up on my half-completed novels and the long-overdue dvds in the past two weeks - esp during the first week when my mum was angry at me and refused to let me work at the ctr (to be honest, i was none the happier =P) - so i managed to complete all my half-way readings, and watched Beautiful Mind - excellent portrayal of a schizophrenic patient by Russell Crowe, Slumdog Millionaire - brilliant work by Danny Boyle and the best of them all? Ip Man. The martial arts moves looked very simple, but awwwwwesome.
Of the books, Catch-22 came first on my mind, cus it has been one looong year since i borrowed it from a friend (=P), so i decided to complete that first. Major *tou2 tia3*. Took a very long time to read that, cus the style in which it was written was circular, and often repetitive cus the chapters were sequenced according to different characters' perspectives of the same events. And as the title might have suggested, there was alot of circular-logic passages that i had to read and re-read to figure out. So when that said friend asked me how i found that book and all i cld say was, 'oh, it was nice,' cus i was in a rush to go, it was the gross-est understatement of the year. Cus i spent too much time reading and understanding the book for it to be simply summed up in a one single word! Joseph Heller's one heck of a genius man.
Finished up my detective novel, Friend of the Devil too. It wasn't as exciting, but easier to follow. Boring at times though, which i find rather typical of English writers, even for chic-lits...at least for those that i've read.
Best book of the three has to go to Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time though. Blame it on my soft spot for the topic of autism. As opposed to the other books of the topic, this one's written from the perspective of a boy with autism instead. If anyone shld need a comprehensive introduction to the disorder, this is a good starting point. As much as we are inclined to think that people with autism are mentally-impaired and they are less of a logical human being than we are, this book makes me question once again, if they are in fact simply more gifted than we are in their own specialities, in their own special ways. Sure, not all of them have such savant skills, nor do all of them are blessed with relatively higher IQs as the one described in the book, but just because society does not by and large accept their behaviour as 'normal', simply isn't reason enough for us to write them off as intellectually-disabled and lesser than we are, is it? I love this book for the innocence that it portrays, and the way it gently challenges our perspective of the common things that we so often take for granted.
Next book? Next, by Michael Crichton, before i go find and complete the book Elijah's Cup that i found in the CL while researching for my term paper. On a reading spree, and loving it!