Unveiling

I stumbled upon the rack one morning in the library. I was supposed to be looking for books about the middle-aged man for my group work but there wasn't any (not many people write about this age group. Don't they realise that many suffer from mid-life crisis?)

I bought Princess way back in 1997. I've only read in once, then I lent it to someone I can't remember who, and the book's lost forever. It's really annoying, I can't remember how many books had been borrowed and never returned. And they are my favourite books! Among them was my Jeffrey Archer's The Fourth Estate which I bought in England. (Yeah, I'm sentimental)

Back to my library rack - Both Princess and Daughters of Arabia by Jean Sasson were there! Now that I have ample time and not much things to do during my minor, reading books seem like the best pasttime. I've always wanted to read Daughters of Arabia but felt it's too pricey to buy. Now that I found it in the library, I borrowed it. (Duh!)

This book, a continuation of Princess, detailed much of the lives of Princess Sultana's teenage children and her uphill task fighting for women's liberation in Saudi Arabia. I take my hat off for her, really. Her courageous move to reveal the details of her life behind the veil and palace walls could land her without a head, yet she is not deterred.

One can only be appalled by the monstrosities committed to women as described in the book. I am truly thankful to be borned in this part of the world in this era. Still, the fact remains that my liberty was won with the sufferings endured by women of the past.

Reading a very old and boring book

Cashelmara. It's an estate in Ireland, owned by the English de Salis family. After the potato famine, the landlord Edward poured in $ to develop the land and waived rents to allow the tenants to have enough food for themselves. He remarried at 60, to an American girl called Marguerite who was 17 at that time. They had 2 sons together but his heir was his son Patrick from his first marriage.

Patrick married Marguerite's niece Sarah (complicated huh?) and squandered his inheritance gambling in the clubs of London. When he was broke, he had to sell of the country estate, close the London house and live in Cashelmara to save $. Patrick found the Marriage Act (you know what I mean) repulsing and only did it to get an heir (now you know what I really mean). Patrick and Sarah had a son named Ned (there were 3 other younger children as well). Later in life, Patrick had an affair with their land agent Hugh, Sarah separated from him and ran off to America with another man, Maxwell (he's a tenant, and yes it is very complicated).

At the end of it all, Patrick turned an alcoholic, Maxwell murdered Hugh, Sarah murdered Patrick and Ned murdered Maxwell. Sarah was sent to an institution (mental).

I bought this book at a secondhand book stall in Giant. It was brown and the paper was brittle. I paid RM7 for it. What a waste of $ and time. It is really old. This book was a gift for someone named Ean back in 1976. Where was I?

Shopaholic effect - to my dad's pleasure

After reading 2 Shopaholic books - Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot - by Sophie Kinsella, I was horrified by the effect it had on me. I went out shopping twice after reading the books, and both times I came back home with nothing more than a Guardian bag. Okay, I forgot the time I went out with my sister and we bought a few items because they were on 70% discount.

Reading the book which was entertaining but there were many times I felt like strangling the protagonist coz she was a complete klutz and behaved like an ostrich everytime she faces a problem. The effect was scary. Everytime I visit a mall nowadays, I don't even have the urge to buy something. That of course pleases my dad very much.

I can't really say how long this unspending state will last since the Hong Kong trip is in 3 weeks and I am already thinking of the things I'm going to get there....

...and remember what peace there might be in silence.

I had no access to the internet for a whole week.

Yes, it was peaceful.

It was also dreadful.

All was well until my last post a week ago. After a night-long rainstorm (a minute Katrina I suppose), to my horror, I could not establish an internet connection anymore. The phone was working fine but still, all my attempts were fruitless.

I still could not connect from home.

Campus is now an Elysian field. I never realised how dependent I was on the internet. I mean, everything works from here! I spent my week being bored out of my wits. Switching channels for hours and hardly anything worth watching.

More movies

I watched A Lot Like Love starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. Yeah, another cute guy and I'm a fan of good looking males. It was an ok movie but nothing spectacular. The movie is about two people who like each other but were never together beause they of their differences and timing. Of course, most stories end well, this included so they both ended up together.

The Forgotten is a crap show so don't even think of watching it. I thought it was cool about how she (Julienne Moore) remembers a son while everyone else could not but it turns out to be some alien experiment and abduction.... I mean, X-Files are so over... Taken as well.... so the alien concept absolutely ruins a rather brilliant start to the movie. Don't watch this one.

The Wedding Date

This show is very enjoyable. Mainly because of Dermot Mulroney. I love that guy! He is gorgeous, and oozes sex appeal. Apparently, he's best friends with Brad Pitt (my definition of a sexy and gourgeous). Coming back to the movie, it's mainly about Kat(Debra Messing) who hired a male escort(Mulroney) to attend her sister's wedding in London because her ex-fiance is the best man. It was fun to see Mulroney and his very nice body(hehe!). The plot is light so if you're looking for a weekend movie, this sweet romance is just the thing.

Monty Python - kill me!

Sometime ago, someone told me to watch Monty Python because it's hilarious and British (I'm pro-British). Until then, I've never heard of Monty Python (maybe because it's so old...I wasn't even born then!) but I found a dvd in my aunt's house recently, so I decided to watch it and see if it's really funny.
I watched Monty Python and The Holy Grail. This was made in 1975!
I really don't know what to say about it. It is both funny and lame, dry and witty, brilliant and stupid. It is so very British. But I like it very much! There are parts where you just feel like killing the actors but most of the time, I couldn't stop laughing. These guys are really cool.
Actually Monty Python are these 6 dudes (5 British, 1 American) who did a series with the BBC called Monty Python and the Flying Circus which ended before I was born.
Ancient as they are, I take my hat off to them.
Watch it!

Wear It Pink Walk For Life

I followed my dad to a walk yesterday. The company he works for was involved in supporting the Wear It Pink campaign (it's for breast cancer awareness) and the Walk for Life event was the last to mark the end of a reportedly successful campaign. It was an 8km walk from Pantai Hospital all the way round Bangsar to end back at the hospital (duh!). Anyway, dad's company printed their own T-shirts for their staff participating in the walk and it was quite cool. I wore a pink sweatpants to match it (can't see in the pic though). That's dad, me and my dad's colleague from Japan, Yumeda-san.

The event was amazing. They had student nurses training in Pantai to hold poster boards, funky music, aerobics warm-up session with a pretty cool (albeit a little feminine) fitness instructor, the Minister of Health Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek all dressed up for a little sweat, and about 1000 participants (Dad's company had about 200 staff and family members). It was like a rally. Only thing missing was the chanting part. My sister suggested we should all chant "We love breast!" but perhaps that's a little over.

Dad wasn't thinking of walking all the 8km, he planned to either walk a kilometer or take a shortcut route about halfway (after living in Bangsar for more than 20 years, shortcuts can be found everywhere). So we broke off from the group after maybe 3 km and went for breakfast. So much for an early morning walk.

Midnight Thrill - ??

Thursday was an eventful day. We had our university elections and I woke up in the morning specifically to cast my vote (don't ask me who I vote for). Afternoon was spent travelling to Seremban for a megarobik (it's senaman + aerobik = senamrobik, but lots of people = megarobik). Couldn't really say I enjoyed the experience; we had to wait for hours to perform in the rain. Back in KL, my friends and I decided to give go melepak somewhere, just to relax after a long day (some were involved in the elections).

We went to Leisure Mall for dinner - nice.

We bought tickets for Flightplan at 11.40 pm - nuts!

Yeah, we watched a midnight movie. I would have prefered Skeleton Key but some didn't want to watch horror, hence Flightplan it was.

I thought the show wasn't too bad. The plot (not much plot, really...but nevertheless...) was quite well-developed despite having 90% of in stuck in the plane. It had some suspense, and overall it wasn't a limp show.

I wonder why some of them fell asleep...