dreams falling from the open sky

breathless and wondering through the yearning trees

light upon the shadows break

as i return to me

Back in the Snow

i'm finally back to blogging after a rather long hiatus - no excuses other than the fact that i was coming home at times during which it was inconvenient to use the computer if at all, as it is in my brother's room.

so i am back at school, having not accomplished any of my holiday goals of reviewing art websites or losing weight. instead, all that i achieved was a massive weight gain of about 5 kilos (that's about 12 pounds...) due to the delicious mountains of local food that i consumed over the break...mmmmmmm...

i did however get to see some local exhibitions which were quite interesting. Plum Blossoms Gallery had a charity exhibition for AIDs awareness, featuring the photos of Thomas Kelly. The photos come from his book, Fallen Angels and depict the prostitutes of India and the places where they work. In my own social context, it is difficult for me to relate to the subject matter, but i nonetheless appreciate the way that he has painted a thought-provoking and starkly beautiful narrative of the life of this group of people. to him, he has captured them exactly as the title of his book suggests - in his photos these prostitutes are the angels that have fallen from the sanctity and grace of society. one of the hardest things for me to accept though, (it is partly the result of cultural differences) is that the women are dedicated to a goddess and are known as her handmaidens. i do not quite know what to make of it - religion and the world's oldest profession working hand in hand...

Generational gaps

acccks....e.ach time I go out clubbing and come back late, i inevitably get the how late did you come home, who did you meet, did any guys try to do anything funny spiel the next morning from my mother. not that I mind it that much, but she also expects me to conform in some ways to the social norms observed in her times, i.e. if i were to go out with a guy, he would pick me up at my doorstep, and send me back to my door before midnite.

hmmm....this is all well and good, but what happened to female independence?? not that it is a bad thing to have someone driving you around, but I personally dislike having to impose on someone, especially a guy who is trying to pursue me if I discover somewhere along the way that i am not all that interested in him as i was at the beginning.

arrghs. society here has changed a very great deal since my mother's dating days and she knows that. thankfully, she doesn't insist that I truly conform to the standards of that era. phew! but she still expects that guys should conform to the standards of that era in the respect that they should do all sorts of things for girls (my dear old-fashioned mummy ). I do think i know better.....it's not expected of guys anymore, but hey, if a guy were to do all that for me, he'd be a real sweetheart .

It is nice to be back, but how many of you discover that you are still on leashes the minute that you are staying under the same roof as your mother??? My mother sadly told my dad that I no longer wanted to hang around her (I do, just that I spent the first 2 weeks back home with her practically 24/7...). My dad is actually better about this than she is - he has resigned himself to my leaving the nest.

I didn't quite realise that the leash would still be there, especially since I haven't been home in a year. i came to the conclusion a few months back that even if I were to be married with kids my mother would still treat me as if I were 5 years old and didn't know how to discern people's characters...i.e. don't talk to strangers....i appreciate the concern, but i do have a life!

I think my mother has finally started to let go....if only i can stop her from asking me about each and every call i get from a male friend.

hey hey hey!!! am baaaaack!!! i thought that i would suffer internet withdrawal symptoms, but it seems like i can survive without it, at least for now...

btw, heehee, just to BRAG about my chance attempt at programming, notice my link to amazon.com on the top of the page??? the original html provided by amazon gave me a banner that was aligned to the left, but i figured out how to center it!!! oh i am such an irritating little snot about things like this

Whoo hoo! I finally changed that pic of a great dane! I found out how to do this in IE and am proud of myself

I am getting a bit lazy updating my blog, especially since I have been catching up with friends at home.

It's New Year's Eve!!! and my friends and I are on the verge of not going out tonite but instead celebrating the New Year tomorrow, without the crowds and New Year prices! so what shall we all do??? After all, it is going to be yet another new year, like any other.

Maybe I shall stay at home and sleep, so that I can stock up on energy for the coming nights of pub-hopping I shall be doing next week. Or maybe I shall try to find the phone no. of the guy that keeps leaving me msgs sans his phone no. as he assumes I have it. or maybe I shall just follow my family somewhere, if they have space and decide to accept this poor little girl who has no new year's plans tonite ;p

This is irritating - I want to change the pic of the dog that I have up as it is seriously starting to irritate me! But my comp doesn't have netscape and my brother will uninstall it the moment he finds it on the comp. looks like I have to wait till i get back to the States.

okie....haven't updated my blog in a long while - have been distracted by all the interesting little things there are to do which I never did as a child Today, I went fishing! I don't mean fishing with rod and pole in a pond or lake, but with a little mesh net in a monsoon drain. This is an activity normally reserved for little children under the age of 12, but guess I still haven't quite grown up! I have to say that catching the fish - little drain guppies - was tonnes of fun! I had to stand still so that they wouldn't be frightened away and I sneaked my net under them ever so slowly before trapping them! I am proud to say that I have captured a grand total of 11 guppies today! 4 adolescents and 7 babies. Unfortunately the really big ones were smart and stayed in the middle of the drain where I couldn't reach them - evolution has taught them a thing or two!

Why on earth did I embark on this childish enterprise?? well, it is an infantile desire of mine to see that the guppies that I already had at home did not die out due to inbreeding. These drain guppies that I just caught are really hardy - hell, they have been living in that storm drain almost since I was born, despite all the mini oil slicks and other assorted pollution that came along

My mother, of course got rather exasperated with me (revenge!!) - she expects her daughter to be at home or out behaving like a young lady, not a 12-year old brat. She says that guppies are cheap, why other with those in the drain? Well...I had fun, and that is all that matters

When I have been away from home for a long long time, I often start to miss you family. I even start to miss distant relatives such as a great-grand uncle seven times removed. When I come back home however, i suddenly remember why it is I enjoy being away from home in the first place.

As we all know, family members are the most exasperating people that know. You can change your friends but never your family. It seems to me that relatives are always doubly exasperating as they know that they can get away with it. How many of your mother's friends would openly comment on your dating situation?? That would be a social faux pas, but the minute that any member of your family finds out that you are still single despite being of eligible age....you know what happens.

This happens all the time with me. The worst perpertrator is my mother. Somehow, she managed to convince all her friends that ALL of my friends would not be home for the holidays and that I would be very lonely. The result of which is that I have been extended numerous invitations to spend Christmas in various places round the country, these being rather thinly disguised attempts at matchmaking me with sons who are currently of age and eligible. As you can see, my mother is very well-meaning, but totally exasperating.

It's not even as if I am nearing the Big Three-O. My biological clock is not relentlessly ticking away, though my mother's seems to be - I think she wants grandkids within the next 5 years...Everytime I am back on vacation, she takes me to this boutique where I saw my first Vera Wang wedding gown. I liked the simple yet elegant design and casually remarked to my mom that if i got married, it would be in a Vera Wang gown. This was 10 years ago, but she still reminds me of this remark, "Baby, do you remember...wedding gown...buy it for you.... hint HINT!"

It has gotten up to the point that everytime I call home when I am away, she asks, "So, have you met anyone interesting yet??" My stock reply is to tell her that she should replace the word 'anyone' with 'GUY'. I love my mother but really, in situations like these, I do believe I can literally hear the cogs turnign in her head.