The Way Way Back

Forced myself to roll out of bed at 8.35 ish this morning and then rushed to get out of the house by 9. It was hard and I wonder how on earth did I manage to go for all my Saturday classes for many many years. 9 was when french class started. Yes, I was most of the time late but I made it there. My laziness is so worrying since I am planning to get back into classes next month. Not sure yet what and when the timing will be, but I would rather it be a morning class. Anyways, what's with the early morning start? A movie was planned, but then as I was in a battle of whether or not I should get up, I reached a point that the movie wasn't necessary. It's weird how my head was filled with so many movies that I thought I wanted to watch, but when the time came to make a decision, I found myself not interested with any of the movies anymore since I couldn't make any decision. In the end I thought I could make it. The early part was necessary because I wanted to pray first. The thing I missed the most, perhaps the only thing I miss about my previous chapter, was that the temple was just a short walk to the back. It was really useful to kinda help me calm down a tiny bit, to kinda tell myself that there's hope, that things will be taken care of. I often went out of it feeling slightly better because I have told God my worry and request for help. Of course you can always pray anywhere anytime, but really I feel that there's a whole different feeling you get when your prayer require you to physically do stuff. Like the muslims having to stand and go down on their knee and bow, the catholics having to kneel and making the sign of cross or using their prayer beads, or the buddhist having to hold the joss sticks and stand, those things really help you to be more focused and use that time to really say your prayer solemnly. It's a whole different feeling than when I sit on my bed every night and pray and to be honest I don't feel better after I pray before I go to sleep. I often get more anxious and perhaps that's the reason why I don't sleep well on most nights :(

It got me thinking how atheists in my situation and feeling the way I feel deal with their issues. What do they do? Another thing that got me thinking is that even though I rarely have a good cry, I actually shed tears really easily. Every time I watch something, it's very easy to find me tearing up. I wonder if my compounded issues do manifest in this way as well. Like, it's not just that I don't sleep well, I also become easily moved by the smallest thing that I cry. Maybe it has something to do with having to keep the facade that I'm alright. I know, though perhaps everyone don't or don't understand the magnitude it, that I'm not fine. I'm really not fine. Anyways, I teared up a few times during the movie which I ended up watching today, The Way Way Back. I love the movie and glad that I watched it. It actually has a lot of famous people in it. The story is about this awkward boy who went on a summer vacation with his mom, mom's boyfriend, and mom's boyfriend's daughter. The summer house belong to mom's boyfriend and apparently the people in that neighbourhood had known each other for a long long time and often meet for the summer. Mom's boyfriend's was played by Steve Carell who at the beginning of the movie, asked the boy if he had to rate himself between 1 to 10, what number he would give himself. The boy said 6. Steve Carell's character said the boy is a 3, because he's not putting himself out there and he was telling the boy to not hang around the parents so much and he needs to play more with the kids his age during the summer. It was kinda sad hearing that conversation but I was still ambivalent by that scene alone if Steve Carell's character was gonna be good or bad. Could it be he's the type of character who appears bad but has very good intention. In the end, his character turned out to be bad. Anyway, that got me thinking what I would give myself. I wanted to give myself a 9, but then I thought perhaps 8, since I'm not beautiful. The most interesting thing about me is that I am actually pretty interesting. It's just some people are not, so we don't gel. Then I thought perhaps it's just me thinking that way, like the boy. Perhaps people do think of me as a 2 or 3, because like the boy I just can't seem to mix with people.

That of course changed when the boy finally found his so called world. Crazy people who could accept him because he's weird too. He ended up working in this outdated water park after he got to know Sam Rockwell's character whom I think was the coolest character there. He's so funny. Second to him was Allison Janney's character. Anyway, the boy began to look happy and not so sad anymore, until of course the climax of the movie. However things still had a happy ending for the boy and his mom. At least that's what I hope. They had to end their summer and they did leave it on a good note, however there are issues in the boy's life and real world is different from the fun playful world filled with people he gets along well. So perhaps if the boy comes back to the water park each summer, then its impacts would really be taking a hold in his life. If not, he will just eventually go back to the sad boy he was. Why on earth am I analyzing the character of the movie after it ends? I guess I am just always drawn to that awkward alone sad people, because I am one and I do so very wish for my own happy ending. It got me thinking why the title is The Way Way Back. I think going back seemed to apply more to the boy's mother. Could it be it's the way way back to the boy in a sense that it's a way way back for him to find a way to be happy? As I said, I do relate to this a lot.

Anyway, another reason for today's post is to put some pictures from Gardens by the Bay's Mid-Autumn display which I visited last week. I managed to squeeze in a visit before the road closure period due to the F1 race. The F1 race does demand a lot from down town Singapore. Anyways, I thought the flower dome would be more interesting, but there weren't really any lanterns display inside it. It is quite a nice thing to visit the 2 domes after dark, with not many people being there, but yeah since it's dark you can't really see the beautiful colors of the plants and flowers. They should lower entrance fee after sundown. Anyway you can see more pictures here. Below are the simple lanterns inside the flower dome and one of the smaller dragon fly in the main flower display.



Outside there are some lantern displays. I'm not sure what's the the theme, if there is a theme. There's the cute swans and also the hardworking ants, but there were also dinosaurs and the western zodiacs. I did feel that sometime it felt tacky, but I suppose it's alright, maybe kids really do like these kinda things, or perhaps not.



This below is from the bridge that connects the compound to the main street. It has beautiful lights on it which I do think quite fancy. So anyway, that's it guys. Take care!

:) eKa @ 8:47:00 PM • 0 comments

Mid September 2013 - Life Update

Oshie asked me why I haven't been blogging? What? People read this unimportant ramblings of mine? Well, nothing interesting have happened to me (as usual) and so I really have nothing much to say. It's been a tough week. As I look back at it, it's actually not that tough. I mean for some people, this kinda thing could be their daily existence. It's just perhaps in a way I have been pretty fortunate that I don't face many hardship and so when a slight thing comes my way, I found it rather hard. Anyway, it's over, I am thankful and thankful to the people who were there and who were understanding about the whole situation. I don't think I did well so perhaps I still need a lot of praying to do. Mom has also been rather unwell so I suppose a lot of prayer is of high importance.

Back to life, I finished reading the second book of the Buru Quartet by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Anak Semua Bangsa. From reading the 2 books so far from the tetralogy, I have to say that I like the story more than perhaps the more important part of the books, which are his thoughts about politics, society, power, etc. Those parts are mind opening and get you thinking, but I just get more excited when the narrative moves along and we find out more about the characters. The ending of the second book got my jaw dropped. I feel like it ended in a cliffhanger but I have a feeling that it's not. Sometime as much as we want resolution for certain things, we don't get it. Such is life and I have a feeling that the ending of this second book is just as it is. I am looking forward for the third book, which I undoubtedly will be getting when I get home next for Chinese New Year, unless I'll get home before that or someone brings it to me :) So last week, I got a new book. Walked around Kinokuniya to decide which book should be next. Easy choice was perhaps to go to the literary classic that I haven't read and I haven't read many of those. However in the end, I settled with The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I chose it because the title is intriguing and filled me with envy at the same time. I want to be the 31-year-old girl who climbed out of the window and disappeared. I mean who wouldn't? Maybe you, but I sure would like too. Another reason was that I like the book cover, it was cute with the picture of the old man and it's simple, dominated with 1 color which in css world, we perhaps call MediumTurquoise. This reminded me of how last year the books' covers I read were mostly dominated by 1 color. I like it that way. I've been progressing really well with the book this week. I was propelled with my day to day situation. I'm not sure if I'll keep the speed next week. I love the book and I patted myself in the back for such a good choice. When I read a book, I often picture the situation in my head, like I am watching a movie and so far it's like a dark comedy with 2 people dead. I think a movie should come out for this, however I don't think Hollywood can do it well. The writer is Swedish and it's set in Sweden and I think because the setting is in Europe, it works well. Perhaps the British can do so some sort of version of it, but I doubt the American can. Anyway, it seems a movie is on its way.

Now movies, since I last wrote, I watched Elysium, which was okay I guess. It has a very straightforward story. I also watched The Internship, which was perhaps not exceptional but I like it anyway, because I love Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Google, the best place to work on earth, does look really really fun, but I think the things I would love the most about google is the free food and being able to cycle around. Then today, I watched Star Trek Into Darkness. Yeah, I only watched it now :D Okay here's the reason. When the first Star Trek movie came out, I didn't watch it because I have very fond memory of Star Trek. By the way, the Star Trek tv series that I watched in my time was the one with Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It's weird that I forget many things about the series, but I remember that name distinctly and that time when I saw Prof. X in the X-Men movies, all I could think of was Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek :) Another thing that I remember was that room which the crew can use to do simulation that felt real. I thought it was so cool then and so when Abed and Troy in Community dedicated a room for something like that, I didn't feel it was crazy at all. I think it was cool too :D So anyway, I like the tv series so much that I didn't want that memory to be tainted if the movie was bad. Hence why I didn't watch it. Then the sequel came along and people said it's really really good. However, I couldn't watch it because I didn't watch the first one and of course you can argue the first one is not necessary to enjoy the sequel. I decided I would watch the first one first then the sequel. I managed to watch the first one, some months ago and I think it was pretty good and I tell you I got chill when that famous narration was read at the end. It made me warm and fuzzy inside. It's like it's bringing something wonderful that I have long forgotten.

So anyway, I was cleared to watch for the sequel, but I haven't had the time to do so until this week when I found out that Shaw is showing it again in the imax cinema. Even more interesting, it's half the price!!! So apparently, perhaps when there aren't many imax movies to be shown (which is seriously not a lot, you'll be lucky if there's one a week), Shaw would show older imax movies for half the price. Of course the timing could be rather off and you ended up watching the movie late, but hey for 12 bucks and for a cinema with not many people, I think it's a good buy. It's weird how easily your perception of value can change. It's slightly cheaper than watching a 3D movie on a weekend and under normal circumstances I wouldn't even choose the 3D one, but then when you put the imax tag in it, I felt really good about paying the amount which I wasn't otherwise willing to pay. I do wonder how these whole imax thing work for a cinema. Is it actually more of a lost than profit when you have an imax cinema? The ticket is double the price, not many people perhaps would be willing to pay the price, not many movies can be shown there, and yet you can only use the space for an imax movie. Even if you get the price to be competitive as what I had today, the movie has been pretty old in circulation and so the cinema is perhaps only 20% full. So do you make money from having an imax cinema? Is that the reason why Cathay and Golden Village in Singapore are not following suit? I'm curious.

Anyways, I thought Star Trek Into Darkness was not bad. I still like Spock a lot, but somehow I feel that he's cooler in the first movie than in this one. In this one, he seemed rather strange for not understanding how people feel. I thought his intellect could make him understand why people around him feel the way they feel. By the way, it would be so awesome to be a Vulcan, when you can tune out your emotion, don't you think? Anyway, the Klingon's faces were cool but not as I remembered it to be, but it's okay. Whenever I saw Chris Pine on the screen, I was pretty much looking into his blue eyes, which brings me to the next point of Alice Eve who has 2 different colours for her 2 eyes. I noticed it because I read about this before. I think it's uber cool. Then, I can see why girls are falling for Benedict Cumberbatch :) Anyway, I think the story is not bad. The twist and turn were good. The mind is not that blown though. It was good, but I don't feel it's utterly amazing. Just like the first movie, the ending narration gave me chill.

To end this post, I would like to talk about the trailer for the movie Gravity which I watched in the imax glory. It has George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in it, so it's promising on the get go. It was my second time watching that trailer and even though it's not a horror or scary movie, I found the whole situation to be scary and I felt uneasy watching it. It turned out that being lost in space is quite a big fear for me. I shouldn't be so worry about having the opportunity to experience that, but still, watching Sandra Bullock's tumbling along in the big wide space is gut wrenching for me. I will still watch the movie when it comes out, I hope it will have a happy ending. So that's for today peeps. Hope you guys have wonderful glorious days. Buonanotte!

:) eKa @ 9:45:00 PM • 0 comments

archives.