Gollum Meat

I just caught The Two Towers on TV tonight and noticed the Chinese subtitles.

Gollum's name in Chinese is comprised of the same characters used to describe Sweet Sour Pork, minus the word for "meat".

I don't think I can bring myself to eat Gollum Meat for a while.

Between the Legs

Four times today, a soccer ball went between my legs.

First, a flick-through from a pass. I found my team-mate.

Second, a dummy. Same team-mate.

Third, a step-over backheel into goal during a goalmouth melee. *Goal of the week*

Fourth, a complete miscue from a pass. Under no pressure at all.

Ah, well, three out of four ain't too bad. (Note to self: possible inclusion in future book of musings on life - maybe something about being happier if we don't let the disappointments get in the way.)

I am feeling so stylo today. (Note to self: What does it take to feel stylo?)
(Another note to self: I am feeling so stylo today.)

No apologies to the soccer-illiterate.
p.s. I usually prefer the Coxford Singlish Dictionary but it didn't have the separate meaning for "stylo".

Satchmo Monday

Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" has been runnning through my head all day, which compensates somewhat for the Bleah feeling towards work I've had throughout the past week. I really like the music of that era - it's full of life, in every sense of the word ("life", that is). Much needed when the spirit feels dead at the prospect of going back to the classroom for yet another dialogue with myself (though I must say my students are getting slightly better at responding).

Had a "passionate discussion" with a colleague over the fragmentation of the English Literary Dramatic and Debating Society (or ELDDS) into the Drama people, the Debate people, and the Radio people (who have been absorbed into the ELDDS because there's no "Radio" on the Grand Imperial Charter of Healthy Recreations and Cultural Accomplishments (otherwise known as the List of Approved CCAs)). Not that I'm still in the EngSoc (as the ELDDS used to be called, not without a hint of irony at the Orwellian reference), but I got a bit riled at the hint of accusation that the Debate people were deliberately distancing themselves from the rest of the ELDDS when it was the Drama people who didn't answer my call last year when I was trying to put together a debate team from the EngSoc, and that was after I had so kindly delayed putting the debate team together so they could all concentrate on their SYF Drama production. So bollocks to them if they feel left out now that the JC1s are choosing Debates over Drama. And good grief I just realised what a long sentence that was. Microsoft Word would have _so_ complained :P

But anyway much thanks for the music of the early 20th century. And hopefully much rest from tonight's sleep. I may not look forward to school tomorrow, but at least I'll have Satchmo and company for company.

Joy

I can think of no other word to describe two grandmothers well into their eighties who still take every chance to smile and laugh at the world around them. Every little action, every story, is a source of mirth and merriment, and the springboard for jokes and teasing. Their bodies may be old and wrinkled, but their sprightliness of spirit in old age is something I would wish on everyone twice over.

May you all have a blessed Lunar New Year.

Blankolog I

It has been the hardest thing to blog for a while. Granted, I have been tired, and it has been a damn tiring week, but still, I go blank when I sit in front of my blank Blogger page. Even writing this is seeming strangely inane, and the only thing keeping me going is the exhortations of my friends to update.

So here I am, with the first of my Blankologs, because I anticipate more in future, when I sit here with all the thoughts of the previous days scurrying away into the recesses of my mind, refusing to come out to be named and numbered and witnessed to the world.

Ah, here comes one, screaming as I drag it out. It is a rant about drivers who don't signal, who road-hog, who behave as if no one else exists on the road but them. They are the scourge of modernity and efficiency, and it is a good thing that weapons are not allowed on cars. I would be broke from buying ammo reloads.

I have had my patience sorely tested on the roads. The worst of humanity is seen each time - the driver who slowly (in every sense of the word) inches his way across lanes making me wonder which side to overtake him on shows an obliviousness to others; the driver who refuses to take the next turnoff even though he is in the wrong lane and insists on blocking my way by attempting to turn left in a straight-going lane shows the refusal to accept the consequences of his own mistakes (and I don't care if the semicolons aren't appropriate - it's my blog); the driver who weaves in and out of traffic without signalling shows a recklessness that endangers others.

And then I curse their teachers and parents silently.

But just as the sting of a bee tears the life out of it, so has this torn the remnants of my willingness to connect with others out of me.

I now retreat into my cave.

I shall return.