Five years into staying away from home for my studies, I am still learning about many things in life. Contrary to my previous schooling life where only studies mattered, now it is all about juggling my own emotions.
My mum is so confident that I could easily do well in studies if I were not under tremendous stress.
I think it has to do with the hormones, really.
Sometimes things just overwhelm me, I get so upset and depressed that I resort to sleeping. Sleep the troubles away, a corner in my mind would scream at me. Another part of me feels the absolute guilt for wasting my time in slumberland. Last night, I slept so much I actually dreamt I was friends with Mario Ancic. How odd! I asked him if he could do a one-handed backhand. What dreams can do to you sometimes.
Mario in my dream? How odd!
Today, constipated and feel so fattened, I dragged myself to campus for a Behavioural Sciences session. I felt just not myself. I skipped my practicals and came back, determined to stop all the depressing thoughts and action - I swept and mopped the floor, feeling much better after that. I fed myself some expired instant noodles and then drank some coffee.
If you are educated under the Malaysian national syllabus and if you are born after 1984, you should remember Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” in the English Komsas.
Guess what?
This shall be a very interesting way to appreciate this poem.
[IF]
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
‘THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE is a great story of love, loss and conflicting loyalties in a fascinatingly precarious moment of history. The wonderfully drawn and all-too-human characters struggle to survive in a world of danger and bewildering change, constantly choosing whether to embrace the past or to escape it, caught between cultures, ideologies - and the growing realization that only the frail reed of love is strong enough to withstand the destroying winds of time.’ - Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series.
The Russian Concubine is a sweeping epic love-story.
Exiled from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, the beautiful and fiery Lydia and her aristocratic mother have taken refuge in Junchow, China, in 1928. On the edge of destitution, Lydia uses her wits to survive and resorts to stealing.
She is saved from certain death by a young Chinese Communist, Chang An Lo, and together they are thrust into clashes with savage triads. Lydia and Chang fall in love and are swept up in a fight against prejudice and shame. Forced to face opium-running, betrayal and kidnap, their compelling attraction to each other is tested to the limits in this story of love and loss, secrets and lies.
Yup, this is what I am reading now. I am not even 20% through, so I can’t comment much. But if you are interested, do visit the author Kate Furnivall’s site.
My sis (also known as Miss W) has spent nearly a quarter of her lifespan in this land of the former Tsars… Russia! Well, I fondly remember when we were young, she was interested in the history of the country. Remember Anastasia who claimed to be the only survivor of the Tsar family who was killed?
Anyway, to cut the long story short, my sis actually revealed to me how Russians get their name. All of a sudden, it made sense. The girls have “a” behind their family names.. while the boys don’t.
Marat Safin’s sister Dinara Safina. Get it? I always wondered how come they are siblings yet they have different surnames.
Marat Safin
Well, another example is Maria Sharapova. If she were a guy, her surname would then be Sharapov. Look at her dad’s name - Yuri Sharapov.
Maria Sharapova
Hey, the more I realised.. the funner things get!
It suddenly make sense that Svetlana Kuznetsova isn’t Kuznetsov, Nadia Petrova isn’t Petrov and Dmitry Tursunov isn’t Tursunova. Hey, fun stuffs here!
Back in my primary school days, I was once quite into recording tv shows using the VCRs. Yes, those were the days!
Once, I randomly, by ‘accident’ recorded a 30-min show called ‘The Odyssey‘. I thought it was a movie, but it ended up being the first episode of a tv series. Ever since then, I kinda got hooked to the series. It was aired over TV3 every Friday 4pm, if I do not recall wrongly.
The show revolved around thirteen-year-old Jay Ziegler, a troubled boy who stubbornly clings to the belief his dead father faked his death. He is left fighting for his life following a fall from a tree-house trying to escape bullies and while, in reality (the Upworld) his mother desperately tries to cajole her son into regaining consciousness, Jay’s comatose mind travels to the Downworld, a strange place where only children exist. There, he is determined to find his father so both can return home and he is joined on his adventures by Flash, the alter-ego of one of the bullies, and Alpha, the alter-ego of Jay’s best friend Donna.
The first and second seasons were very enjoyable and thought-provoking as they explored the idea of where the mind goes when one is in a coma and just how much of Jay’s state was mental rather than because he was physically unwell. The third season dealt with Jay’s life once he had emerged from his coma and was an interesting insight into how difficult it can be for a child to adjust after two years of being seriously ill. Jay still considered himself thirteen years old but all his friends were fifteen and had grown up so much in those two years he was unconscious.
These are some pictures I found from the web to refresh your memory. Obviously, back then the quality isn’t that superb. But memories they are, indeed!
Oh, and I recall the time my sis and I was so excited over the fact that Devon Sawa was acting in it. As Yudo.. hahaha! The name does ring a bell, doesn’t it?
