Super deep analysis.

There's an element of the human condition that's a bit sad, but also simultaneously excellent. I'm talking about Familiarity. 

Using Familiarity as the lens through which we sort people, humanity is divided into three types:

1. Those who we feel more fondness and respect for as we become more familiar with them, and get to understand and know them better. 

2. Those that we distance ourselves from (or should, but sometimes don't), whether consciously or unconsciously, because Familiarity reveals, for want of a better/less melodramatic phrase, their dark side. 

3. Those that we don't become familiar with at all. Apologies in advance to those 6.5 billion (and counting!) people. 

It seems an obvious thing, but it's sort of taken me a while to reach this conclusion. It kind of developed into a cohesive thought on Friday night. Of all times. Maybe my mind becomes more metaphysical when it's tired/stretched.  

I've never been one to sit down and really think about human relationships, in particular my relationships with other people. I usually just sort of let it all develop/maintain/die organically. I think actually dedicating time to thinking of these things, and in particular, bracketing people that you know into those three brackets, helps to assess which relationships are truly worthwhile, and worthwhile developing and maintaining, which ones need rectifying or management, and which definitely need to be terminated. 

On a slightly cheerier note, I've managed to catch the vast majority of my favourite people in the world over the past three days. Does wonders for the soul. And all this with another day of liberty to look forward to tomorrow.

On a definitely cheerier note, I managed to sneak pass in Taxation. 3/5. Almost through it. 

Word of the Day: Familiarity 

Post-CA-exam list #3.

I think this is probably the third iteration of my semi-bi-annual post-CA exam to-do list. Here it goes (in no particular order):

1. Have a decent lunch with people outside of my immediate family. Not that there' anything wrong with them. Just gotta keep it fresh.
2. Build the Lego set that I got for my birthday. (Man, that seems like ages ago. Oh wait, it was).
3. Shopping. H&M, Emporium, Chadstone, the list goes on. Camberwell Markets is probably overdue for a visit as well.
4. Photo trips. Mount Dandenong autumn run, the city, maybe somewhere a bit further out as well.
5. Seeing my neglected friends.
6. Clean my room.

I think that'll do for the time being.

Word of the Day: List

Wow. So observation. Very deep.

Observation of the week: if somebody's asking you on a Thursday what you've got planned for the weekend (completely out of context, and not in a 'how about you spend it with me?' kind of way), chances are that this person and yourself aren't exactly soulmates.

Word of the Day: Soulmates

Misfortunate.

A litany of misfortune yesterday (which I actually found quite funny):

1. My FIN test decided to call it halfway through yesterday. This unfortunate incident actually carried over to today, as I had to call the CA people and start doing it from where it left off.

2. My lunch came out last out of five people.

3. It was also very small.

4. It also didn't really taste that good.

5. I missed golf because nobody picked up their phone.

6. I paid $9 for parking, when Safeway had it for free.

7. There was no football on. Not sure if that's a Sunday thing or a Saturday thing. Whatever. Point being, it wasn't on.

On a happier note, most of that trail of destruction was counterbalanced by being in good company for the better part of the day, and, in the case of point 1, having awesome people help me through it.

Yep. Cool.

Word of the Day: Litany

Rectify. Coming up the spot looking extra fly.

Just now - literally, just now - realised that I haven't written anything funny for a while. Or even anything fun.

I guess it's just kind of reflective of where I am right now. Just not a whole lot of fun/ny stuff going on right now in my life.

It's not as doomy and gloomy as it sounds. On Saturday, I managed to cop some golf with some mates, and a half-day trip to Healesville with the family. My only slight, temporary regret was not going to the Melbourne show. Then I saw that lunch was not had until 1:30, and my regret was pared back significantly.

Even Wednesday night, with class running until 9 p.m., and getting drenched on the way back, after a day of work, it wasn't so bad. Got to hang out with friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

And even at work right now, the team I'm with is fairly awesome. We have random conversations about random, non-work-related things. It's almost like being back at uni. And I almost, almost, feel like I know what I'm doing, and I'm doing it more or less ahead of schedule.

But yeah, just kind of nothing that really jumps out like, woah, that was funny.

I'll work on it.

Word of the Day: Rectify

Imagine the kind of stuff I'd write after a few drinks.

It was only a four day working week, but for some bizarre reason, it feels like it's been a big one. The weekend I've got planned promises to be fairly big too.

Not 'big' in the, shall we say, classical sense. You know, get smashed, do some illegal things, maybe a couple of fights for good measure.

Big, as in, lots going on.

This week, I feel as if I've learnt a lot more about people. Reinforces the notion that you shouldn't write someone off before having at least known them for a couple of weeks. Sometimes longer. If you give it time, lots of people that you don't originally rate turn out to be quality people.

It's a bit mutual though. I find that if people invest a little in me, it usually works a lot better. Instead of me unidirectionally extending the cordial hand of potential friendship, these things happen a lot easier if it's a mutual handshake. Or at least a substantially mutual handshake.

Best analogy ever.

Getting to know people better also reveals things that you don't necessarily know about, or think about, and that are actually quite deep, interesting or eye-opening.

On a slightly related note, I've fallen in love again this week. As is customary, she's a bit weird. But so very cool.

How do I know it's love? Well, it's taking me a good ten minutes to fall asleep now instead of the customary one-and-a-half. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.

Word of the Day: Big

Suprise Song Sunday: Where Are You Now? - Mumford & Sons

Where are you now?

Do you ever think of me

In the quiet, in the crowd.

Beautiful song. 

Work starts tomorrow. I think it just suddenly dawned on me today that I won't be having a weekday off for a while. And with that thought, I've started resenting shops and stuff that don't open on weekends. Or at least Saturdays. I can't actually think of any that don't open on either Saturday or Sunday off the top of my head, but when I do, I will resent them hard.

As far as pre-work-beginning weekends go, this one hasn't been bad at all. Or even a pre-work week.

On Monday, had lunch with Irene. Just like old times. We even visited uni for O-Week, to add in a bit of gut-wrenching nostalgia. 

On Tuesday, I got the more or less all-clear from the physio. So now my building of the muscle mass in the left leg is mostly up to me. 

Couple of days of not doing a great deal, then had pho dinner with honours friends. Good times, as always.  

Yesterday, played a bit of badminton with some mates, had a visit from an unexpected visitor at said game of badminton, played a bit of impromptu/unprecedented squash with said unexpected visitor, and had dessert with some mates.  

Today, went to eat pho lunch with family, then went to Vic Market. Finally got myself a double-sided sheep mug there, and got the craziest wooden turtle ever. I'd take you a photo, but it's too late. Got work tomorrow. I know, ironic. We ended by visiting Shoppingtown to pick Michelle up, and I stared at some awesome shoes in Aquila. Dinner was a delicious lamb fillet dinner cooked by my mother. Almost completely irrelevant, but whatever.  

All in all, pretty successful. Caught almost everyone that I wanted to catch before I started work. Hopefully I won't get busy too soon, and still be able to maintain a semblance of a social life. 

Time to become a productive member of the household, and the community. Yeah. Not pretentious or anything. 

Word of the Day: Resenting  

  

Change and notebooks.

I approach the official beginning of my working life with no little amount of trepidation. A little bit of exhilaration, but mostly trepidation. Expidation, if you will.

Most of it has revolved around a niggling anxiety regarding how everything will work out.

Will I still be able to maintain a semblance of a social life? Exercise? Family? Friends? Just casual leisure?

Some of it, I guess, is also dependant on others. Many of my friends, for example, also start full-time work now, or roughly now. So it's all well and good if I manage to make time for them, but it also relies on them making time for me.

I've sort of eased this slight worry with a large dose of que sera, sera. I've been thrown into situations previously where I've thought that there was no way I'd manage, and, while not always triumphing in a blaze of glory and awesome, I have by and large scraped by. Also, trying to not think about it also helps a bit.

A secondary element that has me slightly concerned is just the notion of change. I know it's an inevitable part of life, change is now the norm, we have to learn to adapt, blah blah blah. And, even if I do say so myself, I'm fairly good at adapting to change. That doesn't mean that I necessarily love getting thrust into entirely new environments and more or less fending for myself.

Again, I've tried to adopt a que sera, sera attitude about it all, with a larger dose of trying to not think about it.

I also feel as though I haven't really made the most of my holidays. Not enough travel and stuff. I hope I get time to do that later.

In happier news, I have resolved my notebook situation. I've acquired myself a snazzy new largish notebook for general note-taking purposes. It's from kikki.k, and really cool (found here). The paper's white, but edged with black so it looks like it's a black book full of black pages. But it's not!

Also, full leather. Except for the pages, obviously.

All black everything.

Boom! Yeah, deceptive.

I've also ordered some pocket Moleskine cahiers from Book Depository for a grand total of seven dollars something. They're fitting right into the inside pocket of my suit jacket, for on-the-go note-taking purposes. This was the main notebook issue that I'd been trying to resolve, as everything else is either too hard or too bulky for a suit jacket. For some reason, despite my being a Moleskine fanboy, I hadn't thought about getting one from them. Bizarre. But there it was, after hours of searching. It also didn't help that Book Depo had an inconsistent naming system, which led me to think there was only one colour (I know, calamity).

Mad as, and for a great price. The one on the right is the one I've ordered.

I love notebooks. There's just something really cool about them.

Word of the Day: Expidation

Delayed New Year's reflections.

I can't stand New Year's resolutions. It's like, if you're going to resolve to do something, why don't you just do it at any time?

Yeah, logic, wassup. 

Anyway, I'm more into the New Year's reflection. So I'm going to reflect away upon 2012. 

I can say, almost without reserve, that it was a good year. One of the best in living memory, in fact. Which isn't really saying a lot, since I can't really remember all that much before Year 7ish.

It's been packed so full of good stuff that it seemed so much longer than 365 days. I secured employment, finished Honours, lost a heap of weight, visited Europe, made a whole load of awesome new friends, watched many awesome movies, and generally just had stacks of fun. The only slight downer (kind of highlights how good most of the year was) was my knee operation, and subsequent placing in the seats for the Coldplay gig. 

I also learned a great deal. About humanity, about myself, and about those around me. Yeah, it sounds cliche, but it's also true. 

The 'girl situation' still hasn't been resolved, but whatever. I've also learned this year that fate, mixed in with a bit of tenacity and physical action, goes quite a long way. Usually, anyway. I say usually because it hasn't worked out so far, but who knows, it might one day. 

2013 hasn't gotten off to quite a good start. Visiting my grandma in hospital, etc. From where I'm sitting now, it's probably not going to be a fantastic year. Especially when compared to 2012. I could be wrong, and I hope I will be. I could get with the girl of my dreams, absolutely dominate the CA, not work 12-hour days, and still maintain a social life. My grandma could make a miraculous recovery. 

Who knows. It's like the start of a football season. Filled with optimism at the potential of the future, trying to quash the fear of potential pitfalls. I'll just try to play it as it comes.

Word of the Day: Good

THESES!

I somehow managed to hand in my thesis on time, and not be a loser. That is to say, I handed it in on Monday.

What a relief, more than anything. I'm just glad I'm done with it, and I somehow managed to get it down to a respectable word count of 19, 032.

So, a question that I naturally get asked by people is: what are you doing now that you have so much free time.

Well, on the night after handing the aforementioned document in, I went drinking with white people, being my Honours friends. It's not something I do very often, but it's fun in small doses. The funnest part is watching how people behave when they've had a bit to drink.

The not so fun part is having to contend with creepers that are out at 2 a.m. on a Monday night.

Next morning, after having slept about 3 and a half hours, we watched Cool Runnings at my friend Nonie's house (as you do). We then left for Brighton Beach, which was conveniently located a stone's throw away from Nonie's house.

Once there, we tanned, and Anna and I started ruminating about the future, life, the Holocaust, and humanity. (Yeah, Arts kids fo real, man.)

A good night, and an excellent morning. I've grown quite fond of a few of these Honours types, and I hope I keep in touch with them.

Afterwards, on the way home, I rear-ended a car. He ended up with a few scratches, while I was left with a towbar-shaped hole in my front.

I have no idea how it happened. I must've taken my eyes off the road at the vital moment, and he braked suddenly or something. It was pretty much at snail's pace.

Amazingly, he decided he didn't want to claim insurance for it, despite his initial rage. So I guess I'll just live with the towbar-shaped hole in the front of my car.

Oh, during all this time, my mum got sick, and the neighbour managed to run their car through our fence because they forgot to put the handbrake on.

Yesterday, my grandmother got hospitalised, so I've been in and out at couple of times visiting her, and picking up a little bit of the slack that mum leaves when she visits her.

And next week, it's my turn. My knee is undergoing surgery, which puts me out of action for the Coldplay gig and the annual roadtrip with my mates. Both frustrating. Extremely so, in the case of Coldplay. I hope I get a couple of visitors when I'm maimed. 9th of November. Mark it in your diaries, start visiting me from that date onwards. Please.

Today, I got a haircut, went to uni, ran into Meng, and gave my supervisor a bottle of the red wine in gratitude. Not a bad bottle either. For some reason, we always get into this philosophical discussions when we sit down together. Top supervisor, that Natalie Doyle.

So yeah. Despite being all done with uni, I've been fairly flat out doing this and that. Some of it good, some not so much.

Tomorrow, I'm off to buy stuff. Wish me luck.

Word of the Day: Theses

 

Irrational.

Irrationality is a peculiar word.

You can attach the word 'irrational' to so many contrasting and different verbs and nouns.

Allow me to canvas two such pairings that have recently affected me.

Let's start with this one: 'irrational actions'. 

I have a friend. She's broken up with her boyfriend a number of times. It may have been twice. It may have been three times. I'm not even sure what you, I or she would count as breaking up anymore.

All I know is that they keep getting back together.

(As an aside, he's a bit of a mega-jerk. Not that that really concerns me at all. I never see him, and nor do I want to. Ever. And he'd probably best not see me. If you know what I mean).

While I too repeat mistakes, often with full knowledge that it will not all end well, it just seems a bit dumb to keep going back to the guy if you have to do it SEVERAL TIMES right? Something must be fundamentally flawed if you have to break up and make up that many times.

And something, or somethings, are fundamentally flawed. I just don't have the heart to tell her. I'm sure she would know, if she opened her eyes and stopped kidding herself. But you know, love makes us blind, and all that.

So that's 'irrational actions' covered so far.

That leads me seamlessly on to my next 'irrational' pairing. 'Irrational annoyance'.

I experience this a lot. I'm by no means a genius, but often this annoyance stems from fools. I just don't suffer fools very well. You know, people that don't make sense, or are just generally bad people, irk me quite easily.

Which, I think, is not so irrational.

Irrational annoyance would be me despising the overuse of the phrase 'like a boss/baws/bors'.

Picture of man sitting on a motorbike. "Like a baws!!!!111!!!"

Picture of girl with face paint. "Like a baws!!!!!111!"

Status update of a guy at a hotel. "Like a baws!!!!111!!"

Someone walking their dog. "Like a baws!!!!111!!"

Far out. Overused, inappropriate, thus, not funny or amusing.

Or 'swag'. I'm not even going to go into that one, because pretty much everybody already has.

Back to my story. Well, all of this is my story. Or at least, my re-telling/telling of it. But back to the story that we were halfway through.

When said friend related her story about her nth breakup with same boyfriend, I listened. Literally, for hours. Literally listened too, because I have no idea what to say to someone in that situation, especially over the phone. "There there"? "He was a jerk anyway, you'll get over it. You did with the other four boyfriends"? "Let's go smash his face in"?

She clearly still liked him at that point, so obviously the "Let's go smash his face in" or "He was a jerk anyway" doesn't really work.

It works even less when they eventually get back together. Which is what happened.

So thank goodness I didn't go bashing her (momentarily) ex-boyfriend, verbally or otherwise. My father taught me well, at least with this trick. He always says to me (because, for some reason, I always get calls about people having problems with their supposed better halves):

Son, don't go bad-mouthing their (what could very well turn out to be temporary) ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend. If (and most likely when) they get back together, your name will get bandied about, and in no nice way either.*

*Obviously in Cantonese. With a bit of embellishment by me. But the general gist is the same. 

Anyway, I'm annoyed by the whole business. I can think of a few reasons why, none of which may be correct.

1. Time was wasted. It wasn't a ball of fun either. I don't mind people calling me. In fact, I often welcome it. But it just seems so dumb, for some reason, when I get called for, not exactly advice, but opinion I guess you would call it, and then it just kind of all gets ignored.

2. She knows that there's something fundamentally wrong with this whole saga. That's why she wouldn't tell me they'd gotten back together before I kind of prompted it. This also annoys me because I also like good news. Sometimes (or often) more so than bad news. If you can call this good news. It is for her anyway. Why in such a rush to tell me about supposed doom and gloom, and so tardy to tell me about what's supposed to be good news? Do I seem like a person that thrives on pessimism and sadness? If I do seem like that, for the record, I'm not. I like good news. And good stuff in general.

3. As canvassed above, her (now current, as of this moment, as far as I know) boyfriend is a bit of a mega-jerk. What's more, she left a perfectly nice guy that I got along with a few boyfriends ago because of a reason that I don't find to be a reason at all.

So there you have it. Irrational. We all are, to a certain extent, and at certain moments. I can think of at least roughly five irrational things that I've done this week. I just don't like it very much when I'm on the receiving end of irrationality. Not sure if that's rational or irrational, and at this stage, I don't very much care.

Word of the Day: Irrational

Coolest story ever told.

Amazing how little it takes to brighten up one's outlook on life.

Small, seemingly trivial little things can have such an impact on how happy (or not, as the case may be) I am. It's kind of weird.

Obviously their not so trivial if they're so important.

Mmmmm. Cool story.

Word of the Day: Trivial

These could be the best days of our liiiiives.

The more astute of you would have realised that I have been back home for a while now. Up until now, I haven't really found the effort to write about it. But here I am, backstory and all explaining why I've taken so long to do what I'm about to do.

Right into it then.

Hong Kong was fun. Saw some relos, which is always a good experience, given that I see them about once every half a century. Or something. I also bought far, far more than I should have, mostly because stuff is so cheap there, but also mostly because stuff is a lot more cooler over there.

By stuff, I mean clothes and stuff. Hey, I never claimed to be a wordsmith.

The trip as a whole was absolutely amazing. Yes, there were difficult moments. Yes, it was a long time to be away from home. Yes, it did cost me a fair bit. But you know, it was all in the name of learning and having fun. And all of the experiences I had, all the stuff I learnt, all the places I visited, all the sights I saw, all the fantastic people I met, all the tan I got, made all the minute difficulties worth it.

I am, however, glad to be home. There's nothing quite like going overseas to strange countries (I'm looking at you, Poland and Lithuania) to make you realise how great Australia really is. I also got a bit sick of living in hotel rooms, not driving myself around, and just generally being semi-beholden to what fate/mischance had in store for me.

I also missed people back home. Friends, family, etc.

And Melbourne water. That stuff is heavenly. They should export that stuff. Especially to Poland, where the water is acidic and filled with mercury. Or something.

Coming back home, however, means dealing with all the homie stuff. You know, assessments, thesis, losing my tan, readjusting to actually having to do work, remembering to not start speaking Polish to people (I'm pretty much fluent in Polish now, it's kind of like my mother tongue, except my mother isn't from Poland), readjusting to the fact that people aren't surprised at the fact that I speak English, and reverting back to not enunciating clearly when speaking with strangers. Not all of that is necessarily bad, but I'll let you sort out which is which.

Thesis is killing me a little bit. I'm still trying to figure out which direction I'm going to take it in. Urgh.

And because I didn't get enough of England (or lack of sleepness) on my trip, I'm going to do a pre-dawn wake-up to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, which, for my friends who dwell under rocks, is in England this time around. I'll see you online tomorrow morning then.

Word of the Day: Back

Honky Town + more substantial summary/reflections on the tour.

Good morning from Hong Kong. I've only spent a night here, but I've already managed to have dinner with my aunty and most of her family, which was full of happy times. 

So what's there to look forward to in this place? Mostly shopping and eating, I imagine. Wooooo.

That's enough about the future. On to the past. Namely reflections on the tour.

The tour was amazing. I particularly liked the mix of mostly depressing days, and almost always fun nights. I don't know about everyone else, but the mix kept me from being overwhelmed by all the death and destruction that we were reliving in the death camps and mass graves. 

These fun nights only came about because of the people on the tour though. And most of these people were absolutely amazing. For the most part, kind-hearted, generous, fun, and funny, and I'm glad to have met them. I'm already starting to miss them, and I think I'm getting withdrawal symptoms because of it. The symptoms manifest themselves in things like thinking that Scarlett and Sarah were shouting for me from the back of the plane I was on, hearing what I thought was Flick being outraged at something, thinking Sam was shouting 'oi' at me at the airport, and thinking that I heard Louise laugh on the plane. It's not happening anymore, so don't call a doctor or anything. 

A substantial part of the goodness of the tour was due to the people on it, and it wouldn't have been half as awesome without them. Thanks guys. 

My favourite part of the tour is a toss-up between Chopin in the park and the random jam session in Sejny. Chopin in the park because Chopin's music is beautiful, the setting was beautiful, and it contrasted wonderfully with what we'd been seeing and visiting on the tour up until that point. Chopin played again while we watched The Pianist on the bus on the last day of the tour, and I thought it was a coincidentally amazing conclusion because of that. Both Chopin in the park and The Pianist almost made me cry. The jam session because of the awesome randomness of it all, and the mad clarinet solo. 

My least favourite part was probably the (mostly self-inflicted) chronic lack of sleep. Most days were something like 2 o' clock sleep, 7 o' clock wake up. But yeah, even this was a consequence of having fun most of the time, so really, it's not a complaint. 

I think that my actual least favourite part was leaving everyone, and having to adjust to being without the mob. Oh, and Louise getting hospitalised. That was kind of a worrying episode.  

Most random/fun thing was probably going clubbing in Lithuania. What. 

Or the random gay guy in said club who was hitting on Sam and telling him that his drink was spiked, while he was drinking from said drink. Or the ensuing talk about life and stuff that Sam and I had in my hotel room bathroom. 

Or having about five run-ins with the police. Street cred level 100 right here. Don't mess with me, cos I'm a real G. 

Or that time we broke into a concentration camp. Irony level 100. 

Or raving to 'Call Me Maybe' on an open-air minibus to and from dinner in Krakow. 

Or going on random H&M raids in various countries. 

Or going for a highly impulsive and unnecessary walk in a thunderstorm in Warsaw with Sam, Sarah, and Jamie.

Or finding that amazing rooftop bar in Berlin.

The random moments were numerous, and probably the most fun. 

Despite all the amazingly fun times had, I did manage to get a bit of learning and reflection in regarding the Holocaust. I still don't understand how people could have done such a thing, and I've kind of learned that there is no explanation. The entire Second World War was a horrible aberration that can't be explained. The destruction, the death, the Holocaust, the horrors in Asia, the atomic bomb. I did find it incredible that Germany seemed to have confronted and more or less dealt with its role in the War, whereas Poland has more or less not. 

A warmer part of the education was found in learning more about Jewish culture, which I did not have much of an idea about before the trip. Very interesting stuff.

Anyway, that's enough about the past now. Time to engage my brain again and start doing actual stuff soon. 

But man, they were fun times.

These could be the best days of our lives.

Word of the Day: Fun

   

Hits and misses.

I thought the following post had accidentally been deleted, and that it was for the better, as it was a bit emo and not very good. However, owing to the fact that I can't be bothered retyping/editing, and also to the fact that it's ok, I'm going to post anyway. So I'm going back on my decision to go back. Yeah. It starts now!
_____________________

Doing stuff in Warsaw, having deepish chats at the hotel bar, going for a walk in the Warsaw thunderstorm, it's all been good fun.

For some reason, right now, I just want to go home. Or at least, Hong Kong.

I think it has something to do with the fact that doing the same thing every day, with the same people, brings out all the nuts from the bolts. Some people I'm starting to get sick of, although they're quite few and far between.

I'm also starting to miss seeing old friends. People that understand me, I understand them, etc. Same goes with family. Meeting new people has been amazing. Some of these people are fantastic individuals, and I'm glad and grateful to have met them, and will definitely keep in touch with after the trip. However, some people have started to grate on my nerves a little on a part-time basis. But whatever. It's just a couple of weeks, and it's almost over anyway. It's also good for practicing patience and diplomacy.

So in a sense, because of this duality, the good people and the getting on my nerves people, I'll be both sad and relieved when this trip ends.

Anyway, it's not all been doom and gloom. In between breakfast yesterday morning and walking in the thunderstorm last night (craziest thing I've done in a while - not that I really do a lot of crazy things), we managed to fit in a Chopin concert in a Warsaw park.

It was the most beautiful moment on this trip so far. Amazing how we visit death camps etc, and the thing that makes me most emotional is some Chopin in the park.

Right at the start, I actually semi-cried. I believe it was this piece:

The piece that almost made me cry.

Just everything together - the park, learning about the Holocaust, the thinking about relationships, missing home, the beauty of the music. It had a wonderful ability to speak about both yearning, hope, and sadness.

It sounds cheesy, but it just made me wish I had a special someone to share the moment with, and really highlighted for me the major thing lacking in my life right now.

It also highlighted how despite man's propensity for killing each other, we are also capable of indescribable beauty. Music speaks, and when it does, it's in a universal language.

After that piece, I just settled into a sort of melancholy, reflective torpor, rather than acute sadness and yearning.

A break from all that faux-deep stuff now. Warsaw city is pretty ugly to be honest. However, the heart of the city, where the Old City is, is quite nice. Reminded me of Venice a little bit.

Anyway, should be ok by tomorrow. Just need to get some alone time for a few minutes at the bar or something.
__________

So after typing that load of drivel, Sam subsequently picked me up from sitting in the lobby by myself like a loser, and semi-conscripted me into shopping with him, tall Meg, and Scarlett. It was kind of what I really needed at that moment, despite my desire to not talk to anyone for a bit. Cheers Sam.

So right now, I'm in Bialystock, which apparently is in Poland. I pretty much know nothing about it apart from that.

And as predicted yesterday, I'm pretty much ok now. I no longer have a burning desire to get away. I've decided not to let people who are attempting to grate on my nerves to actually do it, which has pretty much solved that particular issue.

So off to Lithuania tomorrow. I almost have no idea what that country involves, which should be interesting.

Word of the Day: Faux

The cow finally cracked.

Yesterday was completely insane and off the hook. Stick with me through my rollercoaster of a narrative, my sine graph of a story, my turbulent tale.

So I woke up in the morning, as I do on most days, when I'm being bombarded for Louise's number. I don't have it, so I'm all 'What's going on?' What was going on was that she had been hospitalised during the night. Naturally, I was a tad worried.

My worry eased somewhat an hour or so later when we were told she was more or less all good. My anxiety didn't fully abate however, and where should we be going but to two of the most depressing places on Earth: Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Auschwitz and Birkenau were both quite sad. Auschwitz focused quite heavily on volume: masses of people, masses of shoes, masses of hair. I thought it was a lot more museum-y than Birkenau, and thus wasn't as effective.

Birkenau was hot, big, and more or less in its original state. I think it was quite fitting that the weather was physically draining, as we got a taste of how it must have felt to labour there. I thought it was much more evocative and emotional.

To more or less cap off quite a turbulent day, we were reunited with Louise prior to dinner, which made me simultaneously relieved and glad.

On the way to the restaurant, I spontaneously jumped on an open top bus/taxi/golf cart in the middle of the road that the girls had hired at the hotel. As one does in Poland. Fun times.

At dinner, I was on a table with Louise, Sam and Scarlett. Quite top people all. Had some good chats and stuff.

Following dinner, street magic with Sam, and talks with Karen and Louise, we of course caught one of the kamikaze karts back to the hotel. My favourite part of sitting on the back of those things (I'm pretty much a back-sitting veteran) is the awkward eye contact you get with the people in the cars behind us. Greatest experience of my life.

Afterwards (hey, we have really short and boring days here), we played a bit of cheat with a mass of people, which is always fun.

After that (yeah, it goes on), Sam and I had a good chat-fest. I love those. He's also quite a good bloke.

So absolutely atrocious and slightly distressing morning, depressing and reflective arvo, more or less brilliant night.

And that's Krakow wrapped up.

Word of the Day: Distressing

Krakow/Cracow/Crack Cow + van Persie.

Last night, I went drinking in Krakow. It sounds intense, and it probably was. Had a good beery, and went back home. Yeah, intense.

Today, we did a walking tour of Krakow, which I enjoyed immensely. It's a pretty, lively, and small city, full of stuff to see, do, and buy, all at immensely reasonable prices. So we wandered around, did a few mosques, Schindler's factory, and ended the day by buying a heap of stuff.

Today also made me realise that most people on this tour are essentially pretty cool people.

As of yet, I haven't had a massive Holocaust horror moment, which I guess is good and bad. I do, however, fully expect Auschwitz tomorrow to be pretty full on, both positively and negatively.

Looking forward to it.

Also, van Persie.

I cannot believe it. That's pretty much the zillionth captain to leave Arsenal now. I was always a bit doubtful about his character, as everything he said seemed a bit too PR, but now it's plain for all to see it's all about money.

The club has signed two quality players already, with more probably set to follow. What else could he want in the club's future except for higher wages?

Whatever. We'll move on. Cesc was much more fundamental to the whole functioning of the team, and we managed to cope without him (albeit labouriously at times). We've already signed two quality strikers who are now looking like van Persie's replacements. We're much more on the ball, so to speak, than the last transfer window.

I say sell him. To Man City, whatever. It doesn't even matter. He's a couple of seasons away from being on the decline. If they're willing to pay a zillion pounds for him, go for it I say.

However, I won't pretend I'm not very disappointed, and a little bit sad. He was a good player, a good captain, and scintillating to watch last season. Yes, he pretty much only performed for one full season, but the technique and beauty was always there. When all is said and done, it's still a shame that we couldn't hang on to him. But in Arsene we trust.

Word of the Day: Cow

Florence again + Berlan.

On Saturday, I re-visited Florence with uni.

Walking around a foreign city with three friends is actually quite a fun experience. Despite my tone of surprise, I wasn't surprised, if that makes sense.

When I began writing this post, I was on about 2 hours of sleep, so pardon any ridiculousness that I wrote/write. Or don't. I really couldn't care less.

I think, out of all the Italian cities, Florence is the one I like the most. If you want to go to touristy places, you can do so. If you choose not to, you can also just wander the streets for a few hours, and find a myriad of interesting things to see/do/not do.

After getting "lost" and catching the later train than everyone else, us four (being Louise, Jamie, Lucy, and surprisingly, I) got back to the hotel about half an hour after everyone else.

I headed to bed, and couldn't sleep for what I think was three hours. Then had really stoppy starty sleep.

The next morning (being yesterday morning), I thought it was because of the heat and the early sleep time/wake time. In hindsight, I think it may have been me thinking about things and not being able to sleep my brain.

Same thing happened this morning, but you don't really care about that.

Anyway, back to yesterday.

We broke into a concentration camp in Fossoli (as one does), then continued bussing our way to Milano.

Milano was fairly boring, especially as I had been there before, but having a guided tour by the architect of the memorial he was building at the train station was excellent. It would have been cool even if I wasn't doing this unit, because we gained an insight into his thinking and planning processes.

After dinner, we jetted off to Berlin, from whence I am slightly tiredly typing this.

It's a lovely city, from what I've seen so far, and I'm looking forward to exploring it further.

Word of the Day: Pardon

Surprise Song Sunday: London Calling - The Clash

London calling.

London is indeed calling. And it is a call that I have decided to answer. 

I'm off to London on Thursday. Paris follows soon after, as does Bordeaux, and various cities in Italy. After all that, I go to Berlin, Poland, and Lithuania with uni. On the way back, I visit the good old Hong Kong. 

A bit rushed, but should be great fun. 

If anybody wants anything, let me know. I shall grant it if it is in my power. If not, you could always cash me. Or we could work on a credit system. 

So yeah, I won't be here for four and a bit weeks from Thursday. So if you're looking for me then, yeah, tough. Swallow your disappointment. 

If any of you read this and feel like hanging out before Thursday, however, please buzz me. I would like to see friends before I leave for my long and arduous journey to the other side of the earth. I know most of you are in the midst of exams, but if you're not, or you don't care about exams, let me know. 

Word of the Day: Credit

  

Deloittering about the city.

So I took an action-packed journey out to the city last night to have dinner with a few Deloitte friends.

And it was action-packed. Some guy got sick on the train, so we had to stop for about fifteen minutes. Pretty full-on stuff. Had to call an ambulance for him. Felt pretty bad for him, then felt kind of guilty because I started being slightly concerned about being late, then finally settled for feeling bad about both. Making it doubly bad. Or bad squared.

Anyway, I hope he's alright.

Dinner was good. Wish there could've been a few more people there. Not for the sake of having more people, but just because there were people that I wanted to catch up with that weren't there.

Not that I didn't want to catch up with the people that were there. And great people they were. And probably still are. In fact, we had such a good time, that three hours flew by like...a spaceship. On high speed. Or something.

Getting a Charmander plushie (all the way from Japan!) from Phuong last night was pretty much the highlight of this midsem break. Either I don't have very exciting breaks, or Charmander's just that awesome that he has the ability to change my psyche. For the sake of my pride, we'll go with the latter. Cheers Phuong!

(I'm still pretty excited about it).

There's the little fella. Isn't he just adorbs?

In other news, I finished the Huanger Hunger Games trilogy last night. Took me about a week all up.

If you think that's an amazing feat, try it for yourself. Really not that hard, and I'm a fairly slow, albeit dedicated, reader. There's a lot of space in between sentences, the font's big, and there's a lot of action that frankly, doesn't make much sense even when I read it carefully, so I just skim over it.

If I were to plot the books on a chart, the resultant curve would be a negative linear line. For those that are not mathematically inclined (like me), that means that they got progressively worse.

The first one was good. I loved the first one.

The second one was like, wow, you just spent half the book touring the country, and the other half going through the Hunger Games again. Except this time, in less detail, because you've already done it once.

Third one was pretty excruciating. Katniss spends half the time either insane or wallowing in a very deep well of self-pity and pain. I actually derived very little enjoyment from reading it, because the whole thing is just too much death and destruction raining down on one poor soul. The ending is also pretty bad. She tries to tie it all off in one chapter, which, to me, seems too cursory and casual.

Looking forward to the next movie though. Should be better than the book anyhow.

Probably a good idea to go sleep now.

Word of the Day: Charmander