Fact from fiction

I write, sometimes. Why? Because some things you can't speak about. But when you write, you can take your time. And take your liberties. By the time the finished product comes out, it is no longer possible for the reader to separate the fact from the fiction.

Gambling

It is not something I would gamble on... I won't lose anything, but he might...and I can't gamble with his fate, either.

Or can I?

No, I don't think I can.

Where do babies come from?

My friend shared this joke:

Léa, 5 ans, revient de l'école. Elle a eu sa première leçon sur les bébés.
Sa mère, très intéressée, lui demande :
- « Comment cette leçon s’est-elle passée ? »
Elle répond :
- « J’étais morte de honte ! Paul dit qu’on peut acheter des bébés à l'orphelinat. Marie explique qu’on peut acheter des bébés à l'hôpital. Pierre dit qu’on peut aller acheter des bébés à l’étranger »
Sa mère répond en riant :
- « Mais pourquoi étais-tu morte de honte ? »
Parce que je n’ai pas osé leur dire que mon papa et ma maman sont tellement pauvres qu’ils ont dû me faire eux-mêmes »

Translation:

Five-year-old Léa comes back from school. She had just had her first lesson on babies.
Her interested mother asks her, "How was the lesson?"
She replies. "I thought I would die of shame! Paul said that we could buy babies from the orphanage. Marie explained that we could buy babies from the hospital. Pierre said that we could go and buy babies from other countries."
Her mother replied, laughing, "But why would you die of shame?"
"Because I didn't dare to tell them that my father and mother are so poor that they had to make me themselves."

How disappointing, Mr. Patterson

I just finished reading The Lake House by James Patterson. It is one of those books that I really enjoyed while reading it, and couldn't wait to finish...and then I get put off by the ending.

Why? (spoilers ahead) Firstly, they were using the hateful omniscient first person narrative, while also writing the story from at least three other characters' point of view (but in the third person). -_- And towards the end, they decided to have the narrator "go to heaven" (which she actually dreamt) to make you think she died.

That is still forgiveable...unless if she really died, because I would really cry foul about a ghost writing a story. But there are very bad loose ends hanging at the end...for example, the bad guy had created three clones of himself, and one of them was killed in the "action" scene. The clone told the character who killed him, "I'm just a clone". And another character saw two of the bad guys at the same time (one original and one clone, I suppose...or both clones?) And the point just wasn't brought up again after they left the place. They just went to live peacefully in the Lake House, and was so surprised when the bad guy came back one day. Whaaaaattt?!?!

That ending spoiled the book for me. :(

Oh, and the bad guy died (this time he said that he was the original, not a clone). But what happens to the other two clones? No idea...

Another thing: The synopsis mentioned a Kit Harrison. There is a Kit in the book...but his real name is Thomas Brennan. So where does the name Harrison come from? There is absolutely no mention of it in the book. Even the synopsis of When the Wind Blows (its prequel) mentions Kit Harrison, so I searched a little and found this. Turns out that in the first book, Thomas Brennan used this name. But why keep the name on the second book when it is no longer used? -_-

There is another point that I missed while reading the book (I was too keen on knowing what happens next :P ), but when I read a review of the book (at the first link at the top of the post), it came back to me. The review said, "the children all "run" away to live in the woods and eat grubs just to get away from regular human society. Next thing you know, they're back at home without any sort of explanation." It's true, when I think back on it...


Another reviewer said that the story is similar to When the Wind Blows. I wouldn't know, because I haven't read it. And when looking back at my old post (the one linked above, second link in the post), I noticed that a commenter had mentioned this book. 


At the end of the book, there was an excerpt from Sam's Letters to Jennifer. It looks good, and makes me want to read more... but wasn't that the case with The Lake House too?


Maybe I should just stop reading James Patterson...

Ironically...

I happened to notice this on a box of Milo Sejuk the other day.

"Do not refrigerate"?? So Milo Sejuk cannot be sejuk. Hmm... not until you want to drink it, anyway. I wonder what would happen if I did refrigerate it... :P

("sejuk" means "cold" in Malay)

Just stuff

Because I'm kinda lazy to sift through the Cameron Highlands photos. I wrote about it about a month ago, in case you've forgotten.

One day while driving home from work, I saw a "pooch mobile" somewhere in front of me. It's a mobile hydrobath for your pets! (or maybe just dogs?) Anyway, I wonder how it works...do you call it to your house to pick up your dog? Does it wash your dog on the way to...uh, I'm not sure where? Or does it just take your dog to its premises where it will give it a wash? (and maybe some grooming...)

I guess one way to find out is to call that number...but nah, I don't think I'll do that. :P

And some weeks back I tried some fried squid sold by a van near my place. The van sells Taiwanese chicken chop (you know, the kind that is chopped up for you and has chilli powder sprinkeld on it), popcorn chicken, fries and that kind of stuff. I had bought the chicken a few times but not the squid... 

Very good! The coating is nice and crispy, and the squid is just nice, not rubbery at all. And the chilli powder adds to its yumminess! RM4 for a packet (100g, I think).

And here is what's on the paper bag:

Um...I expected a company name and phone number... I think they had it before this, when I bought the chicken... I shall have to see the next time I buy it.

The tale of the chicken feet

Remember when I mentioned that we wanted to go hiking?

We've gone twice since... but that's not what I wanted to write about. What I want to write about is the conversations I had with my fellow hikers, on chicken feet.

One day, we went to a friend's hokkien mee stall. She also sells chicken feet as accompaniment, so I had some.

We had decided to go hiking the next day, with F and C. C was not with us that day, but when F saw what I was eating, he exclaimed, "You still dare to eat chicken feet when you are going hiking tomorrow?"

I went, "Huh? What's the connection?"

And he said, "Your legs will become shaky like chicken legs."

Er...... hahaha.

I didn't think much about that any more, until another day when we were having lunch in the canteen with C. This time F wasn't around.

We also had plans to go hiking that day, and C was taking an unusually long time with his meal (he's usually among the first to finish). When we commented on it, he said, "That's because I took chicken feet today...tonight we're going hiking, so I need to 'strengthen' my legs."

What?? Wait...that's not what F said the other day... lol

You take your pick on which theory you want to believe... :P

Of mutual scolding

You like scolding people so much... come with me... You can scold me and I'll scold you back.

And we could just have so much fun.

Some things are best left unsaid... but fools might not heed the warning.

I won! I won!

Last Thursday I received an e-mail.

I was just saying to WW a few days earlier that I had never won this kind of contest. I can't remember what triggered the conversation, but I remember telling him, I joined two contests not long ago, but I didn't win any of them!

And then this e-mail arrived... I could hardly believe it, I told myself, just wait until you get the CD... lol

Actually I should have received the CD last Friday...but they left a card saying that no one was at home when they came to make the delivery. (WW was home but he didn't hear anyone calling...we don't have a doorbell!) So I asked them to send it to me at work, and I received the CD today.

Just listened to it, not bad, I guess. ^_^ Before this, the only song I knew from Gotye's album was Somebody That I Used To Know. After a first run through all the songs, I've found another good one, In Your Light. I'll see how it goes after listening to it a few more times...

Oh, and if you want to know more...the two contests I entered were both by The Star eCentral... the first one (which I wanted more, actually) was for a Train CD (I know more of Train's songs and most of them are nice), and the second was for this one. Both contests only needed answers to two questions (or was it three?) and no slogan. So I just gave it a shot!

It's too cold outside for angels to fly

I was listening to Lite.FM in the car...and just before I was going to turn off the engine, a song came on. The music was really nice...sort of sweet and happy. I listened to it for a while...trying to figure out the title, but couldn't... So I grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down a few lines that I caught from the lyrics, to be able to find the song later. And here it is! Ed Sheeran's The A Team.



After watching the video, I realised that the song isn't so happy after all... :/ I guess a lot of songs are that way, because no one would listen to a song with a dark message unless if the music caught their attention first...like this song did mine.

In any case...it's too good not to share. So I hope you like it!