Advice #18

Don't ask

I could do it in my sleep

This phrase could apply to a lot of things it seems. The latest thing is that I read a text message from Lee and replied to it in a coherent way, all in my sleep, only to know nothing of it the next day. Freaky.

In the past, I have also stopped my alarm clock, and instead of simply pressing off or snooze, as would be easiest (particularly when asleep), I set it for three hours later. Freaky.

If I could teach myself to work in my sleep or do something useful, that would be good, but at the moment I'm more afraid of what I'll do next!

Tick tick tick tick tick tick BOOM!

Time scares me. Losing time scares me, and losing time without being in control scares me the most. This manifests itself in many ways.

1) Unless I really have to, I don't embark on anything that I can't duck out of after 10 minutes and decide to use my time differently.
2) I don't use my time well. I sit for hours doing nothing and often get to the end of the day and realise that my whole day has been unfulfilling in every way, and been boring to boot. I'd prefer to waste time, watching the sand flow through the hourglass than use it properly and take my eye off the ball.
3) I don't plan my time well, use a calender or diary only sporadically and frequently miss things and make mistakes as a consequence.

I'm not sure how to beat it though, but I need to if I'm gonna get a degree and a job and not end up as a pauper (thanks to verticalblue for telling me about the pauper part of this terrible scenario)

Malaysian food

The food in Malaysia was fantastic. Lots of chinese style food as well as malaysian specialities. I love chinese food, and malaysian food is pretty good too!

Something I will remember for a long time is a pudding that we had after a very filling buffet dinner of Malaysian food, we were given a bowl, piled as high as would fit with food. It was mainly ice, with a kind of juice at the bottom that tasted vaguely of lychee and contained two jelly-like substances, one of which was little brown cubes and one was bluish stringy things. "Sprinkled" on top was a sauce that seemed to contain mainly sweetcorn and then some chopped nuts on top. Gradually the flavoured ice-stuff melted and we were left with a bowl of witches potion. If anyone knows what it's called, please let me know. It is apparently meant to cool you on a hot evening after a hot meal, and luckily it seemed that we weren't meant to finish it completely, because although I love trying new things, it was a strange taste and there was bloody loads!

Something more horrific in some ways was a large hall in Kota Kinabalu given over to restaurants serving fish where you can choose which animal to eat. Now, personally I don't have any problems with that, if the fish are kept in good conditions. After all, we should face up to what we eat and not try to trick ourselves that food didn't have a life first. However, the tiger prawns were kept in little plastic bottles where they could hardly move. Apparently they are dangerous and will attack the chef when they pick it out of the water, so they are forced to keep them like that. However, at that point, it is surely preferable to kill them straight away before they get to the restaurant and eat them when they are slightly less fresh. I left feeling distinctly uncomfortable and amazed by the scale of it - the hall was probably a square measuring 100m in each direction, with stacks of fish tanks all the way around the sides.

On the whole though, I love their diet of noodles or rice with varieties of stir-fried meat and veg with or without sauce. I could live with that!

Our guide on the river Kinabatangan

Sam was our guide on the trip, and he was fantastic. He had an ability to see monkeys, birds, lizards, crocodiles, wild boar, orang utans and elephants (borneo pygmy ones) from miles away. He directed our boat towards the right tree, and we sat squinting for a minute or so before we saw anything. But once we saw it, it was fantastic watching the animals in the wild. The monkeys come to the river at night, because there are fewer predators, and a whole family sits on a tree overlooking the river. We watched the young ones playing around, and the male making its funny nasal call to shut them up.


Sam is 26. He has never been off Borneo. His family are farmers, and he has a brother and three sisters (I think). He went to his sister's house for christmas, and was really looking forward to it for the days beforehand. He supports Man United. He plays a lot of poker in the evenings. He has only ten days off ever year. He is a legend. A real funky dude, and I'm sure he'd fit in well in a city as well. It was really upliting to get to know a real person from the area and see what they like and how they live. There was a danger in our holiday that we wouldn't manage that, but 3 days with Sam was a good start!

My holiday to Malaysia

Hey, I went to Malaysia over the holiday and I can honestly say it was the best holiday I have ever had. The whole family of us went and it was actually really good to see everyone, and there were hardly any arguments in the trip.

What happened was this:
We flew to Kota Kinabalu, one of the main cities on Borneo (or at least the Malaysian bit, which is the top bit). There are two malaysian provinces in Borneo, Sabah (containing Kota Kinabalu) and Sarawak (not containing Kota Kinabalu)
We stayed in a hotel until 31st December, with the exception of a 3 day trip into the rainforest, travelling up and down the Kinabatangan river and a 2 day trip to climb Mount Kinabalu.
For new year we flew to Kuala Lumpur and met a family who we know because my aunt went to school with the mother. They showed us round and gave us a good time
Then we came home

So it was unlike any Christmas I have ever experienced. I can completely recommend getting away for Christmas, because I reckon that 12 months is not long enough between Christmasses, particlarly because we start hearing Christmas carols around the place from October. And it was a great trip

Advice #17

Plan your mid-life crisis plenty of time in advance. You don't want it to sneak up on you and end up doing something rash by mistake



PS More posts will come in the next week for sure, I've been on holiday so lots to write about

The Cardigans - Best of

Will be released on 28th Jan 2008 in the UK and 30th Jan 2008 in the rest of Europe

Am very excited. More news will come as I get it. Of course I know you are all fascinated by everything I tell you about the Cardigans, and it is the least I can do to update you on their news ;-)

Question

Is it wrong to desire a golden parsnip?

The story of how this term was not like the others

For the first three years in this place, things got better and better, and then this term came, and things weren't quite as good again. I suspected it might happen, with all the people leaving who I talked about in this blog at the end of last term. To that, I can now add that I have spoken from time to time with all of that list except Kaleen and Dave. But I speak less to Sonia, Richard, Chris and Thomas than before too, and moving apart from so many friends at once is a bit painful.

A few years ago I would have said I don't need to tell someone everything. Who needs a best friend? But I often think that I would like to tell someone something I think of, but then can't think of the best person to tell and who would really understand what I am saying.

It took me until about the 7th week of term and a huge work crisis to click myself out of feeling all sorry for myself, and I can blog it now because I am feeling better, and I don't trust myself to write sense unless I am feeling good and rational.

Living in a house has been great though, and the housemates are wonderful. I can quite happily open up to lots of people and say what I think, and the people in the house are great! There is tea practically on tap, and although most people are in bed at a sensible hour there is inevitably someone who wants a long chat at midnight and that is wonderful! I really do feel a lot closer to these people than I have done since the first year, when we met up really often to cook together and things - almost like now! The more I get to know them all, the more wonderful it is.

So is a best friend really necessary? I haven't decided. I'll tell you when I'm eighty years old and I have more experience of the world and how it works.

Advice #16

Don't blame your daughter

Some clutter

I hear a song and write the lyrics down as I listen so I can read them all at once. But I end up having scraps of paper all over my room with lines from songs that I like, and they cause clutter. And although my room is always full of clutter, it would be better if it wasn't there. So here are a couple, and I'll throw away my scraps of paper.

"Misery comes and lovers go
I lose myself and sometimes I don't know
She says I've always told you so
But I'll stay with you forever
Angel of Sadness"
Angel of Sadness - A Camp

"I'm sorry
Two words I always think
After you're gone
When I realize I was acting all wrong"
So Sorry - Feist

I only wrote down the first one today, the other one I discovered a few months ago, but it's very true to life. Luckily people are usually very forgiving when I 'act all wrong'