So, 2006. I had no idea what 2005 would hold (I th…
So, 2006. I had no idea what 2005 would hold (I think I called it a “strange, rectangular year”), but I wasn’t surprised that it held a lot of filming. Buying a place was certainly a surprise and a big step, though it still doesn’t feel that way. Nothing too nasty, though, and for that I’m thankful. I’m going to try to improve on that for 2006. Resolutions never seem to last, but my goals for the year, besides the usual “get in shape/exercise/eat better” thing include finishing the movie and seeing it in theaters, rewriting my book and seeing it on Amazon.com, in English, and taking a good, long vacation to someplace like Europe or New Zealand. Ideally, this would include idealized versions of vacations like Walking the Streets of Paris Without Getting Tired, or arriving in Auckland on “Make Love To A Maori Day”, but I’ll settle for the broader achievements of just getting to these places and seeing what happens.
Harry came over to my new place to give it a once-over, check for ghosts, etc. He said it was basically alright, or would be once I stick an eight-sided Taoist Ba-gua mirror above my balcony. We’d met for dinner at the delicious Aubergine Japanese curry restaurant near the NTU campus on New Year’s Eve, and then walked over to the Gin Gin Bookstore. On the way I ran into an old classmate of mine and her boyfriend, from Spain. I realized over the course of our ensuing conversation how pitifully little Spanish I remember.
After the bookstore we walked over to Fresh, which always manages to disappoint me. It lived up to its reputation this time by having its one redeeming feature, the balcony on the fourth floor, closed due to “rain”, though it wasn’t raining. We sat just inside and shouted at each other for a while and then ran outside too late to see the fireworks at midnight. Taking the MRT home at 3am was a novel experience. I wish they’d keep it open 24 hours all the time.
On Sunday I went to a dinner party at my friend Michael’s place. Michael’s apartment is an ode to neatness, and everything was just so, including the food. It was a little maddening, watching the food just sit there while people were fussing over table dressings. On the other hand, Michael has a huge projection TV setup, and we watched “Under a Tuscan Sun”, which is one of my favorite movies, on it. Beforehand we’d watched a Taiwanese short film called “The Smiling Fish” in which a man buys a fish from the pet shop and then sets it free in the ocean. I’m afraid I ruined the dramatic climax by shouting, “Oh no, he forgot, it’s a freshwater fish! Nooooo!” as the guy upturned the fishbowl from the rowboat. Oh, well. Happy New Year.
[…] a glance at new years past, however, it seems that all of the above goals are at least several years old. […]
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