आज मौसम बड़ा बेईमान है! Since I woke up at about 08:30, it's been 30 minutes of dark clouds and gales, 5-10 minutes of hail (and rain), then 15-30 minutes of blue skies and sunshine. Rinse, repeat.

Sigh.

Watched Finn's Girl yesterday, and it was actually really as good as promised on the Out Takes brochure - smart and funny too.

Overheard a woman tell her husband (who were both prolly at the screening of Finn's Girl): "I know it's a film festival - I just didn't know it is a lesbian one!"

(Oops, surprise! Guess Out Takes isn't about outtakes after all!)

Later, I'll have to brave the possibility of being hailed on (sigh) to get to Paramount for Bi The Way.

So ... Like, almost immediately after that last post on Wednesday, I went to meet C and Geeta for dinner at Cha, which was promptly followed by desserts at Strawberry Fare (we share the Devils Dream Cake and a Crème Brûlée). I tried to assuage my guilt and fear by walking Geeta home but ...Obese-city, here comes I!

Yesterday was sunny and (relatively) warm so pole prac was good. I still suck at free-styling.

Working on a presentation this long weekend for Tuesdays, and C's away in Nelson ... Sigh.

Cold, lonely flat.

Most alarmingly, I discovered yesterday that I might be so grossly obese or so appallingly unfit - or both - that I was gasping, almost suffocating, after climbing up seven levels in the school library.

The shortness of breath is frightening; the hypochondriac in me thinks something must be very wrong ...

The weekend getaway to Christchurch was pretty awesome - weather notwithstanding - and, dear Goddess, souvlakis from Dimitris are abso-fucking-lutely divine, as good as I remembered. Why, oh why, can't Dimitris be based in Welly?

Also, is it just me, or are the folks in Christchurch just a little too weird? I felt scared walking around when the sun went down - not that we were getting lotsa it in the day - and even as early as 6pm.

That could be zombie-town after dark for all I know ...

The chicken adobo was successful, even if not so authentic. It's an awesome dish and I'll be making it more often, I hope!

Had a very sad pole prac yesterday. My bottle of Mighty Grip arrived, but it proved rather useless against the condensation on the pole. And it pills on my palms! =/ Also, even though the studio now has safety mats, they're woefully thin and - IMO - inadequate. So I found myself afraid - after my crash last Thu - to do a lot of stuff. Well, not 'afraid' maybe, just too overly cautious.

Will be off to Christchurch tonight. Looks like I might just freeze my ass off there. But I'm quite looking forward to it - the get-outta-Welly, not the frozen ass.

Stupid fucking dryers. Gah.

I've to go out soon - it's bright and sunny (though very chilly with the southerlies; currently 9°C with windchill factor of 4°C) - and get some stuff for the chicken adobo I want to try to make tonight. I'd asked Jess yesterday on Facebook for her family's recipe but I've decided I can't wait for her to email me, so I'm trying out the recipe here.

Also, I've to shop for winter coats and jackets. Damnit, why can't clothes shopping be as fun and exciting as grocery shopping?

The wet and windy come back to us once more (well, only fair, since it is nearly winter).

It's raining now with some gales, yet also sunny ... and I'm waiting to find a rainbow out there.

Somehow, this reads like an analogy of my life as I know it now.

I feel like I'm missing out on the fun my friends - my pole mates, specifically - are having back home. Performances, dinners, (pole) parties - and, of course, pole practices together. I feel like a wraith, floating about the outside of it all, looking in.

C & I did a movie night yesterday, watching The Man from Earth, Millennium Actress, and Burn After Reading. I love the first two (The Man from Earth highly recommended - it's thought-provoking and fascinating, and I'm gonna look for a copy of it; Satoshi Kon is as great as ever although I much prefer Paprika), but the last one was a bit of a disappointment.

Maybe one day I'll get to watch Tokyo Godfathers. I don't like anime generally, but I've been very fascinated by Satoshi's works since I watched Perfect Blue about 5 years ago, courtesy of Jen. (My eternal gratitude, Jen!)

Gah. I fell off the pole attempting an elbow-hold ayesha last night. I shoulder-mounted up to serpent, pushed off into a caterpillar crouch, then released my legs. Wobbled precariously for a long minute before cartwheeling off to the left and, with an embarrassingly and stunningly loud thud, landed on my left tush and leg.

Was offered arnica ("5 drops in your water") which I took. I didn't attempt the ayesha again although I did get back up on the pole for inverts.

Boy, does my left tushie feel sore this morning or what ...

Feeling very blah.

My research essay proposal was okayed yesterday by Geoff, so I can start working on it; but ... sigh.

Had a dream-ful and deep sleep which I could hardly wake up from this morning. I should be studying for my translation test now, or do more translation, or research for my essay, but I'm just not in the mood.

It's finally sunny and warm, so I blame the sun.

Got my tickets for a few films in my shortlist for this year's Out Takes Film Festival:

1. Finn's Girl
   
2. Bi The Way
   
3. I Can't Think Straight
   
4. Seriously Good Girl Shorts
   
5. Short and Girly
   
6. Ghosted
   
7. Love My Life

The rest of the films in shortlist for which I've not purchased tickets:

1. Mr. Right
   
2. The New World
   
3. Patrik, Age 1.5
   
4. Spinnin' (6 Billion Different People)
   
5. Ten More Good Years
   
6. To Faro
   
7. XXY
   
8. Antarctica
   
9. Boystown
   
10. Fashion Victims
    
11. International Male

Yeah. I'm not here to pursue a useless honors degree in English at all ...

Just before dinner I got a text from the studio asking if I were interested in being filmed while on the pole - for the 48 Hour Film competition. I went just for the experience.

Turns out, all A. and I have to do is to do monkey tricks as background dancers of sorts; and the director was a really sweet bloke too. Not to mention, it was nice to have a bit of pole play (the studio was toasty with all the lightings and people, and good for pole).

When they wrapped up, I got a text from my Dad informing me Doggie's been to the groomer and now spots a new haircut.

She looks like a boy dog now ... =(


(as at 02/04/06)

(now)

I'm sick of this research essay and everything about it.

Studying is so much less fun than I remember. There are occasional bursts of mild interest in the stuff I'm working on, but, by and large, the best part of days is still pole (although it's been irritating how the colder weather these days has been fucking up my pole prac - no heat, no grip).

I'm so frustrated I could explode. ARGH!

The inevitable deluge of post-mortems of the hottest saga in Singapore. I've been going through article after article, blog-post afte blog-post, and for me they paint a rather frightening picture of the fundie-virus.

Then I had a sudden thought: The (over)zealous evangelizing and conversion of sheeple - is that what earns one brownie points with the god in their head ("Collect 1,000,000 points and you stand a chance to redeen a trip to heaven - all expenses paid!")?

Is this evangelizing a sorta multi-level marketing?

Yikes.

I guess eating with anyone with a medical background will inevitably lead to some pretty scary and gruesome conversation topics ...

Still feeling very emotional about the women and men at the EGM yesterday. Very proud of all of them; very, very, very proud.

Not so proud of myself, because it's just struck me that I only followed the EGM in realtime (via Twitterfall) because I'm here in Welly; had I been in Singapore, I very possibly would've missed it all just to be at pole. I would've been one to "shut up and sit down" and not stand up and speak up.

Hopefully this momentuous event will set a precedent for Singapore and me: Don't let someone yell at you to "shut up and sit down"; don't let the vocal religious-fundie minority - or any other nutjobs - bully you just because they're louder and more strident.

Good grief.

I've been following #awaresg twits at Twitterfall for the past 8 hours - have cooked, eaten, and showered - and I still don't know the results of the no-confidence vote.

But I've learned a few other things (SGD 90,000?! "Shut up and sit down"?! "Femmentor"!), felt exhilarated, laughed, growled, almost teared, among many other things.

My Volsunga Saga remains, sadly, still untranslated. I'm gonna go grab a snack before I fall asleep on my netbook.

Give us the results already, why doncha! =/

Open night at the studio yesterday meant 3 free hours of pole work!

But it was too cold (windchill factor at 7°C) and the poles were slippery because warm hands on cold steel poles meant lotsa condensation. My arms felt really weak and my hands were slipping off the (upper part of the) pole that I kept sliding when I inverted mid-pole to chopper, and couldn't even have enough grip to get from scorpio to star.

Still, I tried out the new way to get into brass monkey that I'd been visualizing - bat to brass monkey - and it worked!