Saturday, April 22, 2006
I did it, i passed the LAST darn driving lesson. (excluding revision) I feel very bad though. At the start of the lesson i felt relieved that i had gotten the easy-going, happy indian guy again with a half mohawk and little curls at the end of it. He wasn't even mad the last time when i hit the pole and sort of chopped off the car mirror. He fixed it and laughed. And he's the only instructor who will help you change gears just for convenience. Anyway, so he passed me by ignoring my immediate failure today (i feel so guilty), which is that i almost hit a taxi because i got confused about whether it was in the lane i didn't want it to be in, and went ahead as if in a rash dream and he had to quickly turn back the wheel or else it would have been a disaster. He was so sweet he even gave me instructions on corrective action when i hit the kerb while parking. I know all this parking jargon sounds absurd and it is, but im just so grateful he helped me pass today's lesson on the dot (18 demerit points) and i can finally book the driving test which i will book either on 12th july or my birthday. It'll give me luck!!!! Things to do after passing: drive in crazy heavy rain, drive at night, blast songs in the car, force everyone in my family to trust me to drive them. I'm scared of turning 19.
moled at 4/22/2006 07:20:00 AM
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The party i did face-painting for on saturday was crazy. It was the most party-like party I've seen for kids. It was the very definition of a modern-day kids party. The theme was rock star, and when I went in to the red-carpeted cosy function room there were balloons hanging everywhere, the metallic anagram kind, in shapes of guitars and saxophones and normal balloons, with little anagram hearts hanging from the ends of the stringy lines. There was a huge pink and purple balloon arch (that eventually served no purpose). The 6-year-old birthday girl Jade and her little sister were running around the room screaming and doing cartwheels on the carpet. Some twisted re-recorded bad bland unoriginal version of 'the locomotion' was playing. So I set up and Jadey ran over, not shy at all, and she and her sister had these tailor-made shimmery abba-like costumes!!!!!!!!!! In the meantime, an annoying abba song has come on. I paint her stars and a daisy on her forehead and a few friends arrive in really amazing costumes. Purple wings (not rock star but never mind), pink sash, colourful bell-bottoms, hippy bandana, paisley clothes, glittery face. And Jade goes "you all look fantastic!" "wow! ashley you look great today!" "you're all so beautiful today!" I never saw a 6-year-old who spoke with such a burst of gusto. So anyway I got shifted to this raised area next to the sunny window and started painting more little girls. Dark blue stars on her eyes for a shy messy girl with long messy blonde hair wearing cool pants to match her blue feather boa (that every little girl gets). Some butterflies, more stars! They have such deep eye caves and gingery or blonde eyelashes with green blue or brown eyes. There was a big girl dressed as a hippy with a pink velvet hat and peace sign and paisley clothes. And the party went on with games from the company i'm with. They had to sing their favourite rock song. 2 girls did 'in the jungle'. it was hilarious. then they had spice girls and kelly clarkson. So much for rock and roll and me thinking someone might want to paint their faces like K.I.S.S.'s mad satanic gothic faces. so the party went on and the most incredulous thing about the party was! that! they were drinking from plastic purple boots!!!!! People actually have such parties!!!!!!!!!!!! My children's parties will be camping trips or huge picnics, at least nothing as insanely extravagant as this. Theme parties should be as cheap and crazy as possible. The only thing I like about my face-painting job is the face-painting with the kids. I can't stand acting like a professional in front of the adults, answering them when they offer me food or anything. Makes me feel like i'm selling myself. The kind of parents I can't stand are those who help their kids answer when I ask the kids what they want on their faces, "don't want lah, just the hand can already hor". The kids are pure. Who will paint my face?
moled at 4/18/2006 07:11:00 AM
Sunday, April 16, 2006
moled at 4/16/2006 08:45:00 PM
Good things always happen when it rains. On Saturday my whole family went to visit my grandfather's grave (first time we all went at the same time) All my aunties, uncles and cousins gathered at my house and it was storming outside. We waited then piled up into 4 cars with umbrellas and drove through the crazy rain there. By the time we got there it was drizzling quite a bit. Everyone got out with all the colourful umbrellas. There was no one around we could see, except for all the buried dead lonely souls. But strangely it was so peaceful and nice. We went to the grave and stood around. My father and uncle started splashing water on the grave to clean it. My other uncle was carrying the baby exploring the other gravestones. He was with the crazy little hyperactive yoda cousin who said to me before we left home after we had a lightsaber fight, "I use my lightsaber and cut off your penis" and walked away so proud of what he just said. Anyway, my grandmother put on her pink rubber gloves and started trimming the head of messy grass on the gravestone while balancing an umbrella that no one offered to hold for her. One uncle got another scissors and cut too, and so did my cousin who was snapping the scissors obsessively. I took over my uncle. Everyone was just standing around, talking and watching. The umbrellas were like big balloons at the corner of my eye. It was drizzling lightly. The whole time I was reminded of The Royal Tenenbaums. Something to do with the cemetery and the neat curve of the head of grass as we trimmed it. Then we had to stick these wet yellow chrysanthemums into the grass and i got the idea of making it into a heart shape. So it became a wet yellow heart with small chrysanthemums dotting the inside, on a raised patch of shimmering grass in front of which was my grandfather's best photo and the rest of the gravestone. It was beautiful. I felt so at peace. And on the way home little crazy 6 year old yoda shouted "P is for penis!!!!!!"
moled at 4/16/2006 05:24:00 AM