CHALLENGE: DO SOMETHING NEW EACH MONTH

The January Edition;
CHALLENGE o4: Strawberry Picking
Together with Tuyen, we went strawberry picking! We originally wanted to go cherry picking but they weren't in season.

So on one of the hottest days of summer, we travelled to the strawberry farm just to pick some strawberries. The total travel time was around 2 hours, but we were only hunchbacked for about 30 minutes. Since it was towards the end of the strawberry season and we arrived in the afternoon, there wasn't much good looking ones left. But when we did find them, boy did I treasure them.

Despite my belief that I could eat as I picked, it was kind of hard to do. Strawberries are grown on soil, duh, so it was quite dusty and quite unhygienic. I also told Tuyen to bring her straw hat cause I was bringing mine. When she saw what I had for a straw hat, she swore she'll disown me as a friend if I wore it. What's wrong with my awesome Vietnamese straw hat?

Now for the little reflective piece at the end.

I wonder how farmers are able to do this for a living. It's a lot of hard work and despite it being a good work out, my back was aching quite a bit. I know that on the day, I complained about the weather and wanted to go another day, but farmers don't have that option. Their livelihood is reliant on Mother Nature's mood, and hell does she have one heck of a mood swing.

This got me thinking about my farmer friends back in Western Australia. I hope they're doing well.

Dramaland

I try so hard to be committed to my dramas, but there comes a time when

1. Nothing makes sense anymore or the same plot points are being used again and again. It feels like the drama is making me cry/sad/angst just for the sake of it.
2. Drama extensions that aren't needed. If you don't have enough material for a 16 episode drama, what makes you think adding 2 or 4 more episodes will help?
3. I can't relate to any of the characters. If I can't root for you, then there's seriously something wrong because that means I don't even care what happens to you. I probably won't be interested or emotionally invested in any of your conflicts. You could die for some unexplainable reason and I wouldn't shed a single tear.
4. I don't understand the characters presented to me. I don't necessarily have to sympathise with you (hello anti-hero!) but I need to be able to understand the choices that you make. Your choices should be explained through the circumstances of  your life, and when it doesn't, I'm out.
5. I end up hating the heroines/hero with a passion. Heroine, STOP BEING A FREAKING DOORMAT. Hero, STOP BEING A COMPLETE JERK IN THE ARSE.
6. Everyone is crazy. 
7. A character changes completely for no apparent reason. I understand that a character can change due to whatever circumstances they're put it. But when your change is not mediated because of anything, apart from suddenly wanting to be a jerk or crazy, then you're dead to me.
8. The change in directors/producers/writers messes with everything. The vibe, the pacing, the editing, the everything.
9. A drama is a remake of a manga or anime that I love and messes with it until it's unrecognisable. Case in point, Boys Over Flowers. Whatever it was, it was NOT my awesome Hana Yori Dango. Boys Over Flowers just happened to share shallow similarities such as having four handsome rich guys being childhood friends that bully kids in their school cause they can.  

I generally try to watch a drama till the end when I start it, especially if I'm more than half way through, but life is too short. Why bother with something that I don't even care about? Dramas are supposed to be for my entertainment or for deep thinking so when it becomes a chore, I'm definitely re-thinking its priority in my life.

Anywho, the point of this post was to really start many (hopefully) drama posts to come in the near future on anything I'm watching. I'm hoping I can think and explore a drama more thoroughly if I write about it. Since I'm not obligued to write essays on themes, characters, significant symbols etc anymore, I think my analysis of such have become quite basic and it's something I want to change.

Hopefully I'll actually be able to go through with this.

In another life

Recently watching The Notebook and Pride and Prejudice made me yearn for what they had. I wish that I lived in a time where we can dance as a source of enjoyment. Where we can dress up for a night in lovely dresses with ribbons or maybe some lace. Where we savour every conversation, every touch and every whisper. Where we can dream and become that much closer to our chosen partner.

The act of dancing seems so pure yet so exhilarating as you steal some precious time and converse secretly with your partner. I wonder if females were able to decline a man's request for a dance. If so, they must have a lot of courage, or confidence, to ask a woman to dance. For some reason, this reminds me of teenage movies where a dance is segregated into female or male sections.

It saddens me to think that the modern equivalent is clubbing.

First love

I know it's very unlikely, but I wish my first love will be my last.
I want it to last forever.

Train ride home

On the 16th of May, I caught the train home with my friend Tina Luu. We decided to skip Anatomy because we had more urgent matters to attend to. Plus, it's a subject that's more beneficial when you listen to the lecture at your own leisure since you have the opportunity to go over everything! Lecturers try to cram in everything as fast as possible, and as a consequence, you're bombarded with so much information that you tend to miss out on important details since you're so busy trying to keep up.

On this very day, we met a peculiar woman. After she got onto the train, she was banging on the windows, trying to get the attention of her friend, who happened to be on the next platform. I do not know if she managed to succeed in her plan, but she surely had the attention of every passenger on the carriage. She was apologetic when she realised what she had done. From this, she stuck up a conversation with us.

For the reminder of the trip, she was constantly admiring how "gorgeous" we were. After the initial praise and compliments, she started to share some details about her life. Like how she nearly died giving birth to her youngest daughter. How her son has a girlfriend that resembles me. How her father used to call her baby cheeks, which was what she was calling us. As my friend and I stood up to leave, she told us to stay together, to look after one another and know what's truly important.

From what I can remember, she carried alcohol (probably wine) in her bag. Her hair was a mess and her skin was dry and pale. I remember thinking that she looked as if life had dealt her a bad set of cards, but she's done everything to her abilities to deal with it. She's had a harsh life but her genuine love for her children, which seems to be the only thing that's keeping her alive, was palpable.

I hope that this lady has found peace in her life and is truly happy. I would also like to thank her for sharing a bit of herself to random strangers. There are many reasons why she struck a conversation with my friend and I. She may have been lonely and needed to talk to someone or she was just very open about herself. Either way, I admire her for sharing such intimite details about her life. It takes such courage to share something about yourself without worrying about other people's opinion.