Sunday 29 January 2012

洗衣机

Unique metaphors are something that never cease to awe and humble me. And whenever I chance upon one that is so breath-taking, it makes me wonder how much it took for the creator to have that eureka moment (and so envious!). It also makes me very respectful of the entire creative process.

The most recent one I encountered which took my breath away was from Mayday (五月天)'s latest album, introduced to me by my sister. In one of their songs titled "洗衣机", they allude mothers to the machine. In case that sounds blasphemous, it is definitely not and in fact is a loving ode to our dilligent and steadfast mothers.

洗衣机

洗衣机 穿着一身 褪色塑料压克力
独坐在阳台上 受 日晒风吹雨淋
电视机 孩子们目光都以他为中心
黑色简约外型 多适合客厅

就算是吹风机 也有流线外型
紧握在手心 像跳舞亲密
光荣的电唱机 晋身为古董级
典雅的中音 比谁都 更受欢迎

木讷的洗衣机 从没有主题曲
只有风霜灰尘 让人不想接近

从来没有一句的怨言你丢多少它都洗
脱水总是全心又全力直到颤抖了身体
多少年了旋转又旋转时间一眨眼过去
上了年纪却依然尽力孤独勇敢洗衣机

咖啡机 欧洲进口 带著书卷贵族气
孩子都长大了 爱 围着它喝那堤
洗衣机 一直以来 度量很大没心机
它的唯一关心 是何时放晴

就算是已退役 的那台光碟机
也带我经历 冒险和爱情
冰箱的肚子里 啤酒和冰​​淇淋
抚慰了多少 失眠和 失恋的心

木讷的洗衣机 从学不会讨喜
洗过多少四季 然后再一世纪

所有电器都住在屋檐下不必风吹雨淋
却只有它孤独的守在阳台角落里运行
多少年了旋转又旋转时间一眨眼过去
上了年纪却依然尽力孤独勇敢洗衣机


The development of the metaphor then moves to a resounding climax:



突然有天好想要帮忙衣服放进洗衣机
才发现了它早就坏了只是舍不得换新
奇怪是谁一直清洗着我闯的祸和污泥
好久以来原来我衣服全部都是妈妈洗

从来没有一句的怨言你丢多少她都洗
她却总是全心又全力直到颤抖了身体


The part which never fails to bring tears to my eyes (my sis too!) whenever the song plays is in the last stanza:

多少年了旋转又旋转时间一眨眼过去
才发现了 妈妈一直是 我无声洗衣机
才发现了她的皱纹是无法偿还的借据
才发现了她的背影是无法释怀的风景


词:阿信@五月天
曲:怪兽@五月天
编曲:五月天;可乐Cola Kai


What a lovely song!

Saturday 21 January 2012

Cambodia

Cambodia is a fascinating country with a glorious past -- I never knew that during its heyday, it was the most powerful country in the Southeast Asia region.

However, as I did not have the chance to write during the trip itself, the inspiration to write is now lost unfortunately. That said, I will let my pictures do the talking.





Travelling with my new travelling partners (my uncle and his wife) and seeing things from their perspectives during this trip, is in itself an experience altogether.






Floating Village on Tonle Sap Lake



And like what my favourite travel writer  徐玫怡 says, " 人的风景"  往往是最精彩的.

A Cambodian Chinese street food vendor speaking Taiwanese-accented Mandarin



Borders, I always feel, present another world altogether. Whether it is due to the hectiness of trading across the two countries (Cambodia and Eastern Thailand), or the fact that people who are marginalised congregate there, it seems a harsher and tougher world out there.




Thursday 12 January 2012

King Rama 3 - frugal and wise

Having the chance to unravel a longstanding questioning one has since young is a feeling that is quite quite inexplicable - all the more so when one isn't looking for it.

I remembered in secondary school when I studied the history of Thailand, I often wondered how the country managed to avoid being colonised -- no mean feat as it was the only country in Southeast Asia that managed to pull this off (if I get my facts correct). Other than escaping Japanese colonisation (which my history text did explain the reason), the country also escaped being colonised by the French while her neighbours did not (this point was unexplained in my history text).

The answer was provided amazingly at Pink and Piya's wedding, courtesy of their wedding favour below:



It turns out that King Rama 3 (a cousin of King Mongkut and a son of King Rama the 2) as seen above, who ruled from 1824-1851, played a major part in saving his country from coming under foreign rule, thanks to his frugal personality. King Rama 3 had a habit of saving, where he would store his money in a box on the table next to where he slept every night. It came up to 3 million baht and the king knew that one day it will come to use. The story goes then that at that time, France demanded from Thailand a sum of money to settle a truce, in order not to be colonised. No prize for guessing how much France demanded!

And so it was that King Rama 3 was called the Father of Thai Commerce (am sure he did more than the above to deserve the title!).

It was really lovely hence, I thought, for a commemorative coin of the king to be given out to guests at Pink and Piya's wedding,  It served as a form of education for their local and foreign guests (turns out that not all the locals know about this piece of history), and was all the more fitting as the couple come from financial backgrounds. I thought that shows the immense pride my friends have of their country, and am greatly touched by this gesture.

My Adventure

I must say I am very proud of myself yesterday as I did something I didn´t think I could do all by myself, but I did it! I took a complex journey from one part of Bangkok to another all the way on my own!

I was all the more proud of myself as I could have opted for the easy way out but I didn´t. I was supposed to meet my uncle at Khao San, which was across the Chao Praya River from where I was staying. I could have taken the cab, which would have cost me around 200 baht, and which would have been quite quite boring. So I chose to take  public transport via the Chao Praya River instead. That meant taking the shuttle boat from where I was and transferring to a public boat on the yellow line. It sounded easy, the fact that everything can be summarised in one sentence, but it certainly wasn´t, at least to me. I did all these with some butterflies in my stomach as it sounded a real complicated route, what with all the different coloured lines via a mode of transport that I was not familiar with, pulling a luggage around and battling luggage of an emotional form too! But strangely, I was feeling confident that day,  so different from my very first day of misadventures and decided to give it a go. I also knew that if I screwed it up, I could take it in my stride as I was the one who chose this harder path.

It was a wonderful one-hour long adventure, along a river that sustains Thais for many generations. There was even a local guide (a very well-groomed one) on board the boat explaining the major tourist spots:



Though he was unintelligible (the bulky, trudging noises made by the boat drowned out his voice), his presence and muffled speech was comforting and reassuring.

There were numerous stops at piers along the way and it was a really scenic journey:



And all these for 30 baht!

The sense of confidence during this journey, which is rare, derived from one major reason. The fact that I did lots of homework and ensured data and information I received is ´triangulated´. And so I decided from then on, that everytime I needed to get to a new place or do something new in a foreign land, I am going to seek information or talk to at least 2 people. 6 is the optimal number but this is not always possible. As I have an extremely weak working memory, that would require making copious notes from the different sources of data.

This experience gave me a lot of confidence in manourvring by myself in a strange land. I am capable of doing it, just that I needed a lot more time than others in seeking the required information and processing them. Hence, having my data triangulated meant new information could be repeated to me in different forms and though some information could be different and even contradictory, as long as I had them jotted down in my notebook, I could make the necessary inferences and deductions that are required.

This meant that as along as I know myself well, my learning style and how I remember things best, I can do it just like any others.

What great relief that realisation brings!

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Blogging

It has been a while since I wrote an entry in my blog (this post is meant to precede the previous one but I just need to get the other one out first!). Mainly because I am trying to reconcile with the whole idea of blogging. I am not done with reconciling and I figure I never will, until I blog about the process of reconciling, I think, though I know that, in itself is ironic. 


This whole reconciling business came about as I realise I came to a point that I am no longer sure if I am blogging for myself or for my readers (that is, if there are many in the first place). Which goes back to the question, what is MY purpose of a blog in the first place? Do I want to share every nook and cranny of my life with everyone? Should I share them with everyone? Am I tainting any bit of my memory (though that sounds really extreme) when I share them? If I am reluctant to share many personal details in my blog in the first place, why then did I set it up? 


Have I really figured out the difference between my blog and my diary? There should be a difference of course. But to what extent and in which areas? I thought I had it figured it out. I think I did. So why am I going on this guilt trip in the first place? 


I think I may be entering into a whole realm of discussing about social media and the influence on personal life (which is too intellectual for me). Hence will stop here for now.  





Travel

Travelling indeed has a way of magnifying one's inadequacies and weak spots.


And it has done precisely that on the first day of my travel. I will not go too much in detail, since I have already done that in my diary, and since a good friend advises logically and rationally (but oh so hard) that I should just move on and let go. The latter though has never been my strength. 


Yet I still want to and look forward to travelling lots despite the stress, worries and anxieties I get -- mainly because I see it as part of molding myself. That because I know I have so many weak spots and inadequacies that normal people may not comprehend, all the more I want to tackle them head-on. Just that in the process, I tend to give myself lots of grief. 


How then do I expect myself to learn positively if I am so hard on myself? I know the importance of building a positive climate for my students during their learning process, yet I often fail to do that (and I suspect sometimes, deliberately) for myself.


And since no one forces me to do all these, shouldn't I be embracing every moment, no matter how bad it is (i can only hope every bad experience would not turn out too bad)?


So yes, I will learn to treat every encounter, every experience as part of the adventure. I may not enjoy (and certainly do not expect to enjoy every aspect of the adventure) but know that I will have the good sense and good spirits to take it in my stride.