Posted on 31 December 2006 @ 13:06 in Reading
This must be the longest book sale ever. More than a month. I went to the shop near the beginning of the sale and wasn’t too impressed. I went again yesterday. Still not too impressed.
On my way to the supermarket downstairs, I found the real location of the sale. Triple duh, Chet
The one I’d been going to is the proper bookshop. The one with the sale is located where the book section of Parkson used to be. And man, the selection of novels in the proper sale. Wonderful trade paperbacks going for RM12.00 each.
I was impressed.
I got me a few books, including one each by Annie Proulx, Jeanette Winterson, and Isabel Allende. Also one by the former chef for Mick Jagger. I don’t remember the chef’s name, but the book is called The Taste of Honey, and it’s fiction about a restaurant on the island of Crete.
The most valued purchase from the sale yesterday is Gene Wilder’s autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art. He doesn’t write it like an autobiography; instead, he presents only the events in his life that mean something to him (life-changing?), and he presents them through sessions with his therapist.
I love Gene Wilder’s film work. I love, too, that the late Gilda Radner was married to him. She was the funny woman from Saturday Night Live who succumbed to cancer in the late 1980s. There was one sketch she did about an old lady who said she didn’t understand how there could be too much “violins” on air. Go figure.
I’ve started reading Kiss Me Like a Stranger. I’m also reading When Red Is Black, a Chinese mystery about the murder of the author of a book banned in China. The book’s in English but set in China, with Chinese characters, and written by a Chinese, Qiu Xiaolong. That’s why it’s a Chinese mystery.
And I just finished reading Oracle Night by Paul Auster. Probably the best book read all year. But then, there was no competition - all my other 2006 reads were either work-related or light fiction. No, wait. Those two books by J A Jance that I read cannot be considered light reads, but made subtle statements - Exit Wounds about domestic abuse leading to certain obsessions later on (in the case of the book, it was about animal hoarding), and Edge of Evil about a television presenter sacked for no longer being young who fought back.
Oh, I’ve digressed … But so much good reading waiting for me in 2007!
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Posted on 31 December 2006 @ 12:19 in General
Two shopping complexes in my neighbourhood will have fireworks to usher in the New Year. From my apartment, I should be able to see them, and don’t have to jostle with the New Year crowds. Unfortunately, I won’t be home. My sister and her family are away and I’m house-sitting for them. More like maid-watching, actually, but I digress.
At 10:45 this morning, there was already a growing queue of cars turning into the road going to Ikano and The Curve. Last minute shopping?
No, this is not a year-end post. Dunno if there’ll be one later. Will see.
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Posted on 25 December 2006 @ 13:53 in Personal
I’m listening to Paula Tsui (singing her version of Janis Ian’s “I love you best” which Janis herself has never recorded).
I was supposed to attend Christmas service with cousin Bernie at her church but chickened out at the last minute because I realised I couldn’t face being in a room full of strangers (Christians tho they may be).
I’m off to spend the rest of today with mother. Soon as I find some food for my tummy.
Blessed Christmas, everyone.
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Posted on 22 December 2006 @ 23:07 in Health
Well, that’s what it sounds like, this buzz in my left ear that’s been there for more than a week now.
When I first heard it, I was at my desk at work and thought it was the chair creaking. But later, I heard it again. By Monday, I decided it was time to see the doctor. But I forgot that day, and went the next day.
The doctor took a look inside my ear and pronounced the outer ear “very clean” . He went on to explain that it could be the middle ear, or even some nerve problem. As he couldn’t be sure what it was, he gave me three different types of pills (yes, three, count it - 1, 2, 3) for different possible problems, including sinus and nerve. I asked if it was okay to take them at the same time, and he said yes. Not very convincingly, tho.
When I told my sister that evening, she said it could be due to my body being too “cool” (leong). I decided to go and see my uncle who’s a Chinese sinseh the next day. Which I did, and he gave me just one type of pills which I’m taking as prescribed - two pills three days a day until the bottle is finished. There’s 200 pills in the bottle, divide that by 6, and I have to take them for a little more than a month.
Already, I’m feeling better. Psychological? Maybe. More like due to my childhood spent inhaling Chinese herbs on the first floor above the family Chinese herbal shop.
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Posted on 18 December 2006 @ 12:48 in Music
This time, it was to Hong Kong, to see Hong Kong mega-star Paula Tsui in concert.
There was more to the trip than just the concert - I was there to personally hand to her the various items Janis had signed for her at the UK LRC in April this year. Reposting below what I’ve already posted at the Janis Ian message board.
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