Restoration, Resurrection, and Revival

Title pretty much sums up what this post is about, really.

4 years and more had passed since I last wrote anything here. However, recent conversations and what is happening around the world, made me realised that I do miss the moment of just letting my thoughts flow and fingers running wild. Of course, with that said, it does not mean I removed the brain-to-mouth filter but perhaps, just perhaps, I remove self-censorship and express myself without being prompted or asked. One thing for sure, to keep rantings to a minimum and only a one-liner in each post, if any.

Now, memory test of a fraction of what had happened since my last post:

1. Became older by 5 years (Duhhhhhh)

2. Learnt great lessons from 4 idiots (at different timing, of course!)

3. Changed job 3 times (with no breaks in between, at all)

4. Enrolled for 2 classes (Japanese and Date Selection)

5. Switched company 1 time

6. Made the transition from keypad phones to fully touchscreen phones (only because the distributor stopped selling that brand in my country)

Well, quite sure there are more but I guess these are my personal highlights from the past few years, the ups and the downs, the good and the bad and whatever else.

Not sure if I should credit Lady Fortunate, but I experienced the most growth in the career aspects, with all the sacrifices of not enjoying a proper "uni life" and coming out to work at a fairly immature age working out just fine now. Definitely not going to rest on my laurels, since I have, about 30 years left till retirement. Way too early to slow down or go easy on myself, especially when I have this unlimited capacity to grow and learn. Maybe the only blocker in my path is wanting to enjoy life a little; stopping by to smell random flowers and weed (hey, even grass have its own smell, ok? Don't believe me, next time pluck a grass and rub it between your fingers, there will be a lingering scent), listen to birds chirping and twitting (when they might be exchanging plans on whose head to poop on), or experience some peace and quiet in the open space rooftop area, catching a nap or two.

On the personal front, think my growth is less exponential. While I am still single AF with questionable suitors in line, I shall just take this time to develop myself, and put MYSELF first while helping others in times of need. Whatever happens, happens. Ain't gonna force, ain't gonna pressure.

Back to helping others, at times, what they want may not be the best for me but I shall be contented as long as they end up happy. Where I draw the line is when whatever they decide for themselves is going to turn out detrimental to themselves. At that point, what I will do is to highlight the pitfalls of their actions and the final outcome and yet, I still will not forbid them to pursue what they intended. I guess at the end of the day, I just wish and hope everyone finds their happiness, regardless if I am part of the happiness journey or ending. Perhaps this was one of the many great lessons I learnt from the 4 idiots but, I am glad the lessons happened. Made me a tad wiser and conscious of the fickleness of the human heart (not that I didn't know before but this really opened up my eyes and drilled the lesson deep).

With that said, while I know blogs are mainly thing of the past, that is not a massive blocker in coming back here to resurrect this part of my life. And my words may or may not be seen by another, but at least, I do justice to myself by letting the random fleeting creativity that attacks me gets released, one way or the other. This definitely not the last of me and the revival is only starting. :) 

CInapek Romeo and Juliet~~

Also known as............*drumrolls* Lo Mio and Chiu Liet!!! ("#LMnCL")
Like seriously, get your most Cina-ish friend to pronounce Romeo and Juliet, you will get Lo Mio and Chiu Liet instead. XD


Ok, ok, enough joke. This post is meant to be my thoughts on the currently on-going theatre performance at KLPAC(if you don't know where, the most I know how to say is that it is at Sentul). Before that, let me get the itty-gritty, teeny meeny mini details out of the way first:

Thespian :
Alfred Loh, Amanda Ang, Dylan Yeo, Emily Tan, Fahad Iman, Gregory Sze, Ho Su Chuin, Mark Beau De Silva, Stefanie Paulus & Shawn Loong
(Dem names should be enough to pull you to watch the play, if not enough, read on :p)

Date & Time:
25 – 27 Feb, 2 Mar – 5 Mar @ 8.30pm;
28 Feb & 6 Mar @ 3pm
(Hah! Left 5 more shows only! Also, higher chances of getting tickets on the weekday shows, weekend shows tends to be a bit packed)

Language:
Mainly presented in Cantonese, but with a fair deal of Mandarin and English. Surtitles available, so you can read some of it.

(The above were copied from KLPAC):

Now, here onwards would be what I think about the performance of the day (27th Feb) and in fact, even within the same show, different audience would have different opinion. Let's start, shall we? There might or might not be spoilers, for which I humbly apologise in advance.

As we all should know by now, #LMnCL is adapted from Romeo and Juliet and the setting has been changed to Ancient China, but it is a bit hard to pinpoint which dynasty or era it is from because I am not that good in the history of CHINA. But then, it can obviously be seen that western influence has begun to seep into China, so there might be a strong indicator there. The overall geographical setting of the story is in the Forbidden City(imagine emperor, harems, royal families, dignities yadda yadda, you should be getting the idea by now) but what I find the most commendable is the use of space and the setting up of props because it is being shown in Pentas 2 where the audiences are surrounding the entire stage. Like, a praying altar is set up where it can be seen by everyone or, in between seats, a bed is placed (are you curious yet? ;D ).

However, the general story line remains the same where a pair of star-crossed lovers tries to overcome their family feud to be together. And something about the ending is open to debate whether is it actually a happy ending or a sad ending. Personally, I find it to be a happy ending but hey, it is up to you once you watched the whole thing.  I would welcome an open debate, if any.

To be honest, I am more of a purist, so I sort of did not expect to have such high level of Chinese elements, but then these elements made the entire performance so much more fun. Especially when certain words were mentioned i.e. ham ka chan. And the re-occurence on the complain of the mantou(a plain white bun). There are funnier ones but then, it needs to be experienced in the show itself. Although, I did set a high expectation to have a non-stop laughing session because it is co-written by Cheah Uihua and Freddy Tan(creator of Corporal Punishment) but thinking back, it was unreasonable of me la.. for god's sake, it is based on Romeo and Juliet yo! Which is Shakespeare's most tragedic tragedy of all times!

Talking about Chinese elements, it does take some time getting used to the Cantonese pronunciation by the cast at some point like when the Westernised Chinese aka the Chiu family (representing the House of Capulet) speak Cantonese, they had to make it sound so English but speaking Cantonese, which is very praise-worthy because I honestly cannot do that. On the other hand though, the Lo family (representing the House of Montague) had some really good Cantonese speaker and some of them need to brush up on their Cantonese XD

In terms of acting, I am not going to comment because I don't have the understanding of the technicalities but one thing for sure that I will say is that the potrayal of characters were damn entertaining and the bit I like the best is the one playing dual-role(a guy playing a guy role and a female role) although, most of my friends didn't notice it. So, you may or may not be able to notice this person playing dual roles.

And there you have it. It is definitely not a complete dissection of #LMnCL but it is written to the best of my ability and observation. A final note though, I do hope that more people will go watch in order to support the arts!

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme~~~~

Does anyone recognise the words above? XD A line from Scarborough Fair(the song), in case it seems familiar to you. So, now, actually what I intend to do with this post is to offer my understanding of Scarborough Fair because recently, I find this song so hauntingly beautiful and a little enchanting. And damn, I had a good laugh reading the lyrics.

If you want the Wikipedia's write-up of the song, you can click here.

Anyway, back to my interpretation:
Basically, I find this is like a break-up song in a manner that only people of the past can do, where it is refined and polished. Also, because there is no finger-pointing involved about whose fault it is. Although logically, based on the impossible set of requests given by both parties, it is like... you are kinda forced to walk away by yourself because those kind of tasks are impossible to be done.

The funny part is that, the one who gave the requests first thought that, ok, now I am breaking up with you, unless you can fulfill the three requests, then when I read the second part of the lyrics, essentially, the other party is saying, Fuck you, you do up my three requests, then only you get what you want from me. It is such a playful manner of breaking up. I am quite crude here, but essentially, that is what it is.

Well, I basically saved you the hassle of youtubing the song, so here is a link where there are 12 versions
Scarborough fair multiple version

The songs are not in full, but at least you kinda get a feel of which type you like.

I am only feeling a bit irked by the fact that, I have yet to find a version that perform all six verses. Really annoys the hell outta me, but nah, not enough to make me hate the song.

So, there you go. Scarborough Fair, where you can find parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme~ XD