Lost In Translation

Jonni turned 19 yesterday. Can't believe he's only 19, and already in 2nd year being a Dean's List student and all.
Nevertheless, at his (foiled) surprise the night before, his cake almost caught on fire. Well, not the cake, really. But mostly the cardboard box which the cake was in. And it didn't help either that the candles we had were those tricky ones which simply won't put out. Smoke started to fill the apartment a little that Joshua had to rush to open the balcony door.
T'was rather comical. Pardon the low quality video, but see for yourself.

I had a dream last night.
I'm not sure if in it, I was a kid again, or I simply felt like a kid again. But either way, I was in a small, poor village in Brazil. Although poor, I must say that everyone seemed happy. It had a very kampung feel to it. The dirt ground was red. The sky was bright yellow. The trees around were cooling and green as ever; only to be browned a little by the dust from the ground, maybe. Most of the houses were made of wood and their roofs out of zinc. Kids were running around playing in the dirt and a water pipe while women did their laundries outside.

It was a really pleasant environment. I liked it.

Apparently, in the dream, I had a friend there. I'm not sure if I actually belonged to the village. I felt a little like a foreigner, and yet, at the same time, it felt like I was staying there. I was introduced by my (unknown) friend to a boy there and his younger siblings. He could not have been more than 13 years old, I reckon. And the thing about this boy and his family is that they were the only family in the village with thick afro's. All of them. Even their young little girls were running about in dark afro's on their heads. So if anyone saw an afro, they'd know that they're from that family.

The boy was fun. We headed over to an old lady's house to play. Without the lady's permission, though. He was to show me how they played. There were basically two roofs next to each other in this old lady's house, one was higher than the other. So what they'd do is simply climb up on top the higher roof, and one by one, they'd hop down, landing on their bums on the lower roof, and they'd bounce off the roof to the ground. It was pretty amusing to watch, really. I didn't participate, but was laughing along with them as one by one, they hopped down the roof and bounced as high as they could till they landed on the ground.

All of a sudden, the old lady (who seemed grumpy and disturbed by the noises we were making on her roof) decided to peek out the window to find out who was disturbing her. Immediately, everyone scattered all over, running away from the old lady's house, afraid that she'd find out who we were and get scolded by her.
As I ran, the boy ended up running next to me, and he turned to me and said,
"Man! It's either I need a haircut, or we really need to get a trampoline."

Photos of the steamboat night @ urban life are posted here.
Enjoy!

[edit: by request, more photos from the night may be found here too]

Take your time.
Then have a cheap laugh.

Ah! Tis been more than a week since I last blogged, and much has happened. For one, EXAMS ARE OVER!!!
Hoooraaayy!!! Summer hols, here I come!!

And what a great way to kick start the holidays with our urbs retreat at Anglesea during the weekend. I have actually been beaten by a few to blogging about this, so I guess I won't say too much about it. All I can really say is that it was an awesome time spent chilling and getting to know each other better (over DDR and Taboo), and what an amazing testimony of faith to rise out of Friday's events.

Per my minions' request, I have posted pictures taken from the retreat at my photoblog, and they have been separated by days as there are quite a few of them and may take a while to load. So, to check them out, do click:
Here for Day 1,
here for Day 2, part 1,
here for Day 2, part 2, and finally
here for Day 3.

Hope they quench all ye minions' tastes! More photos can be found thus far at Sharene's, Wayne's and Brodie's Multiply.

As for me, right now, I have two more days before I leave back for Malaysia, where I'll be working in KL for a whole 2 months! It'll be an awesome time I believe (despite having to be away from Esther for a while, *sniff), as I'll be attending the Planetshakers Conference there in KL as well. Unfortunately, the place where I'll be staying at in KL for the whole two months does not have internet access, and so, blogging frequency might pretty much deteriorate. However, have no fear! I shall do my very best to continue updating fans at work (if that's possible) and hopefully catching up with all of you people as well.

Well, it's late now. I really oughta get some shut eye.
So, till the next time, goodnight!

Movabletype is acting up a little. I'm not sure why, but my apologies for any comments that you, my humble fans, may have posted.

I am flying off tonight and I find extreme injustice in the fact that my internet here decided to (finally) be upgraded to ADSL2+ on this very day I leave. Browsing/downloading speed is up by more than 4 times its previous (already fast) speed - uploading at about 110kb/s and downloading about 1.7megaBYTEs per second. Do you know what this means?? This means that theoretically, I can download an episode of Prison Break in merely 3.43 minutes!!! Downloading has never felt so good. And yet, in just over 12 hours' time, I will be in a place with pretty much NO internet access at all unless I head by a Cyber Cafe - which means no torrents, no mangas, and definitely very little blogging.

:(

This saddens me. And it doesn't help as well that I'll be away from Esther for almost 3 months. No Christmas, no New Year's, and not even Valentine's Day together. Gosh, I'm getting depressed.
I oughta go. Blogging this is killing me. B-b-but.... should I not savor moment of blogging as well? My access to the world and the world to me? Gone, circumcised for 3 months??

Bah.
I am but a cyberspace eunuch now. May the glory of piracy still be alive (as much as it's rumoured to be very dead now in KL) and sufficient to keep me going in KL. And may EY not overwork me like the rowers of the olden days' Trojan ships too.

God, help me.