Noodle Bag

Yesterday I was watching Life by David Attenborough again and I came across Stoats. Curious I googled more and came across the Wiki article which said "the ermine is also considered a symbol of purity in Europe. In the Renaissance era, legend had it that an ermine would die before allowing its pure white coat to be besmirched. When it was being chased by hunters, it would supposedly turn around and give itself up to the hunters rather than risk soiling itself." Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first animal I can unequivocally call a gay.

The monty python-esque video mildly redeems its manliness.

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I am sick again. I took Zrytec last night and went to sleep and woke up today feeling horrible. I decided not to go to work since I had just finished on working on something big yesterday, that and I'm probably influenced by the attitudes of the new interns at work I'm talking to now. I did feel absolutely dreadful yesterday, and yet still pulled myself into work and into finishing my task(s).

Instead today I slept in, watching an episode of Monk, an episode of Criminal Minds and the last episode of The Pacific with my dad. The theme song from The Pacific is still lingering around my mind. I also had lunch with my Mama.

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Work is infinitely sapping. At work I think "I want to blog about this because I want to remember it" but end up coming home completely tired and with no mood nor mental will/energy to write. If I'm not tired from actual tasks, I'm tired emotionally from it all. The feeling of having nothing to do and yet not being allowed to actually do anything when I am on standby is terrible. That and the drudgery of it all, though I think I am becoming slightly numb to it.

On Tuesday evening I met up with the Alchemist and Daryl, and both men were slightly late. After having done some errands, I just sat exhausted at the hawker centre to wait for them to come. I almost fell asleep sitting down. I was really so tired, nevermind that I had actually been getting the requisite amounts of rest the previous few nights. I was simply so exhausted. Luckily things changed after they both appeared, or they would have had a terribly boring dinner companion.

With regards to work itself, Triple A is getting more Triple A (I might upgrade him to Quadruple A, but then it loses it's battery like catchiness) and last week he managed to shout to loud he overwhelmed Journey on my Ipod. I suspect there's some big project happening because now the frequency of people venturing into his cavern of anger has increased. Last week work was terrible with 4 solid days of editing Lexis Nexis, the more tiring and tedious sort of shite. This week is better with case research, although it gets frustrating when you cannot find something. On Wednesday I went for a talk during lunch and nibbled on soggy sandwiches which nodding off at the back of the lecture hall, because it was a talk given by my department.

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I've also taken to watching Mandarin language movies. I think it's because I've convinced myself that if it's not able to be obtained in London, it's worth experiencing here. I mean that in a sense that Mandarin movies obtained through non-commercial means probably have very bad subtitles which I need. As a result, of all 3 movies that I've seen since coming back, all 3 are Mandarin. They are respectively, Au Revoir Taipei, Ocean Heaven and Aftershock. They were all enjoyable, in their own way. Au Revoir Taipei with Nic was for cheap laughs, Ocean Heaven with my mother, a tool for reflecting upon my brother and Aftershock - with Nic and CNE - for gravitas about the human condition.

Yesterday for the first time I brushed my brother's teeth. Today I shared a bowl of rambutans with him and cleaned up the juicy mess. Some nights I go into his room right before I sleep and cover him with his blanket. For some reason he refuses to cover himself with the blanket before he sleeps, but putting it on after he's fallen asleep is okay even if he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Sometimes I wish I could be like him, because he knows not what he's doing (like me) but at the same time knows not enough to care (unlike me).

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Literally translated, bread in Mandarin means noodle bag. Talk about literally food for thought.