rooMie sleepover

Yesterday was my rooMie Mee Mee's birthday ( *click* to read a special birthday post dedicated to her by Bee Ree) and I thought it would be nice to spend some time with her last weekend, with a slice of cake maybe. Since it was such a last-minute thought (yes, unfortunately, at times I may be very "no heart" until the last minute...) I hadn't prepared anything - not in the least a birthday present (the 3 CDs of Phuket photos don't count ya... I'll get you another present later...). Anyhow, on Friday night, we decided that I would meet Mee Mee near her place for something (undecided at the time) on Saturday. I had a slightly runny nose that day, and by Saturday, it had developed into quite a full-blown cold! I took supposedly non-drowsiness-causing medication, but ended up feeling drowsy and lethargic all the same. I don't think I could drive all the way to her place, I told Mee Mee, could she come instead? Yes, she said, any place I know that sell nice baju kurung?

Mee Mee started driving around 4.30pm and half an hour later, she was at somewhere else about 25km from my place, due to a missed turning. She finally arrived at half-past 5, and we went for dinner at close to 6pm, as Mee Mee declared she was so hungry she couldn't wait anymore. While we were waiting for food, Mee Mee told me how she is always very happy at meal times and how she gets impatient and cranky if the food takes too long to arrive... (Mee Mee had been my rooMie 2 yrs, but I've never noticed this in her, probably because all that time she was never in want of food - our room was always full of food: maggi, milo, crackers, snacks etc.) After dinner we went to town, and I showed her some baju kurung shops. She was so impressed with what she saw at the first shop that she tried on no less than 7 or 8 sets of baju kurungs and ended up buying 2 (I myself managed to buy 1 too... though I didn't have the intention to buy anything!) I told Mee Mee she really should stay the night at my place, as it was getting late and dark, and was also somewhat rainy. It was definitely not a good idea to drive home by herself. She agreed.

Back at my place, we viewed some photos, watched some tv, talked lots and went to bed at last at 1+ am. We didn't actually sleep until 3+ am though, because we were still talking... At times we were talking with our eyes closed because we were so sleepy already - but still we wanted to talk! It was so like what we used to do - all 3 of us (Nee Lee, Mee Mee, Bee Ree) - in our hostel room. We'd go on talking endlessly, after the lights were switched off, and we're laid comfortably in our beds. Those were the good ol' rooMie days!

On Sunday morning we had a healthy breakfast of milo and crackers, while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Playhouse Disney Channel (Mee Mee wanted to watch cartoons because her own subscription does not include cartoons wor...) Mee Mee left at 10+ am, and found her way home safely. What a great time we had! I wish I could end this post pleasantly here, but no - this isn't the end. Yesterday, Mee Mee informed me that she fell sick (viral fever wor...) on Monday! Could've been from my flu virus lor. *sorry*

I really enjoyed spending time with my rooMies, and Mee Mee and I should crash into Bee Ree's place one day (when her bf's out of town, of course), and eat and talk and eat and talk... but not when anyone of us is sick!

p/s:Bee Ree said that my previous post was very long but the photo of the hunk at the end was great. She skipped through the whole post and stared at it only. And I said I shall thereafter upload a photo of a hunk at all my posts to increase number of visitors. But sorry la Bee Ree... no hunks punya photos with me at the moment so this post will have to do without :P

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens' David Copperfield is somewhat based upon the author's own childhood, and in the author's own terms, his favourite (my favourite from him too!). The book itself I have read and re-read numerous times, but recently was my first time watching a film adaptation of the book. This movie was made in year 2000, starring Hugh Dancy as the adult David Copperfield (Notice in the image on the left that his name appears third, after the lady who plays his Aunt Betsey and the man who plays James Steerforth. I wonder why - no sarcasm here, I really wonder why!). When I first saw him, my reaction was "Wahhh... sai mm sai sooo lengcai ar?!" He is so, so, sooo handsome!(Curious or anxious to know just what type of men I consider handsome? Click on the link, or simply scroll down to where I have posted a photo of him... :P) But well, handsomeness aside... ahem, I found the film tolerably well (meaning you won't get as much negative stuff as you did in my Pride and Prejudice)

The film begins with beautiful scenery, the handsome adult David rowing a boat, then walking, then being in a coffee house having a man flip a table on him, then running home to begin writing "The Personal History and Experiences of The Younger David Copperfield" ('the younger' because his father was David Copperfield too). The narration begins with the first sentence of the first chapter:

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

The narration goes on to the night David was born, a "post-humous child". He introduced his Aunt Betsey Trotwood, who was "mortally affronted" by his father for marrying his mother without first presenting her to Aunt Betsey for inspection and approval. (In the book, the reason was David's mother was "a wax doll"). She was sure that David's mother would have a baby girl, and she would be the baby's godmother. I quite like the lady who plays Betsey Trotwood - I think she portrays the character rather well, and despite her gruff eccentricity, she is very likeable. David's mother, Clara Copperfield, is almost everything that is described of her - very young, very pretty, timid and easily scared. I was looking forward to the scene where Aunt Betsey aimed a blow with her bonnet at the timid doctor, Mr Chillip's head, when he told her that the baby was a boy, not a girl like she wanted. However, it didn't happen in the film, and I wonder why! She simply stormed out into the storm and muttered "A boy! Hmmmph!" and went into her waiting carriage.

Peggotty (Clara Peggotty, always addressed as Peggotty because Mrs Copperfield's name is Clara as well), the servant, is quite alright, except that I'd have preferred a slightly younger actress in the part. The boy who plays young David does very well too, I think - cute, innocent with intelligent eyes. Mr Murdstone, however, is not as he is in the book - a gentleman with beautiful dark hair and whiskers, but instead, one with brown hair, no whiskers, and looks overbearingly hateful rather than fearsome (which I'd expect a character like him to look).

David follows Peggotty to Yarmouth for a fortnight, during which his mother married Murdstone (and was later bullied to death by him...). Most of the characters at Yarmouth are great. I really like Mr Barkis, and the way he said "Barkis is willing!" Peggotty's brother, Dan Peggotty looks every bit like a seasoned rough fisherman and Ham (their orphaned nephew) I daresay is really six feet tall, as described in the book. Little Em'ly (their orphaned niece) however, in my opinion, is not quite a pretty girl enough (the grown-up Em'ly is not pretty either *sigh*). In the book:

... by a most beautiful little girl (or I thought her so) with ...

One can argue that the beauty was in young David's eyes, but then again, it would really help to let us see through the said young David's eyes by casting a girl that would likely appear to be "most beautiful" in everyone's eyes. They have the same man play Ham in David's childhood and also adulthood when he returns to Yarmouth with James Steerforth, which I find rather unrealistic, especially for the fact that he looks almost the same, while the children around him (David and Little Em'ly) have grown so much. Mrs Gummidge has very little screen time, and none of

"I am a lone lorn creetur' and everythink goes contrairy with me."

which is something I really enjoyed reading.

Of David's schooldays, very little time is devoted to. Salem House school (where he met his 'saviour' James Steerforth, and lifelong friend Tommy Traddles) portayal is minimal and almost nothing of Dr Strong's school is shown. In fact, a lot of the characters have less screen time than I would have liked - that is the price to pay for having to make the story told in a loooooong book into a 3-hr movie.

Agnes Wickfield, David's childhood friend and guardian angel, is quite overlooked in the movie, unfortunately. The great influence and importance of Agnes in David's life is hardly felt, although I quite like how Agnes lets her emotions (feelings for David, that is) show, whereas in the book, her love for him is disclosed only at the very end. Dora, David's first wife, is also not quite pretty enough, but portrayed the child-wife part rather well.

The one person who has a lot of screen-time is Mr Micawber, played to perfection, except for a little bit of over-acting here and there. Uriah Heep is also played to perfection (in the sense that he makes you feel that you really want to slap him). Mr Dick is great - extremely adorable!

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, despite it having some scenes I really didn't like - the young David fainting upon reaching Aunt Betsey's house after walking for days (it is comical in the midst of serious heart-rending, so it's quite cacat); Aunt Betsey's shouting "Donkey! Donkey!" in a sing-song manner, with the exact same low (Don-) and high (-key) notes every time (it sounds really, really fake, and damn cacat); Peggotty, delivering the news of Steerforth's shipwreck to David in a serious, gloomy manner, suddenly turns dramatic and poetic "... and the wave, like a high, green hillside *stretches her arm up high* ... ahh *swings her arm down in clenched fist*" (that is sooo out of place and seriously cacat).

I still wish there is more on Agnes and David at the end, but I guess I should be happy that I am thoroughly happy with a film adaptation of one of my favourite classics - it doesn't happen often :D


Hugh Dancy, who plays David Copperfield

neil: Visual Updates

This is a post I promised Bee Ree some weeks ago. First, let's see the place I left behind:




And this is the new place:




Well, it does look new, doesn't it? It's not strewn all over with things; no stacks of paper and envelops; no cockroaches and rat droppings. (I loooove the toilet at my new place - so extremely CLEAN compared to the old, always well-supplied with toilet tissues, and stays clean throughout the day!) Of course my old and new place differ not only in terms of cleanliness (I haven't been there long enough to mess up my new desk), but in a lot of other non-work-related matters.

The most significant is the fixed lunch hour. The good side of it is that I get to eat at the same time everyday, which *supposed* to be good for my digestive system, and the bad side is that I'm always hungry a couple of hours before I can eat :P Many have said that I should keep some food at my desk, so I can eat whenever I'm hungry, but I've been thinking - if I did that, wouldn't I be putting on weight like nobody's business? No, I wouldn't like that.

In the old place, I climb a lot of stairs - most of the time 4 flights at a go to reach a class at level 5, sometimes several times a day. Now, here, I just sit at my cubicle all day long, except for toilet breaks and lunch break. (I wonder why I can get hungry admist this inactivity)

The air circulation in the new place is great. People do make hot drinks, like coffee, in the office, but I never smelt anything. (The only smell I ever got was from the guy-next-cube after he had his cigarette break. *choke*) It makes me kinda miss my old neighbour, Mr Kopi, and his at least 4-5 mugs of hot black coffee per day. :D Although I don't use it often, there are free-for-all coffee, Milo and tea in the pantry at the new place, so all's really quite well.

Are you happy with this post, Bee Ree? :) *if you feel that this post somewhat ends hanging in mid-air, well it's because I don't know what else to write for now*