| Dog Days | 10/13/2001 |
Kiki is a white german spitz (I think) who is really old. 15 to 17 years - which translates to over a hundred years old I think. Anyway - we had to bath him (one of the reasons I like cats ...) yuck - gunky bec. he's incontinent and keeps lying down in his own doo. It's so icky that his the whole of his right side is permanently stained brown. Then we had to bring him to the vet for a jab. Earlier this year, his eye got infected - and maggots were growing in it (went to the vet at 1 am to get it treated). Consequently, his eye had to be taken out and the wound is still in the process of healing and very prone to infection. Sigh. With three legged cats and one-eyed dogs, I think my life is far from perfect. Must however, commend Ms Tan who has made me so much more sensitive to the realities of loving a pet. (Kiki was - as mittens and Marmaduke - an animal that wasn't wanted ...) Anyway - at the vet, most of the people had these cute lap dogs and just kept staring at poor ol Kiki. They probably wonder why Ms Tan still loves him and spends so much effort on the old guy. I remember once at the vet a kid started pointing and his eyeless socket and said,"Eeeee, mummy why like that one?" And the parent didn't say anything. Another reason why I'm not into kids (or irresponsible parents) Worse was when some Auntie started dishing advice on the dog and how we need to be responsible owners ... Sigh ... all owners of cute lapdogs.
BTW a certain Geog teacher(male) just rescued a terrier that almost got knocked down by a car ... so hurray for the spirit of being nice to animals.
Also spoke for 1.5 hours (?) to Matt in the UK. Matt is probably the closest thing that comes to having a best friend to me - he's 2 years younger and was also from AC. We grew up in the same neighbourhood and went to the same church. When we were in Sec school, we started spending a lot of time together. And grew quite close. Only calls me occassionally though (yes yes expensive), when he isn't working hard at making discoveries worthy of a PhD. Anyway - he sounded rather blue today. Lamenting loneliness. Tried to get him to say something interesting about the new Singaporeans at Cambridge ("why don't you check out the new young things and take care of them")but even that didn't get him going. Strange you know - after so many years in the UK, he still feels the loneliness - I guess it has to do with not having anyone immediately available to talk with. Anyway - I think he was being wimpy - complaining about being in the UK !!! Go for a walk ! At least there's stuff to see and it isn't hot !!! Actually, it was really nice to talk to him. At least I could tell my stories and have a new audience. He'll be back in DEC - hurray - and we'll probably bum around and eat teochew mui. I also thought about the fact of how we just talk to each other. It's like we know each other so well we don't even bother to give advice. Just narrating what's been going on is enough when talking to Matt - cause I guess we've given each other enough advice for a lifetime. I guess I like talking to him too because I can call him a scumbag (?!) and mean it sincerely as a term of endearment.
Tried to finally edit some stuff that Mrs K wants by Monday. Hiyah so boring. Read essays the whole year and now need to edit essays for Images. Can't they get the EL teachers to do it? Hang on - that's me. Actually she didn't say she wanted it by Monday - heh heh - but then she never says anything about deadlines anyway. She's too nice to not help ... it's supposed to be my job to help and if I don't help, she'll do them ALL herself ... I think I'll do them tomorrow.
What i really want to do is finish up some books i'm reading. You know, that conversation in the staff room about "adventurous girls" has still got me thinking:
Cat: You know, some girls are really adventurous. They go into extreme sports to the extent that they're whole life is very exciting
Sham: Yah, some of them are damn garang.
Cat: Like some of them, go rock climbing - they sleep overnight hanging on some rock face
Sham: why do they do it?
Cat: it's the challenge I think that motivates them
ME (finally): Well, I'm challenged by READING BOOKS.
Cat and Sham (loudly): HA HA HA HA - That's such an unchallenging thing !!! HA HA HA ...
I beg to differ. Currently reading the following and will try to finish them soon:
1. Godel Escher and Bach - a study of intelligence: how intelligence becomes consciousness
2. Anti-Oedipus (Delueze and Guattarri): Machines - flows and disjunctions - heavy stuff which tries to break out of the Freudian "I" and re-formulate desire as primary
3.Justine - Lawrence Durrell - first part of the Alexandrian Quartet - very evocative stuff. Will end the entry with a quote.
4. A Passage to India: Re-reading my A level book
5. Kierkegaard - just finished a small pocket book - now into a Reader.
6. In search of Schrodinger's Cat - haven't touched it for a while
7. The man who knew infinity - the life of Ramanujan - a fascinating read about an Indian Math genius - but ut gets bogged down in details of cricket and the like
From Justine
Driving along that pure and natal coastline they watched the first tendrils of sunlight uncoil from horizon to horizon across the dark self-sufficient Mediterranean seas whose edges were at one and the same moment touching lost hallowed Catharge and Salamis in Cyprus.
Beautiful line because it is precisely that - one line - like the "tendrils" spoken of, the line stretches from movement and motion - "driving along" - into an abstract space of sunlight (yes, light is not a thing but a field, an abstract space) causing the vision of the horizon to unfold. The fact that the sea is spoken of in such terms - named ancient cities - all brought into a simultaneous moment, all touched at once - by both the "sea" and the line, liberates the space of the line. No punctuation marks yet perfect rhythm.
Line of the the day indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment