Dearly Departed

Today morning was Uni application again! I realised so many Unis have already stopped accepting students because they probably expect the really smart ones to be able to apply using their superb provisional results, so there’s no need for them to wait for people like me – those who ultimately obtain good results but luck takes center stage. It’s pretty easy to apply to the UK Universities, they have this central site UCAS where you can one-shot apply to all the UK Universities that you want to. A noob like me only applies to one. Oh and they have this section on Personal Statement, woah, they are expecting a 4K word essay! I’ll probably get my brains cracking but then again, not like it’ll make a difference because the deadlines are actually already over and whether the Uni wants to even so much as look at my late application is really up to them. I hope they like my name or something, then at least they’ll open up my file. Hur.

I went out with S just now to watch Departures! It’s a critically acclaimed Japanese production that received several nods at the Oscars this year! It’s about sending the deceased off and helping them look their best. The way the Japanese does it is after their beloved passes on, they’ll wrap the person up in soft cloth that looks vaguely like satin and appears awfully soft and comfortable. Then someone will come and clean the body up, along with putting the final make-up on the corpse. After which, it’s sent to the crematorium. It’s a pretty quick process I think, not like how the Chinese does it where we have a few days of holding the body for friends and relatives to see their loved one for the final time. It’s a movie I’m sure our parents will be able to identify with, because it involves a lot of scenes where the parents have passed on. AND, the movie has it’s sense of humour too! So it’s really not all that mellow and sad and forlorn, but there’s a couple of emo scenes where the lead plays his cello on the grassy fields with a picturesque mountain-y backdrop, got SAE! S says it reminds him of Jay Chou, ha! Oh, and the middle-aged man sitting next to me was sniffling pretty obviously during the movie when it got to the ‘saying Goodbye’ parts, and the actors in the show were busy bawling their heads off. I’m quite surprised with myself I didn’t shed a single tear, considering how it’s usually so easy for me to CRY. But I admit I had to bite my lip really hard a couple of times to keep those tear ducts from leaking. All in all, I thought it’s pretty good. But it was pretty long! About two hours twenty minutes, thereabout?

We ate lunch at ToriQ! S was saying that since we were going to watch a Japanese movie, having a Japanese lunch would be perfect, I agree! ToriQ was not bad. But the limited seats available at the TM basement there forced us to find an alternative venue to eat our food. So we went up to the open plaza outside Phin’s, luckily it wasn’t all that warm. During the movie, (me and my big mouth) we had salty popcorn because I suggested it so the both of us ate until our lips were practically bereft of moisture, like a dried out prune man! HAHA! Bad experience. I think I ingested enough sodium today to last me a week or something – talk about unhealthy living.

And towards the end of the evening, S brought his digicam so we could camwhore! Man, it’s one of the few times I indulge in this but I gotta admit, it’s quite an interesting thing to do. Playing with the flash and seeing which setting would make the lights bounce off our faces the most beautifully; holding the digicam at just the right height and angle so our faces look proportionate and nice; thinking of what to do with the other three free hands that the two of us share after one is occupied with holding the digicam – yeah! See? It’s not as simple as it seems. Here are some of the pictures which turned out better and can thus be displayed for public viewing, ha!