It was an emotional roller-coaster ride in the past few weeks. So many things happened it's quite hard to have a really clear picture of what actually went on. Anyhow, that kinda contributed to the lack of updates on this site.

Hmmm... where do I start? Let's start with something... happy.

Numero uno.... salsa y espanol

Ok, I have stopped salsa classes. Went all the way up to Intermediate 3 then decided to take a break... Alright, not exactly a happy thing to stop salsa but it was replaced by something nice, and that was Spanish lessons. You see, I wasn't quite happy with my progress at Las Lilas and felt that it may be good to start exploring other schools. And so, I found the National University of Singapore Extension Program.

Well, well... What do you know? Years of turmoil back then yet now I'm with glorious NUS again. For those who didn't know, NUS' business arm started an enrichment centre which offers a wide range of certificate and diploma courses which is open to the public. Spanish language was one of them.

This decision to join the NUS Ext turned out to be a wise one indeed. The teacher, Rosa, hails from Peru and is very experienced and appraochable. Imagine that typical image of a slender, middle-aged Latino lady, decked in an elegant red dress and holding up a glass of red wine... Yup, that's the kind of image Rosa gives. She sure appreciates her wine, but she is probably more happening than most of us in the class, enjoying a trip or two down to the Latin clubs when she can. In fact, just a few weeks ago Rosa took us all to have paella at a cafe at Arab Street, then pulled us all to Cuba Libre to chill out amist an excellent mix of Spanish songs.

However, the best thing about Rosa is that she makes the language so accessible for all of us. Three of us jumped from Las Lilas to NUS Ext's Level 2 Spanish, and it took us 2 years of Spanish to reach there. Compare that to our other classmates, who took only 4 months to reach there and are in many ways actually better than us! Rosa takes a very practical apprach to teaching the language, and is always able to put everything into clear perspective. In fact, many aspects about language structure which we were very hazy about while still in Las Lilas have now become so much clearer under Rosa's teachings. Rosa also 'forces' us to tell her a gossip at the start of each lesson to train us in our ability to strike a conversation on our feet. I tend to cheat by preparing beforehand, but at least I think I'm much more confident conveying information in Spanish now.

Numero dos... sobre la estudiar...

Hmmm... one of the main contributors to the emotional roller-coaster ride. Would really love to ventilate about it but...

Numero tres... sobre mi trabajo...

Ok... I really should stop now. Next please!

Numero cuatro... ¡peliculas, peliculas y mas peliculas! ¡Me encanta!

Yes, movies, movies and more movies! Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and The Fall DVDs finally came in through the mail from Amazon.com!



Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day can be described as somewhat like little quaint cottage house... Nothing explosive, nothing incredibly emotional - just good ol' storytelling, likeable characters and good British humor. Set against the back drop of post-WWI, pre-WWII Britian, the story is about all about Miss Pettigrew ( the wonderful Frances McDormand) and her encounter a budding American nightclub singer (played by Amy Adams from Enchanted) and her three lovers. As unapologetically modern it sounds, this movie was actually adapted from a novel that was written precisely during this period in the 1930s! Nevertheless, nothing too saucy that would put its rating anywhere near an NC16. At the end of the day, I simply enjoyed the simplicity of the story, and had felt real care and concern for the characters through the experienced cast.

I've been talking about The Fall since like forever! And I finally got to watch it!



Haha... In talking about the picture on the right, Tarsem has this to say, "Oh my God,... looks like a big swan and a duckling, and she's just toddling along with him in the background". (taken from The Washington Post)

From all my previous posts on the movie you would have known that I had high expectations for this movie. All I can say is this - the movie matched and even surpassed the high expectations I had for it.

It was certainly a little big movie.... "Little", because this movie had such a limited release in theatres and had starred mainly unknown actors and actresses (of that time, that is). "Big", because the locations were breathtaking, the cinematography was spellbinding, and the story was completely mesmerizing! Apparently, because no major film studios wanted to finance the movie, India-born director Tarsem forked out his own money to make it, and that involved filming in no less than 24 countries, exploiting fully the wonderous landscape and historical sites for the movie.



Roy and Alexandria in the reality sequence, where the story he tells her goes from a simple fantasy to an eerie representation of his depressed and suicidal state of mind.



And just 2 of the many beautiful backdrops in the fantasy sequence.

And the acting... Oh my gosh, I'm officially in love with Catinca Untaru, the little Romanian girl who plays the lead of Alexandria, and also the Lee Pace, the storyteller who was a broken man emotionally and literally. The chemistry between was them so natural and very convincing indeed. The fantasy sequence that Tarsem created was a reflection of Alexandria's interpretation of the story, and that was where all the magificant backdrops and costumes came in. Excellent stuff! A definite must-watch!

Apart from movies, I was at a time literally hooked onto all 4 seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus, enjoying their unique "pythonesque" humor in its full glory. Some sketches seem really silly or nonsensical, but there are certainly lots of gems in their writing. An absolute joy to watch!



This opening title above comes from the first season and is now inseperable with Monty Python.

Numero cinco... sobre arte...

Finally, more art creations lately. Was experimenting with stained glass painting for a while, some paper art and also some painting... Recently a colleague introduced shrinkable plastic artwork to me and I'm having lots of fun trying it out :) Basically, you use make an ordinary drawing on this plastic sheet, cut it to the desired shape, the toss it into the oven toaster. There, it will shrink under the heat, creating a small, hard piece of artwork which you can use to make accessories or scrapebook decorations. Here's one I made today...



I also did some felt pieces a few months back also and had some leftover. So I decided to decorate this plain blue pouch which I got free after buying some Silkpro face products...



Yup, that completely narcissitic name tag was made using the shrinkable plastic also.

Speaking of felt, this remains one of my favourite pieces which I made specially to match the dress I wore as a brooch for my office's D&D...