Farewell, Monkey

I told the monkey on my back, "My, you're getting heavy."

He bared his teeth at me and threw a banana in my face.

I tried to push him away. He really was weighing me down. Plus, I don't appreciate having fruit crushed on my face.

His expression changed from angry to deeply saddened with the blink of an eye.

I attempted to console him. "I know, monkey. I've carried you for so long and you are a part of me, but we must part."

He refused to look at me.

"When we met, I was still standing upright. Now the burden of keeping you for so long has caused me to stoop and hunch over. If this goes on, I'll be forced to crawl on my knees. Please understand."

He looked at me, eyes full of accusation and contempt.

I sighed. "You forced me to do this."

Uncertainty danced across his face.

I lit a match and lit him on fire. He was going down, one way or another.

He clung on tightly as the flames consumed him, so the flames would consume me too.

I merely smiled. The heat was melting years of icy numbness sealing my heart. When his screams finally burned away, I jumped into the lake.

Farewell, monkey.

I fell freely towards the bottom, eyes shut. When I felt the tug of life, once again calling to me, I resurfaced.

Farewell, guilt.

Hello, future.

Reflection

I thought I was being quite cute and playful.
I was tired, I was drained, but I tried.
Then some innocent words cracked that already thin surface.
I was not quite so cute and playful anymore.
More like crazy.
A fork clattered loudly onto the floor of an empty restaurant.
One hand covering my face and the other groping wildly for a mirror.
To check for yet another imperfection.
Ah, how can I expect you to think I'm beautiful when I'm a host of so many imperfections?
You think I'm crazy because I would not let you look at me.
I can't look at me, why would I want you to look at me?
Go away.

There's nothing here.

Molto Bella

A few years ago, while I was still a young, naive student in Swansea, my friends and I decided to go on a trip during the Easter holidays. And so we booked ourselves for a trip around Italy, starting from Venice and ending at Rome, where we would fly to Paris. Sounds glamorous, no? Very jet-setter.
So not.
We were students. So, no 5-star hotels for us. We got to revel in the luxury of youth hostels. [The one in Venice was gorgeous! Much better than some of the so-called hotels that I've stayed in.]
But the trip was fantastic. Me + gelato in practically every flavour = an extremely happy me. And pasta. Yum. Oh, and the scenery, the buildings, the history and all that was also very nice, of course.
Venice was much better than I ever dreamed it would be. I loved going around in the water taxis. Florence was beautiful. Milan was a shopaholic's [with cash to spare] dream come true. And Rome... well Rome was...
On our way to the Vatican, we were mobbed by gypsies. It was a harrowing 5 minutes. While we were waiting in the long line to enter the Vatican, one of my friends discovered that his wallet was missing. He'd been pickpocketed. So, we didn't get off to a very good start in Rome.
When we got back to the room, another friend discovered that her credit card was missing. So, off we went to report it. [Incidentally, whoever got hold of her credit card had gone on a little spree, as we later found out.]
After those 2 incidents, we were kind of glad to be flying off to Paris [sad as I was to leave the gelato and pasta]. My two [girl] friends and I were wandering around the shops inside the airport [after checking in, of course], when they got stopped. I was walking behind them and was surprised to see them getting stopped by two female security officers. I went up to them to see what was going on, and when they found out I was with my friends, they asked me to come along.
Ah, we were so special. Such V.I.P. treatment. They led us to a room, where they brushed this scanner thing over our clothes to test for... bomb residue. Hmm... apparently we were potential TOOOOOT. I'm not going to say that dreaded 'T' word, so I'll replace it with just TOOOOOT.
Why wasn't I initially stopped? Besides the fact that I was walking slightly behind the other two? Because I don't wear the headscarves the other two were.
This story illustrates that I wouldn't make a very good TOOOOOT as I walked towards the security women, instead off running off in the other direction.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience, to say the least. We couldn't wait to get to Paris after that.

My Life, One Chapter At A Time; Or, Dear Diary

Hi.

I don't know what's wrong with me. Lately, I seem to be making mistake after mistake. Like a snail, instead of leaving behind a trail of slime [gross], I'm leaving behind a trail of mistakes.

Today the family and I went out for dinner. The food was not exactly brilliant, but we had a nice time anyway. We went home after that, but before we left, I went to pay the parking ticket at the machine.

My mom came over to give me the money. One of the notes was rejected, so my mom was trying to put in another note. I was busy trying to dig out my car keys from my bag, whose contents would put Barney's magical bag to shame [if you watch Barney, you'll know what I mean - I've babysat the nieces and nephews plenty of times and Barney makes me want to shoot myself].

Anyway, we went back to the car. In the car, mom asked for the ticket. I'd assumed she'd taken it as I walked away before her. To sum it up, she thought I had it, I didn't, parents got pissed, brother went to look for it, it wasn't at the machine obviously, had to pay RM25 for a lost ticket. *sigh*

I couldn't even remember to take a parking ticket, which I'd already paid for, out of the machine. I don't know where my head is at these days. *sigh* Can you believe they let me help out a student with disabilities for a year?

The madness of it all.

Swan Go Bye-Bye

     Next to Swansea University is a little park with a pond and a pub, aptly name 'Pub On The Pond', that does fantastic food.     On the pond, they rent out those water bicycle thingies, shaped like swans [of course!] and dragons [for Wales]. Those things are so cool, but my plans to ride them with my friends never quite came to fruition. [There were passionate debates about who got to ride the dragon, as there was usually only one dragon.]

     I heard this story from a friend.

     Oh, before I continue, opposite our university is the beach. I know, how lucky are we?

     One night, a couple of male students got drunk. [As students do.] While on this joyful buzz, they decided that it was a great idea to kidnap a swan from the pond, and carry it across the road, to the beach opposite and ride it in the sea.

     I can't quite remember how many of them they were, it was either 2, 3 or 4 of them and they managed to do just that. The kidnapping part, I mean, and carrying it across the road. I don't recall if they actually rode the poor thing in the sea.

     I do remember that the poor swan was broken and they found the students responsible for this travesty. Those students were fined a few hundred pounds. 

     I wonder if they thought it was worth it? Hmm...