Human Like A House

To what extent do we have control of our futures? Some of these notions came popping up with the new season of Kyle XY and a solo viewing of Inkheart in a less than partially filled cinema yesterday. What was meant to be a place of mass congregation suddenly felt like a private opera session open only to a select few especially with the Rococo embellishments on the interior walls.

While Inkheart feels like a disappointment to most people due to the lack of mind-blowing special effects along the lines of Transformers or Lord of the Rings, it does echo out like the bell from a watch tower of the distant past, reminding me of a world full of leather bound antiquities and picturesque pastures. In the thick forest lies a medieval castle, filled with mystical creatures, knights returning from the crusades and that chilly feeling which intrigues your curiosity to read on despite it being the wee hours of the night already.

Then again, the above spells like a poor and euro-centric choice of reading stuck in a world of fantasy and make believe, which explains why historical annals appear much more appealing to me. However, as mentioned in the film, sometimes the make belief world of stories seem all the more enticing and inviting then the horrid world we live in - escapism perhaps but history books have the bad habit of shaffing the hard facts down your throat whether you like it or not. Maybe the whole idea here is that as escapism has shown us - the mind is well-equipped to recreate a more bearable world for us to live in through that partial and inconsistent glimpse of a less cruel and painful looking world. Like a retired Captain once told me - we were not born to be happy but happiness presents itself to us as a conscious choice.

The last two weeks were spent away on the island with the last one spent camping out in the wilderness. While negotiating businesses in the dark felt weird and challenging at the same time due to the presence of only a crescent moon, I felt quite at home out in open vegetation with the ease and convenience of not having to bother with where and what to rest your body on when taking a rest since everywhere is all sandy and/or muddy and grass seems all the more a luxury carpet. Having an entire haul of gear on your back to ensure your survival might be strenuous but it just echoes back our reliance on combustion engines and being preoccupied with too many extras in life. Perhaps the most memorable and enjoyable experience was to sleep under the stars in the open - a rare sight in light polluted cities. But I should mention that the close by airport at mainland leads to an annoying disturbance of commercial flight intervals of a 15-30 second interval - now that totally spoils the mood. I must say that I was quite impressed by my night vision and short-term spacial memory since the torch broke down on the first night and retrieving minute items from a backpack filled to the brim was almost like finding a needle in the haystack. Throughout the build-up to this outdoor climax, I would like to thank the people who were kind enough to open up and talk to me about deeper dwellings of the mind despite differences in appointment and seniority, for I would not have survived the constant bashing and external influences created by people outside of my personal circle despite my inclination and keen ability at adapting outfield. Yes, it is normally the people that kills.

This morning was spent cycling around the usual route to the Esplanade area and the F1 grandstand while listening to more songs on the go. The same could be said of the afternoon except the audio stimulation was done half awake in bed. My finger joints feel somewhat swollen from all that vigorous soil removal when out camping. During the morning's ride, as I passed down 'memory lane' with a neat row of 2-storeyed terrace, that nice breezy feeling just doesn't seem to make the cut anymore. It seems that I stumbled a new vision of Shangri-la elsewhere on the island with lesser traces of Man's hand at play.

In other news, Cheer Chen is coming over to perform this April and I already have tickets already and while I was away, the cat at the bookshop has grown a lot bigger or should I say fatter? As for me, I think I need to start using a belt again.