Downton Abbey SPOILERS!

It really seemed to take a thousand years for them.

There is rumour that Season 4 of Downton Abbey might not have Matthew Crawley in it. That, to me, is sheer ridiculousness; because not only is he the current heir to Downton and has major roles in so many subplots, but he is also half of the major OTP underlying this entire series. How on earth will the story stand without him? If they end up killing Matthew, my God, the (drama) world is cruel. Didn't Mary and Matthew just get together after a thousand years? How much heartache must Mary endure?

One more Matthew/Mary video because there are so many nice ones, I can barely stop!
And the song is omg-so-sad.

In line with the song itinerary we have planned for tomorrow's class party, I shall also post:

it's finished!

2 years of study done (provided I pass my CPI and vivas, especially the horrible one on child swallowing), and we're all leaving into our separate niches.

I'll miss this class to pieces.

:) Alhamdulillah, how pleased I am that I am pleased.

let the skyfall

Adele's voice is gorgeous and especially suited to a Bond song.

:((((((((((

Whyyyyy. I think my case interview didn't go very well. Irritated with self.

Crap, I just spoiled myself for Downton Abbey's Season 3! I thought they wouldn't keep killing off characters but they do.

But oh God, how can it be true. D': why must we have heartbreak, whyyyyyy.





There are moments when I get struck by the thought that I am far too old to blog. Am I? Somebody tell me.

Like if you're a mature adult, you should desist with the questions about the world and about life and about love, stop whining, and just get to working.

espana!

Ah, so exciting, the history of Spain.



We always hear about how the Renaissance started in Italy and they basically revived the learning of the classics; we rarely hear about how prior to that, people from all over Europe came to Toledo in Spain to find the Arabic texts and translations of the same Greek classics and all the newer sciences. I find it extremely awesome that apparently, an English philosopher called Daniel Morley went to Toledo, brought back to England an entire chest of translated texts, and handed them over to a bishop called John of Oxford, who wanted to establish a center of learning in Oxford.

Wow, I say. If only we paid more attention to history.

It is post placement! and I have been seriously having the laziest weekend in a long time. I feel like a slug, really. And I had to be shouted at to go down to the kitchen. I promise tomorrow I will not be a slug, woooh.

So with all the lazing, naturally, I will have tv updates:

* I finished Nice Guy and we had a happy ending!

But I still had issues with it, man. I have yet to come across a kdrama whose ending satisfies me completely. Yes, Maru and Eun Gi ended up together, and everyone, even the baddies, became better persons. But seriously, it bugs me that that there isn't enough catharsis for our OTP!!! All those years of repressed hurt and emotions, and then we only have them smiling at each other from the ends of a long bench??? O, my poor unsatisfied heart. It's very pretty and everything, but! I want the fireworks and bursting happiness, why don't you want to give us that, drama writers!

Which is why, I feel this drama gave more tribute to the Maru/Jae Hee love line because there was a superb scene between them that left me in a river of tears. (Too bad no one has posted that clip on youtube so I haven't got it at hand.) Basically, they had a confrontation scene where Maru talked about what happened between them in the past and the mistakes they both made, and both of them were crying like crazy, and I was crying like crazy. It was so sad. They were both mourning for a lost love and it was just one of the rawest emotional scenes I've ever watched! With that kind of drama, I was really anticipating the final scene between Maru and Eun Gi, but the one we got was rather disappointing. Maybe... the writer is just really good with tragedy, hah.

Takeaway from this drama: that Song Joong Ki and Moon Chae Won are AWESOME together. so please, let them be together again in another drama (or in real life, haha).

* I've devoured the entire of Downton Abbey Season 1 and have now started on Season 2.

I've always wanted to watch it and finally got the opportunity. The first episode didn't really pull me in, but my interest was piqued. Then slowly but surely, somewhere along the way, I was hooked, and now really love almost all the characters! Even the bad, evil ones!

---

Have to add in this epic trailer! for Downton Abbey. It'll make you want to watch this drama, but beware some SPOILERS.

:) I've been thinking that this is the formula:

Happiness comes from service, which comes from love, which comes from gratitude, which comes from reflection.

And you were born with a mind, so. Alhamdulillah!

The music gets annoying after a while, but here are some of the best Sherlock lines.


I want more!

Tomorrow last day of placement -- vivas the next few weeks but seriously, cannot wait for November to finish, have I said?

The nature of kufr is self-deception.

ah, kowai.

oh sad state of society?

I find this amusing! One of the comments on a dailymail article from the UK - Generation who refuse to grow up - that has one man saying something and the woman saying the exact opposite.

From my experience , when women don't want to settle down and have kids , they're labelled "liberated", and "Independant", but when men don't want to have a child or sign his life away to a woman , he's labeled childish and refuses to "grow up", well I think men are now seeing sense and realising those silly insults are just hypocritical , feminist nonsense , I'm a young man , and I NEVER want to marry , I've Learned from other men's mistakes , who've gone through years of HELL and then been turned over in the divorce courts , no thanks

- Man

It's the other way around. Women who don't settle or want kids are told 'Oh you don't know what you're missing!' and 'It's your duty as a woman to have kids' and 'If you leave it too late you'll regret it!' If a man doesn't want to marry or have kids however it's all 'Good on yer mate' 'Don't be tied down' 'She'll take you for everything' and you get jealous stares of married men who feel trapped. I NEVER want to marry either.

-Woman

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176281/Generation-refuse-grow-No-mortgage-No-marriage-No-children-No-career-plan-Like-30-somethings-Marianne-Power-admits-shes-.html#ixzz2C1NJxONn
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Being a woman, of course I agree with the latter. Puh-lease -- I get irritated when obviously, all the boys in my family are encouraged to take their time, earn their money, have their selection of the women they want, don't settle; and the girls are treated like ticking bombs until they get married (at least in my head, it's that way). The world is largely unfair to women, please don't pretend otherwise. I still remember being stunned at the young age of 20 when one of my female relatives became very seriously upset because she was 25 and someone had commented or rather implied that she had trouble finding a man. O.O At that point, marriage was nowhere near the vicinity of my mind. What wonderful times those were, in that respect.

I'm 25 now and look at me. Honestly, believe me, I am happy! I don't think I have been at a better place in my life. Until someone brings up this marriage thing. And it's not like I don't want to -- it's just... It just is. Just the way I am, maybe. I wish the world would not judge. All I'm trying to do is always be pleased where God puts me.

OMG. Sherlock.

I watched the first episode, and it's love.

As I walk home from placement these days, neighbours and familiar persons have been asking if I'm coming home from work or study -- and depending on what is more prime on my lips, my answer can be either. Because placement, especially this one, is not study. It is draining work. And what's app is becoming a crazy endless channel for work discussion, so that we have updates for report changes at all times of the day; it can drive you to the edge. An entire department office on one's phone -- beeping at a moment's notice.

I want to be able to tell people that yes, I am working already.

I am so looking forward to the end of this course. I will miss the lovely people (so so so much) and the library perks, but am ready to get out of NUS, truly.



And the holiday in December --- the shining, golden finish line.

You know what's one of the joys in life? To pick a book off a shelf by gut feel, and have it turn out into an incredible read.

I've never really found out much about how or why my dad died. I didn't go to his funeral and Mum has never taken me to his grave, and she has no pictures of him in the house. I'm not to tell anyone about him, she said. Only his name, because it's also my name, Alex. When I think of whether Dad is happy to be out of Hell I have a memory of me and Dad and Mum having dinner. We were sitting at our table in the living room and Mum brought in some bread rolls on a plate. Dad took two of them out and stuck his fork through one and his knife through the other and started bouncing them up and down the table as if they were feet doing a little dance. I remember the way the sunlight was strong and lit up the side of his face and the lines at the corner of his eyes when he laughed. I remember Mum flicking him with a tea towel, laughing and telling him to stop. She used to laugh loads back then.

When I think of this it makes me sad, but more confused than sad. I'm confused because when I think of him making the bread rolls dance and then think of what I saw that day, of Dad shooting those policemen, it just doesn't make sense. Aren't evil people evil all the time? Aren't funny, kind people who bring toy cars for their son funny and kind all the time?

-  The Boy Who Could See Demons, Carolyn Jess-Cooke

It's such a beautiful story, and so well thought out, and it made me tear up so badly in the train (the times when I actually get time to read). I fell in love with Alex probably three pages in. He speaks about the traumas of his life with such innocence, it's impossible not to feel like you want to take him away from it all and adopt him. The backdrop is Northern Ireland after The Troubles, but the aftereffects of a war-torn area are basically broken down infrastructure, and broken souls. Alex is like a little brilliant spark you want to save from it all.

And I actually thought this was a children's book at first.

Granny poured in the sugar and said, 'Memory's a funny thing, Alex. Sometimes it can hurt us without us realising.'

I nodded but had no clue what she meant. I figured this was what old people said when they were about to lose their marbles.

This whole honey boo boo child thing keeps me torn between horror and amusement.

But mostly, horror.

Beauty pageantry for children and this fiasco / controversy about honey boo boo and her family have only shown me how true it is that women make society. One mother sets the life of one or more individuals -- and by God, we need women with greater purpose and vision to set straight the future of society. 

I don't think the mums of these self-declared divas are bad mums; I'm sure they love their kids and want what's best for them. I feel like they themselves don't seem to know any better. Really -- this is what you want your child to live for? 

when our magical alter-egos take over

More of my favourite things, like I said.

SPOILERS. And Joong Ki sings the OST for his own drama! 







This drama is wrecking my emotions; I just finished episode 16. First off, Jae Hee reminds me of DT!Hermione, because she has the cheek to feel heartbroken when it finally hits her that maybe Maru is really completely done with her and now loves Eun Gi. What do you expect, woman! You betray someone, step on his love and devotion multiple times, and expect him to stay in love with you forever? Bitch extraordinaire!

Maru is driving me insane with his skewed logic of staying happy within this bubble of happiness that is Eun Gi's memory loss. It's quite heartbreaking actually that he's so happy. While his friend Jae Gil mirrors my frustration about Maru's stupid insistence not to get medical help pronto. Maru says he won't die, he'll just settle all the more urgent things happening first (like helping Eun Gi regain her footing in the company) --- but we all know that this is kdrama's way of dangling tragedy over our heads so that we all chew our nails in fear of Maru's death and the destruction of the OTP.

Eun Gi is back. OMG. Being the awesome lady she is, she digs around and finally regains her memory, and sort of crumbles when she realizes the bigger picture of Maru and Jae Hee, and how she's like a little thorn in this crazy, long saga. But all of this happens alone. She then awesomely composes herself, pretends nothing has changed and gathers her steely resolve. So that Maru has no idea the old, driven, ambitious Eun Gi is back.

And so OMGGGGG, things are kind of happening in reverse now. Maru is all happy and sincere in his love while Eun Gi is plotting the way to get back up on top; it used to be Eun Gi being played by Maru when he was attempting revenge on Jae Hee. It's deliberate drama technique, but very nice nonetheless.

Hoping for a good ending is futile, I think.

What a great voice, Shota.

Reminiscing on his hit debut song, Home. 


After all this time, I can't go back to that place...
Whatever wonderful memories I have,
I should keep them in my heart.
I still remember to this day. That's good enough.
Don't worry. I can still sing.
Someday I'll go back. The home all my own.




I realise this place, as I slowly transition into a working adult and less an overgrown student, is becoming a dumping ground of my favourite stuff rather than a blog. Because all I have time for is apparently, some brief comments and lines accompanying a video or picture. I don't know where I got the energy and juice to blog so extensively in the past.

It's not like there's no time per se. It's more like when I have time, I just want to switch off and not think. And reflective writing needs a lot of thinking. I do have those thoughtful moments still, but I don't know why they don't end up in proper entries here.

Maybe next time.

If being adult means less contemplation, it is sad. That shouldn't be, right. But I have the gnawing perhaps irrational fear that I'm morphing into the typical, unthinking, busy, Singaporean.

ack! Timely reminder. 

You know that silly disappointed feeling you get when you realize you're not the only one who likes something? Or is it just me. Because I am possessive? 

I always feel like I want to pout and say as Mort did, I like them! I like them! Before I even met them, I liked them! You hate them compared to how much I like them!

HP was like that too, kinda. I liked the fact that I had a group of close friends all nutty about HP, but when HP became a worldwide craze and everyone knew of it --- uhhh, not so good. I remember being ecstatic about the prospect of watching HP on the screen, but after a while... 

Which is why, in many ways, thank goodness for the obscurity of Lymond.