Rose Festival (Oregon)
2005-06-02 @ 10:53 p.m.

Lots of people have gone for a jaunt in the city, but it's not really my cup of tea, so here I am, scrawling on a page from the former Book of Disturbing Thoughts. The journey in the coach yesterday was excruciating, except for the last leg when we were travelling up the mountains. That took place in total darkness, because extra lights would have distracted the driver as he negotiated the winding uphill climb. So I sit beside Yingshan, quietly munching away on chips in the darkness. The scenery was gorgeous, as we would all discover the next morning when we made the reverse trip down. It's such a shame that we only stayed overnight at the resort. The rooms are huge! Today, we travelled all the way back to Bangkok. Talk about inefficient use of precious time. Have hardly studied for any of the SAT II subjects, but I guess I'll do okay. In case you thought all we did yesterday was sit in the coach, sleep, play cards, listen to music and read, we visited a school involved in a UN project to clean up the Chao Phraya River. Calamity Claudia strikes again! She fell through the gangplank across the river, but near enough the shore that she was never in danger of drowning. (I say again, because she tripped over a hump outside the UN building two days ago, and tore her dress pants.) The students performed titration to determine the oxygenation of the water! We were all suitably impressed, and spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what exactly were the chemical reactions involved. Not easy, given that Yingshan's the only active chemist amongst us Arts Faculty types. Then we visited an organic farm, where I tasted the best preserved mango ever. Not artificially sweetened, soft and moist. Would have bought some back, but there wasn't any left. Too bad...

So now I'm watching Visitors, some strange movie about a woman who experiences hallucinations during her yachting exploits. We're back at The Twin Towers Hotel, only we're in the other tower this time and three floors up. Spent nearly half the day in the coach, so I had plenty of time to get through A Pale View Of Hills and Kleinzeit. The former's ending is chillingly disturbing in its implications, assuming I interpreted it correctly. Starting on An Artist Of The Floating World on the flight back to Singapore. Kleinzeit is just random from start to finish! At least it's easier to get through than Riddley Walker, which is clever in its premise, but very trying to read because it's written in devolved English. We made one stop today at a village, where they served us bowls and bowls of jackfruit among other things that I didn't recognise. Fed mosquitoes. Took a long circular walk in the forest, which (surprisingly) didn't involve any Claudia-type accidents. Damn, the movie just ended, and it was a pathetically convenient ending. A novel ad campaign just came up on MTV. It's called "Save the Humans", and it feature animals at a UN-style convention discussing how to save us from the spectre of AIDS. Interesting take on the issue, if I do say so myself.

This month:

Candy Month

Rose Month