an APA sort of year:

GERD

Mr. GERD is keeping me awake at 4 in the morning.
bloody 'ell.
(Gastro-esophageal-reflux-disease)



Edit: 10:43pm
so apparently it's not Mr. GERD who's causing all the trouble. it's a throat infection that's triggering a spasmic reaction in the esophagus. ??? the doc's put me on antibiotics to take out the intruders. i guess it's gonna make me woozy for the next three days.... here goes....

How to be an artist--- from a picture within a mag i grabbed from muji TST

stay Loose.
learn to watch snails.
plant impossible gardens.
invite someone dangerous to tea.
make little signs that say yes! and post them all over your house.
make friends with freedom and uncertainty.
look forward to dreams.
cry during movies.
swing as high as you can on a swing set, by moonlight.
cultivate moods.
refuse to "be responsible".
do it for love.
take lots of naps.
give money away.
do it now.
the money will follow.
believe in magic.
laugh a lot.
celebrate every gorgeous moment.
take moonbaths.
have wild imaginings, transformative dreams and perfect calm.
draw on the walls.
read everyday.
imagine yourself magic.
giggle with children.
listen to old people.
open up.
dive in.
be free.
bless yourself.
drive away fear.
play with everything.
entertain your inner child. (in my case, it's meryl.)
you are innocent.
build a fort with blankets.
get wet.
hug trees.
write love letters.

changes come so bloody quickly....

say hi to My Fair Lady.
say goodbye to pakistan, and disco inferno.

Marge shall be Lily no more.

AND
may i recommend movies: pure (2002) & the jacket (2005) ? i'm going through Miss Knightley's CV. For a 21 year old she is doing exceedingly well. and also, she's a pretty good actress, for a former dyslexic and someone who's un-classically-trained. an inspiration to us HKAPA kids.

best of luck in the 2006-07 school year, my friends!

apologies for the altogether different look

blogger screwed up.
need i say more?

moo is renovating!

pirates 3

... has an asian theme, so

THERE IS WORK OUT THERE FOR ASIAN ACTORS AND ACTRESSES!!!

and also for Chow Yun Fat. Darn it, I'm a sucker for mainstream flicks, but the prospect of seeing this guy in the pirates trilogy should mean that the third film will do remarkably well in both the Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese market. the second film is guaranteed to do well anyway.

yay! there's only a week before the film comes out! i'd better go and renew my cinema discount card :)

passport piccies

oh. apparently i'm allowed to smile and with "mouth closed"...
"neutral expression".... well, when i take my piccies tomorrow, i hope i won't look stoned instead....

from mr alfred hitchock himself:

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out"

argh

so much shit to do, and so little time to do it in....

Pakistan in September
Disco Inferno in November

.....

And all the while, working in a school.

how am i supposed to fit this all in?

pirate night....

i did this reception thing (thanks sheena!) for the charity gala opening of the second pirates of the caribbean movie... i expended less NRG than expected, but worked longer than expected. the company was good, and we got to dress up in pirate clothes etc... so it was okay. here's a piccie of us pretending to be famous people in front of the quite impressively sized poster!

i'm looking forward to seeing the movie in august!

the weather here...

"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of
inelegance." Jane Austen, letter of September 1796.

stuff....

yes, much has happened since the last time i posted... a bit of teaching, developed a fondness for guinness beer, had a thoroughly pirate-ty experience today, had a friend committed into the happy happy asylum that is hong kong disney--- good luck, tak2!

but here's a link for those "see lai" out there like me! ---> http://www.realsimple.com/
for those home makers in all of us....

also, i've recently been addicted to watching the stingers, shown at 1:30am on ABC!

gor gor has left the building, say hello to miss cheung, kids

yep, the contract is signed. i'm teaching english next year at st antonius!!
so much has happened these few weeks and i have so little energy to write about it here...

but here's something i'll always have energy to rant about----
GO QUEENSLAND!!!!!

Quest for the perfect bra

AAP
June 28, 2006
This article from : AAP
THE fastest, the strongest and the most athletic at Australia's Institute of Sport will be enlisted to help develop one of the modern world's most elusive products - the perfect sports bra.
Volunteers will be called among female athletes at the institute to help make breast bounce a thing of the past.

The institute today announced a three-year deal with Berlei that will allow the bra manufacturer to develop its future products in consultation with Australia's gun athletes.

Modern technology is set to meet old-fashioned pain tests as the AIS athletes and Berlei strive for the holy grail of sporting accessories.

AIS director Professor Peter Fricker said the focus on sports bras was a natural progression from high-tech sporting aids such as full-length swimsuits and aerodynamic bicycle helmets.
"At elite levels, events are decided by tenths of hundreds of seconds - having the right equipment can be the difference between an athlete winning a gold medal or missing out all together," he said.

In return for providing the human guinea pigs, the AIS will be given advanced access to Berlei's designs, the idea being that the Aussie athletes will therefore have a competitive advantage.
The three-year deal gives Berlei the green light to subject the AIS sportswomen to the infamous "pain scale".

This involves fitting unreleased bras on the athletes, who perform a range of physical activities like running and jumping before rating the pain (or comfort) of each bra.

The partnership will allow Berlei to access the AIS's biometrics unit, which will allow the company to utilise 3D computer modelling to pinpoint the level of vertical bounce per bra.
Jodie Cochrane, an AIS biomechanist, says an unsupported 12B bust can move up to eight centimetres, and a double-D cup up to 18 cm.

"You want to reduce pain, and you want to reduce movement to prevent permanent damage," she said.

"Performance-wise ... the less movement the better - you're more comfortable, and you're more focused on what you're doing."

Melbourne Commonwealth Games long jump silver medallist Kerrie Taurima said a good bra was as important as top running shoes.

"You need to know that you've done everything possible to achieve your best - part of this is knowing you've go the right gear," she said.

"I wouldn't compromise the quality, fit and comfort in my shoes, and my bra is no different."

i'm sorry, state of origin is next wednesday.

that's not quite the orthordox tackle but it took the man down... yes, mr. croatian defender, state of origin is next wednesday and despite your efforts, you have not been picked on either team to play. thanks for trying though.

to lose to italy 1-0 from a 95th minute penalty is heartbreaking tonight, despite the disappointment, socceroos- I'M PROUD OF YAS ALL!!!!!!

what a day

200- couldn't sleep, afraid that disco inferno might not happen
230- finally asleep
900- awake to head to school for outside job forms
1110- arrive at school
1145- complete outside job forms
1215- told that disco inferno might not happen by suk yi
1245- got told that the job offer to teach english at st tony's is a reality
1330- hands in deferral form!!!!

so yes, call my miss cheung- i'm going to teach form 1 english next year, and get to do my disco inferno stuff... things do work out in the end... i'm going to miss my APA classmates though, but i'll always get the opportunity to see them...

please please please please let me be in disco inferno

with a 80% chance i'll be cast in the lead female role of disco inferno..... please, please.... let me do it!!!! and please please please be understanding and don't cast me in some minnow chorus of next semester's shows!


woke up with a scratchy throat this morning... but luckily i was able to sing the auditions songs surprisingly well- and that's what saved me from being outed after the dance section. i wasn't as goodas i could be, but no excuses, i'm just not practiced as a dancer... so the singing began, and my throat held up okay, and then i was one of the three from six chosen to be seriously considered for the role of jane.. i love singing!!! i wanted a guy to play off when i was doing my version of "i will survive", and a guy responded, it was fun :) but the 20% lies in 1. my height 2. my age 3. my dancing.... the other girl who i thought was also in the running for the role was younger, cuter, and was a better dancer, although she didn't quite have the singing technique to present the song.

tomorrow, i'm going to ask the teachers whether i can do this... ... fingers crossed...

and from a thing i saw tonight-- "never look back, that way you'll fall down the stairs"- Rudolf Nureyev, ballet great. RIP, dude.

time to think...

i really enjoyed today--- my first true day of holidays, i had the time to think about the next three or four months. through the exam and audition process i really had no time to worry about anything other than our work at the APA.... and i made at least 6 or 7 phone calls to catch the final business day to organise myself... i found out that we are touring pakistan in mid-august, mid-bloody-summer on the sub-continent; that we'll be performing at a shopping mall and a studio venue after the musical theatre workshop i enrolled in; helped a few classmates to enrol in the MT program, and that luckily found that the performance dates for disco inferno falls right in the middle of our semester 1 production week (phew... that was a big, big discovery!). i ripped music and planned for a school teaching job i've taken through mum's contacts.... and fixed up my room a little... i still don't quite feel like i'm on holidays, because as a person in my industry, even as an actress-in-training, we're never on holidays... we're ever on the lookout for opportunities to work in the industry. it's a busy life, that's for sure, but i'd rather it be a busy life than a dull life.... cos that's what i asked for when i left australia.

avenue q... and the year ends...

this week was for me, pole dancing, avenue q, chinese dance, aussie aussie aussie, QLD'er, and a lot of work.
we had our school production auditions this week... which meant memorising a lot of chinese words and working out for our movement presentations. i'm surprised what i can do after a year of acrobatics training--- the splits is a big one- if you told me to do the splits a year ago i would've laughed you off!

pole dancing-- because the degree 2 musical theatre students were rehearsing their "hey big spender" number out in the level three foyer. and as the music filters through to the level 1 foyer, where we were quietly chanting our monologues prior to our audition, i got up and danced to it... every bloody time the song came on- i just couldn't concentrate :)

avenue q--- the other song they were rehearsing was 'if you were gay' from avenue q... classic! it was stuck in my head for ages.

chinese dance--i got a recall audition for "back from the journey to the west"... and the chinese dance moves gave me a pain in the butt.

sporting front--- the hong kong women's cricket team are going to pakistan in mid-august to play three qualifying matches for the world cup 2009 qualifiers.... the qualifyers for the qualifyers... australia won 3-1 against japan, and QUEENSLAND BEAT NSW 30-6!!! TAKE THAT!!!!!!

hmm.. it's been a long year, but i'd like to review it.... soon.... i have to rest...

di nu hua.... english style-- from a fellow blogger

Falling flowers cover a thousand miles and ten thousand places
Like the hundred flowers, with weeping eyes thanking the people
The crimson blood of the country is not yet dried, but a lavish banquet aids a good funeral
The blood of a painful heart leads a thousand depths
Remembering the dreams of the last emperor were full of sorrow
The country is fallen, the family is dead, watching the water flowing faraway
Lives lost and curses of death litter the gateways and the poor alleyways
Sai Hin will forever be buried with Cheung Ping, turning the troubles of the country into hope
Only wishing that the great times will be better than the heavens
Beautiful images buried with no regrets forever that the excess love lingers
The light in the tears drowns the light of the moon in the cup
Two hearts know that their end is in the grapes and wine
The emperor's daughter is prepared to die together, borrowing a new grave as the wedding night room
Yet they look and yet they watch each other
The wind has taken them across the three rivers, bringing a hundred experiences and a thousand meetings
Tragedies striking for half of the lifetime, this pair of birds of a feather
The patterned candles reflect their boundless love
Thanking their country, Thanking the last emperor,
Giving their lives to repay the grace of a troubled time for the excess love that lingers