Something really random for the weekend..

Tracy posted something about being an extra on an ad on Twitter. For some reason I decided to google one particular ad I was an extra in, it’s been so long I don’t even remember exactly when but here’s a screen capture:

It was 35 degrees on that day. I remember this because I was with my cousin and we were sweating buckets and drinking warm Coke and wondering when we could go home. I don’t drink Coke normally, so it is rather ironic I got paid to appear in (all of 0.5 seconds of) one.

By some stroke of luck, and no thanks to the unhelpful check-in counter guy at KL Sentral who told me otherwise, I’ve somehow managed to end up in an aisle seat right at the back of the plane, on a flight full of transit passengers from London. They wanted the seat I was initially assigned to (middle, d’oh) to seat a family of four in return for an aisle seat right at the back. Aisle seat! I almost kissed the woman at the boarding gate. And this was before I found out I was to have NO SEAT MATES! To top it off, a gorgeous steward cheekily slips plastic cupfuls of Ferrero Rochers to me, and offers me an extra Magnum after meal service as if he knew I needed the chocolate. I did. Or maybe he spotted the Godiva bag my fingers were constantly disappearing into.

I hate day flights. No matter that I only managed to get about two hours’ worth of shut eye the night before, unless I’m on my second 2hour/night cycle, majorly jetlagged or sick and drugged up, it is almost impossible for me to sleep during day hours.

We chat about my iPod. I am just a tiny bit disappointed to learn he is a Westlife fan (don’t I sound like such the snob!), but he quickly redeems himself by sharing stories, wonderful thought-provoking stories about life in the air and how by tonight he will have been on his feet for a good 18 hours, and though he looked up the weather in the Gold Coast (flight goes to Brisbane after Sydney) I suspect the poor boy wouldn’t be seeing any sand before he gets on the KL-bound 1pm tomorrow. Are you married, he asks. Hah – married! I think about the boy in KL who slaps me on the shoulder by way of hello, in lieu of a kiss on the cheek. No, I laugh, I’ll need to find someone to marry first! We talk about relationships: you are always on the move, it must be hard, he says. I wonder if I some times use it as an excuse but I think he would understand. I nod. He nods back at me. Let me get you a drink. White wine?

Perhaps this trip back has started okay after all. Funny what some food, chocolate and a random conversation can do. Bravo to MAS for serving a kickass breakfast of nasi lemak with chicken curry, precisely what I felt like at 10am, starving after spending the last of my RM on a train ticket at 7am with only enough spare change for a coffee at the airport which cost an arm and a leg. I feel better already.

It must be exciting, I say. All these new places, new faces. It’s not all fun, he says. It pays the bills. There isn’t much after, career-wise. But such a transient existence, I wish I had that privilege some times! It’s easy to be at your best for a day, but for days on end? I sigh. He smiles at me, tells me it’s not really all that. I find my friends catching up to me pretty fast on the salary scale. I may not do this for too long, who knows? Yeah, who knows. I shrug.

Who knows anything? Six months ago if you’d had told me about the boy, I would have laughed. I would have laughed because we are from such different worlds, or so I thought. Never saw him in this light, not in all these years. Then again, we’ve changed plenty through the course of said years. Did I ever mention the boy is a private school boy? I’d have laughed at that too, incredulously, had I known before. Wouldn’t have picked it in a million years.

I try to sleep, but after half an hour I lose all feeling in my left leg. I resort to reading instead – and more wine. I type this out on my iPhone. It’s shite trying to kill time on a day flight where I know I won’t be getting any real sleep. We chat a little more, and before I knew it I we were back on the ground.. much as I miss KL, I found myself more than a little relieved to be back in Sydney. And then it was straight on ’til sunrise:

[Found a neat image watermarking tool at JetPhoto! I know I'm only about a decade behind.. yes this is my tenth year blogging!]

In the midst of packing away my Winter gear and pulling out more Summer stuff. My living room is in complete disarray despite me spending 3 hours cleaning up the apartment yesterday. Argh. I have no idea where to put all the extra stuff I seem to have amassed, and my apartment despite being a good size for one, has a massive lack of storage. Of course there isn’t anywhere to put my shoes either, so the extra bit of storage I have has been taken up by my shoe racks. It is kind of baffling, I’ve only been here for 18 months! Looks like I am headed to consignment outlets and St Vinnie’s tomorrow. Good thing I have a day off from work.

Today was my last djembe class for the year. Some people have asked me about these drum classes I’ve been taking. This is the website and I’m plugging this because of how much fun I’ve had in the last eight weeks! I was first introduced to these drums at a workshop at RWMF, then subsequently by a friend in KL. It’s a great introduction to percussion, and they operate Australia-wide. If you’re making a new year’s resolution to try something new, check it out :)

Speaking of music, so the bass player I mentioned in the last post hit me back this morning. The first line of this email reads: “WOW that IS random!” (LOL). He informs me that the band are no longer together, however he is still playing so that is also awesome.

Popped into Borders today during my lunch hour. What started off as a mission to locate Ayn Rand’s Marginalia got a little out of hand when I found out that you get $20 vouchers when you spend $75. As it happens there wasn’t a copy of Marginalia anywhere, so I ended up buying the last copy on Amazon. However, I ended up with with five books (probably out of, fifty) that I’ve been meaning to pick up: Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Ayn Rand’s We The Living, George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones (rec by TR) and Zoe Foster’s Textbook Romance (which, for the purpose of the rest of this entry, is a ‘guide to men’, and let’s just assume I’ve picked it up because really like Zoe.. which I do! :))

So I went to pay. Rocked up to the counter and the guy commented on my interesting and rather diverse selection of books and asked if I wanted any wrapped. I didn’t. He told me he meant to pick up Textbook Romance, because one of the girls working there told him to check it out. And another one, he said, “hang on, I have it written down just this morning,” and he reached into his pocket and unfolded a piece of paper and on it, was written “Belle de Jour’s Guide to Men”. I laughed and asked if he knew anything at all about Belle, and it turns out he didn’t. So I gave him a quick run down, then asked if he’s read Neil Strauss. His eyes lit up – “Chapter 7,” he said, “I took a girl home that night. Couldn’t finish a book in high school but chewed through that in a week”.

We discussed the cons of The Game being a bestseller: “Some guys, they’re like robots. They follow everything to the letter and girls have heard it all before. They know the book. See, you’ve read it,” he tells me. “it’s about the confidence,” I say. “And about how much conviction you’re putting into it and how much you believe you’re about to pull something off.” And then some: “But you cannot generalise a whole gender,” I tell him. “How much of anything in any of these books do you think would be applicable to you and how much of this do you think is common sense, playing on the (lack of) self-esteem of others?” Then he tells me he wants to write a book, but for men, on women.

“Ah. Good luck with that.”

(Yes, of course by this time I’ve long finished paying for my books)

I looked at my $20 vouchers. There were two: $10 for Jan and $10 for Feb. “Oh, so you can’t use them right now? Damn,” I said. There was a Victor Hugo (another rec) I wanted to pick up after which was $27. Cheeky bugger grins and says, “Maybe after reading that book you can get a man to buy that for you.” Oh shitttt. He thinks I’m buying a man guide because I need help in that department?? As it dawned on me (in a very, seriously, oh f*ck kind of way) I decided there are really only two things I can do: Ask for his number? But what’s to prove? I grinned and walked off. But not before glibly letting this one slip:

“I don’t swing that way, honey.”

Picked up two fuzzy vintage berets today. They are made from a bolt of vintage material, so are technically new. New vintage? Hmm. Minor technicality, I really really love them! It’s a bonus they are very warm because the weather is still wet and gray. Hopefully this will change soon because I am finding it harder and harder to get out of bed every morning when it looks so gloomy outside. I have lost two pairs of shoes in just as many months; suede and satin both unsuitable options for this sporadic, fickle weather that defies forecasts more often than not.

Currently watching the NSW v QLD State of Origin game. The blues aren’t looking so good. Looking forward to the weekend.. praying for no rain!!