one summer's day

well i just got back from singapore about an hour ago and i'm doing various things, such as listening to the Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi on YouTube... seriously, this guy's a genius. i love the song! i wish i could learn it but i'm sure the music score costs money, and it won't be cheap..

anyhow, singapore was great. the hotel i stayed in was amazing; probably the best hotel i've ever been too. as usual, mum and i raided the hotel room for cool freebies. haha. out of our best loot, we got some bars of white moss Acca Kappa soap. i can't believe they were giving them away like soup at a soup kitchen. we also took their ultra-comfortable bed room slippers. =)

i watched Spirited Away again =) this time, i watched the Japanese version. Ma promised to watch it with me. but she fell asleep even before we reached the part where Chihiro meets Yubaba. This emoticon is now extremely accurate--> =_=

she REFUSED to even try to keep awake! maybe it's because we only started watching the movie at 11:45PM =P

well it doesn't matter, cos she fell asleep and i had to carry on by myself =( she said it was boring and childish and she didn't understand why i liked it so much. OH IF ONLY SHE KNEW =D

so i watched the rest of the movie by myself, which was like, 95% of the movie. it was good, of course, but i still prefer the Walt Disney english dub version. it's easier for me to watch. but both are good la! i still prefer Haku's voice in the english dub. it's more masculine and more comforting ^^ ahhh.... i was making screenshots of Spirited Away scenes and pasting them in a Microsoft Word document.. haha... okay maybe a little too obsessed? =)

anyway, enough about Haku and Spirited Away. i did some quality shopping while i was in Singapore. i bought a pair of skinny jeans from Esprit (70% off!!!) and a Baby-G watch. well okay the watch was bought by my dad. hahaha. it's yellow and it's AWESOME. =)

i also got loads of ang-pows. good luck/farewell presents from the various aunties. what's more, they're in singapore dollars =D i also got some from my Penang relatives. woo hoooo!

they gave us free bath salts so i took a hot bath once a day for two days. it was much needed, if i may say so. running around the hospital on Ko's behalf was quite tiring. but praise the Lord that his condition has been diagnosed! it's a thyroid gland problem and he really needs to take care of his health now.. it was a weird feeling, rushing around the hospital that day.. We went to Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre to see the doctors there. it was very educational! i really respect them, and it kinda makes me wanna be a doctor even more... They were very kind to Ko despite his tendency to be irrational. Anyway, i was saying that it was a weird feeling. Weird because it was a mixture of feelings. On the one hand, i felt extremely tired because the lifts took too long to come so i had to use the stairs to run from the Laboratory to the seats where Ko was sitting. Up down up down up down up down GAHHHHH. Yeah. So it was pretty tiring. On the other hand, i was also feeling rather good about myself; i've always wanted to be sort of the big sis, right? And that was my chance. I felt really responsible talking to the doctors and the nurses on my brother's behalf, cos he was too upset to talk to them. The third feeling was a slight anxiety... It was mainly brought upon by my parents saying things like, "In Australia you keep his medicine for him, okay?" or "You must accompany him to see the doctors. Make sure he's OK." and other things like that. I know i should help out and be responsible for my family's sake, but i'm just 16 going on 17, having to take care of a 23 year old! Well i guess that's God's plan for me... He always knows the best ways to transform us... I just hope i can gain more of Christ during this entire process. And BTW, here's the premium statement made by my dad: "Your Ko's health condition makes me feel even more sure about you doing medicine, so that you can help him."

YEAP.

Well I'm glad that after two hectic chaos-filled days we were able to finally relax and have a REAL family dinner. we went to this amazing Italian restaurant! I think i've put on weight =( i haven't done any exercise since the Penang trip. I feel fat.

Anyway, doesn't matter! Cos it's ALLLLL good =)

More updates soon! One week left of Malaysia, then it's Adelaide. SIGH.

just one more =)

bunch of cuties

green eyes, blue robes, skinny legs, and a hairstyle to die for.

some of these fan arts are really good!! i love Haku's flip flops. LOL.

here's a random fan art i found of Haku and Chihiro that doesn't really look like the original anime but still it's quite sweet. unfortunately Haku looks even more like a girl than he already does.

SPIRITED AWAYYYYYYYY.

one of the sweetest awesomest cuddliest cutest FKJSDLKFJSDKHf-est movies i have watched in a long time. Haku is as sweet as ever; he hasn't changed a single bit since i first watched him in action when I was in Year 9. if anything, he's only gotten better! haha.

so here are a few things that either strike me, intrigue me, or make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

un.

Chihiro is such a cutie. she's supposed to be only ten years old in the movie but i feel that she's wise beyond her years, and she's much braver than she looks. if I was caught in a spirit world and my parents had just been turned into pigs and i had to deal with big-headed old witches and talking frogs and weird faceless spirits who have a crush on me, i would be pretty freaked out. (but i guess meeting Haku makes it all better. heh heh *goofy laugh*)

deux.

Haku is supposed to be twelve.

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE????

And contrary to popular belief, he is NOT a sissy neither is he "girly". in fact he's the most caring, serious, dependable, MACHO young boy i've ever seen in my life. (both in the real world and in the virtual cartoon world)

trois.

i love it how Chihiro and Haku never say "I love you" at all to each other and yet have such an obvious attachment to each other. Reading Haku/Chihiro fan fictions are BAAAD for my emotions because they make up really heart-wrenching stories about the two characters that never took place in the original movie at all but for some reason i can just IMAGINE the story happening in my mind.. Like one really sad fan fiction involved Haku dying and his last words to Chihiro were along the lines of "I love you... Continue to love me even when i'm gone..."

AND I COULD JUST IMAGINE THE SCENE... gahhhhh so saaaad...

see what i mean? it's bad for me. BAAAD.

quatre.

okay mom is scolding me now because i forgot to bring our conditioner and now we have to use the hotel's crappy one. haha. also, Ko went swimming and i kinda feel bad not going with him but for goodness sake we just got to the hotel!! i wanna relaaaxxx. ;)

anyhoo, back to SPIRITED AWAY *excitement*

i find the concept of spirited away really good. it's such a frigging random theme and yet everything seems to gel together really perfectly. the whole Haku being Yubaba's apprentice thing and the entrance of no-face and the greedy bathhouse workers and Chihiro's cuteness and determination to work hard. haha. AWWW I LOVE HER.

cinq.

watching Spirited Away for a second time now reminds me how much Chihiro is like me. Small, helpless, naïve, not used to hard work (haha okay actually i am QUITE used to hard work) and spoilt.. but over the course of the movie we see her transforming into a humble, persevering, loving, caring and courageous young girl... many traits there that i could never possess on my own.

as for Haku, i think they have rightly classified him as a being of the "spirit world" since there is probably no guy like him on Earth. selfless, trustworthy, kind... he didn't even HAVE to help Chihiro but he just decided to anyway. Why? WHY did he do that? that's another thing i keep asking myself. it's like a mysterious moving love that nobody can see... i used to think that Chihiro is extremely lucky for being able to meet Haku, but then again, after having met him, it would be even more painful to leave him... So why the trouble eh?

let me now take the time to remind myself that THIS IS A MOVIE. IT IS VIRTUAL. IT IS NOT REAL.

alright, i've reminded myself.

suddenly, the real world seems more appealing. and anyway, we were never meant to live in virtual reality. =]