gambitch - now available in blue

Saturday, September 16, 2006

People should all be made to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I kid you not.

Being a stickler for perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation can be painful. But it's all about defending certain things that should be, rather than settling for less.

Sadly, it looks like it won't happen.

At least this book's fun to read.

gambitch [ 6:48 PM]

Friday, September 15, 2006

Time is not on my side.

This kind of thing is happening quite often lately. And that is not a good sign.

I need to rush this work. But will it beat the clock?

gambitch [ 2:45 PM]

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Scene from a dream earlier today:

Some unknown part of town. It's late at night, and the sky is starry with a bright full moon. A boy and a girl are running as hard as they can to catch a train (or a bus, or whatever else it could have been). Both run their hearts out, with boy just steps ahead of girl.

As boy takes quicker and quicker strides, he gradually realizes that his feet are not landing on the pavement anymore. Instead they feel as if they're landing on nothing at all. Boy glances down, and he is amazed by what he sees.

Boy is running in the air. (Yes, please remember to suspend your disbelief, because dreams sometimes do defy the laws of physics.)

Boy stops moving. He loses a bit of altitude, but he is still floating just a couple of feet above the ground. Boy wills himself to turn around, and sees girl with hands over knees, catching her breath as she too is stunned by the sight.

"You're... you're floating!" girl finally says between exaggeratedly heavy breaths. Even bent forward, her deep inhalations and exhalations give her figure away, although boy hardly seems to pay any notice. He just looks straight at girl's face, dumbstruck for seconds before mustering a reply.

"Yeah, I am! ... What happened? How did this happen?"

"I... I don't know! You were just running and running..." Girl's reply is a little confused, hardly surprising given the circumstances.

Boy does not know what to say at first, but a few seconds later his lips part.

"Looks like the separation between Heaven and Earth... isn't so great after all."

"But that's the difference between us. You can float, and maybe you can even fly. I can't."

Girl's voice sounds firm, although resigned. She had always thought that there was a line of separation between her and him. A wall that neither could truly penetrate. A wall that neither truly dared to penetrate, because neither knew for sure what would happen next.

Girl didn't feel ready to try. And even now, she still doesn't.

But boy has more confidence.

"Sure you can. Just give it all you've got and believe!"

Girl is still not so sure. But boy reminds her.

"We've still got to run anyway. Just keep running. I'll be here, right near you."

So girl takes a deep breath and starts sprinting forward again. Going as hard as she can because she doesn't want to miss the train (or bus, or anything else it could have been), she feels the wind blow in her hair as she runs harder and harder. All this while, boy is still floating just steps ahead of her, looking back and facing her as he wills her on.

She keeps running for what may have been a couple of kilometres, and as she sees boy floating higher and higher until his feet are above her height, she feels the tears gradually form at the corners of her eyes.

"Come on, you can do it!" Boy keeps shouting as he gestures forward.

"I... I can't..." Girl barely forces the words out in-between breaths, suppressing any urge to burst into tears.

"Sure you can! Here, grab my hand!" Boy suddenly turns around, still in mid-air, and stretches his right hand out until it is just within her reach.

Almost instinctively, girl reaches out for boy's right hand with hers. Once the two hands make contact, boy grips girl's forearm with his left hand and, with one strong pull and turn of his waist, lifts her off the ground and into the air.

Girl closes her eyes as she dares not look. A couple of seconds later, when she can feel that she is alive and well, she slowly opens them and sees for herself that, indeed, both are no longer on firm ground.

They may be just a couple of feet up, but they are both definitely floating.

"See?"

"... Unbelievable!" Girl lets out, almost breathless.

Both keep on floating, and as boy wills himself into raising their altitude, they gradually rise until they are easily several metres high. Boy pulls girl closer to him, gripping her right arm as hard as he can without hurting her. He finally slides his right hand down towards girl's waist, where he holds her.

By now, girl seems to have adjusted to flying. Her body is less tight with nervousness than it was when her feet had abruptly lifted off the ground. Now she knows how it feels, and is getting used to it.

But she still has her doubts.

"... But wouldn't we fall?" she asks, turning to face boy.

"Not if you don't think about it. Because I don't intend to." says boy with all the belief of an innocent 8-year-old, but at the same time sounding very confident and certain, as if he has done this countless times before.

Adjusting his body in one swift motion, he releases his grip on her right arm and switches to putting both arms around her waist from behind. Facing downwards like a parachutist, he pulls his body close to her back as she instinctively spreads her arms out, balancing herself (and himself too, really) like a bird would with its wings.

By now, both forget what it is they are running after. Who needs that when you can fly?

Boy tilts his head slightly to one side and gently breathes a few words into girl's ear.

"Isn't this wonderful?"

"Yeah."

"You never knew you could do this, did you?"

"Did you think I can?" Girl turns her head to steal a glance at boy.

"What do you think?" Boy's smile is telling. He always smiles like this when he prefers not to say the answer himself.

But this time he does whisper something else, as he rests his cheek against the side of her fair neck.

"Believe, and anything is possible."

gambitch [ 11:35 PM]

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Vexation, vexation
No room for relaxation

That's just what happens when you get concerned and worried. Even if it means you're getting oversensitive.

Which, by the way, I tend to be.

gambitch [ 11:46 PM]

Monday, September 11, 2006

These tired feet
They have carried me far
From one edge of the world
To the other
Only to bring me here
Every time
Every moment

Because here is where
I feel at ease
I feel I belong
Side by side with you
Black shoes next to white
Wrapped around our feet

We hear the songs
We see the cheering
You looked
I listened
Shoe beside shoe
Taking it all in
This scenery
That is so you

How much further to go
When the sun rises tomorrow
Is just a number
However far we go
We will come back
Because we know
We just know

gambitch [ 11:54 PM]

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Apart from football, I actually do watch a bit of golf. I might have mentioned that before. The thing, though, is that I've never watched it in the flesh, right on the golf course. So I snapped up the opportunity recently when I was presented with one to go watch a tournament. Well, just the fourth day, but that's probably the best day to catch a tournament.

Unless of course it rains bloody damn hard.

Which it did, on this occasion. That eventually forced the cancellation of Round 4, leading to a playoff as the only alternative. So it was played, and after a couple of really horrid mistakes, Aussie won it. Yes, the young lad won it. Great for him, although there's nearly nothing to choose between him and the man he beat on the day.

So I managed to abuse my position and connections to sneak my way into the media centre for the event. And I have to say I am very impressed by what I saw. Perhaps it's just because I'm very easily impressed when people do a bang-up good job right to cater to something like 80 journalists in a really well-done tent, complete with refreshments in a side room. Okay, so by the time I got there, there was no food left. But then I wasn't working on the day.

But what I saw led to the same old question: What if the guys that screwed up, or at least didn't do quite as impressively, turned up here to study their more successful counterparts? Instead of having some other internal closed-door event miles away?

It's about the humility and the hunger to learn. Sometimes that's all it takes to start an improvement.

gambitch [ 10:41 PM]