Sunday, November 05, 2006
Full circle
My dad is probably laughing to himself now...
Before I ever started university, I protested. I refused to study economics, or anything to do with business. I wanted to sing. And so I went to Spain for some time and refused to go to university until I got my way (I've always been incredibly stubborn). Well, after only half a year of classical singing at university, I decided I didn't want to become a singer after all, and fell back on a straight arts degree, thinking I'd be a philosopher instead, until my father convinced me to do law (it didn't take much convincing, because at that stage, I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore anyhow)
Haha. That was a project which miserably failed. Atleast I can look back and laugh at my pitiful efforts to study law, which involved staring at as opposed to reading law books.
The same year I was miserable failing in law, my dreams of becoming a writer also went inextricably down the drain. Law had such a draining effect on all things creative that I managed to do poorly on what I thought would become a major in English Lit. And so it was only in this final year at university that I finally chose my course. Linguistics. And it's been the best choice I ever made.
And why is my father laughing to himself? Well, I'm doing a master in Asian studies next year. That involves policy, which is naturally going to involve the study of economics. In fact, I'm hoping that my supervisor will be a particular Thai academic who teaches economics at Chulalongkorn University (but is also attached to Monash Asia Institute).
So - that's come full circle.
But you know what else has? So has music... and now perhaps creative writing, too... slowly, though.
See, about a couple months ago, I started hanging out with Alex (from Philosophy) a lot - and I've been singing on a weekly basis as a result, because he's a great musician!
Then strangely, two more 'musical' people introduced themselves to me in these past few days. On Thursday morning I went for swim. And when I swim, I'm in my own zone and wouldn't notice if there was a pink cow in the lane next to me. I walked into the sauna, and was sitting there stretching, etc., and then just staring at the wall, when I hear "Are you half-Thai half-Finnish by any chance?" Startled, I look up, only to see that this is a guy I was chatting with in the sauna over a year ago, because that day I was bored and felt like having a conversation. And so we had a long conversation - which then extended to a long walk to Clayton and back to Monash, during which time, I discover that he and his mates have a little band, and none of them really know how to sing... so naturally, I ask if I can come jam sometime... we'll have to see how that goes!
Then, last night, I met this Irish animator who used to be a musician, and is in need of female vocal for a short film he's doing in February (That's him with the strangle hold around my neck - which I appear to be enjoying!).
And finally - on the literature front. This author comes in to eat at the Spaghetti Tree (where I work) quite often (he has minestrone soup and a water) and on Friday night, introduced himself to me. And last night, he came back again with a book for me. So I gave him my blog address to check out some of my fiction. So this is a little strange, because I know YOU will possibly be reading this. Well, in case you are - thank-you again for kindly giving me your book.
Oh, and here's a little secret, which I'm not supposed to tell you: The reason I said Thursday was a bad day to come back and chat is because the manager on Thursday (who was also managing last night) is ... perhaps a slightly poor manager... and only likes things to be done his way. So he didn't really like the fact that I was chatting with you from behind the bar for so long. He assumes that it means I got no work done. And he 'politely' extricated me from the bar by sending me off to do some other tasks.
But that's a secret. Honestly, I think he's a bit of an egomaniac, and I don't enjoy working with him, because I don't like being told what to do. But that's just between you and me (and google).
Anyhow, that aside, I ended up getting absolutely smashed last night at Clark's farewell party:
And... to top off a perfect night, I went over to Daeshy's place and got my head bashed on a table. Now I have a bump on my head, but it was worth it for all the ice :P
fon @ 11:38 AM link to post * *