Wordless Wednesday.

Tasting Flamenco flavours in its beautiful city of birth: Seville, Spain.

Click here to play along.

Procrastination.

I'll think of a better blog title for this post later, when I've stopped swapping what I'm meant to be doing with lazy, menial indulgent distractions procrastinating.

I am usually a super motivated person... so much so, I've been teased about it most of my life, along the lines of:

"Nat the go-getter!"

"What project is Nat working on now?"

"If Nat tried to sit still, and there was noone there to see it, would she still be Nat?"

My sides are splitting with laughter.

But this week, aliens have evidently caught the number 12 bus down from planet alienville and injected their paralysing vermin into my innocent "please don't probe me!" body.

I've still been working this week, of course. But just the basics... what I have been asked to do. Jobs for clients, with as much thought and time as each deserves. But that's it. No additional work, no ambitious projects, no business development, no supplementary achievements. No go-getting of any kind.

But here's a little of what I have been doing this week...

* Watching Tabitha's Salon Takeover (man, that woman is a beartch)

* Talking long afternoon strolls through Victoria Park with the music up full blast on my iPod

* Sending Glee song requests to Ryan Murphy

* Pruning my plants

* Concocting celebrity baby images

* Lying on the couch gazing out the window at the clear October sky

* Chatting to friends on the phone about nothing at all

* Googling Glee interviews and kicking myself for stumbling across spoilers

* Writing lists of what I should be doing

* Flicking through my diary, realising all the things I didn't do

Wow... quite the high achiever this week, huh? Now I'd stay and write more, but someone has just emailed me a video of a man inventing his own animals, that I simply must watch...

Wordless Wednesday

Temple offerings.

To play along, click here.

The sinking ship.

SCENE 1:

INT. NAT AND B'S BEDROOM. LATE.

NAT:  (obsessing about some random issue, as usual)

But what if X, Y, or Z happens? That'll be just awful. Maybe even the end of the world as I know it. 

B:  (gently)

Do you realise you're worrying about something hasn't happened, or may not even happen?

NAT:  (panicking)

Yes, but what if X, Y, or Z DOES happen? What will I do then?? Huh?

B:  (pause; taking Nat's hand)

Honey... You know, whenever you find one tiny leak in a ship, suddenly that ship is sinking. It's just a leak.

CUT ON NAT'S PENSIVE FACE, PERHAPS TAPPING HER FINGER TO HER JAW.

CUE DRAMATIC EXIT MUSIC.

------------------------------

He's right. The first part of that ramblish I'll-never-win-an-Oscar-for-screenwriting dialogue is just me taking creative liberties again, but the last line is real. B said it to me this week while my mind was performing cartwheels over something random.

And he's right. I do that. I'll often collapse under the weight of a sinking ship when I find a leak, made all the worse if the issue is important to me.

Is this a glass half empty thing? If I have mixed feelings about something, am I sentenced to default to worrying about the worst possibility? Am I the only one sinking ships? And how do I stop? Positive thinking? Mindless distraction?
Perhaps just leaning over and kissing the cute boy with the wise words?

And how many questions can I ask in one paragraph before the reader sinks his/her own ship because they're over my upward-inflection-ending questions?

OK, I'll stop. Got a leak to fix.

{image source}

Wordless Wednesday.

Hong Kong's greatest tradition... the foot massage.

Disclaimer: These hideous shorts, which likely needed to be charged via battery every hour to stay that bright, were most definitely not mine. The lovely masseur lady lent them to me so I didn't give the whole room a show with my skirt hitched up. Hong Kong folk are considerate like that.

Click here to play along.

This isn't cute at all.

Baby pandas on a heating pad inside a nursery in China.

Dear baby pandas,

Major cuteness fail. Try again.

Yours,

{Image source}

Haven't you heard? I'm an idiot.

Oh yes, it's true. I plead guilty to my own idiot-ness. I figured it out this week while I was watching Glee. Not because I copped a proverbial slap to the face when I realised (a) I was not born in 1994, I was born in the SEVENTIES and (b) I shall never, ever sing and dance as well as those crazy kids.

No, I realised I was an idiot because I really liked Glee. Allow me to explain.

When Glee first came out, I hated it with a venemous passion... people would gush to me, "did you see Glee this w..." - and even though their mouth was still functioning, my ears had totally shut down and were already erecting protest signs.

That stupid show Glee, I would think to myself... I hate that show. American high school kids singing and dancing, urgh.

Which is all good. The free world says I'm allowed to hate Glee. If I've (*cough*) actually seen an episode. 

You see, I was avoiding, bad-mouthing, downright despising a show I had never seen. And it's not just Glee. I did this to that darn Da Vinci Code book too, just because it was such a monster hit. Throughout 2004, while attempting a conversation with my friends, I remember their eyes would slightly glaze over before they'd reach into their bag like a Dan Brown-controlled zombie and drool over the latest dog-eared page.

I may have exaggerated just then, but then again, I may have not.

After years of wanting to scratch my face with the words, "I hate all codes pertaining to Da Vinci!" I found myself picking up my sister's copy when I literally had nothing else to read, defiantly turning a page. And then I turned another page... pretty soon I had turned wild and was spotted bellowing from the rooftops to the streetwalkers below, "Haven't you heard??? Jesus was MARRIED!! What are you all DOING just going on with your lives, like this hasn't happened? Look at that darn Da Vinci painting!!"

I may have exaggerated just then, but then again, I may have not.

And then the movie with Tom Hanks came out and I pretty much declared it a farce.

But back to Glee. I have a habit of doing this... rejecting something I've never seen or read, just because it's popular. I've been sick recently, and therefore sentenced to watching TV series on iTunes because Hong Kong television is so bad it's literally un-bloggable. I'd burned through pretty much every series I'd ever heard of, until my rebellious hands gave my attitude the finger (the perks of being a hand) and typed in Glee season one. Screw it. What really turned me was when I found out it had been created by Ryan Murphy, who gave me one of my favourite shows of all time - Nip/Tuck.

And, what do you know, people, I loved it. I watched the whole first season in less than a week. I love the talent, the singing, the dancing, the message, the sweet high school teacher, whoever plays that Finn guy because he's really cute, Lea Michele who is an absolute delight, and I want to have Appletinis with Chris Colfer.

So there you go. The Da Vinci Code is actually a really stellar book. Glee is a seriously well-made show.

And I'm an idiot.

Wordless Wednesday

Window shopping, HK style.

To play along, click here.

The A to the Z.

I've seen this rather delightful little list floating around various blogs lately, so I thought I'd saddle up and get on board the A-Z train.

A. Age: 32

B. Bed size: Queen (with delusions of being a King)

C. Chore you hate: Ironing (gag)

D. Dogs: Ted (toy poodle, 2 years), Otto (schnauzer, 1.5 years)

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee, check news websites, social media and blogs

F. Favourite colour: Pink

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H. Height: 160cm

I. Instruments you play: 1 x failed attempt at keyboard, 1 x failed attempt at bass guitar... end result = none

J. Job title: Director of English Editor Asia

K. Kids: Yes, please

L. Live: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China

M. Mother's name: Eva Maria

N. Nicknames: Currently - Nat, Nats, Natbags; Past nicknames - Long Grain (because I was tiny and white, like rice) and Killer (because I was tiny, like rice)

O. Overnight hospital stays: when I had pneumonia as a child (the sheer terror is burned into my brain)

P. Pet peeves: People being inconsiderate of others, burping, bad drivers

Q. Quote from a movie: I'm the patron saint of mediocrity - Antonio Salieri, 'Amadeus'

R. Right or left-handed: Right

S. Siblings: One older sister

T. Time to wake up: Usually 7:30am, currently 8:00am

U. Underwear: Wha? Of course!

V. Vegetables you hate: Celery (gag), mushrooms (gag), generally untrusting of capsicum

W. What makes you run late: Watching TV series DVDs

X. X-rays you have: Broken finger, sprained arm, chest for asthma

Y. Yummy food that you make: Sticky date pudding; caramel cupcakes with butterscotch frosting; spaghetti with rocket, parmesan and cherry tomatoes; peanut butter cake

Z. Zoo animals: Monkeys and turtles (bless them ALL).