Archive for February, 2006

tattoos

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

Hey, great weeks. Since I last wrote I haven’t done too much, just struggle with the daily hardships of living a clean life. Zen went back to school and is enjoying everything he does in this crazy world of ours. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last week working on my novel. Trying to write 1,000 words a night, which is usually no problem, and I’m already way past 14,000 words. One night I surprised myself by writing 2,700 words. Last night I wrote and wrote and got to almost 4,000, quite a lot. Another night I was tired. I wrote 600 words, then thought I’d write a bit more to finish the “scene,” then when I did that it turned out to be 1,000 anyway.

So what is this crazy book about? Just about a guy on the run from the law, hiding out in Japan, hanging out with bands.

Some interesting things from the past few weeks. This past weekend was Chinese New Year, we got a four-day long weekend, hooray. Saturday I went downtown to meet up with some friends who have three cats, so Zen could enjoy those kitties. He was really shy, and so were the cats in fact. Joel gave me a cool tour of his stamp collection, displayed in his living room and going back to the penny blacks. Very interesting stuff, actually. Left there, went to Naoko’s school, then headed on back home. Zen slept in the afternoon, and we hung out the rest of the day. Sunday we went to the Chinese garden by bus and walked around in the sunny afternoon for a few hours. The garden was nice, with some strange decorated trees and also a bus-ride that looked like a train. It was parked, so Zen had lots of fun jumping around on it. Then we walked into the bonsai garden, which was free for the day, and saw 80 year old, 150 year old, 300 year old bonsai trees. Tree torture, playing God, but very interesting indeed. Then we found an amusement park, with a little train ride. Zen wanted to go on it, of course, so mum paid the three bucks and off he went. There were no other kids coming, so the guy let him ride and ride and ride. It was a highlight of the day. We walked to the bus stop, waited for the bus to come. I think it wore mum out – she now finally agrees that there are definitely circumstances when it’s alright to take a taxi, even when a bus goes the same route. Seems like this happens every time my parents come to Singapore – they’re dead set against using taxis, then after a while they figure out that they’re cheap enough to take from time to time as a treat when you don’t feel so much like walking, or if it’s getting late. Yes, special circumstances. Got hime, hung out, wrote, drank beer, got ready for the evening party with Sean and Mihoko and the kids and all sorts of friends. Played pool with the guys, went to Sean’s, listened to music, made cocktails, drank, played cards, then Naoko passed out, Zen was still awake at 11:30, we went home an rested. I wrote some more. Sunday was such a full day, Monday we really didn’t do anything at all. I took Zen to see the Malaysia train, then in the evening headed over to Sean’s and we went out to some pubs. The first place we went to is called “My Wife’s Place,” which Sean thought was “a new place that opened up with pool tables” (he’s attracted to anything with a pool table, it seems) but it was a horrible dive of Bukowski proportions, with scary staff, and some wreird guy singing non-stop karaoke. He had the worst singing voice I’ve ever heard. The beer was over-priced too. We headed off to Busk, where we’ve been before, and were pleased to see that there was a country band playing! Singaporean country buffs!! They were really good too. Talked to them a bunch, also to a strange German guy who was really stuck up, also his dad, who was quite nice. Funny. Left there and tried out another place that really WAS new, The Club House Pub. Hey – is it a club house or is it a pub? Not so great decor, crappy music, no women either (of course) and not really so great. Oh well. Sean was glued to the pool table like a magnet, but I was falling asleep. Finally got home and slept. Tuesday we went to the botanical garden, this time taking Zen’s bicycle. Same old patterns. Oh well. Went home, Zen napped, I wrote, we went to see the Malaysia train, then back. Sun-woo was visiting with her parents and I took Zen over to play, but he wasn’t interested. Wonder why. Zen!! Today felt like a Monday, but it was really a Wednesday. Stayed quite late putting totgether our awards sudmission package. Lots of little things to do. Tired…

At the Chinese garden – funny buses, fun tree!

bus train funny tree funny tree 2

Weird bonsai garden stuff!!

mum 'n' dad in bonsai garden achey breaky tree in the train

Funny fierce warriors. As Puff Daddy says: uh-huh… yeah.

on the bridge feirce warriors