Now in Singapore where the temperatures are in the low 80s and all is green, lush and gorgeous. The hotel is jaw droppingly astounding and my room is all minimalism and comfort – a combination that tends not to go together too well in my experience.
All would be perfection if it were not for my rebellious guts and the corresponding lack of sleep. My colleague Ray is also having difficulties sleeping and we are like a middle aged version of ‘Lost in Translation’ but without the relationship frisson.
As I type I can hear the chanteuse in the hotel bar. It seems to me to be de rigeur to have such entertainment in hotels here and she was preceded by a piano player who played the usual repertoire…ending up with a lovely rendition of the theme tune from the film ‘The Piano’. This is one piece of music that has such profound attachments that whenever I hear it, wherever I am, it reduces me to tears. Although there is much about the film that is emotionally dark – in fact it mirrors something in the New Zealand psyche I think (the film was set and shot there and has a kiwi director) – the overall message for me is actually a very hopeful one and concerns the importance of being true to your heart, to your sense of self (whatever that might be as it isn’t always so clear as to what that consists of) even if it risks social disapproval or disavowal.
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6 comments:
While you are in Singers, find out if that chewing gum stuff is true.
See if you can go to a public Birching too!!
Hope Mao's Revenge clears up!
The Piano? Jaysus!
I prayed for my own death during that film.
I'm sure the music is lovely, but there are limits.
Ah, I never travel without Nytol, but then I know a lot of people don't swear by it like I do.
It's interesting reading about your travels to HK and Singapore, neither place has ever had any appeal to me and yet both places that my father travelled to frequently when we were little, so there was always a lot of paraphernalia from there, postcards, linens, trinkets.
I LOVED 'Lost in Translation' and I can imagine you both in the bar. I don't think there's any excuse for a chanteuse though, unless you are in some kind of time-warp, which could explain it.
Now you have me intrigued about 'The Piano' mirroring the Kiwi psyche, I may have to watch it again, I have a very poor memory for films, which in my case is probably mirrored by the fact that I am completely caught up in them whilst I'm watching. Although now I've written that it doesn't really make sense.
The Kiwi psyche is the same as the Scottish psyche, but upside down and in the warm.
I'm sure that the penalties for gobbing gum were as you said and I fully accept that Singers seems to be built on a rather draconian concept of the state...
Schnee, I think that the herbal nytol is partly to blame for my guts! It was also rather ineffective in terms of getting me off to sleep! And nearly all the hotels I have been to in Singers have chanteuses. They're actually quite good if you like that kind of thing, but I don't.
And Sleepy, yes, that is the Kiwi psyche - and if you look at a map of NZ you'll see lots of scottish place names. The country was seemingly invaded by the bastards. I know you...frightening.
Highland Clearances helped with the Tartan invasion.
"I Know You!", accompanied by the Haka..
Terrifying.
Jeeeesus...run for the hills, they'll kill us all!!!
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