the exhaust fan in my bathroom wasn’t working for quite some time, so last thrusday, the landlady came over and took it away. with a hole (around 40cm in diameter) above the showerbox and significant amount of dust hanging over it, i can’t be bothered to take a shower, lest the dust falls off and all my effort to cleanse myself would be nullified.

and just now, the landlady was back, with the cleaned and now-working-perfectly fan. she cleaned the attic too. a full five plastic bags of dusty grey materials were removed.

now i can take a shower.

a rather unusual dream for me.

was in a small pub/bar (roughly 5 meter long and 3 meter wide), with a few people/strangers. i was drinking alone when the door opened and a big caucassian male entered. he reeked of trouble-seeker, so everyone was ignoring him when he approached the patrons and bullied them one by one. as nobody took his bait, he left the pub, cursing.

i followed him outside, just to make him pay for disturbing my peaceful beer time. i wasn’t the only one. another person chased him before me. when i got outside, that person already beating the bully. i joined in, launching a flying kick towards the back of the bully’s neck. felt my leg too heavy, like something was dragging it back.

then the dream was over. i kicked in my dream, dragging my duvet with it. come to think of it, the bar might be quite similar to the alliance inn in warcraft’s grizzly hills. why i kicked maybe related to the football world cup fever.

had a disturbing dream this morning, in which my upper left, last molar fell off. upon close inspection, the tooth had no root. instead, it had two hook-like teeth coming out from the side and a larger one on the back side.

there was another dream after that, full of heated arguments, but i can’t remember who, where, and any other details.

according to chinese belief, dreaming a losing tooth indicates an incoming death in the family. hope the dream i had this morning wasn’t qualified as one, for the ‘tooth’ wasn’t exactly a tooth.

been watching lots of movies and documentaries. i don’t think normal hollywood/tv watchers would know these titles though.

movies:
the motorcylce diaries ***OO
the crime of father amaro ***+O
shawshank redemption ***+O
purple butterfly **+OO
city of god ***OO

documentaries:
perfect vagina **+OO
explores the current generation female’s fear of unsightly vagina, and their obsession of smooth and tiny opening, while the males don’t really give a shit about it.

my small breasts and i ***OO
highlights the confidence problems of females with small breasts and how far will they go to change them.

why do we talk ***OO
where did language come from? how and why did we learn to speak? can isolated babies grow up and create their own language?

bikini revolution **+OO
covers too much topics, ranging from the origin of the swimsuit’s name to the plight of bikinian people, to the current trend. at the end, the information given was not quite deep.

the last voyage of the gustloff **+OO
something that i’ve never heard of from ww2; it’s about german refugees escaping the avenging russian, just to get into the ship, and the sinking of her by a russian submarine.

have you heard from johannesburg? ****O
documentary about how international boycott on south african sports contributed in overthrowing the apartheid.

bought a ring from a closing-down accessory/jewellry shop in melbourne central, where everything was only $1. the ring i bought was taken from a box with label ‘mood ring’. not sure if i got the mood ring, or a simple iron band.

nevertheless, i’m experimenting with it to boost the metal energy in me, as according to a chinese fortune-telling calculation, i don’t have any metal energy and this would be one way to balance it up.

it’s been a few days now, and not much observable change yet. hope some changes will occur soon and i win the lottery :)

from a friend who supported england team in the football world cup.

three lions + 11 algerians = three kittens
three kittens + 11 germans = three pussies

i’ve never won any kind of draw, lottery, and the likes before. but that doesn’t mean i would never win anything.

last week, or was it two weeks ago, i went to my favourite bookshop, ‘reader’s feast’ in the city, bought a book (the book of general ignorance), and hence qualified for such a draw. and this very afternoon, here’s what i got:

this might be a break of my series of bad luck in odd/chance games. tomorrow i’ll try it again on the national lottery.

been dozing off quite early these past few days, and woken up at around 6.30-7ish too. maybe it’s the weather. or the fengshui of the new place starts to show its effect. or simply i’m getting old.

some 50-60 years ago, television sets were luxurious items. today, they are common enough that you can throw them away on the street, and nobody will pick them up.

so when i say, “hey, i’ve got a tv now, so i’ll probably be watching some show tonight,” in the past, people would think “rich bastard is fucking showing off.” but if i say the same sentence now, people would think “poor sod just afford to get a tv now.”

just like captain obvious would say, “the value of a statement depends on time.”

old magazines made up a significant portion of the stuff that were carried around when we moved to new house, and most of them are erotic in nature. i reread one of them today, but the excitement is pretty much gone. not sure if it’s because i’ve gotten used to seeing such images on the computer screens, or the pose/artwork is not there, or simply because i wasn’t in the mood. one thing for sure, after all these years, i can’t enjoy those old pictures as i used to.

on the other hand, some of the texts are still enjoyable. maybe it’s the imagination. when you read something without pictorial references, you created the image yourself, and that image will suit you better, because it’s something you’d want to see; whereas a given picture is what the photographer thinks you want to see, not necessarily your idea of beauty.

when was the last time i made a haiku? ages ago, if i remember correctly. but today, when i was in the cafe waiting for a friend, i looked at things and remembered some past moments and voila… a haiku was born.

in a new house
the old spider
lost his old house

新しい家
家無くなった
古い蜘蛛

-
on a busy street
begging for food.
poor little sparrows.

賑やかな道
食事を頼む
雀たち

now that we have access to tv again, i’ve been watching many foreign movies on sbs. the list will be long, so i won’t be bothered outlining the plot etc. i’ll just give the usual star rating to show how fond i am of those movies.

hardcore – greece **OOO
13 roses – spain **OOO
council of stone – france **+OO
the valet – france ***+O
initial d – hongkong **+OO

after a week living like in the early 1990s, the internet was finally reconnected. so this was what happened during the period:

tuesday
morning till afternoon: moving the content from old house to new dwelling. during the move, i lost my funky bright pink clipboard (which i bought in shrewsbury in 1994) – good, in a sense, that i have less thing attached to my past.

wednesday
unpacking process continued. went back to old house in balwyn to pay the cleaner to clean the house. had a chocking sad feeling when i switched off the light and close the door for the last time. (later i realised, maybe it’s because of my shirt too tight.) also delivered the old house keys to vero.

friday
the bond return form was filled incorrectly (insisted the real estate agent), so bro n i had to go to ex housemates’ new house to refill the form. since they’re leaving for europe on saturday, their day will be busy, so we have to be there quite early in the morning. by 8am, we were already on the bus stop. which didn’t help, as the next bus wouldn’t be coming for another 15 minutes or so. walking to the train station took 15-20 minutes, got the express service, arrived at destination about 9. a good exercise, for now i know i can apply for a job in the city and not be too late if i follow the routine.

uncle j and cousin a were here, for cousin’s graduation. a dinner invitation from them at 7, so we had almost a day to waste. bought a phone and a small fridge – too small that it fit most of our weekly groceries, but not enough space for ice cream tub. ended up eating the ice cream in liquid form for some time.

spent (almost) the whole of yesterday helping housemates moving house. learnt a thing or two from the experience. 4-tonne truck is big in the inside. i’m confident that it will fit all of my bro’s and my stuffs.

now that the house is (almost) empty (ex housemates still have some stuff left uncarried by the truck), i started moving out some of my boxes out of my room into the living room. not too bad, imho. boxes of books probably make the bulk of it. so far 20+ boxes of them. and still counting.

while packing, i can’t help not contemplating the importance of this place for me in the past two years. the events and memories and all that. without realising that yuki’s sentimental journey is playing on the background (on random playlist.) how fitting. was thinking to show my room on my newly-acquired webcam to gf, but as she’s busy with her exam and all, haven’t got a chance to do it yet. oh well, maybe later. or not.

enough melancholic for now, going back to packing now.

finally, after weeks of house hunting, we (my brother and i) signed the contract. felt like an incredibly heavy burden lifted. the new house will be in altona meadow, about 15 min walk from laverton station. good abode, imho. shopping centre and some restaurant chains are just in front of the house, as well as the bus stop. bit far from the city (40 min by train), but it’s still in zone 1.

with the house secured, next comes the talking jobs; connecting water/electricity/gas/etc, scheduling the move with removalist, change of address, and cleaning the current house. still not quite finished, but i think i can get a proper rest tonight.

evacuation day is getting closer, and next wednesday will be the last day for us to throw the green waste (rubbish from garden), so we cleaned up the garden for one last time yesterday. were supposed to dump them, together with other shits, but we’re too late; the dumping ground closed half an hour earlier.

this morning, we took some of the green waste (three rubbish bag ful), computer parts (monitor, printer, mouse, keyboard, etc), some large cardboards to the booroondara transfer station. first time i went to that kind of place. was impressed by the size of it.

was very sad when i put the keyboards on the pile. those plastics had accompanied me in many quests, assignments, porn views, etc, and now they’re exposed to sun, rain, hail, etc. wonder how many amateur porn videos are stored in the dumping ground. scavenged v’s webcam.

from there, to box hill, to take a bus to chadstone to meet up with friend a. got a free coffee voucher by answering some questionairre about the shopping centre. made photocopies of documents needed for signing house contract tomorrow.

learnt a few things from moving house.

- to live in the society today, you need lots of papers. just to confirm that you are alive, you’d need passport, bank account/statement, utility bill, council rates, payslip, accountant name, solicitor name, etc. can’t just live peacefully in the mountain, and get acknowledged by your neighbours like a few centuries ago.

- the current house market in melbourne is fucking crazy. for 250 a week, you can get a nice cozy apartment in essendon (rather rich area), 10 meters from the tram stop. or. for 240 a week, you can get a small, run down unit in west footscray, bathroom with broken tiles, 15 min walk from station, in front of abandoned junk yard. i can understand if the later is offered for 140 a week or so.. but yeah.

- scam is always in the air. 300 a week, two bedroom apartment in the middle of the city. but the owner is in nigeria, and will only send the key after you paid a few months in advance. and, you must be god-fearing too, said the email.