Of diet and roaches...

Almost half a year through and I have talked only two times with my neighbour. The first was within a week after I first moved in. The second happened today. Of course the subject for discussion has taken me off guard. Twice! She wanted to know if I had cockroaches in my room then, and she wanted to know if I had cockroaches today too.

Believe it or not there wasn’t any and I told her so. She was surprised indeed and gave me this weird look. I guess I should have been surprised too, because apparently her room, in her words, was brimming with roaches. Why should the pesky insects forsake mine?

So I was musing about it when suddenly I came across this quote by a personality in the highest echelons of European nobility. It said, “If it has four legs and isn’t a chair, has wings and isn’t an aeroplane, swims and isn’t a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” I wondered if my neighbour heard of this, so that she should give me that weird look.

I may not be a Cantonese but where I am now you will be taken for granted because we pretty much look the same. Did she suppose I was making a feast of the creepy arthropods that there should be none left in my room? Well, I sincerely hope not.

Yikes!

Tumbling with the flow...

Wow, life indeed is a battle for motivation! You win some times and find yourself brimming with a motivation to do so many things. You lose most of the time and it flows out of you like a river, never to return.

I remember making a silent pledge that if given a chance I would be honest, true to my responsibilities and work very hard to do everyone proud. Well, everybody makes a silent pledge. Most of us fail to abide by it. It gets worse when you give it in writing. Oh boy, I did that to my office and to the fellowship who were going to sponsor me. Now reflecting upon it I don’t seem to have deviated much from my pledge, except that when there is a deviation it feels mostly like falling from a harrowing cliff. You may survive the fall, but the thought of having to climb up again just kills you.

But I am a man! A mother’s son. She didn’t give birth to a chicken. I never cracked myself out from an egg anyway. So I don’t give up easily. Except when I have to, I pretend it is my strong motivation to sleep that supersedes the moral will to keep up with my work.

Talk about work, they take you for an ass! A low-life beast wrecked by a burden of assignments. I know I vowed to work hard, but not at the cost of good time for food, sleep and some bouts of nasty fun alongside. But then, they tell me the outcome is promising. “Unlike the real life donkey, you are going to be an educated ass with a difference!” Not so sure I would buy that. To me, an ass is an ass, no matter what.

However, that’s not too say I am giving up easily. It’s darkest before the dawn and I am just about going to be flooded by motivation to complete my assignment yet again. Although I do look forward not having to write many because it’s all lies we have to write. Oh yes, if you want good marks you are better off cooking stories than telling the truth. That’s why fiction movies always top the charts and true stories hardly do. Phew! And to think I swore I would be true to my work. But it’s a chance I am willing to take.

Anyway, you know I have sinned. But we must know too it’s not a kind world we are living in. Back to lies... oops, work again. See you folks.