CH121: Frustrations and Murakami

My team, the Filipino Dragons Singapore won 3 golds in 3 categories - corporate, expat and premiere women. It's frustrating for me though, that the boats I was in, comprised mostly of Juniors did not bag any prize. Yes, the boats I was in lost.

What's even more frustrating for me - is the fact that I won't be here in Singapore for the Singapore River Regatta happening on Nov 3-4. SO, the SAVA Sprints was pretty much my last (?) opportunity for a competitive race - and it sucks that I didn't get to win anything with my other junior teammates.

As always, a good book, some shopping and *** are the remedy to any pent-up frustrations and negativities. So, on the first day of losing, I went to watch TED (it's hilarious! go watch it) and bought a box set of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. 

Going through it, I must say, the writing style does seem different - but not that different enough to really leave an impression like - wait, who's this author? I do note though that after finishing the first book, it's not as much of a page-turner as 50 Shades of Grey was (I finished the 3 books in less than 1 week I think) - but 1Q84 is vastly more profound and not as shallow.

1Q84 alternates between two story lines. One heroine Aomame who works at a gym as an instructor and doubles as an assassin, and a hero Tengo who is a math teacher at a cram school and doubles as a fiction writer. Each chapter goes to Tengo then the next goes to Aomame. The story proceeds to flow separately going into book 2. The point of convergence where Aomame and Tengo's paths collide has still not occured - and I very much look forward to that.

I can't say much about Murakami's style as it is my first time to read his work. (I thought Haruki Murakami was a girl - and my impression of his writing before was something of fantasy but targeting the female audience. Apparently, I was wrong in all sorts of account - and I don't even know where I got the idea from). I'll write more about the book once I finish it. It's not fair to review it (however positive it is) given I haven't even finished.

For shopping, I got my Isetan voucher in the mail a couple of days ago. You see, I redeemed the points I've accumulated in my credit card. I should have chosen Takashimaya. I think I would have found it easier to find something. For Isetan, I had to go to the one in Scotts, Wisma Atria and finally Parkway Parade in order to find something i like. I ended up spending around 100sgd - 50sgd voucher for two items in Billabong. (My team the Filipino Dragons (Singapore) will be going to RAWA malaysia this weekend).

ANd finally, for ***. Yes, finally, caught up with all the missing dosages the past weeks because of dragonboat training (I got serious blisters last week - more so the week before). There's also a bit of frustration with G1 - with both of us reaching a conclusion that it's better if we stay friends minus the "with benefits" part. Knowing full well, with G1's confession that something happened between G1 and someone I met recently - well, it got my blood boiling - boiling enough to go for 2 rounds with two different people this evening - spaced 3 hours apart so it wasn't all that bad and exhausting.

So, now I'm sated - the frustrations calmed and justified.