Monday, July 23, 2007

Wit beyond measure is Man's greatest treasure

A bit more free today because it's the start of a two-week study break; and I would like to ask, why in the world do we need so many study breaks and recesses in the first two months of school, anyway? They should just take out two weeks and put it at the end of the year so we have a longer study break before final MBBS. Seriously. Anyway, since I have more time on my hands, maybe I can try to write something coherent.


Nearly got trapped in the lift this morning, bloody scary.

I got into the lift at the first storey with this other guy (in Army No. 4, I can still remember lol) and Dr M from neonatology; Dr M got off on the second storey, while I was headed to the sixth and the other guy was headed to the fifth. As the lift was travelling between the second and fifth storeys things started getting a little hairy: the lift suddenly accelerated to a rather alarming speed for 2 seconds before stopping abruptly, and the storey numbers on the lift panel jumped very fast from 2 to 5 and then back to 3, and then there were sounds of clanking and whooshing from outside the lift i.e. in the lift shaft. The lift started jerking in alternate upward and downward directions, as if not knowing where to go, and the lighted buttons (as in, like the buttons whose storeys you want to stop at are lighted) on the lift panel all. went. out. O_O I was like OMG PLEASE DON'T LET ME BE STUCK IN HERE, but the other guy was kind of smart, he started hitting the storey 4 button because the lift panel showed that the lift was at the 4th storey. After another couple of seconds of lurching the lift finally stopped and opened at the 4th storey, where the two of us got off promptly, being quite disinclined to continue our ride on said lift.

It was quite traumatising; having grown up in a block of flats without a lift I've never quite gotten used to thinking that a lift is a safe mode of transport, and I used to have a phobia about taking lifts alone because I didn't want to get trapped inside one by myself. Where possible I often used to take escalators or stairs instead of the lift because of this phobia, but after starting clinical years and using lifts in all the hospitals I've kind of gotten used to the general convenience of lifts. Today just wasn't a good day, haha. At least I didn't get really trapped inside the lift, I probably would have started panicking like crazy.


A completely spoiler-free opinion on the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (if time permits I might cobble together some of my deeper thoughts and put them in a backpost with the text whited out). I went all the way back to NUS Central Co-Op on Saturday morning to collect my copy of the book (actually I was thinking, with the money I spent on transport to NUS and back, the relatively cheap price of 43 dollars isn't that much cheaper, oh well). Being a slow reader, and with many distractions, I only finished at 11.30 pm that night. It didn't really help that even on Saturday itself spoilers were already threatening to destroy my experience of the book: when I got home my mom picked up the book and immediately peeked into the last pages before uttering "Why didn't ----- ----- ----- -----?" which was really annoying, and later on some random Taiwanese news programme on cable started broadcasting the entire plot on the news! Like what the hell, are you people nuts?! I think hearing just the first line of that news report (I screamed and ran into the room after that, locking the door behind me, what a comical picture) had significantly spoilt my experience. Stupid Taiwanese news.

Back to what I feel about the book: I thought it was pretty fantastic! It was all we had come to expect and love in J.K. Rowling's writing - great plot and subplots, a zillion hilarious quote-worthy lines, and very heart-warming as well as agonising scenes to last the memory a long time. Personally I liked the way she closed it, even though some people call it a cop-out. Many also hated the epilogue, but I thought it was okay, because of one very special line in it that moved me greatly.

I think it's quite difficult for me to say more without dropping a minor spoiler or two, so I shall stop here. More in my extended review, if I end up writing that.


OH YES nearly forgot, it's Daniel Radcliffe's 18th birthday today (23 July), so Happy Birthday, Daniel! XD

Avaris / 7/23/2007 04:40:00 PM

0 consumed