21st Oct 2007 - Purpose

It has been a while since I last posted an entry, hence I decided not to procrastinate my blogging. Actually, blogging is something one does when he’s free, so perhaps it shouldn’t be thought of as procrastinating? My life has been held up by school work, giving me way lesser time now to write a blog entry. Also, what can be so interesting about school? The only amusing thing I observed while in school is when my English lecturers couldn’t spell some English words properly, which is an irony.

Yesterday was a day filled with events for me. I went to a Japanese festival organized by Teikyo University in Durham. It seems like Japanese students would go there for 5-10 months for some lessons in English, so as to improve their command of English and then to return to Japanese to complete their degrees. The festival wasn’t a very large one, it was actually not really exciting or interesting. I had some Japanese food, but the Yakisoba that I had wasn’t nice. The food was prepared by the students so you can’t really expect much. Luckily it was cheap! I think I only enjoyed the banana with chocolate fondue, which isn’t considered Japanese food. However, my Japanese friend told me that they usually have that during occasions. Oh yes, I tried the Japanese rice cake which I went for seconds. It’s similar to the “muachee” (or something like that) that we have in Singapore, though the rice cake was much smoother and the peanut coating wasn’t too thick. There was also a cultural dance which I thought was the most interesting event of the day since it’s something you don’t see often, unless you’re in Japan.

In the evening, I attended my first concert in the UK. It was the world premiere of the Durham Concerto which was aptly held at the Durham Cathedral. The orchestra performing was the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and boy were they awesome. The pieces they played not only resonated within the old stone walls of the Cathedral but the music resounded within my heart as well. It tuck at the chords of my heart, making me feel melancholic and nostalgic at certain points during the concert when the melody set a somber ambience. The concert was segmented into 3 parts which were “morning, afternoon and night”. The pieces echoed the feelings of the composer when he witnessed Durham in the morning, afternoon and night. He was trying to recreate the feeling that this castle city of Durham gave every visitor during the different parts of the day. I personally liked Durham in the afternoon because it was imaginary and the tune was mellow and thought provoking. The pieces played were trying to depict the pilgrimage of St Cuthbert and his followers. For some background information, he is the saint which led to the birth of Durham City as his followers decided to lay him to rest here. The cathedral in where he was put to rest was voted one of the best cathedrals in the world, if I’m not mistaken, and is also a world heritage site. Looks like I’m in a historically rich city!

After the concert, it was freezing and I was so tempted to take a taxi but my friends wanted to walk. The weather in Durham has been rather erratic. It can be so cold (6 degrees Celsius and below) on several consecutive days, including the mornings and afternoons and yet the very next day can be warm only to be freezing at night again. Thankfully, I bought a nice thick hoodie to keep me warm. Haha, I think I asked several of my friends for their opinions on it before buying it since I’m pretty indecisive about it. You guys should know who you are, so thanks a lot! Anyway at night, my college converted our bar into a club. I didn’t feel like going but my friends wanted to since it’s the opening of this “club” at our college. I think this event would occur once a month or fortnight. Anyway it was pretty boring and dumb because you have to pay an entrance fee to enter our very own bar. Not to mention, the crowd’s the same, it was the Butler crowd and there were few outsiders. I thought it was a waste of time, not going to go for it again… This concluded my eventful Saturday.

It’s nearly 1am now and I still want to do some work before I sleep, so I’m going to try to end off on a funny note. I have this friend from the Philippines who’s doing his masters in law. He’s not only smart but rich, think he has a masters in public affairs from Japan as well as two bachelors in law and political science. For you girls thinking that he might be a good catch, too bad I can’t introduce you to him because he’s married to his doctor wife who’s currently working as a specialist in America. Anyway, he told me something funny. He was telling me that some people who left the Philippines for several years go back there saying that they forgotten how to speak in their native language because they were abroad for a couple of years. He asked me “Denis, do you know how to test if they truly forgotten how to speak?” Of course I didn’t have a clue and so he told me, you just set the dogs on them and suddenly they will be able to curse and swear in their native language while being chased hot on their heels. Haha, he also told me something else which is funny, but I think it might be offensive to post it here. It’s regarding Philippinos anyway, and I always tell him jokingly that he discriminates against his own countrymen. So for those of you who want to know what it is, just drop me a message ya?

This weekend has been pleasant for me except for an isolated incident. I prayed about it in Church since I’m quite at a lost now. All I know is that God blesses us with gifts for a purpose and likewise, these gifts may be taken away for a purpose…