Monday, September 20, 2004

aye, the tyneside

Let me try to post in the many one liner style (or perhaps two or more coz you don't always follow rules, do you) that I'd been noticing on several blogs. On account of that, I shall blog about what swarmed through my mind, albeit surprisingly, when I was about to sleep.

I was taken aback when I just finished my phone call in a telephone booth in Newcastle City Centre. What else can you be in other than that when hordes of people (all guai lou) are surrounding your telephone booth up close. That was somewhat freaky isn't it. I initially thought that I was going to be robbed or whacked, you know, just some ominuous feeling wavering about. But I realised that was not it because I saw the amazement in all of their eyes and their mutterings of "Hey, it's really working" kinda baffled me. They were astonished with the touchscreen public telephone and that it was not a hoax. How pathetic?!

I recall of getting all muddy for playing football on a muddy field in a chilling afternoon with some of the locals there. That's very not me, I know, especially football, that ain't my mojo. Although they were just kids but physically they were of my size. There was this dude, I cannot remember his name. Whenever he scored a goal, he would walk straight up to my face and say "Smell ya later" in thick geordie accent with a cheeky grin. The "mell" is somewhat down pitch while the "ya" is way high up on the pitch scale. And there's this small dude. I think he's about 8-9 years old. Those kids were locals there, so I asked him who is his favourite Newcastle United player. Was it Alan Shearer? He replied. "Shearer sucks!! I think Jenas is good. He's fast". That caught me offguarded and it was hillarious. Oh and by the way, the people there pronounces Shearer as "Sheeerer". Very friendly bunch I must say and they always greet me gleefully whenever I walk pass the field again.

One of my most dreadful moments in Newcastle though was when I had eczema. I'd pay the general hospital there a visit. Err nope, I was not admitted in there thankfully. I simply wandered around that huge maze looking for some GP. I was directed to some male nurse at the outpatient treatment section. It didn't work out. I then visited my own GP to make an appointment. Hell, I needed to wait for like 2 weeks before I get to meet the doc. That time was really suffering. But I managed to heal up abit using hydrocortisol/son/sil that was suggested by a skin specialist friend that I met at a fellowship gathering. When I finally met the GP, he prescribed a stronger steroid and some skin moisturizer. And that's that, all cleared up. The emotional distress, the rashes, the itches, the pain, and the lack of sleep much due to the sensitive skin was really haunting. Phooh.

To carry a mattress along with 3 other guys walking across the town really felt heroic. I think the caucassians who were watching us will be thinking, damn these asians are mad.

While travelling back home in a double decker, I saw a raw bush in the same bus. What's actually shocking is that the bush is black while the owner is a blonde. What has made her to go commando, I don't know. She was clearly inebriated while sitting in a manner only frogs master.

Halloween was pretty interesting. I like the mummie lady, pretty amazing for her to brave the frosty winds in a tissue outfit not to mention the tight fit, it's tissue only anyway. The two girls with 3 foot gimmick was pretty cool as well, they had to align themselves and synchronize their steps. And I also like the Fred Flintstone dude. Fortunately he was corpulent enough to fit the costume and yeah it looked like an oversized dress.

The walk back up from quayside is steeply exhaustive.

I guess I ran out of memorable moments as for now. Till the slight amnesia is gone, I will post again of such moments.