Wednesday 17 September 2008

I'm having an ethical conundrum.
Recently the Mater went to Israel and brought me back a jewellery set - earrings and a chain - that cost her her pinky. Now we're not a gift-exchangign sort of family. On birthdays we cook mutton and on festivals we cook pork - it's how you can tell there's a celebration. So when one of us decides to buy another a gift for no particular rhyme or reason, it's big shit. Conundrum is this is quite possibly one of the ugliest jewellery sets I've ever laid eyes on. It's gold (absolutely not my metal) and has coral ("FROM THE DEAD SEA, MIND!") embellishments which to me look like large zits. So, yeah, ugly.
And as it goes with really really ugly things (paintings, piercings, pugs), it is very dear to someone whose feelings matter to me alot. So I said, "Ohh nice! I really like the orange er, stuff!"
Bad move.
Here's why: a) I almost never lie. Not because of an overactive moral fibre but because I really suck at it. I'm one of those people whose eyes dart furtively even when they've done nothing. b) I almost never lie to the Mater. Besides being extremely cool and making it evry easy for us to talk to her, she's also very astute. Uncomfortably astute sometimes.
So ever since I told her, one too many times, how pretty the thing is, she keeps asking me why I'm not wearing it. "You don't like it?" Ofcourse I do! "I thought I'd buy you something nice with love (her ace card) and you don't even like it." I DO, I SWEAR I DO! Look I'm putting it on right now! So I um, do. And as soon as I'm out the door and safely behind closed elevator doors, it goes straight into my bag.
I'm leading a double life and it's making my palms sweaty.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

The New Phone


Yeah baby! This is the best model I've owned so far and like the ever derisive Fats quickly supplied, "That's not saying very much."
It's true though, I haven't had very many nice phones. This is mainly owing to the fact that I tend to lose them more often than I use them (I'm not a phone person at all!) After much thought (Those winding queues to reclaim your number at the telecom office really gave me time to think) and several phones - various models and various price points - I've arrived at the following conclusion: The cost of a phone plus the way it looks is inversely proportionate to my chance of keeping it.
For example, take the pretty Motorazr. I got it at half price (a press-only offer). I lost it about two weeks later.
I own a basic Nokia for whenever I'm between phones. Now when I say basic, I mean really basic - feature-bereft, ugly as sin and asexual as far as being identifiable as a girl's phone or a boy's phone goes. This phone was created to be an interim phone. And. It. Just. Never. Goes. Away. Like a loser who's desperately in love with you. Great for rebounds, but you'd rather be dead than be seen together in public. Mixed feelings.
So given the history here I'm cherishing this phone because as I see it we don't have very much time left together. "Or you could take care and just not lose a phone again?" chimes the mater.
I do take care of my phones. But as with all things in life, shit doesn't happen till it does.

Saturday 13 September 2008

It's been a year and a week since my last post.
I think it's safe to say I'm not committed to putting down my thoughts nearly as often as I'd like. It's also safe to say that so far 2008 has been the year of procrastination for me.
I received an offer to write a novel at the end of January 2007 from a very fine publisher. The nice lady mailed me over and over again asking about my writing progress. Lots of encouraging words and sincere promises were exchanged by her and me respectively. Since May this year, she's stopped mailing. A slew of books by other writers and bloggers I assume she approached at around the same time she did me just came out. Complete books with fancily illustrated covers with spiffily written press releases to boot. That smarted, I can't lie.
It's also been a year of loss.
Of the invincibility of teenage years.
Of ambition.
Of faith. In others and of theirs in me.
Of hair. No really. I have a 'patch' now.
It's probably not obvious at all but it's also been the year of some serious self pitying.
How very December 31st of me. Well I can't wait that long to call it a year.