Thursday, June 16, 2005
About a Boy..

..about the best bloody brillant book ever written as well.

As i was reading it, i kept trying to associate the various chapters in the book to the corresponding scenes in the movie (starring Hugh Grant), but the attempts were of little avail.

Well it wasn't that i hadn't watched the movie,
because i can remember vividly, the occasion and setting and events leading up to, the evening i caught it.
And it wasn't that my memory is failing, seeing as i've attained the ripe age of 21,
because as i've said, i remember the occasion vividly.

I somehow just don't remember the movie.

I remember i caught it with a friend upon the grassy plain of Fort Canning Park during one of Class 95's "movie in the park" events.
I remember they had erected several large spherical lanterns, emitting a faint orangey glow, along the perimeters of the field, and i pointed to one of them and commented on how huge and close the moon looked that evening, which made her chuckle.
I remember buying a bag of sour-cream flavoured 'Ruffles' - which i never would have done were i alone or with another bloke, as i am unable to justify the exorbitant increase in their pricing during events such as this - only for her to mention that she'd read somewhere that sour-cream causes cancer or something, upon which i opined that at least if you die from it, you die happy, and urged her to eat up anyhow.
I remember we had laid on our backs after the show contemplating the starry skies overhead and having a conversation that went a bit like this:

me: Lookit the stars! You never get to see stars in Singapore.
her: Ya, it's always too bright. Ever noticed how when you focus in onto one star, that star gets brighter while the surrounding ones seem to fade away?
me: Really?... Oh yea! heh. You know, this phemomena seems to illustrate a lot of situations in life.
her: (musing) mmhm.. then wouldn't it be scary if you're looking at the wrong star?
me: Yea.. but i think what's worse would be that you think you're looking at a star, but it's actually a satellite.. or a planet even. ('Madagascar hasn't premiered back then, or i would've added "helicopter" to my weak list of starry alternatives)
her: Oh well.
me: But if you look at the moon, you know, at least you always know it's the moon.

I remember she wore faded blue jeans.

So there, seeing as to how i am able portray that evening in stirring detail,
it occurs to me that the reason for my inablity to evoke any substantial part of the movie might largely be due to that i probably didn't even register the movie in my mind for memorial retrival.
Which was perhaps because, for me, that cinematic viewing of "About a boy"..

...was really about a girl.