Today seems to be turning out to be relatively sunny. I might go for a swim in a bit, just before lunchtime and before going to meet Zhiying to watch The Bourne Ultimatum. I haven't seen an action film in ages. Should be interesting.
I had a restless night last night. I woke up at least twice, and I had a nightmare of sorts between 8am and 9am, when I finally got up. I dreamt that I saw a black and violently swivelling tornado headed towards Gillman Heights from the direction of Sentosa and as it came towards Gillman Barracks, there was a spark and the trees burst into flames. It must have caught an electric cable enroute. I ran to my mother who was in the kitchen and shouted for her to take cover in my room. I wanted to hide under the bed but there was stuff under it so I lay with my mum by the bed, hoping that the tornado will swivel past and not come for a direct hit. After what seemed like quite a while - it was strangely silent as well - we finally got up from the floor. It felt slightly surreal but we were quite sure the tornado must have passed by after all that time as it was coming at us at such speed. Everything was still and silent. I went to look out the window at the HK neighbour's flat and to my shock and horror, it was half crumbling. Suddenly, whether it was my legs or the building, I felt the floor beneath me move. It didn't move again so I wasn't sure if it was my imagination but the first thing I thought to do was to get everyone to evacuate the building. At this point my sister appeared and so did a little white puppy and I changed hurriedly into jeans and pulled out my red Polo Ralph Lauren jumper (my mum bought this for me when I first went to England). For some reason I thought it would be cold outside. Anyway we went to the lift, my mum got into it but I preferred the stairs so my sister and I ran down the stairs and around the 5th or 6th floor, an Indonesian maid came out pushing a trolley that was made of stainless steel. I seem to remember it was her employer's medical kit or something like that but she was desperately trying to move it down the stairs. I decided to help her and we went down carrying the trolley which didn't have any wheels on it anymore and got to the 3rd floor when the stairs looked distorted. My sister found the door to the next flight of steps leading to the second floor tucked in an awkward position under a lowered bit of ceiling. Mind you, the stairs were quite compacted and very cramped already.
When my sister and I finally came out of the building, we saw that our building was the only one left standing. Even then, there was a section of it that had been shaved off so it probably wouldn't stand for long. As I looked around me, Block 1F, 1C and 1E were all gone, only frames of the buildings remained like in the aftermath of 9/11. Everything was bathed in a blue grey light and everything was white and grey with ash and debris. It was a scene of utter devastation and I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks. Everything was gone. Everything but our memories.
...
I listened to the main piano themes of "Amelie" this morning, and they reminded me of Fabrice. He played that for me when we first met, as we had been talking about films and we both knew "Amelie" though he knew it to be "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain" which was the full French title. It was released as Amelie internationally though. Probably wouldn't have remembered the rest of the title even if they had retained that for the international audience! I remembered the German film "Das Leben Der Anderen" and how the gestapo officer was touched by music he'd heard while spying on the theatre director. "The Pianist" too is another example of music touching the SS officer who was hardened and who pretty much would have ordered the killing of the Jew if not for the fact that he'd felt his humanity again on listening to Chopin's Ballade no. 1.
I think I would like to learn how to play the tunes from "Amelie". Usually when I get a chance to play the piano I will play the theme from "The Piano" by Michael Nyman. That is the song that reminds me of Battersea; I used to play the piano while waiting for Jon and JA liked that tune very much. I used to play the main theme from "Emma" too which I think Dave liked as I heard him whistling the main refrain once. The piano. Like an old friend, my personal confidante, with whom no words need be exchanged yet emotions are laid bare. Unfortunately the piano at home is in need of repair and I can't really play it. Jon is an excellent piano player but he usually played Classical pieces whereas I'd pick pieces from movies. He had a more mathematical approach. Indeed music is very mathematical. But I tend to pay more attention to the irregularity of emotion.
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