When I heard about the author, Frank McCourt's death, the first thing I thought about was how my dad was the one who introduced me to his book, Angela's Ashes. Following which, I chanced upon its sequel, 'Tis, and bought it for my dad. I enjoyed both books immensely, giving me a glimpse into the childhood of a poor boy born to an alcoholic and his growing up years in a Catholic environment.
The next thought that struck me was how my dad was instrumental in shaping me to be who I am today... not that I'm a particularly fine specimen of an offspring, but still :P
I called him during my lunch break...
Me: Dad?
He: Quirkie? What's up?
Me: Nothing. You heard about Frank McCourt?
He: Yeah! He passed away. I was just about to tell your mum about the news! How did you hear about it?
Me: Through the internet...
He: You're at home or at work?
Me: At work lah...
He: Wah... you one eye on the internet, one eye at work huh?
Me: :P
He: He wrote Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, which I introduced to you right?
Me: Yeah, you did.
He: I introduce good books to you right?
Me: Yeah, you do =) So sad (about his death) right?
He: What's there to be sad about? Nothing lasts forever!
Me: Well, still...
He: One day your daddy will also die ok!
Me: Then I'll be even more sad!
He: Hrmph. Well ok I gotta go now. Bye!
Me: Bye!
Indeed. My dad introduced the pleasures of reading Reader's Digest and incessantly tested me on Word Power, tirelessly proclaiming "It pays to increase your word power!". He scolded me when I was young for not reading the news and showed me articles in Herald Tribune that covered controversial issues in Asia that were conveniently left out in our local press. He bought books from 2nd hand bookshops that were closing down and lugged them home whenever he went on trips. I never lacked reading materials because he loved reading, and he passed the habit on to me. I didn't always appreciate how he tried to share his thoughts by sharing his books, sometimes I would shove them back in his face. It was only much later when he made a chance remark that "when I share good books with you, I'm trying to share my views with you ok!" that I realised how the rejection was personal :P
Reading Angela's Ashes is like sitting with Frank over many meals, listening to him sharing stories from his past. At least, his stories are captured and recorded and enjoyed by many around the world, and they are an experience that my dad and I have shared.
Thanks, dad, for sharing your books with me.
20 July 2009
12 July 2009
Favourite Things...
Last week, F and I met up for lunch and being the word snobs that we are (note: word snobs are not exempt from English butchery, we just like to put ourselves on a high chair and laugh at others condescendingly, thereby rendering us rather unpopular with our friends but WHAT THE HECK muahahahaha), the topic drifted to the best typo errors we've seen. And you know what? The typos we have seen will render this post PG18 rather than the G that my posts are wont to be.
To make sure our already tenuous friendships with these dear folks are not permanently wrecked, we will be keeping the identity of these friends a secret. You'll understand why.
***
Me: So I was ironing clothes the other day and Intuition was at the computer. A mutual friend wanted to fix an appointment with me, and thus Intuition was the messenger boy. She will ask him when I'm free, he will turn around and ask me (cos I was directly behind him), so on and so forth. Intuition decides to be kaypoh and asked Friend, why do you wanna meet Quirkiekai, what feminine gossips do you gals have planned?? And she said "We're going to discuss your bed habits!" ... O_o apparently, she meant BAD habits.
He: That reminds me of my friend. He was going to loan his external hard disk to a female friend, and when he wanted to confirm it, he actually msned her "So do you still want my hard dick?" and then he quickly typed "i mean hard disk hard disk hard disk!!!!!!"
He: And there was this other friend whom I was gaming with, and in there you can send messages to each other. We were talking about weaponry and he was telling me what he has. He typed "xxxxx, xxxxxxxx, breast slayer, xxxxxx, xxxxxx...." I think he meant BEAST slayer, but that was totally a freudian slip.
Me: Speaking about boobs, this one was to an email to a gathering, discussing snacks, activities and what to bring etc. And this guy, in all serious innocence, emailed saying "I'll be bringing the tits bits".
***
After I related these to Intuition, he reminded me of another classic spelling boo-boo. At a gathering one day, we decided rather spontaneously that we were going to a board game cafe, Pit Stop Cafe. A friend was going to be late and was trying to clarify our venue. We told him, over the phone along a busy road, "Pit Stop Cafe. PIT STOP CAFE. Can you hear? No? It's PIT STOP CAFE. P-I-T S-T-O-P Cafe. Yes correct, PIT STOP CAFE."
When he finally arrived, he was extremely flustered and exclaimed "I HEARD TIT STOP CAFE. I even asked you to spell it out and I distinctly heard T instead of P!! I asked my colleagues if they've heard of TIT STOP CAFE and they told me no, but Crazy Horse left Singapore 3 months ago!! They asked WHO WAS I MEETING AND I TOLD THEM *some christian context* FRIENDS. Now they think I hang out with a group of PERVES!"
***
I am the letter-editor for someone Chinese educated, so while her Mandarin packs lots of power, her English is weaker. There was one memorable one where she wanted to write "Corporate" and spelt it as "Copulate".
***
Then there was once we were in a hotel lift, my entire family and Intuition. My mum started reading a poster and grinned, saying "See! These people don't know how to spell 'regret'. They spell it as R-E-G-R-E-T."
*pause*
*silence*
"Mum, that's the correct spelling."
To make sure our already tenuous friendships with these dear folks are not permanently wrecked, we will be keeping the identity of these friends a secret. You'll understand why.
***
Me: So I was ironing clothes the other day and Intuition was at the computer. A mutual friend wanted to fix an appointment with me, and thus Intuition was the messenger boy. She will ask him when I'm free, he will turn around and ask me (cos I was directly behind him), so on and so forth. Intuition decides to be kaypoh and asked Friend, why do you wanna meet Quirkiekai, what feminine gossips do you gals have planned?? And she said "We're going to discuss your bed habits!" ... O_o apparently, she meant BAD habits.
He: That reminds me of my friend. He was going to loan his external hard disk to a female friend, and when he wanted to confirm it, he actually msned her "So do you still want my hard dick?" and then he quickly typed "i mean hard disk hard disk hard disk!!!!!!"
He: And there was this other friend whom I was gaming with, and in there you can send messages to each other. We were talking about weaponry and he was telling me what he has. He typed "xxxxx, xxxxxxxx, breast slayer, xxxxxx, xxxxxx...." I think he meant BEAST slayer, but that was totally a freudian slip.
Me: Speaking about boobs, this one was to an email to a gathering, discussing snacks, activities and what to bring etc. And this guy, in all serious innocence, emailed saying "I'll be bringing the tits bits".
***
After I related these to Intuition, he reminded me of another classic spelling boo-boo. At a gathering one day, we decided rather spontaneously that we were going to a board game cafe, Pit Stop Cafe. A friend was going to be late and was trying to clarify our venue. We told him, over the phone along a busy road, "Pit Stop Cafe. PIT STOP CAFE. Can you hear? No? It's PIT STOP CAFE. P-I-T S-T-O-P Cafe. Yes correct, PIT STOP CAFE."
When he finally arrived, he was extremely flustered and exclaimed "I HEARD TIT STOP CAFE. I even asked you to spell it out and I distinctly heard T instead of P!! I asked my colleagues if they've heard of TIT STOP CAFE and they told me no, but Crazy Horse left Singapore 3 months ago!! They asked WHO WAS I MEETING AND I TOLD THEM *some christian context* FRIENDS. Now they think I hang out with a group of PERVES!"
***
I am the letter-editor for someone Chinese educated, so while her Mandarin packs lots of power, her English is weaker. There was one memorable one where she wanted to write "Corporate" and spelt it as "Copulate".
***
Then there was once we were in a hotel lift, my entire family and Intuition. My mum started reading a poster and grinned, saying "See! These people don't know how to spell 'regret'. They spell it as R-E-G-R-E-T."
*pause*
*silence*
"Mum, that's the correct spelling."
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