Went to a book launch that was part of the George Town Literary Festival last weekend in the hopes of meeting this one American writer whose book I came across by a random act of God ... The guy has lived here since the last PM, so he's pretty much a Malaysian, I guess ... I thought, Oh my God, here is a guy who's right up my alley, someone who may share all my perverse non-Malaysian sense of humour, at the same time is well-versed with the local culture, AND HE'S A WRITER! ... Just the guy I was hoping to meet all my life ... Except of course, those Facebook photos of him with this one guy who I strongly suspected to be his partner, judging by the possessive way the guy's arm is wrapped around the writer in almost all of the latter's Facebook photos ... I sound like a Facebook stalker, don't I? ...
Anyway, the writer, as he shall be known henceforth, posted on his Facebook that he would be at the George Town Literary Festival for the launch of an anthology that has his short story ... I had just about a week to decide whether or not I wanted to meet this guy ... I mean, at the back of my mind, I was already thinking he's gay, not that I have anything against gay people, I mean I think that being on the fringe of mainstream society, they are a lot less judgmental than straight people ... But, ever since I got to know about this guy, I couldn't stop daydreaming ... I mean, I daydream a lot, but this is the kind which affected my work to the point that I was never able to reach my production target for the better part of, hmmm, let's see ... I read his book which I found at my office's mini library some time in October 2013 ... Well, that was more than a month ago ... So, yeah, pretty much 'gone' for more than one month ... So, I thought, it's now or never J, you will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't meet this guy ... So what if he's gay, at least you found out for yourself, instead of just sitting at home and thinking and daydreaming and on and on and on and Lord knows, how long you could go on stewing in your own self-made misery ....
So, I booked a bus ticket and planned everything ... It was just going to be a day visit, meaning I would return to KL with the night bus ... Yeah, I was thinking, I just returned from the North on the night bus and it was pretty tiring, but I didn't care at the time ... Should have cared actually, 'coz I was so anxious of meeting the writer that I hardly ate the whole day on that Saturday, and when I ate, it was only because I was so hungry, and then I did an even worse mistake, I exposed myself to night drizzle while waiting for the bus, and the bus was ultra-fricking cold the whole journey back to KL that I didn't sleep one wink ... As a result, I developed a sore throat that gradually became worse this past Friday ... Oh, well, all in the name of love :P ...
Yes, the writer is gay ... This I found out from the obsessively possesive boyfriend who sat behind me as we listened to all the contributors reading out an excerpt from their respective short stories at the book launch ... Was I bummed out? ... To an extent, of course ... But, I truly believe in God's workings, because if I didn't go to the book launch all the way in Penang, I would have never been exposed to this zany group of Malaysian writers and the Malaysian literary scene, even though it was just for a brief period of time ... It made me think, well, J, when are you gonna start writing? You say you love to write, but you're too lazy, or rather indisciplined, to do it ... Now is as good a time as any ... After all, you're the one who's been complaining that she's lived for nearly 40 years, but has nothing to show for it ... Buck up ....
Yeah, yeah, yeah ... Anyway, on the way to the book launch, the
pakcik teksi mentioned that there was this festival that's happening right next to the bus terminal where I stopped earlier in the day ... I was piqued, but at the time, my mind was only thinking about the writer ... So, after the book launch and I left the place, I headed to the bus terminal and said, Oh well, why not go to this festival ... After all, like that old Malay saying, "Alang-alang menyeluk pekasam, biar sampai ke Pesta Pulau Pinang!" :P ... Basically, it means, if you wanna do something, do it all the way, but I added my own stupid Malay humour to it ...
I love it! ... I haven't been to an amusement park like this for the longest time, I think ... The rides, the games, the food, the atmosphere ... Tried to capture it all using my brand new Nikon baby, so a lot of photos below are for the sake of an experiment in taking night photos ... A lot of it didn't work, of course ... The only thing that was kinda bittersweet about the whole experience was that for a place like this, it would have been a lot nicer if I had a boyfriend to take me along ...We could have gone up on the ferris wheel and make fun of all the other couples making out ... He could have won me one of those huge toys at the games with his excellent throwing skill ... We could have ridden the bumper cars and slammed each other out ... Oh, well, bummer ...
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| Tried to take a photo of the Penang bridge, but of course the bus' window foiled this attempt ... |
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| At the book launch ... |
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| The first thing that caught my eye was the ferris wheel, then I immediately knew what sort of festival this was ... |
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| Some girls were screaming on the roller coaster, so I joined in with the screaming ... An onlooker looked at me in a funny way ... So what, it's not everyday and everyplace that you can scream for no reason ... |
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| Now, you must be wondering what the hell I was trying taking five photos of the same thing ... I wanted to take a picture of the spinning swing-around whatchamacallit when all the lights were lit up, but failed in doing so, sigh ... |
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| An attempt at darkness ... |
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| ... and light ... |
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| Same thing with the spinning swing-around whatchamacallit ... Wanted to take a photo of this ride with all the lights lit up ... |
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| I contemplated going for the Haunted Castle ride, but because the line was rather long and I didn't want to miss my bus, I gave it a miss ... |
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| Now, in my attempt with this one, I accidentally set the camera's setting to autoflash, and out came this with the snowy effect ... I have no idea how that happened ... Guess like with all great experiments that were supposed to be mistakes, this was one of those ... |
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| Bumper cars!!! ... Bummer ... |
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| I wanted to try this game of chance, but none of the prizes appealed to me ... You're supposed to get a rubber duckie with a mark underneath ... If you get the right mark, you get a big prize ... |
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| Aaah, what is an amusement park/carnival without the classic amusement park game, the ring toss ... I don't understand how people are still duped into thinking that they can actually get a ring on one of those bottles ... |
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| Now, I really, reaaaallly wanted one of those cute Totoros, a famous Hayao Miyazaki character for those of you not in the know ... In order to get one of those buggers, you have to hit all six panels and each must be lit up ... TWICE ... |
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| It's pretty cheap actually ... Even the entry to this festival was just three bucks ... Oh, well, I will just have to find that boyfriend and bring him here next year, Insya-Allah ... |
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