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Over the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to edit an interesting manga. On first impression, the manga was an overdose of loli; something which I wouldn't touch. However, on reading the script, it turned out to be an enjoyable read. The manga revolves around a kitten and its owner. Its loosely based on the kitten's everyday interactions along with its zany but adorable antics thrown in for good measure. It makes for an interesting read as it plays out the idiosyncrasies of life from the perspective of a kitten. The manga itself reminds me of Yotsubato and Azumanga Daioh due to its layout which is only 3 panels long. Succinct and straight to the point if you ask me. The full chapter can be found here. Meanwhile, here are some pages taken from the first chapter to give you a taste of what's in store.


Cover.


*Bite!*


Enlarged so that the words are legible.

With my flight back to Malaysia looming, my trusty old laptop decided to give the song Graduation by Vitamin C some airplay and it struck me how fast time has slipped away since I first got here. I vaguely remembered my first day in London fresh and bug eyed from Kuala Lumpur. It felt as if I had landed in totally different planet altogether as there was so many exciting and new things to see. I marveled at everything except the kitchen sink as there were just so many things that wasn't present in Malaysia such as water vending machines and internet kiosks where you can make international calls. As far as I was concerned, this would mark a beginning of a new chapter in my life. Even the whether didn't fail to surprise me. It was a blustery afternoon on the day I arrived at Heathrow Airport. The air felt cool and invigourating; a refreshing break from the sweltering heat which I was used to in Kuala Lumpur. It felt like someone an extended break to the highlands in Kuala Lumpur. En-route to my term accommodation, we passed by the University of the West of England (UWE) which I would be studying in. On first impression, its expansive grounds and various faculties struck me with awe as its sheer size trumps Taylor's campus size. To put it into analogical terms, if Taylor's was a basketball court, UWE was a football field. I did get lost in the corridors of UWE with each wrong turn bringing me deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. Admittedly, even now I still have not explored fully the manifold corridors in UWE and I do occasionally get lost every now and then if I don't look where I'm going...


This analogy works just as well.


Dinner that night was courtesy of Jomay. It went well except for the small fact that the pasta was half cooked. I almost baulked at eating it but I was thankful I wasn't in charge of cooking as my cooking skills at that time was nothing to shout about much less getting a Michelin star. Needless to say, I wolfed down my share as there wasn't anything else to go by that night and grocery shopping was in order the next morning. My first grocery shopping in Bristol was another matter altogether. Everything seemed so expensive due to the currency conversion from RM to pounds which was at 7 to 1. Therefore I went with whatever that was the best bang for the buck based on recommendations to those who were here before me while ignoring the incessant voice in the back of my head telling me to buy only the cheapest items on the shelves.

Autumn soon rolled in and while some of them were still strolling about in t-shirt and shorts with thongs, I had to bundle myself in a jacket although it wasn't half as bad as when winter came along. The nights were long and cold and it didn't help as my room heater seemed to have a mind of its own and would only come on during the daytime or not come on at all. Thankfully I had my duvet and sweater handy so I was able to keep warm and snug despite the finicky heater.




Spring was a welcome break from the cold and harsh winter weather especially when I'm not built to weather such weathers. (I love puns!) There was occasional light snow but other than that spring isn't much to write home about. Summer was fantastic as the temperature suited me the best while others found the temperature a tad too warm for their liking. Outside the temperature hovered around the 20 degrees celcius mark but the dreaded heater from hell decided to come back with a vengeance while attempting to roast me in my room. Feeling toasty in the winter is one thing but having a heater working overtime in the summer is another thing altogether. Lashing out at the heater was a bad idea as it retaliated by giving me a minor burn on my foot so I 'literally killed' it by pulling the plug (technically I just switched it off since there wasn't any plug to pull in the first place).


Sweet revenge for all that inconvenience!

On another note, this was supposed to be a post on friendship but somehow it turned into something else altogether. I suppose this is what happens when you don't draft out what you want to write.

Spurred by Jomay's comment to blog more often, I will kindly oblige by putting up one extra post on the blog just to give the illusion that I'll be frequently updating my blog. =p

However, being the sloth that I am, I usually put off doing anything to the extent that it turns from something that can be done during my leisure time to something that is extremely urgent. Which brings me on to another point, procrastination. For me, being lazy is part and parcel of procrastination. One does not exist without the other. Just to make sure I'm not firing off some dubious statements, I did a quick cross check with wikipedia and what I read didn't bode too well. As it turns out, "Procrastination can be a persistent and debilitating disorder in some people, causing significant psychological disability and dysfunction. These individuals may actually be suffering from an underlying mental health problem such as depression or ADHD" (wikipedia). This is indeed worrisome for someone like me but then again, half of the information on wikipedia is rubbish since anyone can have a go at altering the data there and since I'm too bothered to dig deeper into the psychological causes/impacts of procrastination, I'll just throw the whole notion that putting things off until the last minute is detrimental to one's health into the back burner and be done with it. Talk about procrastination in action! I just hope that this doesn't come back to haunt me someday or else you'll be seeing a rabid young adult desperately vying for attention running amok on the street...


A sloth doing what it does best; sleep!


Oddly enough, at this point I feel compelled to continue writing about this. What started out as a quick 10 minutes post may go on to become a full blown muse/rant/ramble/reflection which most people may/may not read to its entirety.

Anyhow, I suppose the reason why I feel compelled to write on can be attributed to motivation or to some extent, passion. But what kind of person is abetted to write about dragging one's foot unless their next residence is in a mental institute? Well for one, there's always the person who delays decisions until the 11th hour which which I am constantly guilty of. There's always a sense of foreboding whenever you need to make certain important decisions; the fear of the unknown. There's always the "What if's" you get before doing anything but once its done, it's usually "That was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I'm surprised I didn't get that done earlier" or worse still, a second round of "What if's" comes back to haunt you such as the proverbial "What if I had studied paid more attention in class? Maybe then I could have got better grades". Unfortunately, there's no point in harping about things that are in the past so all we can do is move on while bearing in mind not to repeat the same mistake. Mulling over it for a short period of time is reasonable enough but there are others who tend to dwell in the past thinking that they can do something about the outcome if they brood over it long enough. If you ask me, it's all a waste of time and unless the dead can be reanimated, then maybe there's a way to salvage the outcome.


Yeah right!


So I've reached the end of the post. I'm leaving out the passion part because I think it could be another post by itself assuming I do get round to writing it...

Here's the rest of the bits I left out the in the first post. We hopped on the X39 bus heading for Bath and when we got there our stomach was rumbling signaling us that it was time for brunch! So we decide to eat at the nearest place available and surprise surprise! Just around the corner was the ubitiqous Mc Donald so we popped in for a quick bite before heading out for the Roman Bath.





Off with his head!





The roman bath up close.


The bridge which was inspired by the Ponte Vecchio in Italy.

Next up was the Stonehenge but it was rather difficult to get there by public transport so we decided to take a package rolled a trip to Lacock, a small village in Bath and Stonehenge into one. One interesting fact pointed out by the tour guide was that money alone can't buy you a house in Lacock. Priority is given to those with a family history there and some families can trace their roots 500 years back some even further. On another note, the houses there cost half a million upwards and Lacock is also home to various films by the BBC.

A house with a thatched roof.


A few hours later, the main reason why we were in Bath; Stonehenge! After the initial euphoria wore off at being able to see the Stonhenge up close, I realised that Stonehenge was just a bunch of stones strategically placed with one on top of the other in the middle of nowhere. So much for hype about it being one of the 7 natural wonders of the world although there are various theories regarding how those massive stones were put into place.






Have a nice day!





Trying to block out Stonehenge.





Panoramic view of Stonehenge.


Another panoramic view of Stonehenge.

After Stonehenge we headed back to Bristol where we had a quick bite and after that it was Clifton's Suspension Bridge. While I was busy snapping photos of the bridge, it started pouring with rain. I hadn't expected it to rain especially when it had already been raining or drizzling the whole day I was in Bath. No wonder they say that Britain is almost always wet and gloomy... However the rain was a blessing in disguise as there was a light fog when the rain finally subsided which gave the subsequent pictures an ethereal feel to it.


Clifton's Suspension Bridge before it started to rain.

Was out the whole day visiting Bath and one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's engineering feat; the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The picture is a perfect example of what happens when you mix too much free time with a photo editing program. Just to clarify a few things though, the fog in the picture is real, no lighting gimmicks here as I took the shot while it was raining and I got soaked to the bone (besides, I haven't got the foggiest clue on how to add it in). The only bits that were actually edited were the picture borders.



Of course that wasn't the only picture I took the whole day and the rest will be up 'soon' enough but don't hold your breath for it. xD