Sunday, November 14, 2010

Beve's British Invasion

"C'est mon frère, mon plus bel ami de coeur
C'est mon air, mon oxygène, mes heures
C'est mon frère, mon plus bel ami de coeur
C'est mon air, mon âme soeur"

Ame Soeur (2010) by Jena Lee



My French is bad non-existent but I think this chanson is about friendship. is it not?


This post was sitting in my drafts folder since early August because I have no idea how to write it - so I'll just stop trying. Beve flew down from London sometime at the end of July, stayed over for one night and ate more meals than anyone can safely consume over the course of 24 hours. I took her up St Paul's hill in the evening and down Jonker Walk at night because she never really did the whole tourist routine when she was here the year before. Then, we went and caught a midnight screening of Inception because she hadn't seen it and I hadn't seen it a second time. That's was what happened, more or less.

Beve is short for Beverly and it's supposedly pronounced like "bevy" but it's been "beef" in my mind from the very start so that's not something I can ever change now. It's not my fault. It should have been spelt Bevë to indicate that the last vowel isn't silent.

Beve and Drink
This is she, drinking something which sounded nice but tasted meh.

We met almost 4 years ago over the internet when I was working out my traumatic breakup with the Ex-Grrrfriend™ and talking to a random 18 year old teenage girl seemed like the most natural thing to do at the time. Maybe I was just picking up from the time I disappeared into a 3-year-long socially sequestered, dangerously obsessive relationship of mutually assured destruction when I was 18, I don't know. Teenage girls are neither known for the sophistication of their thoughts nor the coherence of their speech, but I lucked out with Beve - even though she wasn't particularly coherent. She was my confidante, my psychotherapist, and my nonsense-conversation-haver during the multiple manic episodes I had. Above all, she was a friend. She was a friend not in the we-hang-out-and-do-stuff sense of the word. She was a friend who helped me carry the weight of life in the wake of a heartbreak so I could live again.

I never really thanked her so I guess this is as good a time as any to do that. Thanks, Beve. Thanks for saving me from myself and thanks for being someone I could trust completely. Thanks for all the long distance calls and impromptu webcam piano recitals you performed for me. Thanks for everything. I'm sorry it took me this long to say this. I'm also sorry I told you that your sister is cute.

Oh wow, that was actually pretty mushy but y'know, in a platonic kind of way.

A Famosa
The roofless ruin of St Paul's Church.

We spoke last week over MSN and she said how we are really acquaintances now rather than proper friends. We haven't been talking in any meaningful sense of the word for a long while now after I got together with Phoebs and she with Nikhil. It's only natural for us to drift apart when so much of our worlds have been taken over by the passage of time, adulthood and other-halves. I regard the gains and losses of friends as necessary evils of life and I'm not someone who would work to maintain them like some sort of friendship janitor - never bothered since my high school years, personally. I am a bit emotionally aloof that way.

Guitar Fan
Dreadlocked man and the street musician.

That's also one of the reasons why I appreciate Beve so much; I feel I can just say almost anything to her. I once told her it wouldn't matter terribly to me if we stop being friends someday - probably because I'm just a terrible person. For some reason, the thought of those words sickens me a little now.

I understand that sometimes I can be a difficult person to reach, as anyone who has ever been close to me can attest. I always appreciate it when anyone tries, and I'm certainly glad on the rare occasions they succeed.

Mini Panther
Beve reminds me of cats. No idea why.

I like to think that the fact we can still be so frank about the state of our friendship means that we are still pals, sort of. Isn't that what friends are for? The bad weather, the meteor showers and the storms at sea? Okay, I know I suck at expressing myself but I have a story. Once a girl (we'll call her Girl #1) complained to me about her best friend (Girl #2) who practically ditched her after she got a boyfriend, but after that fell apart, Girl #2 decided to crawl back to Girl #1 to look for post-breakup sisterly support. Girl #1 asked me if she should take her back. She asked indignantly, "What sort of friend would forget about you once she got together with some guy?".

I said, "What sort of friend are you then, if you aren't there when she needs you most?"

Nyonya House
An antique Baba-Nyonya house slash dessert shop.

I'm sure Beve and I don't need each other now, and I'm not sure if she would ever need me - but I would be a real shitty friend indeed if I can't promise that I'll always be there for her. Just in case.

So, that's my promise to you, kiddo.

Beve
Some British poseur.



P.S. Happy 21st birthday, by the way. And I do know that that's next week, you twit.



Your friend,
Po

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I think it's a song about friendship too. :)

'It's my brother, my friend of the heart
It's my air, my oxygen, my hours
It's my brother, my friend of the heart
It's my air, my soul sister.'

The c'est doesn't exactly refer to it's; the French are just lazy and use c'est for everything, even to say their name. Heh. I'm quite sure I got a few words or the grammar wrong, but that's the gist of it.

février said...

WHAT THE F*** IS THAT SHIT IN THE FIRST AND LAST PIKCHUR *expression of pure horror*

février said...

this is probably your most awkward post ever. it confuses me. also, i burnt my shoulder with my hairdryer. Hahaha, it looks like i have a very badly done tattoo.

and this "ate more meals than anyone can safely consume over the course of 24 hours" makes me very, very proud.


p.s. you only know coz you checked when my bday was on fb

p.p.s. I feel a little irritated that my streak of not reading your posts properly anymore has to start all over again.

p.p.p.s. you make our past friendship seem like i'm dying and this is my obituary

Jen said...

And the crowd goes "Aaaaawwwwww".

And I agree with Beve's p.p.p.s.

Inn Shan said...

Awwww...
In fact i was physically the nearest person to you when you are going through all those traumatising sh*ts. I'm a terrible person not to care.

I'm a terrible person. A non-existant roommate. :|

Sooooo soooorrieeee kok. >.<"
Glad you found bever :D

Elaynne said...

Oh finally... that's how beve looks! Hello there! Welcome to Malacca!!

Btw, you lousy tour guide... the ice kacang there not nice d!

k0k s3n w4i said...

lovealynna: when i translate the phrase ame soeur together instead of seperately, it says "soulmate". you studied french? outstanding! oh, i googled your real name by the way. i'm creepy like that.

beve: i knew your birthday is in november T^T. i just didn't know the exact day. this post was written stream-of-consciousness, more or less. i didn't want to write a boring travelogue. and what confused you?

Jen: the two of you are so morbid -.- start an edgar allan poe appreciation society why don't you?

Inn Shan: actually no. i think i broke up after you already moved out of our room in nehru. besides, i don't think i'm used to confiding to people in real life anyway - and especially not to guys. too weird, haha. anyway, just so you know, of all the roommates i ever had, you were the best, mate :)

Elaynne: shaddup singaporean. i still like it and phoebs wants to make love to the cendol there T^T

Anonymous said...

...
*cough*
Haha! And here I thought everything there was to know about me was on Facebook?

Yeah, I studied French. :) Ooh, okay. Haha, I was bound to get something wrong!

calvin said...

Wow, Beve certainly doesn't look like what I used to think how she looks like at all.
Totally out of my imagination.

Btw, LMAO at Beve's p.p.p.s haha!

février said...

OH MY GOD. can people please understand that I HAVE BETTER PHOTOS than the crappy ones of me here?!

see po, i was right. it IS like an obituary, no matter what you defence you put up. (this post proves you wrong about you not having your old readers. they just come out because i'm a super popular topic and your religion posts and travelogues aren't :d)

k0k s3n w4i said...

lovealynna: i might be wrong, but i don't think your facebook profile mentioned that you're a woman in a position of POWER, el presidente. i'd like to study french - as soon as i'm done learning english, haha.

calvin: you must share what you used to think how she looks like! inquiring minds want to know!

beve: i think the 1st photo is better than most of your facebook profile pics. and what are you talking about? everyone who commented here so far have also commented within the previous month >_>

février said...

the first and last photo isn't better than any of my fb pics. most of my profile pics aren't even of me or a clear pic of me >_> i haven't seen calvin in awhile :d

calvin said...

@ k0k: I'm so gonna get a real bashing from someone if I say it here xD

@ daging: I hope you still remember me. What's the nickname you used to call me?

By the way, I think the first picture is slighter better than the last. but still, both of them looks like some beef rendang :P

Terri said...

beve: hence why they are better than your crappy blurry pics :P

po: oooh! bromance post on inn shan next? :P all i know about him is that he's your fanboy teman for watching movies. lol.

dun listen to beve. she doth protest too much. you and i know your post made her a very happy beaver :D

Jen said...

I vote for Terri's bromance post suggestion.

Anonymous said...

Sigh, hating Google at the moment. Giving away all my secrets, hehe. French is nice, but Spanish is becoming more and more popular (I'm ignoring Mandarin here). You might wanna look into Spanish too!

k0k s3n w4i said...

beve: or maybe you're just not capable of producing good photos =d

calvin: she can't hit you over the internet!

Terri: actually, the guy i usually geek out with is this other indian bloke. inn shan has a gf and as a result, i don't exactly hang out with him a whole lot.

Jen: i'm so not one of the guys. i don't think i ever had a bromance in my life, ever -.-

lovealynna: does that even qualify as a secret? i can already speak mandarin, kinda. i'm interested in french because i like how the language sounds (i.e. sexy) and i dig french films and music. phoebs think german is sexier though. spanish just strikes me as comical; kinda like hokkien or hindi. maybe i should just try to cultivate a british accent. less work, i reckon.

février said...

terri: there is an art in taking photos, and my trademark is non-crappy, blurry pictures. :d

calvin: tell us, kero.

posie: OOH! There's this French guy called Thomas in my class who speaks english with a posh accent. It's quite amusing and unless you're used to people speaking French, you can't tell there's a bit of a French-ish accent there. It's easy to forget English isn't his first language and I get surprised when he announces he doesn't know a particular word. Yet he uses words like 'exacerbates' and not know there were differences between 'effects' and 'affects' or that one of them existed.

I know a few people who are French and they don't particularly sound like the actresses/actors on TV. But Thomas does! He sounds soooo sexy. I love listening to his phone conversations to his parents even if I don't understand a thing. Sometimes this other guy in my class, Max, walks across the room and while doing so asks Thomas a few questions, like how he's getting along etc., and they converse in French! It reminded me of when I was in Paris and was surrounded by sexy French accents and fashionable young girls.

calvin said...

Errrr, but I'm afraid my vocab is too limited to describe my image of "beef"

xD

Anonymous said...

Please tell your darling German is NOT sexy. It's about as sexy as Russian. BLAH.

Okay, stick to French. No way I'd protest against that, as much as I have conjugations! :)

Plus... French food is an argument that stands alone. FRENCH. FOOD.

Rantings of a Francophile who has never stepped foot in France.

k0k s3n w4i said...

beve: it sounds as if you're ready to have thomas' half-french babies. i feel slightly dirtied by your gush.

calvin: get a thesaurus.

lovealynna: but i think russian is sexy! both phoebs and i are big fans of the russian pop star, MakSim (no relations to the pianist). and no one can rescue phoebs from germanophilia now. she heard the way michael fassbender speak in inglourious basterds and automatically turned into a 12-year-old fangirl. now she's into german heavy metal.