Thursday, March 4, 2010

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.


Tonight of all nights there was a bloody fire alarm in my hall/ dorm. I have yet to discover the true cause of this stupid commotion and frankly my dear, I just don’t give a damn. A little over an hour wasted in the parking lot on a pleasantly cool night, some people thought it was fun. I thought, ‘Monkey balls I have class at nine tomorrow. Shit.’


And so began my muttering of cursed words, and occasional ‘Fuck that’ reply to the people whom were all so damn excited and chattering needlessly about rumours on how the fire started, or that this was actually just a drill. I digress, and I may have exaggerated some points.


The point is that, the cool thing about Canberra for now is for one, the clear sky and two, the lack of city lights. Compared to Kuala Lumpur rain clouds litter the night sky very often and the city lights are a blaring yellow that are dirtily smudged all over the place. In short, I can see more stars here in Canberra than Kuala Lumpur.


I cannot help but look up into the night sky and adore the few stars that are there. I’ve seen a myriad of stars before twice in my life. Sad but utterly unforgettable, the first experience was during a family holiday to Sibu Island and I was twelve or thirteen. Mind you it was not a resort and they didn’t have a swimming pool, bar, or any of that sort. No, my family and I were transported through this questionably safe jetty boat from shore to Island. If memory serves me right it took the questionably safe boat a good half-hour to reach its destination as it boldly crashed upon every wave and knifed through powerful squalls. My parents were afraid of the deep sea because they couldn’t swim even with life jackets on. I was more fearful of my bag falling into the deep blue; swimming was never a problem for me.


The Island was largely barren except for the ‘resort’ facilities because of this the light pollution was very minimal. And the stars in the sky were lit, gloriously. Many patters of stars littered the black tapestry it was insane not to try and guess what was what. What caught my eye was a tight cluster of stars that made a long gash in the night sky; at that time I didn’t have a clear understanding of what was the ‘Milky Way’, so the ignorant child I was made the assumption that that had to be the Milky Way. Of course, I was wrong.


The second time I saw the night sky was quite recent, several months ago I had another family vacation to Egypt. It was during a van ride from Abu Simbel to Aswan. The road was pitch black and the driver could only see the road that was lit by his headlights and the other vehicles front and back that made up the convoy. Looking out the window of the van as dusk turned to night, the stars came up and they were bright and so clear. Although I did not see as many, possibly due to the lights of the convoy, but anyway that was the first time I actually recognized a constellation, it was Orion:

(source: da interweb)

The thing about Orion is that his belt is easily recognizable, but that was the first time I actually saw the whole thing. There were other stars but I did not know what they were.


So tonight or this morning, whichever that gives you a hard on, made me wonder. As I looked up into the night sky and as the people chatter I can’t help but think to myself, does anyone know what their missing? Does anyone wish that the night sky would show its true colours? More importantly, does anyone give a damn?


I doubt that anyone gave a damn. No one cares about the beauty of a night sky or the intrinsic value of dew in the morning, or the humming of the wind against the leafy fingers of a tree, or the serenity of a moment in silence. Maybe I’m too conceited to see that they actually do care. Or maybe I don’t want them to care, let me alone appreciate the beauty; everyone else – well they can go fuck themselves.


PS: its 3am right now.....balls.

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