Just finished reading through this wonderful book, written by the daughter of Ireland's prime minister :D Yeah, and if you've been one of those few who saw me holding this books wherever I went these few days, it's P.S. I Love You :D
Excerpt 1:
What should she do? How embarrassing her situation was to actually have to call someone to ask for five euro. It was even more humiliating that she had absolutely nobody to call. But she had to or the snotty librarian would probably call the police on her. She dialed the first number that came into her head.
"Hi, this is Gerry, please leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Gerry," Holly said crying, "I need you..."
Excerpt 2
She left the staff room expecting to see a customer sitting behind the counter, but instead the old man was still slowly making his way to the counter. Barbara tried not to stare and began pressing random buttons in the keypad.
"Excuse me?"she heard the man's weak voice call to her.
"Hello sir, how can I help you?" she said for the hundredth time that day. She didn't mean to be rude by staring at him, but she was surprised at how young the man actually was. From far away his slumped figure looked elderly. His body was hunched and the walking stick in his hand seemed to be the only thing preventing him from collapsing on the floor in front of her. His skin was very white and pasty, as though he hadn't seen the sun for years, but he had big brown puppy eyes that seemed to smile at her. She couldn't help but smile back at him.
"I was hoping to book a holiday," he said quietly, " but I was wondering if you could help me choose a place."
usually Barbara would have silently screamed at the customer for making her do this unbelievably impossible task. Most of her customers were so fussy that she could be sitting there for hours with them flicking through brochures and trying to persuade them where to go when the truth was she really couldn't give a toss where they went. But this man seemed pleasant, so she was glad to help. She surprised herself.
"No problem sir, why don't you take a sat there and we'll search through the brochures." She pointed to the chair in front of her and looked away again so she didn't have to watch his struggle to sit down.
"Now," she said, full of smiles,"is there any country in particular that you would like to go to?"
"Em... Spain... Lanzarote, I think."
"And is it a summer holiday you're looking for?"
He nodded slowly.
They worked their way through the brochures and finally the man found a place that he liked.
"OK, any month in particular?" she said, looking at the prices.
"August?" he asked, and those big brown eyes looked so deep into Barbara's soul she just wanted to hump over the counter and give him a big hug.
"August is a good month," she agreed with him. "Would you like a sea view or a pool view? The sea view is an extra thirty euro," she added quickly.
He stared into space with a smile on his face as though he were already there. "A sea view, please."
"Good choice. Can i take your name and address, please?"
"Oh... this isn't actually for me... it's a surprise for my wife and her friends."
Those brown eyes looked sad.
Barbara cleared her throat nervously. "Well, that's very thoughtful of you. sir," she felt she had to add. "Could I have their names then, please?"
she finished taking his details and he settled the bill. She began to print the arrangements from the computer to give to him.
"Oh, do you mind if i leave the details here with you? I want to surprise my wife and I would be afraid of leaving papers around the house in case she finds the,."
Barbara smiled; what a lucky wife he had.
"I won't be telling her till July, so do you think it could be kept quiet till then?
"That's no problem, sir." she smiled.
"Thank you for your help, Barbara," he said, smiling sadly with those puppy eyes.
"It's been is pleasure, Mr...Clarke?"
"It's Gerry." He smiled again.
"Well, it's been a pleasure, Gerry, I'm sure your wife would have a wonderful time. My friend went there last year and she loved it" Barbara felt the need to reassure him his wife would be fine.
"Well, I better head back home before they think I've been kidnapped. I'm not even supposed to be out of bed, you know." He laughed again and a huge lump formed in Barbara's throat.
Barbara jumper o her feet and ran around the other side of the counter to hold the door open for him. He smiled appreciatively as he walked past her and she watched as he slowly climbed into the taxi that had been waiting outside for him...
Excerpt 3:
As soon as Gerry knew he was safe, he pulled back the covers and slowly climbed out of bed. He sat on the edge of the mattress for a while, waiting for the dizziness to pass, then slowly made his way to the wardrobe. He took out an old shoebox from the top shelf that contained junk he had collected over the past few years and that also contained the nine full envelopes. He took out the tenth empty envelope and neatly wrote "December" on the tenth empty envelope. Today was the first day of December, and he moved himself forward one year from now, knowing he wouldn't be around. He imagined Holly to be a karaoke genius, relaxed from her holiday in Spain, bruise-free as a result of the bedside lamp and hopefully happy in a new job he loved.
He imagined her on this very day sitting on the bed where he was now and reading the final installment to the list, and he thought long and hard about what to write. Tears filled his eyes as he placed the full stop behind beside the sentence; he kissed the page, wrapped it in the envelope and hid it back in the shoe box. He would post the envelopes to Holly's parents' house, where he knew the package would be in safe hands until she was prepared to open it. He wiped the tears from his eyes and slowly made his way back to bed, where his phone was ringing on the mattress.
"Hello?" he said, trying to control his voice, and he smiled when he heard the sweetest voice on the other end. "I love you too, Holly..."
okay, i'm finished with my ranting on it. Find out the last installment which, well, made me cry (sort of) when you read the book (: Millions of thanks blew to Zan Xin for lending me this book.
I officially name her my second favourite author, after the amiable J.K.Rowling.
Went to kindergarten alumni tea party yesterday afternoon, met some teachers, took photos but unfortunately my dad deleted them away unknowingly and it cannot be recovered. So there goes your first chance of watching me zi-lian(2 photos) at the squeakkkkky clean toilet. Ha! Took MRT there and back, realised I enjoy people-spotting. Spot what's the most 'in' tops and bottoms this season, who look ravishing in a simple outfit, and those who are trying too hard to look good.
It's interesting, really.
These three days have been spent on my chinese tuition, swimming(speaking of which, I'm going for the bronze award soon), the tea party, cooking(my mum's away to malaysia, unfortunately), housework and mugging. Yes, I'm not joking I'm mugging okay. Not to the extent of how xianya mugs of course, but I did some serious revision. I can't screw my mid-years, I know it, you know it too. In fact, we all can't. So good luck to all (:
Blog profile, links, calendar etc will be updated promptly next weekend. I promise 8D
I'm sorta hooked onto "Low" all thanks to Evia & Alan who keeps singing it these few days. Good luck to 308 tomorrow for the volleyhandball match! (:
I feel jealous; that 303's theme colour is orange & that Mrs Sabar is organising a 302 barbecue at her condominium. Oh god, I'm feeling like a bitch but I can't control it. Where's my beloved 202?
replies to tags:
JINGYI: yeah next weekend *promises with puppy eyes* haha, i mean it! stay motivated!
Kuan: you're seeing a new post now, but of 50% you won't be reading, and i don't expect you to. sorry dear :0 I'll watch with you when the dvd is out :D
Wenkai: ya la your BIG BIG NAME, birthday once a year mah, so of course. haha okay that roti-prata-man-thing never crossed my mind, but now that you mentioned, it's quite true hahahahahaha!
XUEMIAO: haha okay thanks for tagging, links up next week :D
hUIMIN'chng: haha you where got not xiong o.o that time very xiong la, and hope your armpit recover liao :P
`xinyi: haha no i wrote it on that day and saved it as draft, so it turned out to be like that o.o
hUIMIN'chng: ehh no it's not dead, i just revived it :D
sinyi: haha okay, thank you
10: oh okay, i gave you le, links up next week so sorry.
Don't be afraid to fall in love again. Open your heart and follow where it leads you... and remember, shoot for the moon...
PS, I will always love you...
