Don’t Pity The Seamstress

Not necessarily so much in a pitying sense, though it’s neither as glorified as others make it out to be. Working in the garment industry, from my experience being a self-employed seamstress, merely has its ups and downs when it comes to finding a viable client. Some days are lucky, some days aren’t. I’m practically underemployed so sometimes I do find work and get paid for it, many other days I’m jobless and under the mercy of my relatives’ salary. I would like to get more money to spend on my own, but my relatives won’t allow me to. To make matters worse, they don’t have much time for me. So there’s only so much I can work and make on my own.

I actually developed a habit of selling sewn items four years ago, due to what one of my aunts suggested or something like that. These were actually face masks, around the time the pandemic started. Later on in my life, save for that one year where I didn’t sell anything at all, I developed a habit out of selling garments instead. It may not be easy at first, especially when it came to blouses, but it’s something I developed a habit out of. I even made patterns on paper, though I’m self-taught in here. Born out of trial and error, then realising I could make something consistent literally on paper.

Which’s how I learnt how to make patterns, which made it easier to make more of the same thing and consistently so for most of the part. So I tend to sell garments for around 200 pesos per piece, maybe not always, but enough to earn as much as I can given my circumstances and conditions. So when it comes to the nature of making and selling garments, I don’t think it’s either as glamourous nor as dramatic as people make it out to be. It’s not always particularly easy earning a consistent income from making and selling clothing, especially if you’re self-employed.

But it’s not always this bad, if you really wanted a neat break from work. Though it has its drawbacks if you wanted to work this badly, yet you don’t have the time and resources to do things on your own. Which gets worse if there’s almost nobody around to help you if they’re preoccupied with something else, so there’s little else you can do if people don’t trust you fully with something like the money needed to pay for this thing you wanted. Speaking from my personal experience with my relatives, it’s like this whenever I want or need something but lack the money to pay for it. Then some fabrics go out of stock real quickly.

So you settle for any viable alternative that comes in your way, whether if it’s for personal use or for somebody else, as it is from my experiences again. Another tricky thing about dressmaking or rather more isn’t just finding the right inspiration for your patterns and garments, but also being up to date or at least open to something new and different every now and then. Not necessarily always following trends by the letter, but in the sense of seeking something new to do if doing the same thing gets repetitive. Sort of like how I wanted to make yuanlingpao (a kind of dress), but I had to find and make a pattern for it and then the right amount of fabric needed to make it viable.

More recently, I’ve embarked on making a xuanqun (a kind of wrap skirt with two unfolded fabrics held together by something), but then I’m planning on repurposing the failed skirts so I need more resources to make it come true in some way. Something like a tweezer to pluck out the little blanket stitches on a failed skirt I made, maybe tweezer’s not the right word to describe it, but to give you an idea of what I needed the most to remake a failed skirt into something else. Even then, I suppose not all seamstresses and even fashion designers can easily do something new so quickly.

Not just with the learning curve, but how it takes time to repurpose something. I suspect this is partly why you don’t see that many people in the garment industry recycle garments. If because it takes much more time to redo something, than to make something anew altogether. So this is partly why the garment industry produces so much waste, why waste time on redoing and recycling something old when you could start anew instead? Perhaps this is why sustainability’s so hard to pull off in the garment industry, it makes more time to redo something even if it were possible to do it as quickly as possible.

So the garment industry, however limited my experience is, isn’t really what you think it is. It’s not particularly glamourous, but it’s not always so pitiful either. The nature of sewing still takes time, even if it were possible to speed things up, you still have to wait for something to be made and delivered. Like say I ordered a fabric but I have to wait a few days to get it delivered, same thing goes if you were to order a garment. It still takes time to make clothing, not just because of the nature of sewing. But also because you need to take time to find the right materials for it, which is hard not just finding one but also if it goes out of stock.

It’s not easy being a self-employed seamstress, but it’s not always this bad really.

The scandal

Supposing if PD James turned out to have an affair with a man like her own creation (that is Adam Dalgliesh), it would not only risk ruining her reputation and legacy, but also impact the wider crime fiction industry regarding ethics and inspiration. The latter part is important in the sense of establishing boundaries between creator and muse, as not come off as sleeping their way into something the way James would turn out to have done. If PD James did base Dalgliesh after a man she had an affair with, it would turn out to be rather dubious. Why on earth would she have to date her way into law enforcement, just to base her stories after every case her boyfriend solved?

It would also draw comparisons to authors who either have had affairs or assumed to have one, as it is with Dante Alighieri towards Beatrice Portinari. Dante is the father of the Italian language and has accordingly more linguistic and cultural weight than James does, but the alleged affair thing has a parallel between the two. In the sense of that both of them were married, but are inspired by somebody they’re still hung up with on some level even if it may not be true for Dante. The comparison still holds should James turn out to be using her detective boyfriend as constant inspiration for her stories, that she’d be Dante if he was female.

But this would make Adam Dalgliesh a male Beatrice-personaggia in the sense that he’s a character closely based on the person he’s inspired by, especially if this is someone PD James had a lifelong affair with that one of her other characters would turn out to be a blatant self-insert of sorts. So Emma Lavenham should be seen as a gender-swapped Dante-personaggio, in the sense of being something of a fictionalised author surrogate interacting with the character based on her creator’s muse. The comparison makes more sense if you know something about Mr Alighieri or two, which speaks volumes about what James turned out to have done.

I suppose PD James’s husband would be a male Gemma Donati, in the sense of being the author’s spouse but never the author’s muse. (There’s some argument supporting that at least the latter-incarnation of Beatrice is based on Dante’s daughter, who became Sister Beatrice.) Gemma Donati is Dante Alighieri’s actual wife and one speculated to be the woman who consoled him or something after Beatrice Portinari’s death, but also one who doesn’t seem to have influenced his work in any way. James’s husband would be no different in some way, which is befitting when you consider this. So PD James is practically like a female Dante Alighieri.

But one who actually did the deed to her Beatrice Portinari, in the sense of having an actual extramarital affair with him that no sooner or later this will be uncovered by journalists working for institutions like BBC and Tortoise Media, something like a series of podcasts based on her unearthed love letters to him and her diaries about what he’s been doing all this time. Something that will really rock the publishing industry regarding the ethics of having a muse and the odd possibility of her sleeping her way into law enforcement, because of her secret affair with a detective friend of hers that it seems disingenuous of her to not admit this in her life.

Like say his son would have her letters sent to him and then show it to journalists interested in this subject matter, along with uncovering her diaries chronicling his investigations of various cases over the years that it’s kind of controversial why she never admitted it in time. Might crime fiction develop a stronger need to put boundaries between muse and writer after this? Surely, but there’s also the odd possibility of others preferring somebody more perfect than Adam Dalgliesh. Especially with him turning out to be nothing more than someone’s imaginary lovechild between her and her boyfriend.

If this is going to turn out to be true in the future, it will ruin her legacy but also make her comparable to Dante Alighieri in some way. Especially considering how she often used her boyfriend as the inspiration for her stories and not her husband.

She had an affair

Like I said before that if PD James ever turned out to have an affair with the man who inspired one of her characters that the dilemma involving her would be reminiscent of the one surrounding Dante Alighieri, in the sense that both of them are still hung up on somebody despite being married themselves. Like if PD James based Adam Dalgliesh after a man she had an affair with for years, closely basing the former’s cases after the latter’s own investigations that it seems more accurate to compare him to Dante’s Beatrice. In the sense of being based on the authors’ muses, the people they’re not married to in any way. While James had the fortune of being born in an era to freely pursue somebody to marry, this wouldn’t absolve her of any presumed adultery if this turns out to be true.

But then again this would make her something of a female Dante Alighieri, if you will the Dante Alighieri of crime fiction in terms of both importance and being persistently hung up on somebody who’s not her spouse. Her actual husband would be more like Gemma Donati by then, somebody she’s married to but never inspired any one of her works and characters the way her sidepiece did. And if her sidepiece’s son ever shows her letters to his father to curious journalists that it will make people realise that she really had an affair, albeit one that she kept hidden for many years. It would be particularly shocking if she planned on marrying him after her own spouse died, which is like a reversal of what happened to Dante between Gemma and Beatrice Portinari.

Beatrice Portinari is Dante Alighieri’s muse and alleged true love, PD James’s Beatrice Portinari would be some detective whom she told to keep their affair a secret and did as what she told him to for a long time. Which makes it even more disingenuous why she never publicly disclosed the affair in due time? It might even be overdue for the affair to be exposed for what it was and really is: having an affair with her muse, the same man who inspired the character of Adam Dalgliesh (a male Beatrice-personaggia). If this affair ever gets exposed this week or later on, it’s not only going to be really controversial. But it should also be seen as basically the crime fiction equivalent to Italy’s own dilemma with Dante’s supposed affair with Beatrice.

He may not have done the deed to her, though it’s something James did to hers. Even then it’s something worth bringing up, should PD James’s affair with a detective ever get discovered by both his son and hungry journalists the world over.

The Princess And The Witch

To some of those growing up in the early 2000s, there were a number of girls who were into Disney’s WITCH. It’s practically Disney Italia’s attempt to court a teenage girl readership, since they wouldn’t be caught dead reading Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse at the time. It’s basically a magical girl team setup inspired by Sailor Moon, but made with an Italian sensibility despite its American setting. (Its original authors are Italian, as it is with the reboot.) Initially rejected for being too manga-inspired, the authors fought for it and it became something of a success.

While the premise of WITCH (Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin) is basically that of teenaged girls becoming magical warriors or something, it’s more common to push the Disney Princesses themselves. Like I said before that the WITCH characters generally live in a world closer to our own, whilst the Disney Princesses inhabit vaguely antiquated worlds. From what I’ve seen of the WITCH comics, the former wear contemporary clothing (2000s for the original series, 2020s for the reboot). The Disney Princesses seem to live in a gilded past.

As in despite the gowns being inspired by fashions of the day, the Disney Princesses live in worlds removed from our own in some way. While the WITCH characters are technically and arguably more relatable, the Disney Princesses are more ubiquitous especially in the world of merchandising. It’s easier to push and inculcate the Disney Princesses because they seem to communicate a feminine ideal popular with little girls at the time when the brand first started, coupled with decades of familiarity with some of the characters there.

Easier than it is with the WITCH characters, despite being actual schoolgirls themselves (thus closer to most young girls really). It’s kind of telling that there are more Disney Princess-branded items than there is for WITCH, far more with the former than with the latter, speaking from my experience. I also think it’s easier to market Disney Princesses to other people, given how leery Christians are of witchcraft that the princess thing seems less suspicious by comparison. Something Disney knows on some level, despite creating the Harrypottersque Wizards of Waverly Place.

It’s also more convenient to sell merchandise to adults this way with the Disney Princess characters, than it is with the WITCH characters where you could come up with princess-themed gowns. The WITCH characters are probably a harder sell, so it’s easier to do cradle to grave marketing with the Princess characters instead. It’s also quite possible that despite being set in America, there’s something particularly Italian about WITCH that doesn’t sit easily with American audiences not helped by a certain programme not fulfilling people’s expectations but I could be wrong about that.

Especially when another Italian-made brand, Winx Club, manages to do so well overseas. But I suppose even the Winx characters don’t seem to have the same cachet as the Disney Princesses, at least not to the same extent so far and it’s easy to do American Dream ideals with the latter. The whole bettering oneself to get a better life in some way, I suppose. Perhaps American imperialism seems more appealing when wrapped up with pretensions to royalty, as it is with the Disney Princesses, than something involving magical girls.

The latter being a rather foreign idea more readily embraced by Japanophile Italians, it should be noted that anime like Yu Yu Hakusho actually aired on the Italian version of MTV, it’s for real people. It seems to me that although Italy’s also home to Italians hesitant towards Japanese influences in comics, it’s more likely to successfully cultivate stores based around those like with Winx Club in relation to the magical girl school of storytelling. America being a massive hegemon would rather rest on its laurels and inculcate its ideas and preferences onto everything and anything else.

Thus everybody and anybody else as well, which explains why it’s not too open to foreign influences for most of the part. It’s not that WITCH isn’t unsuccessful, there have been attempts at reprinting the earlier comics and a reboot, but it’s not particularly as ubiquitous as the Disney Princesses are.

Disney Princesses

I said this before and I have to say this again: I was never this big into the Disney Princesses themselves as much as I was actually more interested in fairy tales and folklore, though it sounds weird to some but that’s my case. I grew up reading fairy tale books and it’s something that I’m not only nostalgic for, but also got me into folklore/fairy tales for a chunk of my time. I still am interested in folklore from time to time, but I never really cared a lot about the Disney Princesses. I never got heavily inundated by Disney Princess branded merchandise growing up, so this isn’t my experience so to speak.

Even if there are things that I outgrew like aeroplanes, the Disney Princess thing is something I never got big into and still am not. I’ve gotten into things like fashion and martial arts at various points, but the Disney Princess thing elides me. I never grew up wanting Disney Princess merchandise much, preferring to work with fabrics as I got older to make something like skirts (for the longest time really). I still do want more fabrics to work with, making blouses this time but I’d like to get around to making dresses and the like in the future.

But I don’t think I’ve been inspired by any Disney Princess to do garments and outfits like theirs, other things like superheroines maybe, but not a single Disney Princess. It’s not that I dislike them, as much as I never really cared about them in any way. If there’s anything that’s related to them that I care more about, it’s the folklore/fairy tales that inspired Disney. So it seems I never grew up obsessing over the Disney Princesses in any way, whereas oddly enough I cared more about the fairy tales that inspired them. The only Disney characters I’ve cared about more are really the WITCH characters and Mickey and Friends.

Maybe not necessarily exactly care about them, but more like read up on their adventures more often than I have with the Disney Princesses. The WITCH characters were kind of popular in the 2000s as my sister grew up on that, though they don’t have the same staying power as the Disney Princesses do nor were they as prevalent. There’s a book that mentions the existence of Disney Princess themed gowns aimed at teenagers and Disney Princess themed flower seeds, whereas Mickey and Friends got the regular fruit and vegetable seeds instead. There’s far more merchandise of the Disney Princesses, than you have with Will, Cornelia, Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin.

While Will and her friends seem to live in a world closer to our own, than with the Disney Princesses living in a vaguely antiquated planet, it seems more women have grown up with the Disney Princesses than they do with the WITCH characters. The idea that Disney Princesses have been pushed through cradle to grave marketing (making children into lifelong consumers of a brand) worked so well that you have a lot of grown women with a particular fondness for the Disney Princesses, than you would with the WITCH characters. But then again there are likely other women who never strongly got into the Disney Princesses themselves, they’re certainly out there.

I’m probably not alone in here, but I’m afraid the DP marketing worked too well for others.

Judgement

I said many times before that the Philippines will be judged by God for things like blasphemy and adultery, despite calling itself Asia’s biggest Christian nation, that he’s going to allow China to take over us as a consequence of these sins. As God allowed Babylon to take over Judah, he’ll let China take over the Philippines for the same reason. What good does the Philippines call itself Christian when it does everything to the contrary, like allowing gay people to be in the government while blaspheming God’s name a lot. Especially with things like ‘susmaryosep’ and ‘diyos ko’, that the Filipinos truly don’t respect and honour God.

They’d rather honour worldly things and America/Babylon above God and his word, that no sooner or later the Philippines will be punished for sinning against him a lot. China will take over this country anyways, where America will be too helpless and powerless to intervene in any way we like. God will even revoke much of American influence here, because America is Mystery Babylon, that eventually the Philippines will be highly sinicised or heavily influenced by China. American holidays and customs will no longer be practised here, but rather their Chinese counterparts. English will be revoked and supplanted by Mandarin here.

This is what God will do to the Philippines for being so stubborn and rebellious, despite calling itself a Christian nation, that it’ll reap what it sows and it will no longer be a Christian majority country in the future. Because the Philippines forfeited God’s blessings in the same way Esau did, that he’s going to make Indonesia Asia’s biggest Christian nation instead. The Philippines is the Esau nation, Indonesia is the Jacob nation. The Philippines has transgressed so much that he’s going to allow China to take over it, like he’ll make Russia do the same to all of Europe. Shame on us Filipinos for calling the country Christian when we disrespect God a lot.

That no sooner or later, we’ll stop being a Christian majority country. No sooner or later, we’ll be conquered by China anyways. This will be God’s doing and nothing will stop it from happening.

The Prodigal Daughter

This story references both the Prodigy, where the late Keith Flint (the Italian word for flint is selce) spent time in Egypt before returning to Braintree, and Dalida whose real name is Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, who was born in Cairo herself.

Iolanda Selce was often goaded by her father, Edoardo, into supporting and working for his leather making business. She’d acquiesce to this by ordering any sort of leather from sellers such as deer leather, elk leather and cattle leather, turning them into a variety of items like bags, shoes and belts. But she also prefers to make and sell her own items, often handmade and plant-based. For awhile, she didn’t get along with her dad over something.

‘But Dad, I want to sell dresses.’

‘You could always make leather dresses.’

‘No! I want to make and sell cotton dresses!’

‘Why not?’

‘F— you!’

She packed her belongings, including her fabrics, patterns and sewing materials, with her to Egypt and stayed there for a few years. Learning Arabic along the way and then quickly adapting to the Egyptian market, she developed a habit out of making and selling more modest garments. Abayas, qabas, shintiyans, galabiya bi sufras, telli dresses and caftans, you name it and she’s done those as often as before. Lately, she’s creating a pattern on paper, then cutting it out before layering it over a 90 cm cotton fabric. She starts outlining the pattern with tailor’s chalk, before cutting it out and sewing it by hand herself.

Using multiple needles on the same garment, she sews it as fast as she can. Using a variety of threads to get the job done as quickly as possible, she picks out a 100 m thread and a 1000 m thread together, cutting the threads and then inserting them into her needles. Needing to take a break from all that sewing, she makes herself a sandwich using rumi cheese and then slicing an eish fino bread almost in half just to insert the cheese and meat with. She then slices it into several pieces to share it with her adoptive family, including her adoptive mother Basma.

‘Do you want one, Basma?’

‘Sure I do, Iolanda.’

Then she gives it to her and she eats it.

‘Thanks!’

‘You’re welcome.’

She makes mint tea both for herself and Basma, talking about her home country.

‘What’s like in Italy, Iolanda?’

‘To be honest, I left it because I don’t want to make something with leather anymore. My dad kept on making me do it, but I’d rather make something out of cotton instead.’

‘You do leathermaking?’

‘I used to do it because my dad does it. He used to pay me in the thousands for it, he’s got a decent leathermaking business.’

‘Why don’t you help him with it?’

‘I do, but I want to sell the stuff I make.’

‘Don’t be so disrespectful to your father.’

‘But I want to do the things I want to do, especially for myself and myself alone.’

‘You should help him out.’

‘I did, but I don’t think he respects my decision to sell what I want to sell and it’s selling clothes based on cotton and linen. The plant-based fibres.’

‘Okay, you really want to make and sell the things you wanted to do.’

‘Precisely.’

After eating, drinking and chatting with Basma, Iolanda returns to sewing. She gets the folded garment out from the treasure box and resumes sewing it, as soon as she unravels a string a cat wants to play with it but she removes it from the room leaving it with Basma instead. There she sews uninterrupted, in fact she spends hours solely sewing it herself. After finishing the dress, she moves onto one of the sleeves finishing it as quickly as she can. As soon as dinner arrives, she cuts out the thread and needle, putting both of them in her metal box and then folding the garment (including the other sleeve), placing it in a treasure box and after doing this, she eats with Basma again.

Basma puts out the shashouka for them together, taking turns getting from it until there’s no more. Basma then gets two pieces of pita bread, puts falafel balls into both of them and gives each to herself and Iolanda. Then both of them eat, whilst everybody drinks water. Basma then gives some meat to the cat to eat, and leftovers to their dog outside. Once everybody’s finished with dinner, Basma and Iolanda go to the bedroom together. Basma sleeps on one bed, Iolanda on the other. The following morning, Iolanda wakes up and turns on the lamp, opens her stuff from both boxes and resumes sewing. She cuts and sews the other sleeve, finishing it as quickly as she can before Basma wakes up.

Once Basma wakes up, Iolanda has already finished it. She takes a look at it and is marvelled by it.

‘That’s a nice looking dress, may I have it?’

‘I feel…mixed feelings about it.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m planning on selling it to someone else.’

‘You may sell it to me instead.’

‘Well.’

Iolanda eventually sells the dress to her for 200 pounds, thus getting as much as she can and puts the money in her wallet. But later on this morning, she receives a message on her phone. It’s something from none other than her own dad.

‘Iolanda, it’s me. I want you back in Italy.’

Then she starts typing.

‘You want me back in Italy? Why, Dad?’

‘Sorry for not letting you sell the clothes you wanted to make, I’ve changed my mind.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m selling items based on plant-based leather these days.’

‘Really, Dad?’

‘Yes, customers want more plant-based items. You’re free to make and sell cotton garments.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Please come back, Iolanda.’

‘Okay.’

Iolanda starts packing all her belongings, she goes planning on returning to Italy to be reunited with her father in four years. Seeing that Iolanda is leaving, Basma goes near her, looking teary-eyed she comforts her.

‘Please don’t leave me.’

‘But my father’s telling me to go back to Italy, he’s changed his mind and he’s selling plant-based items this time.’

‘I’m going to miss you, so when are you going to return to Egypt?’

‘I won’t leave you, Basma. I’ll go back to Egypt, so don’t cry.’

She wipes the tears off her eyes as she pats her on the back. Then the two hug each other.

‘I’m going to miss you.’

‘It’s okay, I’ll come back to Egypt. I promise I will.’

‘I don’t feel good losing you.’

‘I’ll always be there for you.’

Eventually Basma stops crying as soon as Iolanda heads for the airport, bringing along her passport with her. Once she goes there, she shows her passport and then pays for the ride. She takes a seat, listening to music once the plane takes flight. Going from Cairo to Florence, she meets her father again.

‘Iolanda, it’s good to have you back.’

‘There’s someone in Egypt who misses me and she’s Basma.’

‘Who is she?’

‘She’s one of my friends and my host mother. I stayed there for four years straight.’

‘Four years? That’s a long time.’

‘I kind of overstayed my welcome there.’

‘Welcome back then.’

The two reunite and then head to their house together, there Iolanda is free to make cotton dresses. But her father reminds her of something.

‘Iolanda, I don’t think Italians are into those sorts of dresses.’

‘But that’s what I did in Egypt.’

‘The average Italian isn’t Muslim.’

‘I could always sell it to Muslims here.’

She did like what she told him she would, but she also learnt to observe fashion trends in Italy again in years. So the day after selling those dresses to Muslims, she’d sew clothes for non-Muslims based on what’s hip and current in Tuscany. After living in Egypt for four years, Iolanda got weirded out by the multitude of scantily-clad Italians that she had to make the outfits skimpier to sell it to them. But Edoardo’s glad to have her back and Iolanda’s willing to make items based on cactus and fruit peel leather this time.

All Night Party

Scenes 1-8: Seung Xiuying goes downstairs to eat breakfast with her mum and dad, she sits on a chair picking up a baozi with chopsticks and then eating it. Then her mum starts talking to her.

Seung Shu: How is your degree in literature?

Seung Xiuying: Fine, I’m currently reading up on William Shakespeare.

Seung Shu: The father of the English language, what did you learn from it?

Seung Xiuying: He also wrote something like Othello, which stars a black character. Back then, black people were often called Moors.

Scenes 9-16: Xiuying is in class, the teacher is talking about Charles Dickens.

Mr James Baker: Charles Dickens was a writer who lived in nineteenth century Britain, you may know him as the writer of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. [Next panel] But he also wrote Great Expectations, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and The Pickwick Papers. [Next panel.] Tell me, which literary devices did Dickens use?

Seung Xiuying: He often used satire and rhythm in his writings, lines like ‘the season of light, the season of darkness’. [Next panel.] His novels would often make fun of societal problems in Victorian England. [Next panel.] He was driven to expose injustices in those times.

Mr James Baker: Good, Xiuying. [Patting her on the head.] Looks like you understood what he’s conveying.

Scenes 17-24: She goes to the hallway with her three friends, talking about something relating to music.

Mala Khine: You know what, Xiuying, my father called acid house gay music.

Seung Xiuying: What’s so gay about rave music?

Mala Khine [upset]: He thinks it’s music only gay men listen to and play!

Punita Mehra: My father said that everybody in Duran Duran are gay.

Agnes Dowsett: That’s some of the homophobic things I’ve ever heard.

Scenes 25-32: While the girls are going home, staying in the streets and looking for a ride together, one classmate comes along to annoy one of them as her mum comes in.

Keith Quaye: Mummy’s girl!

Seung Xiuying: You know what Keith, I think you should go kill yourself!

Keith Quaye: You know what Xiuying, you’re probably still in diapers!

Seung Xiuying [proceeds to strangling him]: F— you!

Punita Mehra [shocked]: Xiuying, stop it! You’re killing him!

Scenes 33-39: Her friends stop her from nearly killing him, with her mum being mortified to see this.

Agnes Dowsett: It’s about time you calm down.

Seung Xiuying: Agnes! But it’s his fault, he started it!

Seung Shu: You shouldn’t have done that, Xiuying. How would his mother feel about this?

Mala Khine: Calm down, Xiuying. It’s going to be okay!

Seung Xiuying [weeping]: But it’s his fault!

Scenes 40-45: Xiuying feels terrible and terribly exhausted from being taunted by Keith, she busies herself reading works by Charles Dickens, one by one she goes from David Copperfield to Little Dorritt, to Bleak House, to Barnaby Rudge, to The Old Curiosity Shop and finally to Our Mutual Friend.

Scenes 46-53: Xiuying’s with her friends the following afternoon, heading over to a restaurant to relax and unwind.

Mala Khine: So Xiuying, what do you want to do today?

Seung Xiuying: I don’t know, but I do want to attend a rave sometime.

Punita Mehra: Do you have money for it?

Seung Xiuying: Yes, those are my earnings from working at the restaurant, Punita.

Mala Khine: I got mine from working in dressmaking.

Punita Mehra: I got mine from doing vet work.

Agnes Dorsett: I got mine from my mum’s.

Scenes 54-66: The girls head over to a rave, seeing their favourite band play music and dance. Then they watch other people dance to the beat and rhythm, they’re doing it in real time and then they dance themselves.

Scenes 67-74: Xiuying begins to dance the shuffle, people watch her move and they’re astonished by it.

Scenes 75-82: Xiuying starts to get real sweaty, so she removes her shirt and wraps it around her waist, then she resumes shuffling and dancing.

Scenes 83-86: Mala wakes up from her nap, seeing something on Xiuying’s trousers.

Mala Khine: Xiuying!

Seung Xiuying: What, Mala?

Mala Khine: You’re bleeding!

Scenes 87-91: Xiuying looks really embarrassed, after Mala pointed it out and they are looking for menstrual pads in her house.

Mala Khine [Giving something to Xiuying]: Here, you can have one of my panties and my pads.

Seung Xiuying: Do you want to buy another panty, Mala?

Mala Khine: I can always make one myself, Xiuying.

Scenes 92-98: Xiuying returns to her house, seeing her mother again.

Seung Shu: Where did you go to last night, Xiuying?

Seung Xiuying: To a rave, Mum.

Seung Shu: Why did you go to a rave?

Seung Xiuying: But everybody’s doing it, my friends are into it too.

Seung Shu: That’s it, you’re never going to see your friends again.

Seung Xiuying [crying]: Mum, I love them dearly!

Scenes 99-108: Shu looks very distraught and about to cry, so her husband comes around to comfort her.

Seung Shu: I don’t know why she got into the rave scene. [Sobbing] She really shouldn’t have done that.

Seung Chao [patting her]: Maybe her friends are a bad influence to her.

Seung Shu [crying]: Our dear Xiuying has gone to the dogs!

Scenes 109-114: Xiuying throws books, then she kicks them across the wall and floor.

Million Dollar Baby

Ed Mapplethorpe had just turned 19, the right time for him to try out alcoholic drinks legally. Being the son of a millionaire film producer, he invites his friends over to his house after he orders various alcoholic drinks for himself and them.

The first to arrive is his childhood friend since elementary, Lisa Thornhill, who gives him something for his birthday party.

‘Ed, I got a telescope for you.’

‘Thanks, Lisa!’

‘You’re welcome.’

Then he puts the telescope in his room, just in case if he wants to look at the night sky. He goes back to the living room and gives her a glass of vodka, but she rejects it.

‘Sorry Ed, I’m not into alcohol.’

‘That’s terrible, I’m 19 now and I really want to share drinks with you.’

‘If alcohol is your thing, then power to you if you want to drink.’

Ed ends up drinking vodka himself, given Lisa doesn’t like getting drunk.

She would’ve much preferred a glass of soy milk herself, but as soon as Ed got drunk he started feeling sick.

He closes his eyes, whilst feeling a little dizzy. He still feels like the world is spinning around him, like he’s this ill star that a planet revolves around with.

He eventually vomits, which Lisa cleaned up immediately. The second friend to arrive is his girlfriend, Alice Potter, she immediately consoles and comforts a very drunk Ed.

‘Ed, what’s wrong with you?’

‘Alice, I just got drunk because I turned 19 today.’

‘I can’t drink alcohol now because I’m going to turn 19 in two months.’

‘Well, that’s bad.’

‘Do you have any fruit juices for me to drink?’

‘Well, I have apples and oranges in my fridge.’

Since there aren’t any cartons of fruit juice there, Alice proceeded to making fruit juice herself which she shares with Lisa.

‘Toast!’

‘Yes!’

While Lisa plays the piano as Alice reads a book about the Moon, the third friend to arrive is Alex Macaraig, he brought along some presents for him to unwrap. The only problem is Ed remains drunk and sick, he has yet to recover in due time.

‘Ed, I bought you books about Saturn and Uranus, those are your favourite planets, right?’

‘Alex, I feel sick.’

Then Alice sees him.

‘Alex, Ed just got drunk on his birthday.’

‘Oh I see.’

Alex walks around the house, looking for something for him to keep himself preoccupied, he goes through every room and area. He’s also not into drinking alcohol, so he just drinks water instead.

Then Ed’s father arrives, carrying a binocular.

‘Mr Mapplethorpe, you just arrived!’

‘What did Ed do today, Alex?’

‘He got drunk. That’s what Alice said to me.’

‘When did he get the idea that he can get drunk, just because he’s 19 now?’

‘I don’t know, why don’t you ask him instead?’

Then his father confronts him.

‘Ed, why did you get drunk?’

‘But Dad, I turned 19, I’m not a kid anymore.’

‘No more alcohol for you!’

‘F—.’

For the rest of the evening, his father made him throw away the bottles. He didn’t like it, but had to do it anyways.

Terrible

Terrible that she fought with God

Only to be attacked by her brother

She’s not perfect, never perfect.