bad conversationist? - by her

After the breakfast he asked her to join him for a walk around the parklands.

She was silent most of the time and he had to keep digging for words out of her mouth. The fact was she had no sleep for 36 hours. And ...she was not supposed to show any emotions or excitement to him. She must not be interested in him.

He asked about her past relationships.

She gave short answers.

She told her that the last relationship didnt work out because she was called to be a missionary, and God told them to break the relationship. She said she wasn't interested to have any man in her life.

Silence. Long pause. Awkwardness.

She got a lil uneasy about the silence. She's generally a chatty person. But why did she lose her words when she was around him?

A bad conversationist? Her?

She doesn't recall it now but according to him, she abruptly stopped the conversation, 'Excuse me, I wanna take some photos of the playground,' she went off with her camera and a quiet sigh of relief in her...


---


As days went by, she realised he wasn't as keen on her anymore although they still talked online, and occasionally with text msgs. But ...it became a lil different.

She felt he'd held back.

It's ok, let it be, she was content to be in her own world anyway. No one should come in .

She thought, maybe he was just like all the others who had come after her. Some went away after a few attempts, some stayed around for a while, but eventually they all left. Maybe he was one of them.


She still went to his blog daily. Somehow, deep deep deep deep down in her heart, there was a very faint voice ,almost unnoticeable, that told her, ' This man is different.'

by her

www.siewwai.zenfolio.com

He liked my photos

He asked for an original ...

He named it 'To Infinity and Beyond'

My CD player doesn't work - By Him

I remember being excited to hear that doctor girl was coming to that breakfast.

I was attracted and curious and had been snooping around the grapevine for information on her.

My sources told me that she was single but unavailable. And there was a strangely neutral breakup with the ex about a year ago.

I turned up late due to a mix up of directions (i'm so not a morning person btw)
and the morning fog in my head.

As she has mentioned, our friends left earlier for another appointment.

I remember asking if she wanted to go for a walk.

I don't remember the details but I do clearly recall the ensuing conversation was terrible, like an interview of sorts.

Then midway through she ended the conversation and went off taking photos.

I remember watching her get lost in her photography, a mix of irritation and captivation.

I also remembered a promise I had made, to fix her dead car stereo for her.

~

We swapped cars and she went home to sleep.

I pulled the purple monster (as her car is known) apart and fixed lots of things.

I went back the the shop 3 times to get more parts to fix more things in the car...

Hours later the work was done.

I remember her driving off to work without much of a thank you... in fact I think I felt bad for disrupting her day...

erg...

~

Days later, she thanked him on an online conversation.

He bravely asked for a small favor in return.

He's so sure she was thinking he'd ask her out.

I'm sure she was surprised that he asked her for one of her photos.

I think that was a key moment for him :)

To infinity and beyond

'That will not make you smile' - by Her

She is very certain that he was already attracted to her even back then, regardless of what he says now.





Anyway....





So he went back to Melbourne over the long weekend.


Her phone rang. On the other end was his deep voice telling her he needed to vent out his frustration. She listened to his rant patiently. She is good at that, friends turn to her because she is a good listener. But she hardly talked about herself , not especially to him.


He asked, ' Do you like shiny things?'


She knew what was going on. Herbal tea whilst she was sick, banana cakes, phone call from Melbourne, and, shiny things.

' Girl, remember what happened in the past? Don't jump to it ,' her voice reminded herself.

---


The following week she went to a breakfast appointment with her cell group leaders, straight after a long night shift.

She was told he would be there too.

Why was her heart fluttering at the thought of his attendance?

It was almost 30 minutes after the proposed meeting time. He wasnt there so they started the breakfast without him. She didn't dare to ask her friends if he was still coming. 45 min. 50 min. 1 hour. He wasnt there. Her heart sank a lil bit.


Her friend's mobile rang. The silly boy went to the wrong cafe. But but but... he insisted on coming, even though he was 1 hr late.


She saw him walking into the cafe from the corner of her eye. She was busy talking and eating. But she noticed him.


'Hi!...' almost tonelessly, she hid her slight excitement behind her tired face.


Their friends left after the breakfast. They hung around a lil bit more. He pointed at the photos on the walls, and asked if she had thought of selling/displaying her photos in public.


No one has paid so much attention to her photographs.


She told him about selling her photos to magazines/calender publishers, or even furniture shops.


He listened to her crazy ideas , paused, and said, 'No, I don't think that will make you smile.'


She might forget how she started to notice him. But she will always remember what he said that morning.


No, I don't think that will make you smile.


She had underestimated his depth.

The boy wins 5 kao!

Dear readers, pls note the time stamps on the 2 previous posts.

That is all I will say :)

on another note of similar hilarity.

The girl had been telling people that HE had began to pursue her heart with banana cakes.

Whilst this man will freely admit that the way to his princess's heart has been via her stomach and yes banana cakes.

The very first banana cake was baked on the 17th of May, of our friend Teddy bear's birthday.

http://www.edgechurch.com/events/calendar.asp?curMonth=5

pls note the link above which will highlight the actual day of the Tuscany conversation.

Of which the fallout resulted in a 2nd cake of a far more deliberate nature on the 18th.


Yes I think i shall buy myself something nice with my 5 kao... something very nice indeed.

Tuscany - by Her

Tuscany? She has never heard any other guys talked about Tuscany. She knows Tuscany. A place in Italy. Beautiful, saturated with colours and arts. One day, she will set her feet in Tuscany. But how did he also know about Tuscany?

He sounds like an interesting guy with an artsy taste. 'What does he write about on his blog? '

....

His writing was fragmented, but she seemed to understand what he was telling. She saw a different him in between those lines, somehow she had a vague feeling that the writer had never shown this side of him to the world. She caught glimpses of his true self behind the beautiful words.

From then on she became a regular visitor of his blog.

And he became a regular on her photography website. ' What does he think about my photos?' she often wondered.

....

His cooking is rather impressive. The dinner table at each connect group became more interesting as a result of his regular attendance.

And he bakes.

Banana cakes. She once said she liked banana cakes. Then for some unknown reasons he started bringing home baked banana cakes to the connect group. But she wasn't there when he brought one for the first time.

The next day everyone told her that he made the banana cake for her. She shrugged her shoulders and said , ' maybe next time.'

He found out that she was sick. He left a message on her mobile, telling her that he'd left something at her door step.

Oh, chinese herbal tea bags.... And a note: Just because doctors fall sick too... I've kept 1/2 of a banana cake for u, but it didn't survive the trip as I became too hungry on my way here hehe...

She smiled. ' Another suitor,' she thought.

The next night - By Him

The doctor girl was sick,

she had the sniffles and she had looked on the brink of exhaustion the night before.

He remembers a time when he lived alone with a job that took up all of his waking moments.

So he bought a packet of chinese medicine and tied it to her front door.

Not a gesture of courtship.

Just something to make a sick doctor girl better.

She never did get around to drink the stuff.

He found it unopened in her pantry months later.

Oh well.

Its the thought that counts no?

~~~

First blood - by him

His church in Melbourne organized a big men's conference every year called Redline.

It was a big event and he had prebought his tickets the year before.

His favorite preacher was coming! Tony Campolo!


But then this year when the conference rolled up, he found himself in Adelaide.

Then by a turn of fate (aka God's will), the other half of the conference was dropping in Adelaide to speak for a single night. Paul Scanlon from the UK was in town.

His heart rose, Half of redline came to me! he told his family.

The event was at 7, he randomly called the photographer girl at 6.

He can't even remember why, but he asked if she needed a ride and she said yes.

It was a very quiet ride on the way there.

Just quiet chit chat.

The sermon was good, twas about miracles being about life transformation as well as blind eyes seeing and lame people walking.

On the way back home. He remembers babbling, babbling about colours, about the land of the tomorrow trip, of magical Tuscany.

He remembers that she got it (she doesn't really remember this part)

Truth was he babbled too much, he'd never talked about Tuscany before. It had slipped out in his tiredness but she totally got it.

That was the first hook, the beginnings of that tiny smile.

:edit:
Here's a flash back
Land of the Tomorrow Trip

- By Her

One day a preacher visited the church, and he offered to pick her up... Lets go together.

ok, she wasn't feeling very well, couldnt be bothered to drive.

Then they had their first real conversation. He told her about his imagery and the colours in his mind. He told her about his writing, his dream to be a journalist...

Colours and writing?....an interesting boy,' she whispered to herself.

How does she see the world? She paints beautiful mental pictures and make clips and slide shows in her own mind, but he paints colours in his....she's started to pay a bit more attention to this interesting man.

What does his blog look like? How does he write?.... she was curious about him.

First impressions- by her

She first saw him in a youth program in church. It's a YOUTH program. She wondered why he was there.

Not like she's any younger than him but she was serving and helping out in the program, so her presence was justified.

First thought in her mind, 'I've never seen him before, he must be a new comer, how old is he? He doesnt look like a youth...'


Then after the service she was talking to her friend about the surgical training program. He stood in the circle, listening to their conversations and at times interrupting with random comments.

'Oh , the Royal College of Surgeon is in Melbourne and it is very beautiful! ', he spoke with his Aussie accent.

'duh... who is this man? Quite thick skinned...judging from his funny accent,obviously he's an ABC... ' , she thought. And she wasn't very amused at all, so she carried on with her conversation, completely ignoring him.

----

1 week later he made his first visit to the connect group, with his herbal chicken.

He was late, herbal chicken arrived AFTER they had their dinner at the start of the meeting. ~~ The chicken drumsticks were huge and unchopped, not a big fan of meat herself, so she was not impressed at all.


It was the first time that she printed out her photos and showed them to the group.

( now she wonders, if she did not do so, would he notice her anyway?)

He saw the photos. ' Wowwwww ...they are beautiful! Why don't you lemme laminate them for you? '

She thought to herself, ' No, don't bring my photos away from me. I don't trust them in your hands....plus you dun look artsy enough to appreciate my work...'

Then when she was talking to her friends about buying a house, she found him standing there in the circle again, adding comments and opinions to their conversations.

Aaahhhh...go away!

First Impressions - By Him

He had been in Adelaide for some months now.

Unable to make any decently firm friendships, he had been whisking back to Melbourne at any given opportunity (a long weekend every other week in this season!).

He remembers Adiemus ringing him up almost every other week. We got a pot luck this week, you want to come along?

No thanks he thought, last one of these I went to I spent the evening talking to Aunties and Uncles.

So the weeks dragged to months, until finally the long weekends were no more, and once again Adiemus called.

So the boy finally went, taking with him a dish of herbal chicken.

The group was fun and warm, the boy found that he had a really good time there.

Near the end of the night, a girl dressed in eclectic layers was passing some photos around to her friends.

The boy looked at the photos and was amazed at her shots. The way the light was skillfully bent, the twisting angles and the unique subject choices.


Did you take these yourself?

Wow, you need to get these things published, or marketed.

These are amazing!

Why don't I laminate them for you?

He remembers babbling about the wonderful pics.

~~~

The next day the boy stumbled into church with some of his younger friends, they had run a miniature amazing race, zooming around from Adelaide to Hanhdorf.

Spying the photographer girl he says hello.

Why are you wearing the same T-shirt as yesterday? She bluntly asked.

Oh...erm... well... we were running this amazing race and well... I figured no point sweating in a clean shirt right?

Stummered the boy before he realized he was explaining himself to her...

~~~

He walked away that day, wondering what it was that make him speak before he could catch his tongue...

Was it the photos? Was the her pretty face? The ponytail?