I was watching this hong kong drama serial, and in the show, they showed a lot of chinese art and calligraphy... and i suddenly remembered how i used to do calligraphy when i was young. actually, granddad was the one who taught me calligraphy. Sunday afternoons after the mandatory "Journey to the West" on tv, he would put out the paper and ink brushes, and i always had joy using the ink stone. I'd always wonder how come all we had to do was to add water to the stone and then there would be ink.

i learnt how to write proper chinese words with the brush, and though i could never write beautifully, and with my limited number of words (i was only about 6, what do you expect?) granddad would never fail to praise us and patiently taught us new words. i never learnt how to use the brush to draw, i remember attending one session of calligraphy art in primary school, and all i learnt was to draw pandas, and bamboo plants. I did remember learning how to draw the koi, but i did that sitting at the pond in primary school. i guess my calligraphy phase was pretty short-lived. granddad didn't write much after we grew up, and thinking back, i feel pretty sad now that i never used to spend more time with him learning such things.

he had a knack for handiwork. he made a kelong out of sticks and weaving strings. and i would always have fun playing with the kelong, cos he would make a fishing net that could be levered up and down. the kelong is now encased at home...

suddenly i had this urge to want to go back home to look for that slab of ink stone and my ink brushes. not that i'd use it to draw or write, but just want to ... reminisce the past.

oh wells.

and today was spent pretty much productively, i watched many episodes online, and did quite a bit of work. using photoshop without a mouse has always been my forte, but after so many months of reliance on a mouse, i couldn't really function proper here just because the handy mouse isn't with me. argh.

hoping this burst of creative spark stays in my head for a while. gotta jot down ideas ideas ideas.

coming home tomorrow night! so many things i want to do and hoping that it would all be worth it.

xoxo