Yesterday, Daw Ngwe Pan Phyu had to help a friend, working on some ancient documents. Suddenly, she felt like having sweets to survive through the whole night. She dislikes sweet and will not eat anything sweet for months until her sugar-starved cells in her body force her to eat sugar-filled snacks.
There is a newly opened cake shop at the place which used to be a ceramic museum on the ground floor of her building. She was curious about the shop and wanted to try some cakes there. When she entered this ultra-posh patisseries shop, she suddenly realised that she could not get out without spending at least £8! She did not want to embarrass herself in front of staring well-dressed customers who were surprised to see Daw Phyu in her frumpy house clothes. So she bought two scoops of pistachio ice-cream and two pieces of cream strawberry and coffee cakes. She came back to her flat after spending nearly £9 accidentally. She consoled herself that she should treat herself like the rich and the famous for once.
After having ice-cream, she continued her work. At midnight, she finished her first document. To celebrate this, she had her luxurious midnight tea. Then suddenly she realised that she was born many many years ago at the precise moment somewhere in the middle of bloody battlefields. She does not want to celebrate her birthday as a ritual but she would like to imagine how her mother giving birth to her at this precise time of her birth every year. As usual she quietly and solemnly thought for a few minutes about her 22 year old grieving mother giving birth to her third child _ a few months after the death of previous two baby daughters in extreme poverty while her young husband was being trained as a cadet at Maymyo Military Academy. Then she resumed the next document until she could not stay awake any longer. She was rudely awoken by her alarm clock at 4.00 a.m. She had slept less than two hours. Then she continued her work until it was finished. After sending finished copies to her friend who had been waiting to hear from her for ten days, she fell asleep listening to Bach's Mass in B Minor.
When she woke up again, she read some online newspapers while listening to Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out. She proudly acquired her own CD copy of this jazz masterpiece only a few days ago. When her father played the music of Dave Brubeck's quartet on his record player in the early 1960, her musically deaf mother complaint about the noise made by crazy people striking pots and pans with ladles. She preferred quiet Burmese semi-classical songs and refused to develop an acquired Western taste that Daw Phyu and her father had. Now Daw Phyu is listening to her old lover, Time Out, again while writing this blog.
A few hours earlier, she accidentally discovered a few videos featuring Andrew Wyett's paintings on YouTube. She was thrilled. She had sadly missed these videos for nearly two years. In 1987, she discovered Andrew Wyett in Time Magazine. The painting titled "The Lover" immediately reminded her of Drürer and Rembrendt who were a few of her favourite painters at that time. When she came back to London in early 1989, she bought "Helga" as soon as it was published. She did not have even £50 in her bank account but she spent £20 on this art book. However to her mild disappointment, this collection included only a few paintings of Wyett. Since she got her personal internet connection in 1994, she has been downloading whatever Wyett she discovered on the internet for off-line viewing. Earlier today, she was overwhelmed to discover on YouTube many more Wyett's paintings that she had not seen before. She would like to see all in the famous Christina's World collection and other famous Wyett's collections.
A presenter commented that his paintings had influence on many artists and their works such as some Hollywood films like "Days of Heaven" in the Twentieth Century. Daw Phyu has never doubted about this. However, Daw Phyu has never been to the United States and seen his influence firsthand there. Then she suddenly realised why she always wanted to see "Days of Heaven" repeatedly despite her extreme dislike of cocky Richard Gere and the character he played. Scenes in this film were like Wyett's paintings. Now Daw Phyu knew that the film artistic director recreated Wyett's America. She also likes the scenes of "O' Brother Where are thou?" She will never get tired of viewing such films repeatedly. Today, she feels that she has been given many birthday presents by those who have posted Wyett on YouTube. And now she is listening to Brubeck, her other old love. And she is also thinking of her late gentle and kind mother who was nursing her one day old baby in her arms at this precise moment, many many moons ago.
