momoteapots!
Last Letter
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 || 1:27 AM
Last month I read about Ted Hughes' "Last Letter"that was recently unearthed, which gave the world new perspective to Sylvia Plath's suicide in 1963. This, I found oddly really interesting, because we'd used to study Ted Hughes' poetry in JC for Literature. His poems were always somewhat haunting for me. They were often a rather cynical view on humans and nature, dark and sometimes depressing to read, not to mention analyse. Plus, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is one of my all-time favourite reads.
From
Daily Mail,
It was the tragic end to a romance between two writers who captivated the public.
Now a newly discovered poem by Ted Hughes has cast fresh light on his torment over the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath.
The harrowing work has been unearthed at the British Library 47 years after Plath gassed herself at the age of 30.
Hughes, a former poet laureate, became a hate figure for feminists after his philandering drove Plath to kill herself in February 1963.
But his previously unpublished work, Last Letter, offers a fresh take on the tragic incident.
The poem was discovered by Melvyn Bragg in the British Library’s Ted Hughes archive with the help of his second wife, Carol Hughes.
The full poem is published in the New Statesman, which is out today, and a line by line extract can be seen below.
It describes the days leading up to Plath’s suicide, when the pair were living apart, and the night itself.
Last night, poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy told Channel 4 News that the newly published work was ‘almost unbearable to read’.
She said: ‘It’s a poem that will speak in the way that a Shake spearean tragedy does to people who’ve had the misfortune to touch on those issues. It shows how a suicide can scar the lives of those who still have to live after that death.
‘It seems to me to be the darkest poem that he wrote about the death of Sylvia Plath. There is a kind of deafening agony, blinding agony to this new poem. It seems to touch a deeper, darker place than any poem he’s ever written.’
Plath, the American author of The Bell Jar, killed herself after Hughes left her and their children Frieda and Nicholas for another woman, Assia Wevill.
Nicholas – who last year hanged himself, aged 47 – had been just one and his sister two when their mother killed herself on February 11, 1963, at their home in Camden, North London.
Hughes went on to settle down with Wevill, until she too commited suicide in 1969. A year later he married Carol.
His "Last Letter":
What happened that night? Your final night.
Double, treble exposure
Over everything. Late afternoon, Friday,
My last sight of you alive.
Burning your letter to me, in the ashtray,
With that strange smile. Had I bungled your plan?
Had it surprised me sooner than you purposed?
Had I rushed it back to you too promptly?
One hour later—-you would have been gone
Where I could not have traced you.
I would have turned from your locked red door
That nobody would open
Still holding your letter,
A thunderbolt that could not earth itself.
That would have been electric shock treatment
For me.
Repeated over and over, all weekend,
As often as I read it, or thought of it.
That would have remade my brains, and my life.
The treatment that you planned needed some time.
I cannot imagine
How I would have got through that weekend.
I cannot imagine. Had you plotted it all?
Your note reached me too soon—-that same day,
Friday afternoon, posted in the morning.
The prevalent devils expedited it.
That was one more straw of ill-luck
Drawn against you by the Post-Office
And added to your load. I moved fast,
Through the snow-blue, February, London twilight.
Wept with relief when you opened the door.
A huddle of riddles in solution. Precocious tears
That failed to interpret to me, failed to divulge
Their real import. But what did you say
Over the smoking shards of that letter
So carefully annihilated, so calmly,
That let me release you, and leave you
To blow its ashes off your plan—-off the ashtray
Against which you would lean for me to read
The Doctor’s phone-number.
My escape
Had become such a hunted thing
Sleepless, hopeless, all its dreams exhausted,
Only wanting to be recaptured, only
Wanting to drop, out of its vacuum.
Two days of dangling nothing. Two days gratis.
Two days in no calendar, but stolen
From no world,
Beyond actuality, feeling, or name.
My love-life grabbed it. My numbed love-life
With its two mad needles,
Embroidering their rose, piercing and tugging
At their tapestry, their bloody tattoo
Somewhere behind my navel,
Treading that morass of emblazon,
Two mad needles, criss-crossing their stitches,
Selecting among my nerves
For their colours, refashioning me
Inside my own skin, each refashioning the other
With their self-caricatures,
Their obsessed in and out. Two women
Each with her needle.
That night
My dellarobbia Susan. I moved
With the circumspection
Of a flame in a fuse. My whole fury
Was an abandoned effort to blow up
The old globe where shadows bent over
My telltale track of ashes. I raced
From and from, face backwards, a film reversed,
Towards what? We went to Rugby St
Where you and I began.
Why did we go there? Of all places
Why did we go there? Perversity
In the artistry of our fate
Adjusted its refinements for you, for me
And for Susan. Solitaire
Played by the Minotaur of that maze
Even included Helen, in the ground-floor flat.
You had noted her—-a girl for a story.
You never met her. Few ever met her,
Except across the ears and raving mask
Of her Alsatian. You had not even glimpsed her.
You had only recoiled
When her demented animal crashed its weight
Against her door, as we slipped through the hallway;
And heard it choking on infinite German hatred.
That Sunday night she eased her door open
Its few permitted inches.
Susan greeted the black eyes, the unhappy
Overweight, lovely face, that peeped out
Across the little chain. The door closed.
We heard her consoling her jailor
Inside her cell, its kennel, where, days later,
She gassed her ferocious kupo, and herself.
Susan and I spent that night
In our wedding bed. I had not seen it
Since we lay there on our wedding day.
I did not take her back to my own bed.
It had occurred to me, your weekend over,
You might appear—-a surprise visitation.
Did you appear, to tap at my dark window?
So I stayed with Susan, hiding from you,
In our own wedding bed—-the same from which
Within three years she would be taken to die
In that same hospital where, within twelve hours,
I would find you dead.
Monday morning
I drove her to work, in the City,
Then parked my van North of Euston Road
And returned to where my telephone waited.
What happened that night, inside your hours,
Is as unknown as if it never happened.
What accumulation of your whole life,
Like effort unconscious, like birth
Pushing through the membrane of each slow second
Into the next, happened
Only as if it could not happen,
As if it was not happening. How often
Did the phone ring there in my empty room,
You hearing the ring in your receiver—-
At both ends the fading memory
Of a telephone ringing, in a brain
As if already dead. I count
How often you walked to the phone-booth
At the bottom of St George’s terrace.
You are there whenever I look, just turning
Out of Fitzroy Road, crossing over
Between the heaped up banks of dirty sugar.
In your long black coat,
With your plait coiled up at the back of your hair
You walk unable to move, or wake, and are
Already nobody walking
Walking by the railings under Primrose Hill
Towards the phone booth that can never be reached.
Before midnight. After midnight. Again.
Again. Again. And, near dawn, again.
At what position of the hands on my watch-face
Did your last attempt,
Already deeply past
My being able to hear it, shake the pillow
Of that empty bed? A last time
Lightly touch at my books, and my papers?
By the time I got there my phone was asleep.
The pillow innocent. My room slept,
Already filled with the snowlit morning light.
I lit my fire. I had got out my papers.
And I had started to write when the telephone
Jerked awake, in a jabbering alarm,
Remembering everything. It recovered in my hand.
Then a voice like a selected weapon
Or a measured injection,
Coolly delivered its four words
Deep into my ear: ‘Your wife is dead.’
Such a..perfect closing. Had chills reading this. I wish I were studying Lit again (@Siying @Jien)
Labels: musings, sylvia plath, ted hughes
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so vain!
Monday, October 4, 2010 || 9:27 AM
This drapey dress will be coming up end of this year on MMTP! It's really naiseeeee, just saw the sample today :) Should be coming in Navy, Cream-nude, Peach-pink and Sea Green. The drapes fall so nicely and the fitting is perfect for work and play! I can just see this being worn to work, club/party, or dinner dates. Best of all, the quality of this new material is great. Extremely lux feel and fits the drapes perfectly. WOOHOOOOOOO <3 Okay I shouldn't be raving about it now since it's still more than a month to go before the pieces arrive. I wish I could keep one for myself now!
Anyways, with my new iPhone, I've been cam-whoring whenever I've the chance. SERENE-SPAM!!!
Absolutely love this maxi dress I bought from our supplier. I adore the vintagey look, and the rings I recently bought totally matches all my vintage-inspired outfits, like this one! Wore it with Steve-Madden inspired pink wedges and my spankin' new motorcyle handbag <3
tons of OTD photos because I love to camwhore before lunch hahahahaha. Mostly clothes from MMTP, save for the pants in the last photo, they were on half price discount at BYSI last season. LOVE IT. It's so quirky and comfortable. Also, many have been asking me about that brown vintage belt which I pair with like...almost everything. Will try to source for it! :)
Okay photo of the moment. Emo-momo!
Labels: manufactured, momoteapots, otd
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sneak peekies.
Monday, September 27, 2010 || 1:28 AM
We have a few manufactured designs and exclusive pieces coming up in our next few posts. For this week's collection, there's a really pretty indigo shoulder embroidered dress (first photo, second piece) I absolutely love. Its embroidery cut-out detail is rather intricate :) melikes embroidery. Also, if you go back a few posts, I had this vintage culottes I wore to BKK manufactured! Have received tons of compliments for the piece. I love vintage stuff, and the colours we chose are super vintagey and pretty! See the photos below and you'll agree :P
There are also 2 pants in fab cutting. A
Topshop-inspired double panel one and
Zara inspired tailored pants. Both in easy-to-match Khaki and unique pink! The pink was specially manufactured for MMTP :) To match these pants, we have an exclusive
Grey Blazer with contrast gunmetal-grey sleeves and a
Reversible Tank in nude-pink/white (see first photo first piece) as well! All in super good quality!Can't stop raving about all of them. Also, remember the vintage skirt that I wore a few entries back? We brought it in again in sand colour! AHHHH going crazy looking at all the pretty pieces. Haha my wardrobe is bursting from new MMTP pieces I've kept for myself. My dad said in frustration that day,"This just won't do. We can't keep buying new hangers."
 |
| I look mad tall here! Hahaha. Reversible tank in white/nude pink + Zara inspired tailored pants in pink. |
Okay hope these items are well-received man! See you at the new collection! :)
Labels: manufactured, momoteapots, preview
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nail love
Sunday, September 26, 2010 || 9:40 AM
HI-LO! I've shifted here so customers can remember the link more easily and so Matt (WY) can share his thoughts here as well. I've quite a few photos from the past 2 months. And still many missing because I have no time to upload them and edit.
So last Friday, WY and I went to Supperclub to support Khai Nam at his Hall's pageant/bash. It was pretty boring except for the bit where they had to dance and parade around the club. It was pretty funny watching him dance. First thing CS said to us when they started dancing to Lady Gaga was "He really cannot dance la!" Anyway I bumped into 4 secondary school friends there, what a small world seriously. Anyway, the bash really made me kinda miss hall a little. Not in a i-wish-i-was-still-staying-there-now way, but in a oh-those-times way. Such hall events aren't meant for outsiders at all, we felt so out-of-place and bored there. Haha anyhow, I think I'm too old for this kinda stuff! We left as soon as we managed to get a photo with the pageant boy cos' there was supposed to be some F1 party afterwards and together with all the NTU people, too crowded for our liking. Plus we were flying off the next day with Trish!!
Woke up at 5am to catch our morning flight to BKK. So damn tired all of us. And our flight back got delayed by 4 hours, so we had a lot of time to shop before the 2am flight! Jetstar is seriously quite rubbish. We received 3 smses in total informing us of the delay, each time pushing back by about 1 hour. Ended up reaching Singapore at about 6am. Madness.
My nails are according to Trish "damn sex" hahahahah which I agree. The manicurists are damn pro. They paint so fast and the nail art is quite good. As usual Tricia was being weird so she had CATS and ROSES on her fingers and toes. Haha I must say the cat is super super cute. Got flying cat and cat with tummy some more. Anyway do you notice anything wrong with my photo below? HAHA the "spot me" is on my leg. There's nothing to spot -.-" I don't know how that bubble shifted there. It's meant to be where WY is at the bottom right hand corner.
OKAY that's all for now. I have a lot of things to do for the new collection now.
sneak peeks later!
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so baby please open your eyes and catch my disease
Saturday, August 14, 2010 || 3:04 AM
i'm at the shop today. had slight diarrhea and fever -.-" i always always fall sick after eating durian but i can never resist it. oh well, serve me right. photoshoot tomorrow with Claraaaaaa. it's a pretty huge collection, and WY and i are superrrrr excited! FWAAHHHH (weird sound that should sound like excitement and a monster)
anyways we're having a private sale some time in September! Trish and us at VAINPOT. we're gonna move our whole house here for sale. at least that's what WY says...YAY YAY YAY for the sale!!! fwaaahhhh!!!!!!
Labels: momoteapots, otd, sale, vainpot
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it was a business trip
Saturday, July 10, 2010 || 3:01 AM
hello world. it felt like such a looong week at work. i actually brought work back to do but i haven't started on it. i should really do it tonight before the pre-collection frenzy begins tomorrow. last weekend WY and i went to bkk for a sourcing trip! i hope the new collection doesn't disappoint hehe. i likey likey all the slouchy shirts i tiaoooo u.
anyways, it was one crazy trip but kinda fun! haha MUST HAVE NEXT TRIP WITH TRISHIEPOOTPOOT. anyway it was supposed to be a business trip right. i think WY ended up having way more loot than me -.- no fair.
pre-flight!
as you can tell...by the end of the trip, we went crazy cos' we were toooooo tired. look like CRAPXzXxsS as well hahahaha
i want to go for facial. any recommendations?
Labels: internship, momoteapots, weiyi
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and so it begins.
Saturday, June 12, 2010 || 2:06 AM
Our official opening was last Saturday. Time somehow passes so quickly when you're not studying. So anyway, it was the eve of my birthday as well, and WY had a surprise planned for me..which wasn't really super surprising because he was being so silly-ly obvious about it haha. My friends were hiding in the fitting room and behind the clothes as I came up the stairs into Vainpot but it was really funny because I spotted feet! THANK YOU friends for coming down :)
apparently this was taken while everyone was waiting for my grand arrival HAHA
came in wearing my spag top and shorts...cui! 
changed into this maxi dress from VAINPOT...and then received a sms from Tricia that she's wearing the same maxi!!! so i'd to rush over to TBS to withdraw the polka dot shift dress instead hahaha super kuku.
And then it was busy busy busy day! Grand opening was such an experience., I've never seen such a crowd in the shop before and people didn't stop streaming in for hours. Happy much really, save for the terrible airconditioning, which needs fixing cos' it's impossibly warm on hot days and only cool on rainy days!
this photo is mad love. credits to Isk..who's the one in the reflection.
GUESS WHO DID THE SIGNS??? Ahemahem, nice right.
friends, family and crowd!!!
i can't believe this is our ONLY group photo that day.
the snacks that no one took..oops.
& lastly, the best friend who came despite a broken leg!
Super exhausted by evening and the place was quite a mess by then. Ended up leaving only about 10plus because we'd to do accounts, but it was so worth it! Never thought we'd have this "dream come true" so soon, and for that really have to thank TRICIA ONGGGGGGG :)) THANK YOU you crazy girl, and your dad especially for alllll the hard work he's put in for us! We can do it!!! Expansion plans, especially for Mikal and Matt hor! hahahaha.
This will be my last week working at Vainpot because I'll be starting my internship on the 21st. Phew. It's really been quite a bit of new going-ons for me since I've been back from exchange. Been presented a few opportunities here and there, all of which I really have to be grateful for. Thank you big guy up there looking out for me :)
Labels: birthday, internship, momoteapots, vainpot, weiyi
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