Shrek's diary

Dear Diary.
Fiona is gone away for few days over to Cinderella’s party and her cousin Arthur came to visit Far Far Away during the school holiday. Fiona told me to take him somewhere… show him around the town and have some time together. So I made a plan to go camping with Donkey because, camping… I thought having some time together outside, sleeping out under the stars would make us bit closer.

So I spend how long…? a days and days to plan out what we were going to do at camping and if everything went according to plan then it would have been perfect. But you know. Everything doesn’t really workout according to plan around Donkey and me.

Arthur didn’t wanted to go and he kept sleeping. So I had to get Donkey to sing the “wake-up song” which I hate in 5 a.m! And we had to walk and wonder in the wood for 3 hours to find the perfect camping spot. It seemed further than I expected so from here things were getting out of plan.

By the time we got there it was 9:00 in the morning and according to the plan, we were supposed to be having fun, and playing but you know how Donkey is when he is hungry. He always moans and just never stops talking, drives me crazy. So I looked in my bag to find the foods I brought specially for camping and guess what… I “accidentally” brought the wrong bag. It was Fiona’s bag. So this is what happened. She took my bag full of foods and I brought her bag full of clothes… women… why do they need so much clothes? Anyway. Things were getting out of control and we had to at least hunt the animals, find some mushrooms and onions or something to cook and eat. When I asked Arthur to come with me to look for foods he was like “I’m not going anywhere. You were the one who wanted to come camping. I’m just going to stay here and read”. I’m sorry that there’s no food and things didn’t work out but they are not really my fault if you think about it. Actually it was Fiona’s fault… she was the one who took the wrong bag in the first place. Who’s to blame but me.


I think Arthur got annoyed a little bit. Since when he was young he was a typical prince. Living in the big castle, get everything he wants, so different to my childhood. I didn’t think he never felt “hunger” before. I didn’t think that he knew what “loneliness” means. You know big castles, lots of workers, as a prince you get to meet and talk to lots of people around country but when I talked to him on that night, I think being born as a prince is very lonely. This is what happened at that night.


After we were looking for food for about an hour, we all got very tired and when we were just about to give up, we found the boar in the wood. And we were so happy when we saw it but the next problem stroke. We didn’t have anything to catch it! How stupid are we. We didn’t know what to do and we didn’t have any ideas and Arthur used his what he calls “knowledge” and “skills” and came up with the idea to catch the boar. According to his plan, we made some rope with the plants. In his plan, I was the bait. I knew he hated me and did that on purpose. What I had to do was make the boar to go to the direction where Donkey and Arthur were hiding behind the trees and when the boar tries to run then they would rise up the plant rope and trip the boar over. The plan sounded good. But the plan was just plan. This boar was not scared of the orger. Normally the other animals get scared and run away when I growl and make the scary face “I am an orger! Argh~~~”. When I did my scary face, this boar was ready to run toward and attack me. I didn’t know I could run that fast and thanks to Arthur and his plan, I had the one-year amount of exercise in that few minutes.


By the time we got back to our tent, the day was getting dark. So basically we had breakfast and skipped lunch. Everyone was tired and so hungry that even Donkey wasn’t even talking. So we basically all helped each other cooking and we managed to barbeque the boar. It was really nice. Probably because I was really hungry but it tasted so good.


With full stomachs, we all felt relaxed and sleepy. We all sat down on the big piece of tree and looked at the fire with half closed eyes. Arthur asked me “Why did you marry Auntie Fiona?” and I said, “Because I love her. She was the one who made me realize that even orgers can fall in love.” And he asked, “So you have never been in love before?” “No, ever in my life. I didn’t know what love is. I never loved or got loved in my life” “Even from your parents…?” “My parents are orgers. They tried to eat me when I was young. Well I suppose you don’t understand what that mean. Without love in any kind of form is so lonely. Fiona made me understand that.” Then I realized that Arthur looked bit sad. Or at least that was what I felt. He said, “I know what that is like. I have been just me, by myself for most of my life.” I was actually surprised to here that because when I first saw him, he looked like he got so many loves. There was no loneliness, sadness in his face. He continued talking “My parents were always busy. Since young I had to have breakfast and dinner by myself, I had to learn to do things by myself when the parents taught their kids. Whenever the parents read a bedtime story or sang a song, I had to sleep trying not to look into the cupboard because I knew that there wouldn’t be anyone when I’m scared and… and… you know Shrek? I think you are not a bad guy after all and we have something in common.”

I thought Arthur had a good childhood. I always told people not to judge others by their look but I guess I have already judged Arthur before I even meet him. I guess I only have only seen and thought of the one side, the typical stereotype of princes in the fairytales where they were grown up in so rich environment, all strong, brave and fearless. But through Arthur today, he was just a boy who needs and wants his parents and their love. Also all the princes are also a man, human being with feelings and emotions. Today, I again realized, not to judge others only by their looks, thanks to my new cousin-in-law Arthur.