Listen to this

I've hijacked this song lyrics from Ms Light Bulb. Lightbulb and I date back to 1996 and really became good friends circa 1998 when she coached the rest of us tone deafs to sing Innuendo's Belaian Jiwa on stage. We also had some really bizzare escapades together where we transported around RM20,000 cash to the bank by cab (don't ask, except that it was all legal), watched one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life together ie Anaconda and ate cold satay in Fraser's Hill.

I love this lyrics by Maliq and d'Essentials (never heard of them before)...but it's just so dense and filled with all the angsty pain that accompanies the heartbreak of unrequited love:

ketika,

kurasakan sudahada ruang di hatiku yang kau sentuh

dan ketika, ku sadari sudah

tak selalu indah cinta yang ada

mungkin memang,

ku yang harus mengerti

bila ku bukan yang ingin kau miliki

salahkah ku bila

kau lah yang ada di hatiku

adakah ku singgah di hatimu,

mungkinkah kau rindukan adaku

adakah ku sedikit di hatimu

bila kah ku mengganggu harimu,

mungkin kau tak inginkan adaku

akankah ku sedikit di hatimu

bila memang, ku yang harus mengerti

mengapa cintamu tak dapat ku miliki

salahkah ku bilakau lah yang ada di hatiku

kau yang ada, di hatiku

bila cinta kita tak kan tercipta

ku hanya sekedar ingin tuk mengerti

adakah diriku, oh singgah di hatimu

dan bilakah kau tau, kau yang ada, di hatiku

kau yang ada, di hatiku

Misc

-I haven't been updating much these days. But life updates itself, work being the primary culprit. Not been doing much otherwise.

-My roses are blooming. Pink, light orange and a deep damask, almost slutty red. But this weather, I tell you is awful. We have been having rain, rain, rain for an interminable period of time now.

-Lots of other things happening as well- long haul trips happening real soon, a wedding and an anniversary. As a unit, M and I turn four very soon. Somtimes, its a great unit but other times, I feel like breaking every bone in his body.

-We are planning on watching the Mousetrap to celebrate. When I tell people, they just say, 'what, you haven't seen this show? I've seen it three/four/five times'. I know. I know. That is why we are actually going, finally.

-The plan was to be in Hereford this weekend beginning with a Baaba Maal concert and some exciting meet the writers sessions. But man plans, and God disposes. So, I am off on a work related *&%* which it seems cannot be avoided. I have reached the stage where I am really enjoying work but I just wish it wasn't so consuming like this. I need to get out of this rut soon. Like a friend mine says, karma will bring you to Hay-on-Wy* if you are meant to go. Some day, some day. Hopefully, friend and I get to go as planned, just that it will now happen in the future. Not this weekend (sniffle).

Cutty Sark in Flames

Isn't it sad that a national icon has been ravaged by an arson attack?





M and I love rambling around the area and further afield where the maritime museum is.

A sad, sad day.

Mid-year Book Audit

Wot, is it seriously going to be June soon?

To be honest, I am quite happy that the first half of 2007 is going to dissipate. It's been an extremely difficult few months and I want to really look forward to June.

XXX
It's an apt time I suppose to do a mid-year review of books read, loved and loathed.


1. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
Full of dark passions. Felt like a criminal at the end of it.

2.The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Ho-hum. I wanted to turn the pages to know the propped up secret, which however evolved into a disappointment. I can't quite place this book though. I didn't hate it but it didn't do much either.



3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
This was read while recuperating from surgery and hence had time out from work. I'm probably the last person to have read it – absolutely everyone seems to have devoured it. Verdict? Yeah, mind blowing in ambitiousness but at some level, I am not sure if I enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. There was also this hint of reincarnation thing going on which I think didn't quite work. Still, a writer with great dexterity.

4. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Cute and disturbing (how weird is that?)

5.The Secret River by Kate Greenville
Australian history has been explored in many books but this one has a lyrical beauty to it. Not without its flaws, some bits plod on but overall good writing, capturing the heritage of guilt and sadness with numbing clarity.

6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
The best book I've read this year, so far. I cant sing enough praises. The dialogue leaps, the characters are unflinchingly alive and a story that rips your heart out. It explores the Biafra war- the war by starvation which Nigeria plunged into the mid-late 60s by looking at three central characters. My friend Sam who is an Ugwu (the tribe that was massacred) said that he cried reading it. So did I.

7. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Currently reading (part of my self imposed requirement of interspersing my reading with classics which have been missed over the years).

Non-Fiction

Lots of re-reading Between Facts and Norms by Jurgen Habermas, The Communitarian Persuasion by Philip Selznick, Global Capitalism (ed by Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens), Bounds of Justice by Onora O'Neill.

Misc

Oh, I also made some lovely tandoori chicken and lamb inspired by Ranjit Rai's delectable book Tandoor.

Photo Blogging

n/b too lazy to write a post.....

Adios Barcelona

So, after a few months being in the country which I believe is sufficient for my carbon offset, M and I were desperate for a holiday and we hopped to Barcelona. Was sad to leave after a lovely, languid holiday involving sun, tapas, paella, seafood, gothic architecture, Gaudi, Picasso, Dali, street dancing, Las Ramblas, Avenue Diagonal, Los Caracoles, more paella (that smelled like the sea).