reading and writing

I used to read other writers / bloggers and feel small. I love writing and reading - but somehow, I never had the drive to go get published or ... well, yeah, just get published.

In my life, I've only ever sent one piece off to be published at a local poetry journal and once that was done and my curiousity satisfied, I stopped. It was there - in some kind of print and it was enough.

It's odd but there it is. I just don't really have anything I want to say badly enough to write it all down.

The one thing I do like about my job is that it involves writing - lots of writing. I like it when it's just me, a blank screen and my keyboard. I like shaping the arguments, finding the right ... shape to the whole story that I want to tell.

This place is just for the bits of non work writing that happens to spill over.

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Ok so I've been on a non-fiction sprint lately. Read the Steve Jobs biography and now reading sl-o-owly through 'The Struggle for Europe' by Chester Wilmot.

WWII and the story of modern Europe definitely trumps the retelling of Steve Jobs' terrible and mostly weird behaviour.

clear skies

Dear world,

I am in such a good mood that I have astounded even myself.

Work has gone well, other things in life are trundling along as they should be, the sun is shining and my head is clear and I haven't even had any coffee yet.

Do you know how miraculous that is?

some weeks ago it was all foggy and where a skyline ought to be was a cloud of smog. Yes, not just fog but smog. Ugh.

Thank God its clear skies today.

Mr Grey and I have been reading and praying from this book lately (the non leather paper back version) and it has blessed both of us immensely.

A common problem for a lot of Christians is that they don't know how to pray according to God's will. Prayer time becomes this laundry list of wants and needs ..... when it shouldn't be.

There's a prayer from the book excerpted below.

Have a blessed weekend!

Di

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O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.

In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.

In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.

In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.

In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.

the apple of my eye

It's only our second valentine's day.

Last valentine's I made him a fruit basket with stickers (see photo above) which i downloaded for free because I don't believe in commercialized Valentine's hoopla.

Then we went out and deliberately ate an awesome meal in a run down coffee shop near my place. There were no candles but there was really fantastic chinese double boiled soup.

I think my only regret is that we have so few photos together. I've been looking through the tumblr blog of an acquaintance and she takes gorgeous gorgeous photos of her trips, of her boyfriend, of the stuff they do together etc etc.

And the only thing i could think of was: darn I should've taken a photo of us with all that fruit. Plus I'd love some blue sky photo of us all smiley and happy together like the world is just candy dandy perfect.

But never mind.

I have every reason to believe that *ahem* ..... the best is yet to be :)

happy valentine's to all and sundry!

Not good

"Everyone I know in litigation has health problems..."

Ran into a law school class mate on Sunday who said this and it bothered me.

It's halfway true in a good and bad way. Not everyone I know in litigation has actual physical health problems. But plenty of people I know in litigation have developed this.... aggression and defensive twitchiness.

When I have my own kitchen ....

I shall make chicken soup stock and store it in the freezer.

Then I will cook these .....


sweet and spicy mushroom stir fry

White bean kale soup


Caramelized onion tart with gorgonzola and brie

yose nabe with ginger chicken balls


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My own kitchen again! In just a couple more months :)

Hugs self in happiness.

A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER. by John Donne

I.
WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

II.
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

III.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ;
But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ;
And having done that, Thou hast done ;
I fear no more.

Renewal by Toh Hsien Min

In seven years' time there will be
Not one cell in my body that will hold
The faintest, fleeting, first-hand memory
Of you. As the surviving cells grow old
And die, so will you cease to live in me.
Your worm should vanish from my broken pith.
And yet I fear that I shall not be free,
That you will turn from history to myth.
It will pass on from cell to newborn cell:
That golden age, when everything was good.
The streets were paved with oxygen, the food
Was plentiful and birdsong graced the air.
New cells will sculpt the myth: Never so well!
Never so well! Would that we were there!


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So I was talking to Mr Grey -

"So is it really true that all the cells in the human body renew themselves after 7 years?"

Mr Grey - who has a degree in biology) - "Actually, no."

:(

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Also it reminded me of this.