to do even a wee bit of Europe satisfyingly in a month turned out to be overly ambitious. it has so much to offer! in that short time span, my memory gathered a flurry of song, dance, excellent coffee and art. all of these which share a common quality — that of being so highly addictive. could i ask for more? yes, yes and yes!
a) musicians, Barcelona
b) Gaudi museum, Barcelona
c) cafe, Barcelona
d) cafe, Barcelona
e) Dali museum, Barcelona
f) busker, Barcelona
g) metro, Madrid
h) St. Isidro festival, Madrid
i) bullfight, Madrid
j) night music and dance, Madrid
k) train ride, Paris
l) Venus de Milo, Paris
m) Eiffel, Paris
n) singer, Rome
o) bicycle, Pisa
p) gifts for my ladies, Singapore
(hehe.. nicely hand-wrapped too because i couldn’t wait to try out the new letter stamp from London!)
Europe + London = ♥♥♥!!!
*
but time changes everything. if i move the hands of the clock 5 hours forward, there is a place close to my heart that is aching and is far from love. i stole away occasional news headlines on the planes where there were free papers. and good news often doesn’t make news.
“Everything okay?”
“Okay,” Jamil says.
“Okay,” in all the English he can muster up.
(and courage, too)
“Everything okay?” he asks back.
“O… kay.”
Pakistan = ♥♥♥
*
In other news, The God of Small Things has been a great vacation companion, how can it not be loved? and why had i not read it much, much earlier? in any case the sights and sounds of a pretty land far off are now trapped within its pages — not too bad a thing, yes? ;)
The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.
That is their mystery and their magic.
- Arundhati Roy
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still, there is a season for joy and indulgences ♥
A) white hot chocolate from Whittard of Chelsea is a dream come true!
B) and its traditional biscuits make two dreams come true!
C) Succour magazine is “Granta for the Facebook generation” according to Time Out. am neither a fan of Granta nor Facebook, but this is still nonetheless one of the more amazing discoveries from the remarkable Shakespeare & Co.
D) in Sleepwalk and Other Stories, Adrian Tomine draws out the nuances of the isolations of modern life. and makes them beautiful.
E) Phoenix croons in Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, “where would you go / where would you go / with a lasso?” how not to love such a rhyme? ;) heard the album at the legendary Rough Trade and it’s been hard to get it out of my mind since!
F) and finally, before Elliot Smith there was Nick Drake and a gorgeous Pink Moon.
*
Don’t be shy you learn to fly
And see the sun when day is done
If only you see
Just what you are beneath a star
That came to stay one rainy day
In autumn for free
Yes, be what you’ll be
- Things Behind the Sun, Nick Drake
