A Perfectionist Endeavor
Posted in Family, General, Spirituality on Jun 19th, 2008
My recent trip to Scotland was the best thing I have done all year. After months of anxiety, I thought I had tried every kind of stress relief: exercise, healthy diet, yoga, meditation, self-help books. Nothing was working. I felt overwhelmed by the impossibilities of the future, and at some point every week I felt [...]
We are taught always to be grateful and thank our hosts. It’s hard to say which of my hosts has been the most remarkable. Was it the landlord who took away my furniture so I had to sleep on the floor? Or the family who disinvited me with a post-it note on the stairs? [...]
Plastic may be wonderful for water bottles and new noses, but when we descended from a remote Scottish coastal path to a picturesque beach, only to find that the shore and hillsides were covered in plastic trash that had washed out of the ocean, the (plastic) recycling bin never looked so good.
My mother [...]
Posted in Community, Family, General, Spirituality on Jun 13th, 2008
I particularly love it when other people decide they are my long-lost kindergarten teacher. This happened yesterday when I was buying groceries at a small shop.
‘May I have a bag?’ I asked.
The checkout woman put on her most self-righteous tone as she waved the plastic bag in front of my face. ‘Will you promise [...]
Posted in General on Jun 12th, 2008
We are in awe of a young Indian man of our acquaintance by the name of Kamlesh. We admire the supreme self-confidence that permits him to wear blue velvet jackets, silk cravats, and curl-toed Indian slippers on a daily basis. His prim, dandyish appearance suits him perfectly and does not seem affected in the slightest. [...]
For some reason the rural road builders of Britain have decided that it is not necessary to have a separate lane for cars going in either direction. Instead they have concluded that a single lane will do for both directions, as long as there are slightly wider spots identified as Passing Places where two small [...]
Posted in Community, General, Personal Hygiene on Jun 6th, 2008
It is no easy matter to maintain our bipedal stance on a muddy hill so steep it might be mistaken for a wall. Hundreds of feet have worn away the grass, leaving a slick, treacherous surface. We slip and fall to our hands and knees, clinging to tree roots and other people’s legs as we [...]
Confident in my charismatic leadership, I set off last weekend in search of the largest box woods in Britain. I was inspired by a book called Hidden Trees of Britain: A Regional Guide to the Country’s Secret Treescapes by Archie Miles. It did not occur to me before we started that Archie Miles might with [...]
Being Southerners, it is our nature to smile and say hi to everybody on the street. This does not go over well in other parts of the world.
After many years in exile, we finally learn to appear miserable and guarded in public. When strangers address us, we pretend not to hear. Hailed by [...]
Posted in Community, General, Personal Hygiene on May 21st, 2008
My housemate Tjen Ket (actually I have no idea how to spell his name) has undergone a transformation in recent days from glumness to chattiness. I am sorry to admit I preferred the morose state. When he gets excited, his Singaporean English hardens into a series of clattering syllables. Although I find him [...]