Month: Apr 2016
Book du jour: The Missing One
So I finally finished Maria Kubica’s book The Good Girl. It’s quite a good book and very nearly unputdownable. I nearly missed my train stop several times in the course of reading the book. It was very interesting because it wasn’t an individual’s story. It shows how many individuals are affected by one extra-ordinary experience.
But mind you, the ending, the twist at the end, was very nearly unexpected! A definite must read.
I’ve started on a new book now. Determined to read 2 books a month. I am still a book behind but at least I’m progressing!
The book that I’ve just started reading is about Lucy Atkins. It’s called The Missing One. It’s a daughter’s journey of discovery, of getting to know her mother after her mother’s death. I must say it’s quite interesting because it’s several stories intertwined. Plus there is a science-y bit that I find entirely interesting…it talks about killer whales, orcas. When I was little, my dad and I watched this movie on TV called Orca, The Killer Whale. It was about this whale that kills people in this village because fishermen killed his wife and unborn calf. Does anyone remember this movie? One scene has this woman hanging out of a house on stilts and the orca eats her leg…but just the one!
I wonder how long it’ll take me to finish this book?
Oh no he didn’t!
So a candidate for the Philippine presidential elections made a crass joke about a rape that happened in his town whilst he was a mayor. I think it was either in the late 1980s or the early 1990s.
I actually didn’t take notice of all the swearing, the crude language, the unstatesman-like behaviour. I thought he was a reasonable choice (although, had I been able to vote, I wouldn’t really choose him). But this was a deal breaker. I can understand vulgarity (within reason) but this is a no-cross zone.
How can you vote for someone who cannot be respectful of 50% of the population?
My mugshot
After weeks of inwardly wincing every time I took my mug out of the ground floor kitchen dishwasher (where all pretty cups go to crumble) and heaving sighs of relief, the worst has happened. My cup has got a chip.
I mostly wash my cup before I leave the office. I make sure it’s clean so I don’t have to put my dishwasher. I’ve seen so many cups and coffee mugs get chipped in that monstrous thing. The one time I needed to rush out of the office to catch a train, I forget to wash my cup. A well-meaning soul put my lovely cup in the office monster and when I came back to work yesterday, I found my cup stuffed in the back of the cupboard with a humdinger of a chip!
I can’t help but mourn my beautiful mug. It was the perfect shape to cup so that I could warm my frozen hands when the office was cold. It carried just enough coffee or tea for me not to feel shortchanged when I drained the last drops of my drink. It kept the drink warm (miraculously) but you didn’t burn your lips when you sipped from it whilst the drink was still piping hot (I still marvel at the seemingly miraculous insulation!). I don’t think Starbucks make that mug anymore…at least I can’t find it a Starbucks near me anyway.
After the appropriate grieving period, I’m going to have to find my next perfect cup.
The Good Girl
I cannot remember why I thought this would be a good idea. I’ve signed up to do a reading challenge on Goodreads. I’ve set my goal to reading 24 books this year. 2 books a month. At the time I set my goal, I thought it was really doable. My commute to work is an hour long each way and I thought, “Great, I’ll manage 2 books a month!” It’s not as easy as it sounds though! I’m always worried about goals that I set for myself. I almost always start something and never finish it. It’s an annoying trait. I tend to procrastinate to death, until I just get to my set deadline to find out I didn’t even get to the halfway point of my goal!
I’m already a book behind. It’s April and I’ve only just started reading my 6th book! I bought two books of the same title. I read the other, and it was good read. It was by Fiona Neill. But this book is quite the page turner. I even read it with Alan around on the train. I think he feels a bit ignored when I read on the train instead of talking to him. The book, at the moment is unputdownable!
If you get the chance to, read Fiona Neill’s book too, but read this one first. Particularly if you liked The Girl On The Train.
Oh sorry! I meant to say, I’m reading Maria Kubica’s The Good Girl.
Looking around
I used to have a lot of time reading other blogs. I miss it. But as with everything, growing up has this really strange ways of changing one’s priorities. I was quite the voracious blog reader and I used to visit blogs and put my two cents in (because I always thought one’s opinion was always welcome…I mean hello, why post a blog publicly and allow comments, right?).
Times have changed. Sometimes I am saddened by the fact that I no longer seem to have the time to do the things I used to love doing. But I did promise myself that I would make changes to my current behaviour patterns because I noticed that I wasn’t, really, very happy anymore. I didn’t feel very creative anymore. I became caught up in what I thought were more adult things to do (make dinner, clear up, laundry, ironing, vegetate on the sofa staring somnambulistically at the telly or whinge about how tired I was). I think it affected my appetite for life…either in real life or online. I was quite social. I realise that now, I am making myself sound so old!
Anywho, the next Blogging 101 assignment was to visit the neighbours. To read what people were writing, to get inspiration. I laughed because the assignment gave me permission to be nosy! And well, to look at other blogs so that my blog would know what it wanted to be when it grew up!
One of the blogs I came across (thank you Stylist!) was Sara Tasker’s blog Me & Orla. I can’t remember how I came across the Stylist article. She’s one of those amazingly creative people who have managed to quit the day job and do what she loves because of Instagram.
The blog layout is amazing in its simplicity. It’s crisp and clean. Because she takes amazing photos (hence her success on Instagram), the photos take priority. I love “the voice” of her blog. When you read the words, it’s like you’re included in this weirdly personal conversation. I like it though. I’ve also downloaded her pdf on her virtual Instagram retreat. I love how some of the new internet creatives are so generous with their experiences. Some people won’t share because they want to keep the niche they discovered on the great WWW their little secret monopoly.
If you have time, go and visit her website!
I might do this on a regular basis. Look at blogs and write about them. It’s good for content plus, it’s the perfect excuse to be nosy! Not that I really need an excuse.
To long-distance friendships
Che, one of my oldest and dearest friends, posted a photo of the four of us on Facebook. Apparently, the photo was taken 10 years ago. But before that photo was taken, we had been firm friends for ages.
I am so proud of the four of us, Che, Joanne, Maries and me. We hadn’t all grown up together. Che and Joanne went to the United Methodist church my mom transplanted us to (I stuck it out at the church I grew up in for a few weeks and then finally moved too). Maries and her family moved to Fairview and looked for a Methodist church and found ours. We weren’t all immediately friends. Che and Joanne and I were friendly, but I don’t think we became close until we all went to summer camp together. I am however, very thankful for the time when we became “real” friends. I don’t think I would’ve made it through my formative years if it hadn’t been for them.
Our friendship isn’t perfect, it’s got cracks. We’ve had arguments, some unspoken and I’m sure there are heartaches we haven’t expressed. But I think we overcame them because we grew up together in faith. I don’t know how you define religious, but my faith is important to me. I know their faiths are important to Che, Joanne and Maries too. I believe that what makes our friendships strong is because the foundations of our friendships is our faith. Our first, proper steps in our journey of faith were taken together. I firmly believe that our friendships are stronger because we grew in the Lord together.
We’re all a lot older now…and on other sides of the globe! I’m in England, Maries is in solicitor training in Australia, Joanne is mum to two darling babies in the Philippines and Che, well, Che is our resident jetsetter (I think she’s in Taiwan…at the moment!). I haven’t seen Che in years (8 to be specific) because when I went home (2 years ago!) she was away. I miss living so close to Maries (we lived on the same street in our little subdivision on Quezon City) and I miss Joanne being a text message and a quick 10 minute drive away (Che and Joanne are sisters by the way).
I wish my friends were with me. Because they would find it significant that we were living in the UK, where the Methodist faith started. I wish I were with my friends, because I miss THEM. It’s easy enough to make friends, but you miss the friends who KNOW you. I miss our Starbucks coffee dates (yes, there are other coffee chains available). Our gossiping at each others’ houses. I miss going out to movies with them. I just miss being with them. I do find myself wishing that there wasn’t such a huge time difference between us. Because there are times when I just want to share with them what I’ve seen, or something I saw on TV that I think they’d find funny too!
I suppose that is what happens when you follow your dreams. This what happens when we all grown up. You’ll need to expand your territory and you’ll have to leave the people that keep you grounded. It’s not the best of situations. In a perfect world, you grow up and live exactly where you were born, with the people you love and love you back. But it’s not a perfect world, is it? Not really. So we all go away and find ourselves and stretch our wings.
What is comforting to me though, is the fact that when we are together, it’s like we all never left Quezon City, or Fairview Park United Methodist Church, it’s like our friendships were never paused or there aren’t several thousand miles between us. Till we meet again girls!
Yellywelly 