Ode to My Tainted Dreams

First post of 2010. Well, Happy New Year… and 5 days. I still am allowed to say it because my christmas tree hasn’t been dismantled yet, but don’t worry, I won’t go as far as wishing everyone a merry christmas. I just hope you all enjoyed the festivities as much as I have. What I did? Most of the times, nothing. We went up to Wales for Christmas, had people over the house most of the times during December and yes, I cooked.

I have been cooking a lot these days, I even made dinner for the 31st of December, which included the roast chicken, baked potato croquettes, boiled carrots, stir-fried mushrooms and finally, salad. And, it wasn’t bad, even if I was stressed as hell because I was alone at home with the kids and I had to babysit them as well as take care of the whole house for the day and do all the stuffs and I’m stressing again. Continue reading →

There are times I love London and there are times, like any normal person, I hate it. Today was one of those days where I found myself in the very middle, which both extremes pulling me towards them. Well, first of all, I have to say that this day was actually promising. Today’s the last lecture for the term. Yeah, we geography students have it hard, getting holidays before everyone. If you managed to catch the sarcasm in here, it means I finally got it right.

First stop, the library. Yeah, I know, I’m a bore but what to say, I love libraries, especially Maughan. Well, not when I’m getting lost in the whole labyrinth of the building or when I’m trying to get the photocopies which are supposedly user-friendly to work, which I haven’t yet managed to, but overall I love it. Though I have been spending more time at LSE’s library than Maughan. Turning towards the enemy; it’s the call of knowledge attracting me there… and their photocopiers. Okay, maybe it’s more the archives than the photocopiers but today, the latter were actually the reason why I went there. Continue reading →

There are some moments in life that seem so far away, you doubt that they will ever arrive. As a young child in primary school, I can remember watching the older kids all going to various upper schools across town and thinking that I would never ever be that old, and would never ever leave my school behind. But life has a habit of creeping up on you; in what seems in retrospect to be a very short few years, I’ve completely finished school and am now looking into different universities. I mention this because the amazing meeting of last week, when I finally met the amazing Nussaïbah, was one of those events that initially seemed so far away that the notion of it actually happening became something of a fantastical concept.

Many, many moons ago, I was in the middle of tearing my hair out before a major geography exam. Despite desperately seeking to gain the best grade possible, I was spending way too much time online; on that night, anything could distract me away from conservation strategies in the Galapagos Islands, which despite being a fascinating subject, loses its appeal very quickly when you have to write about it under exam conditions. One of the messages posted on the Internet that night was a wish of good luck from a friend to a classmate and me ahead of the test the next day; a message that would lead to a new friendship being built with someone from across the globe.

After several hours of writing my heart out in a series of unending essays, I was feeling over the Moon, enjoying that feeling of raw happiness one gets after finishing a complex piece of work. Checking back over the Internet that evening, I was charmed to discover that someone else had also joined my friend on the topic of wishing us well, and upon investigating this person’s profile, was amazed to discover that they were from Mauritius, just over six thousand miles away. The sheer scale and size of the Internet is revealed through such moments, and I can remember taking a few minutes just to visualise that extent of that distance. Continue reading →

Tropical Land?

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Once upon a time, in a faraway neighbourhood, there lived an evil witch. The witch had proclaimed herself the Mistress and Ruler of everything in a 100m (or was it a kilometer) radius of her Castle. Her children having left home and boredom of old age kicking in, she only had for hobby to nose around in her “subjects” family and personal matters, reveling in creating rifts between members of a same family or discord within the whole community. However, the evil hag was not satisfied! There existed a small household in the county that refused to yield to the nosiness of the witch, going about their everyday-life peacefully and quietly.
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The Lady shines over her subjects

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The wedding season has started again, or maybe it never ended. My cousin is getting married this weekend, and the whole thing has just been turned into a fashion thing. I have to admit, I am not really a fan of clothes and all; I prefer to have comfortable ones rather than really trendy ones. But CLOTHES are a different matter for my mother; she will practically die if she doesn’t buy something in, let’s say, a week (probably why my closet is full of clothes which I have never even worn in my whole life). And weddings make up the perfect excuse for buying more clothes.

Sure enough, for the past month, all I remember doing really is shopping, lots of shopping, which I don’t really mind if shoes are involved (what is it about women and shoes, you don’t want to know), but just remembering the whole range of clothes and jewellery and accessories I had to review makes me feel dizzy. Traditional, formal, casual, you name it and I’ve seen it. My mother wanted to wear blue for the wedding and she ended up with like 5 dresses with practically all shades, from light blue to blue-green, not counting the ones I forced her not to take with us. Continue reading →

Half of June has come and gone already, swiped in an instant for all I recall was spending nearly all my time at the bank, trying to clean up the mess these stupid fools called bankers made. I didn’t even realize so much time had passed until my aunt called saying she went to buy my cousin a birthday gift, for her birthday was Sunday (21st June), which coincides with the World Music Day. It really felt weird to know that I wasted more than 3 weeks, going to the bank practically everyday, only to find that I had to go back again the next day because of yet another complication.

I can’t say that I’m not glad that the dark days are finally over, and that the sun is shining as brightly as ever in my little realm, an expression rarely used by the weatherman these days. Sure enough, while my focus has not really been on the calendar, I simply couldn’t ignore the not-so-subtle hints the weather has been giving us Mauritians recently: that winter had finally arrived. Of course, as frivolous as the wind and sunshine could be, we could hardly expect the wintry weather to come as expected, in April as it always did. Instead, after a foretaste of what it would be like during the first week of May, we spent most of the time waiting for the real thing while bathing in heat, almost rivaling with summer, but not quite; the days were growing shorter but it got no colder. Continue reading →

… in my case, old habits make it harder.

I’ve always abhorred disliked keeping in touch with people… for some reason, especially with those whom I can meet pretty easily. While most of my friends and cousins have come to accept that fact, most people find it strange and rather unwelcoming that I often disappear without any trace and then suddenly reappear as if nothing has happened. Just like these few weeks that have just passed… during which I was practically cut off from the whole world, no phone calls, no meetings, no chatting, no nothing. I can’t even remember the last time I logged on MSN to have a chat with my friends. It’s just that sometimes I seek the silence and stillness that life can offer me, to the detriment of other things that I actually enjoy doing…

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Not the movie. My life these past few days, along with other stuffs as well, and it isn’t over yet. It’s amazing how in a few seconds, everything changes completely, from the slow lane to the fast track. One second, I was lying on the couch, watching a movie and the other, I was moving from place to place, with my bag of clothes and laptop as company.

While I really have fun during this holiday from the holidays, I must admit, there’s no better place than home, especially my room. I literally dropped dead as soon as I came home on Tuesday, because I was so tired. My 4 year-old niece can be a real brat sometimes, and it doesn’t help she is pampered by everyone, being the youngest one of the family, and the only one from her generation… I wonder what she is going to do when my nephew is going to be born in June. It could be a niece as well, of course, but… we really are rooting for a baby boy this time, it gets tiring to only see girls in the family. Continue reading →