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 →

Tiny hands flicking the key to the box of music,
Wishful eyes dream of what possibly can’t be.
A light hearted melody, an enchanting power,
The little porcelain doll comes to life at last.

Perfect stance, fragile beauty, plastered smile,
She puts on her show with emotions set aside.
From passion to duty, from duty to slavery,
She performs, dancing to the tunes of music.

Slouch movements copying her graceful ones,
She watches as the little one yearns to be her.
Memories flooding, the scenario replaying,
She remembers holding that innocent gaze.

Child, she imagined being the queen of swans;
Even she had been mesmerized by Odette.
Now, frozen in time, the spell had worn off:
Odile’s deception was more apparent that ever.

The last notes playing, her tempo decreasing,
The curse forces her into painful submission.
Back to dreamless sleep she is compelled to go
Until another unlucky soul turns the key again.

Tiny hands flicking the key to the box of music,
Wishful eyes dream of what possibly can’t be.
A light hearted melody, an enchanting power,
The little porcelain doll is once more freed.

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 →

Climate Change: The theme for this year’s Blog Action Day, barely a surprise since this issue has been gracing the headlines for, god knows, how much time now, hooting warnings about the ‘mere’ two degrees that can change our lives forever and that most of us don’t even care about. To tell you the truth, it is hard to care, with the recession hitting and your money being more important that your planet. Humans have this tendency to care more about materialistic matters rather than devoting themselves to a cause they can barely understand.

Climate Change, the hot topic selling the newspapers, the main focus of scientists and one of the issues we manage to hide deep in the back of our mind. True enough, who can say that he thinks about climate change or any other environmental issue everyday, trying to find a solution to this global problem. Even I can’t say that, though sometimes I do feel like an environmental freak. Why, though? It’s because we feel that we, by ourselves, do not have the power to change the whole world. Of course, we don’t. What can one single person, among the 6.791 billion ones forming the world’s whole population, do. Continue reading →

‘Geography is a flavour’ says Starbucks and I cannot help but agree. There’s nothing better than tasting another part of the world, exploring a new city and meeting new people. These last two weeks sure have been hectic, with me going around everywhere, trying to understand most of the stuff and more importantly, trying not to get lost. But I have to say, London is a beautiful city, at the heart of which I discovered different cultures, blandly seen as one from afar.

Okay, I have to admit it though, I have met so many people whose faces or names are just a blur in my mind. And some who surely I do remember but just feel weird about going to talk to them. And of course there are others who I want to meet again and meeting we are. But it doesn’t that if I’m loving everything about ‘my new home’ that I’ve already forgotten about home. Because the truth is, I’m somehow missing it, its familiarity and warmth for swimming in unknown waters can be quite scary sometimes. Continue reading →

It’s finally time to say goodbye, I didn’t think it would be so soon. Yet, yesterday I wasn’t feeling anything. I was still as happy and as excited t be going, but it finally sank in as the first of my cousins, as close as a brother to me said goodbye. It was then that I realised he wouldn’t be texting me anymore to say he was coming over in 5 minutes, leaving me barely the time to wear something decent.

Or that I wouldn’t be tutoring my little cousin anymore, I wouldn’t be yelling at the older ones because they left everything for the last minute (as I usually did) and we’d have to stay up late to complete everything. I wouldn’t have my aunt check on me when I would be alone at home, or I wouldn’t have my mother call me on my cellphone because I couldn’t hear her from downstairs. Continue reading →

It’s hard to find something to write about when your life has been in limbo for months now, not that I‘ve been confined to four walls, without anything happening around me. On the contrary, the headlines are practically screaming at me to choose one of their many topics: health, education, politics, culture, but I’m simply out of the loop. As much as I try to write, there’s no feeling into that and it’s just not me.

I’m moving to London in less than three weeks and I can’t say I’m not thrilled. I really can’t wait for August to be over and for September to bring it full on. But somehow, there’s this part of me who wants to turn back the clock where there was this familiar but boring routine that kept me going. I wished I could turn back the clock so that I could spend some more time with my family and friends. (I really should go get that nuclear-powered DeLorean xD) Continue reading →

Tropical Land?

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Back to reality, Sayuka and I should probably go to, but the past two days were so dream-like that one feels that real life is in fact dull sometimes.”Let’s have a sleep over,” we decided back in February when we received our results. Among all the things we wanted to do, this had been top on our lists for some one or two years now, without ever receiving permission for it. Thing’s weren’t that easy, with our overprotective mothers who weren’t not that willing to let their girls go somewhere else to spend the night, not that we haven’t done it before… But I think going to someone’s home rather than a bungalow near the beach or a seminar organized by the school is way different.

Knowing that a full-proof plan was needed, for, of course, we were going to be bombarded with questions about the why and stuff. The best strategy needed to be adapted to get past the barriers our supermoms created, and after dropping clever hints for months and crafting the perfect reasons, we decided to present our cases to our mothers. We almost jumped in joy when we heard the oh-so-awaited “yes” uttered by our mothers! We had wanted this for a long time, but somehow everything was rushed. The previous week, I told the girls that they could come whenever they want, and suddenly, Wednesday arrived, with me hurrying to go meet them. Continue reading →

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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