La Haine

Why do bad news sell? Why do so many people like to sit in front of the television feeding on news of war and conflict, and then swear and curse? We seem to come from a blaming and cursing society. Secretly, many of us get a high out of hating. We need those news of war and injustice as scapegoat for our anger. Do we really care for the victims? Honestly? Or do we just use the bad news as victims of our hatred; a channel for our anger; an excuse to hate.

It is one thing to be a victim of all those bad things - and therefore have a real need to fight against it to survive - and quite another thing to be completely distant from, and unaffected by, those bad things, but feed on watching it like a spectator of a bull fight.

I am a dreamer but I am not out of touch with the real world. I am not being ignorant and I do not shy away from the real world just because it can be grim. Far from it actually. I live in that world everyday. I do not wish to go hunting for hate-subjects.

I have enough real problems and real woes in my life. I rather be thinking of calm waters and open spaces; of the sound of gentle waves and the touch of a cool morning breeze.

Roller Coaster

La vie est comme ça. Cela fait longtemps que je n'ai rien écrit. Hate to say it but I have been going through some rough patches - to say the least - at work.

I hope to meet a friend for dinner this Saturday. I can use the break.

J'ai pas de nouvelle pic, so I'll put up some old pics from my last holiday in a beautiful city.

C'est quoi les moments amoureux quant à toi?

Un dîner ensemble devant la télé le soir lundi?
Une balade à la main dans la main au bord de la mer?
Regarder ses beaux yeux à travers de la table à dîner?
Etre à côté de l'un à l'autre en regardant le lever et le coucher du soleil?

A wedding dinner

It was indeed an impeccably beautiful event. They booked one of the trendiest hotel in town nine months ago for the occasion. It started with a cocktail reception. Everyone was smartly dressed, many in suits and ties. The dinner proper started 45 minutes later.

The banquet hall was stunningly beautiful: a play of contemporary effects from gentle lightings mixed with a formal elegant continental interior. Like everyone else, I was enthralled. A jazz band in blacktie played soft easy music throughout the evening as we wined and dined. Guests were also entertained by a good humoured emcee who took us through a brief video montage of pictures of the couple: from the start of the relationship to the fateful wedding day. It was very very well done and the resulting montage was absolutely beautiful.

I knew her before she knew her husband and I knew them both since the early stage of the relationship. So it was quite amazing looking back at the evolution of their relationship. I think it's always moving to see how people's lives evolve through the passage of time: how certain things have changed and, even more so, how certain things have remained the same.

Ten or twenty years ago, did you ever imagine you will be where you are at today? Were you really a different person then compared to now?

Yes! It's a No.

I do not think you are able to survive in the corporate world for more than a few years if you do not have the skills to say no.

The general observation is that the more, successful years you have behind you, the better able you are in saying no. The no can range from the extremely subtle, where your requester walks away happily without even realising that you have effectively implemented your no, to the extremely pronounced, that leaves no room for ambiguity. Whichever the case it might be, it's a no.

And no, there is not going to be any picture for this post :-)

C5H4NC4H7NCH3+C2H5OH swimming in my veins

2 measures of gin, a squeeze of lemon plus the whole chunk of it, a few cubes of ice, all topped up with fizzy chilled tonic...

Does alcohol merely magnify feelings and emotions that's already in you or does it create new ones?

The public place smoking ban is enforced across UK starting this month. I bought myself a pack of 20 from the corner store last Friday. I'm a non smoker who chain smokes... and then stops. I can't remember how many sticks I've taken since Friday but I still have a few left in the pack, all of which will be left untouched and will be in the dustbin before Monday. My next puff will probably happen no sooner than 6 months later.

(chemical structures of nicotine on left and ethanol on right, taken from wikipedia)