December 2009
49 posts
Things I learned in 2009.
Federer winning the French Open is as deeply satisfying as you imagined it to be.
Charcoal chicken cooked by a sidewalk and eaten outdoors, accompanied with rice, calamansi, a cold beer and good company always trumps four-star sushi.
Listening to songs with lyrics that are too close for comfort doesn’t do much for your sleeping patterns; ergo, these should be avoided at all costs.
...
My problems are far too embarrassing to discuss.
“It’s okay that you’re not here. The nation is in the heart,...”
– Gang Badoy, executive director of RockEd Philippines; my hero.
Stillness is the move.
“I can live with Ben working crazy hours. But I can’t live without...”
– Jennifer Garner
And speaking of "books that wound and stab us"...
This is one scar I wear proudly.
Nothing on paper has startled and surprised me more than this gem by Arundhati Roy. Its complexity, the robust poetry of its language, and the deft manner in which it deals with love, conflict and the colonised mind all ensure that I return to this book over and over again. I don’t even bother re-reading the whole thing - I simply open it up, pick up from...
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the...”
– Franz Kafka (via fatalistichues)
A Christmas card that I wish I could actually...
Hey stranger.
I’m wondering how you are. I’m doing that because this little guy happened to remind me of you - sweet, adorable, cute, harmless, but also very much a boy. Resilient. Tough.
It would be inaccurate of me to say that I miss you. I don’t. Sometimes, I think that I do, but really, that’s just me missing a particular moment in time - a particular you, a...
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to...
The smell of a gazillion volumes on law and old typewriter ink.
The thrill of text messages. Their potential to pre-empt reunions and outings and long-lost conversations.
The banter of taxi drivers.
The simple joys of dancing and singing.
The deceptive lightheartedness of political discussion.
The potent mix of good food and conversation.
The cigarettes.
The wide acceptance of the need for...
“Dear Tiger Woods, we can’t help you like we did MJ, OJ, and Kobe. Remember...”
– ‘Prettyboybreeze’ on Twitter. So much cultural LOL.
My dearest Philippines, I love you, more, I think, than I know, but my kind of love isn’t a sword. It’s a light. Not a fire. A small light, just bright enough to read love letters by and keep the animals at a growling distance. In time it will go out. All lights go out. So do all fires, if it’s any comfort. For now, mine still burns for you - it is not a blaze - but whatever...
“Compared to us, the rest are making rags.”
– Karl Lagerfeld, in conversation with Valentino Garavani. An interesting entry to follow up the previous Oscar Wilde quote, no?
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six...”
– Oscar Wilde [via johannal] (via quote-book)
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are...”
– Marianne Williamson [via johannal] (via quote-book)
Dear Self; Repeat after me.
I am not fat.
(I am not fat.)
I am, in fact, with regards to the skinny-fat spectrum, located on the skinny side.
(PFFFFFFFFT. Just.)
No. That is not what I said. Again, please.
(Ugh. Now I’ve forgotten. Say again?)
SIGH. I am, in fact, with regards to the skinny-fat spectrum, located on the skinny side.
(Quit yelling. I am in fact, with regards to the...
Frankly, I’m shocked we’ve lasted this long.
I mean, look —
a. I’m a bit of a princess. In a bad way. And;
b. You? You’re awesome. Boys fall in love with you. Younger girls, in all probability (they just don’t tell me, for obvious reasons), want to be with you. Clothes hang off you as if some specialised tailor living within an unknown recess in your house is...
“No, you don’t mean nothing at all to me.”
– -Nelly Furtado, ‘Say It Right.’
I will miss you.
…
A quiet, shared smile.
Then bon voyage.
“People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent...”
– Nick Hornby (High Fidelity) (via quote-book)
“Maybe it’s because we look around at a world full of inane Twitterings and...”
– -C. Coville
“Oh, I’ve been to Nice and the Isle of Greece while I’ve sipped...”
– -“I’ve Never Been To Me,” Charlene.
