July 2009
4 posts
June 2009
5 posts
“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a...”
– Nicole Krauss - The History of Love (via 52books)
Music Is My Religion
I don’t practise an organised religion despite my 12 years of Catholic education, because I realised that music is my religion. Playing the piano has been always been a part of my life since I was five years old and today I can’t imagine living without music in my life.
Where’s the joy in life without the soul of jazz, music to dance to and lyrics to sing, remember and keep....
February 2009
4 posts
January 2009
11 posts
“Accept the things
To which fate binds you and
Love the people with whom fate...”
– Marcus Aurelius
Guide to dating: The classified ads of the London... →
All humans are 99.9% genetically identical, so don’t even think of ending any potential relationship begun here with ‘I just don’t think we have enough in common’. Science has long since proven that I am the man for you (41, likes to be referred to as ‘Wing Commander’ in the bedroom). Box no. 3501.
Statement by H.E. Mr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann,...
The behavior by Israel in bombarding Gaza is simply the commission of wanton aggression by a very powerful state against a territory that it illegally occupies. Time has come to take firm action if the United Nations does not want to be rightly accused of complicity by omission. The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as...
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility...”
– George Bernard Shaw
“Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise, but...”
– The distance between a sign above the door of a timeless bookshop in Paris and a bumper sticker.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and...”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (via everybodycares)
December 2008
2 posts
Let them eat cake!
On the eve of my birthday this year, I have the enviable pleasure of calling home my own, small-but-very-cosy 4th floor Paris apartment in the multicultural working-class district of La Goutte d’Or. From the two, tall Haussmann-era windows beside my desk I can almost reach out and touch the dome of the Sacre Coeur, standing like a lighthouse of Montmartre as it reflects a solitary presence against...
October 2008
1 post
Financial Crisis Deposits Debacle
This letter to the editor published in The Weekend Australian hits the nail on the head:
“Why did many of us put our money into the high-yielding funds now not protected by government guarantee? Because we wanted the extra cash of course. Financial planners, including mine, warned that there were risks attached to the high returns. I have enjoyed the financial benefits of my strategy for...
February 2008
2 posts
Addiction
I had an interesting conversation tonight in the company of an oil and gas consultant who has studied seven degrees and his sister, a PhD lecturer in anthropology which somehow turned to the topic of drugs. Here’s some food for thought, but take it with a pinch of salt:
Pharmaceutical companies deliberately create synthetic compounds (which they can patent and monopolise) rather than use natural ones. However, the effectiveness of synthetic drugs is poor, only 5% is absorbed hence many manufactured drugs are just useless.
Marijuana which has always been described as a “safe” drug has been recently discovered to cause psychological problems for people with schizophrenia. It’s no longer grown or treated as purely as it used to be and thus the mix of chemicals are altering the effects of the drug.
To psychologically cure a drug addiction, you should get the addict to say “no” instead of “yes” to the very first time they tried it.
Really, there are many other ways to enjoy life than to take something that can screw with the chemical balance of your brain.
December 1985
1 post
“Some people do not have to search, for they find their niche early in life, and...”
– Anonymous words I live by.