Love thyself

Cos no one else will...

Enjoying Twilight

Since the summer has come
I enjoy the day slowly turning into night
watching nature switch off, yet gradually come more alive
darkness fading into the ever expanding light
smells of burnt pine and sweet days gone
knowing the many more to come
crisp, hot and happy
do not leave this place oh glorious sunshine
and the eve winds slowly carressing the cool leaves
since this season has landed
i have been able to enjoy many things
cool icecreams, shorts, dresses and tanned skin
flip flops, grass laying and sun bathing
but most of all it mustbe
the sacredness of twilight bathing.

Updates...

It's past my bedtime, so I'll try to beat Peng at the shortest ever post competition!

I've just put some photos on my web album of Jin's and my last excursion (you can find the link on my last post on this blog). Seems like every time I write something here we've had a trip somewhere or other... must give the impression we don't do any work at all (not true of course).

In a totally unrelated incident, Jin twisted (suspected fractured) her ankle on Monday, so I have been nursing her the last couple of days. She can hardly walk at all without crutches but she is trying admirably to keep up her intensive work schedule. Here is a pic:

Damn, seems I have lost to Peng in the 'shortest ever blog post' competition. So now I may as well use up a few more lines to say how pleased I was Ant lost some prejudices during his trip to America (although, of course, I still retain those same prejudices). It's good that you could return to work full of exciting ideas. My research has been a bit dull recently so it might be time for me to find a conference in the states as well!

Hope you are all well, whichever country you find yourself in. Stay in the moment~

Raleigh, North Carolina

Hey yall!

I am sat on a bench in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The sun is beating down, but there is a lovely cool breeze. Soon I will be heading back inside to hear more about the future of the world wide web. Last night I went to a special concert by a local band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The night before I was at the Google party. It has been a very fun week, and I have met loads of cool (albeit a bit nerdy) people.

A few weeks ago, I didn't even know where North Carolina was, let alone Raleigh (its capital city). But what a cool place this is. I am loving the southern hospitality, the perfect weather and the huge quantities of food (especially cake). The people here are really friendly, and particularly chilled. It is so different to Europe. I never thought I would say it, but I love it here and I want to stay longer!

Tomorrow I am off to New York for a couple of days, then it will be back to France and back to work -- but with a load of new ideas to put into action.

Hope yall are good. ;)

Ant

Since not many people are talking...

I might as well just write a short one about a book I read recently.

Many of you have probably read Paul Auster's Moon Palace. It only got published in China mainland in 2008. I mean, I'm not too outdated. Anyway, it is worth reading, Penguin tested. It shows the consequence of not being mindful ;)

Well, I'm afraid that's all I can say, I need to go to bed and get up early in the morning tomorrow...

Is this entry too short????????

Mark Told me...

Well Mark told me to make up a rumour to get activity going on this blog, if we can call it that, that was a dig, lol.

So i thought shall i say i am getting married, well nobody would believe that. or shall i say ant's getting married, thats even more unbelievable (another dig sorry)

but even with a bad back with nothing more to do than watch bad dvds that almost make me cry, i couldn't think of anything.

so what shall i say...

something deep and meaningful like i always do or something utterly meaningless and non sensical and has no other point than to make contact with you.

i chose the latter

i hope you are all well whereever you are

Love and Light

Hems xxx

p.s get blogging, you'd want the same if you were stuck at home watching 'In her shoes' for the third time.

Our Weekend

This weekend Jin and I went on a well-deserved trip. Poor Jin has hardly had a moments rest since last December with her father's illness, funeral and then clearing up the resulting backlog of work. So on Friday we finished early, packed up the car with some supplies (we remembered the food but forgot the clothes!) and our shiny new folding bikes, and set off for the sea. We visited two Islands -- Ganghwa and Seokmo. Seokmo is only reachable by ferry, and sufficiently unpopulated to temporarily wash from our minds images of the cramped concrete metropolis of Seoul which have been slowly engraving themselves on our long term memory. Unfortunately we had to finish the trip today as Jin teaches a class on Saturday evenings, but it was still a refreshing change.

It's hard to believe only a few days before the whole of Bucheon (the city where we live, part of the Seoul urban sprawl) had been covered in snow. We had heavy snowfall on Tuesday night -- an extremely unusual event for this time of year, and within a day and a half it had all vanished under the warm spring sun. Not before I managed to take some pictures of the newly carpeted campus though... you can find those and some pictures from our trip on my web album here.

Sorry to be out of touch for so long! My life is slowly settling down now, so hopefully I will get better. Love to you all :-)