Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

It takes forever for me to get access to anything on this computer. My mother has asked my dad to see to it. Two weeks has gone past and i've tried doing stuff, esepcially checking on the email and can't get access to the thing. It's a bit annoying, but also quite therapeutic being slightly unplugged. Peter, Oisin and my dad will be going for the National Day Preview tonight. It supposed to be taking place on the world's largest pontoon. We love doing it like this here in Singapore. World's largst, tallest, fastest, etc. When the McDonald's opened in Singapore at East Coast Parkway it broke sales for all McDonalds in the world selling the most amount of food on the first day of opening sales. McDonalds...sigh. It's a bit bizarre. I must say i have come far. Last night Jacq and i sang the national anthem and Count on Me Singapore. I sang it mostly with nostalgia and a hint of irony. But mostly nostalgia. When i was 14 and singing it for real. Have no idea wha...

It's been such a long time since i last wrote. We caught London before heading to Singapore and now that we're here...i lay awake most of last night, thinking about singapore. Thinking about the narratives that go with it. I read The Straits Times again. I am reading it again i should say. It is dire. The quality of the writing is abyssmal and the stories, if possible, are worse. It is like reading a propaganda rag - sorry, it is a propaganda rag. For instance, yesterday's headline ran, a government survey has shown that property prices are NOT at an all time high and people are only getting worked up for no good reason at all. That wouldn't be so bad, if they had someone saying i don't believe this, i don't care what the survey feels like, it feels as if we're being pinched. No, they had someone saying that's fantastic, it's great. We're all so reassured by this. Then there was an article, is an article almost daily about someone who used to thi...

It has been one heck of a week. In addition to the school holidays - a privelege of which i was spared of last year because i had been working, there has been the packing and closing shop. I don't know how long we're going to be away for, but it breaks my heart leaving all this behind. The kitchen sink, stove and spices the other day were inconsoable as they said, goodbye to me and told me how much they would miss me. My friend have been dropping over - you'd think it was a wake, and not a break! It is impossible. As i leave, silly things which i never took notice of become touchstones of poignancy. The British flag, that flies outside the window. The lane that leads to our house. The Spar on the corner. St George's market. I went there yesterday specially to say goodbye to the traders whom i saw every week. See you in a while, i'll be off for Singapore. I got coffee off John and some honey from Greyabbey. I bought a whole box of buns from the fairy cake lady whom i...

A single union jack flies outside my window. It flies from the home of a respectable elderly man who washes his car weekly and takes great pride in his garden. The flag is new each year. It buys it, i'm sure, every July. I think he lives alone, his wife, if he had one has either passed on or gone - either way, he is alone, although he gets visitors quite often. I remember when we first moved in here how odd it was to think that we were now in a neighbourhood that flew the British flag. I didn't mind so much - but i could tell it annoyed the hell out of Peter. I can't express my nationality here, he said. See if i flew the triclour, see if we get burnt out. It would probably be the same for this man here in Creggan too. It was a no win situation really. Two wrongs do not make a right, so i didn't say very much to his concerns. There was no point saying that there were parts of NI which were no go zones for this man too. And therefore he'd not go there. He'd choos...

i received this call to go to QFT - the art film centre in Belfast and sit there. Amongst the European film stills, the beardy, unwashed crowds of men and pretty sweet girls, the white wine and the red wine, the sophisticated neon blue lights and frameless prints. I just wanted to be with the pre-2nd mummy crowd and be Stephanie the film buff. So i did. A screening party had just begun and everyone was thrilled when they saw Ghin who was faced outwards in the baby Bjorn. They were all cooey, especially the pretty sweet girls, and the men all charming woth have a glass of wine, it's on the house to me, which was odd most especially since they had just finished a showing of nailed, a suspense horror flick. Sometimes i think that our lives are much closer to Carrol's beautiful crazy stories than we admit they are. Bread and butterflies, snap dragon flies and men dressed up in white papers, goasts who beards melt away when you grab at them... Sauntering about Belfast after that, my...