Happy Easter

Thank you, God.

I'm just sayin'...

So I know the check mark, or tick, is a pretty effective visual marketing device because it carries positive connotations: approval, competency, credibility. It sure worked for Nike. It's been working for the Heart Foundation for years, and I genuinely appreciate the work the Foundation has done to help people take better care of their bodies.

But you'll have to excuse me. Although I've walked past this pizza bar many times and wondered about its "gourmet pizzas", I don't know about the pizzas from this section of their delivery menu, because they come with names like "Roast Beef Tick Pizza". Which makes me think of a pizza with roast beef and, well, ticks all over it. And, well, yuck. I grew up with pet dogs in a tropical climate, and I can well imagine what that would look like. (Fortunately, I don't share the childhood experience of someone who also knows what that would taste like.)

Like cold water to a weary soul...

I woke up feeling dreary this past Monday.

The distance between here and home seemed even more obvious than usual, and I felt like hiding under the covers and muttering, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home." until I woke up in my four-poster back home with the cow prints on the sheets. Or at least, until a butler appeared at the foot of my bed bearing chocolate, tissues and a roti pisang hot off the pan.

Didn't happen.


But what did happen is that I received more SMS and e-mails from friends and family at home (and beyond) than I have in a single day since getting here.

"As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country," goes the book of Proverbs.

And for this weary soul, knowing that I have people on every continent who love me is very good news.

Another one of those posts with random pictures

One evening last year, I was feeling pink and I wanted to test out my new camera. And I made sure that nothing embarrassingly private could be read in the shots, so stop trying to read my handwriting.
















The Twin Towers through a skylight in Suria KLCC.
















One of the twins, shakily photographed while I sat in way-past-what-can-reasonably-be-called-rush-hour traffic. Has it ever occurred to you when you looked at one of the Twin Towers through a crack in between buildings that you're the only person on Earth who can see that exact view? That the guy in the next car might have just as good a view, but it's still not the same one you've got? And maybe we need to appreciate our unique perspectives a little more than we usually do?

Please tell me I am not the only one who thinks such things while sitting in heavy traffic.
















To be honest, I hesitated to post this photo. Why? Because the person who gift-wrapped a box of sliced mango for my Christmas present is someone who reads my blog (which is how he discovered I love mango in the first place), because sometimes Malaysians have this thing about expressing appreciation for something nice that someone of the opposite sex did for them, in case that act of appreciation is seen as something else entirely. But you know what? I like talking about good things people have done for me. In ancient Hebrew tradition, apparently, "Thank you" is expressed as, "I will tell of your good works." And so I will.
















One I miss immensely, and will continue to for many years. I still can't believe she's gone and I didn't get to say goodbye. I don't know what I'd give for one more cuddle with an energetically wriggly fluffball, because I'll never get it anyway.

I also appreciate what another friend did the previous time she went missing (before the last ever time), which was to get out of bed in the middle of the night and drive over to help me search under drains and in bushes. Never mind that we haven't spoken for months; it doesn't take away my gratefulness.
















Last Sunday night, I was walking briskly home after attending church in the city, and I passed my neighbour's rose bushes and thought, "How nice if I had the time to stop and smell them."

Then I remembered that I did. So I did.