My Blog

On top of the mountain facing the sea, where winter wind blew roofs and cars away … 1965

Amongst the fish ponds, where in summer nights clouds of mosquitoes attracted to the light-bulbs turned them dark … 1983

The room in the basement in which two of us would sleep so comfortably in a tiny single bed … 1985

A tin house so cold in the winter that the water in the bathtub turned into a block of ice … 1989

A tiny square room without a window bath or shower, which I shared with three. Did I enjoy the public bath … 1991

Hideaway in the rainforest where the screeching bats on the mango trees kept us awake all night; and so did our baby … 1996

A massive condominium with lifeguards who could not swim, but were concerned with babies floating petals in the water …1999

An English village, so English that even the English themselves could not believe that such Englishness still existed. It was the house where I passed the change of the Millennium

A white castle with a living room the size of a basketball field. We turned it into a kids’ gym, but the neighbours did not approve … 2003

A blue house where my son found lizards bigger than him in the backyard. We never kept them for long … 2005

It’s these ten houses and the many others I have lived in that made me realise that it’s who I am and not where I am that matters.

Did you hear about the Zen Master who goes
up to the hot dog vendor and says, "Make me
one with everything"?

Some people are so well organized and planned ...
I am glad I’m not one of them

My six years old brother, who makes money returning glass bottles to the shop, brings home a donkey he’s bought for a fiver. He wants to keep it, but mother says that the third floor in the middle of town is not a good place for a donkey. My brother takes the donkey round to see if his friend would buy it off him.

At dinner my father tells me not put my elbows on the table. I ask him why, and he brings to the table a book called ‘Table Manners’. I promise to read it if he washes the dishes.

I hear my mother screaming: “Either the snakes go or I go,” when she finds the snake boxes under my bed. She hates snakes. I tell her that the snakes stay. But she wouldn’t listen. She sends me to set them free, and locks me in my room for the rest of the day.

My girlfriend and I swim in the deep sea. I suggest that we swapped swimmers, and we do. It’s a silly idea, as we laugh so much that we nearly drown.

A dog, as big as I am, runs wildly round our backyard. Everyone is watching from the balcony. When I go up red and breathless, they ask me if I was afraid.

After every dinner one of us boys washes the dishes. When it’s my turn I stand on a chair to reach the sink. I ask my mother why my sister doesn’t take turns too. She said that it’s because she’s a girl.

Every night in the summer I take the jeep and drive on the sand to see if the sea turtles come out to lay eggs.

In my late twenties I am asked if I am gay. He gives me his telephone number in case I changed my mind.

I wake up and I don’t know if it’s day or night. There are guests talking in the living room. My mother lifts me from the cot and wishes me happy birthday. She gives me a puzzle of two swans on a lake.

My brother and I keep fighting until my mother locks us in our room. We jump from one balcony to the next all the way down, and then run up the stairs to ring the bell. I never saw my mother so confused as when she opens the door and sees both of us. After that we make sure we give her plenty of reasons to lock us in our room.

A beggar tells me he is hungry and I ignore him. But when I realize that he didn’t ask for money I chase him and ask if it’s food that he wants. He says he is hungry, and I buy him a hotdog and a pizza. He kisses my hand. After that whenever a beggar tells me he is hungry I offer to buy him food. Mostly they want money.

Only in my twenties after a big explosion I found out why I shouldn’t put metal spoons in the microwave.

Oh, you mighty man
Standing so high
Will you still have your power
When plunging low?

A shattered mother
Will not slumber
And bring her baby to safety.

A hungry father
Will toil all day
To give his child a future.

An injured boy
Carries another
Who is not heavy
He is his brother.

Where is your power
Oh mighty man
When the red carpet
Is pulled from under your feet?

The freedom of being one
Is true freedom
Only for those
Who can’t see the bars
Of their cage.

At the end of the daffodil garden
Two lone daffodils
Think they are the only ones in the world

Is it possible that the anorexic supermodels are responsible – at least partially – to the obesity epidemic? After all, if your ideal is the rainbow in the sky, why make an effort at all?

I love to know you think of me
I love to know you care.
I’m happy when you chat with me
In MSN or mail.
But please don’t send me eCards anymore.

I love to hear about your deeds
I always want to know.
An SMS makes me happy
Even if it’s just hello.
But please don’t send me eCards anymore

Cause when I get eCard from you
I wasn’t on your mind.
You have a mailing list, I know
And a new site you found.

So

Send me a single line to say
That you are fine and care.
But please,
Yes Please
I really mean it
Don’t send me eCards anymore.

A wild music he plaid
On the violin
Most paid him to go
I paid him to stay
A moment of true kinship
For a fiver