Friday, February 4, 2011
Farm Diaries- The long walks
Monday, January 31, 2011
Cats,Dogs and other fauna
Monday, January 3, 2011
the waiting game
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Nightmares
........................................
There a story for another day, about vets who should be fired .
Friday, December 10, 2010
ah, the beauty.
They said it due to bad governance and politics e.t.c. I remembered one time in a foreign land, they were chatting about their countries, Canada and Australia. Then someone turned to me and asked, laughing, so what is there in Kenya? I asked, do you really want to know, ut he had already turned his attention to the Korean, I saved it for a future use.
I had heard that question before, they asked-what is good in Kenya. I said we have maize, and fruits, we have food. They laughed and turned back to their conversation about the new mall just opened where noodles were quite cheap.
And as I walk about this land, I'm happy that this is a well kept secret. Let them imagine huts and animals, lions and naked children, which they see on their screen in their concrete jungles.
I sent my manuscript , the novel and a children's story to another publisher two weeks ago but haven't got a reply. Meanwhile, I'm writing financial articles.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Old Dog New Tricks, aa
Sunday, November 21, 2010
sometimes I admire men
Friday, October 1, 2010
36,
The cliché poor artist with his mind set on adventure, confidence vibrating in his every step, he didn’t look through people, he saw them
A free animal will stop to free another from a trap, so Jack stopped, and set Rose free.
As we watched Titanic in black and white, my friend kept asking-does this kind of love exist ? I wasn’t sure. I could not point out to an example but I imagine it is possible. It is alien to our young generation that I’m sure of, with their distorted view trained by Hollywood.
It’s plum blossom season. The dry branches budded, then turned white. In every field now stands what looks like long fluffy cotton stems. Against the moonlight, the soft petals glisten like staged beauty.
When the rabbits stand on their hid legs, when the crazy sheep calms down and gives birth, and with the love of a mother, licks every bit of placenta off her offspring’s wool, the kitten stops spitting at you and the male turkey follows, not to kick this time, but to get a few grains from the one who feeds him and his family.
There is peace in being able to look out as far as the eyes can hold.
You remember what you almost forgot.
A love so intense,
As strong as death is.
My uncle says you may eat as much as you want but if there is a calf crying out, you’ll never add weight. He then pulls up his jacket to bring in some maize stalks for his lame calf.
Monday, August 23, 2010
35, I'm spinning
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
34, thoughts and meditations
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
33 , and going strong
I finished the portfolio, but I'm not impressed it's just plain and I 'm not very sure how to make it look better since my photoshop lessons passed over my head when I attended the class.
Last evening, I took a stroll through little Mumbai in KL and went into a DVD store. I could only recognise the movie- Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa- so I asked why so expensive? Even though I knew it was cheaper than it's usual price(been trying to get it) So she said, this one original only, if you want pirated also got, very cheap.
So I got the movie but I will have to buy some time to watch it :)
I also sent the poetry collection to a freelance publisher but he didn't reply so I'm thinking he's probably not very enthused, but I can understand, last time I wanted to publish with him I didn't have enough funds, but which first writer ever had?
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Day 32
she came over and through a translator asked if I like to wear saree.
When I said I've been considering getting one she went back to her house and brought a big plastic and handed it to me.
I looked at the purples, the blues, the browns with thick orange edges and was tongue tied. She then told me to stand up and she looked me over, then sent her granddaughter back to the house, who brought back a punjabi suit , new and crisp. She asked me to try it on and it fit perfectly. Then she remembered something and went back to her house and came back holding a purse. She removed the pearl necklace and put it on me. She said it was 15 years old.
It was like a scene from those hindi soaps I liked to watch-kyuki and kahaani- where a mother in law dresses up the new daughter in law and hands over some family jewelry. My friend's grandmother might be just slightly younger than my gran, and when she hops on the motor bike, you'd never think she was anyone's gran.
She always tries to feed me this and that whenever I'm around, using my little Malay I tell her about Kenya, she asks about my family and tells me her grand daughter is naughty I should teach her manners and proper English, I laugh and she hands me another glass of some brightly colored sugar drink.
I still don't know how to tie the saree but I'll google it.
When I think about it, I can't help wondering, where our ancestors went different ways.
I got a response from the publishers, they said they will put it on the list since they have a lot of work right now. hmm.
Anyway, a response is better than silence. I still have no computer but my friend is letting me use her's when she's not on it, but it's funny being without my laptop. This is from one of the recent popular Tamil movies.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
DAY 31 :)
Tomorrow is my deadline to send in the complete manuscript. I have a long stretchy story to tell that goes like this," My computer decided to act up and basically, for the last two weeks this editing business has been moving at the speed of a snail. Microsoft discovered I wasn't using their original O.S and since then, opening a single page takes about half an hour. At this point I'm editing from the gmail text editing option online." But I guess I'll save it, those are the kind of tales I told when I did the column in 04.
I decided to put a stop to it and spent a day at Lowyat Plaza trying to trade in my old laptop for one of those swift new things but turns out my poor mPAQ is worth just as much as a memory stick. That was an insult, especially since this computer has seen me through some very trying times, hehe. So we just looked around for a cheap external hard disk and I've been backing up my things all day, and that's all I can do at this pace.
Anyway, I'm going to the beach this weekend so I have to arrange my affairs to ensure I have a clear mind when I hit the beach with two of my best girls. Hoping there will be many dry afternoons, especially since someone gave me a costume just the right color, just the right size.
I must say it's been a long run, and I have a secret smile just thinking, I've actually written and finished a book, it's just a beginning, I'm not done collecting stories.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Day 30
My friend typed 3 pages and felt sleepy but she left notes with ideas of what I should remove and add. You can imagine my relief when I typed the last page and looking back I realised, ah, that was a nice story and I like the ending too.
I'm going to be doing a lot of things away from the house, the coming weeks, so the raw manuscript will have to remain as it is for now. Maybe I'll pick up next week.
Thank you for the audience always
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Day 29
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Hey, Soul Sister - Train . day 28
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A bit of confusion
I read in the Venus and Mars book that when women are stressed they might use confusion to deal with that, it’s true. I’ve tried to start of day 27 but haven’t got past the first sentence. Sorry my people.
I posted the manuscript, along with the CD of the same. I had to queue twice at the post office, I dashed up to Tesco to get water and grabbed some pens while I was in there. The queues were long in Tesco. I didn’t know people go shopping on midmornings. But it was mainly really old people and what I think should have been their foreign caretakers. I was standing in queue for about ten minutes and was worrying that my number at the post office was nearing. I was desperately trying to make eye contact with this black guy who muffled a hello to me as I passed, he was moving closer to the counter. He didn’t look my way. So I just went up to his back and said hey, please could you do these for me and held out my half bottle of water, the pens and a bank note.
He took them and I was wondering what to do with myself coz he said no to the money, I went round and waited on the other side. His sticker for one of his items(Vaseline) came off and the cashier, was trying very hard to figure out what could be done to solve this mountain of a problem. So the guy hands me my things, and I just walked off. At the post office I was wondering should I have stayed and until he sorted out his Vaseline.
I haven’t done much towards publishing this week, but I’ve made plans towards that, like the portfolio I’ve been arranging. Pebbles is going to help with it, she's good in design, but she doesn't know yet, I left her a message on facebook because her wisdom tooth has been growing all day so she slept the pain away.
I like people who are crazy enough to throw 'precious stones' into a stranger's balcony.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
day 26, positive inspiration, positive thinking
Monday, June 7, 2010
25
I haven't done much toward my publishing efforts . I have a lot in my mind honestly, I even went to bed early last night but in the end I slept at the same time I sleep on normal days trying to figure out things. It's hard to connect with a lot of things running across the mind.
I know throwing myself into my stories can reduce the time I spend stressing on things but somehow, until I am sure of what I must do, it's hard to see clearly.
I signed up on docstoc.com and uploaded one of my recent articles to see if I get an interested buyer. :)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
24
Thursday, June 3, 2010
23
So I broke down when one implied I must be ‘in business’ to mean the hooking business, “otherwise how can you survive here”, and he wasn’t any bit a looker either.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Day 22: Sudanese Cultural Night
Of course it does, but no one hears its song.
Two men that moved the crowd more than anyone else. I’ll call them maestros for lack of more knowledge of these terms. I gave them five stars.
There was a girl seated in my row, screaming 'hey hey, yo!' She annoyed me because the ushers all looked like armed body guards and kept throwing dirty looks our direction, and she wasn’t Sudanese so we might have been marshaled out without a second thought.
I copied some of my formerly published works to make a portfolio, and I will share with you a poem I wrote as I listened to the a fore mentioned maestros. My camera died on me so I just snapped one picture.
songs to remind me of my lineage
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Day 21
Friday, May 28, 2010
day 20
crashes. My wave has been heading to the shore all week and today it finally crushed.
I was moving house and feelings of helplessness and sadness took over.
I felt bad to leave my birds- I know they'll miss me. I also met new people, some pleasant, some I admired, some I watched from a distance. And even though the condominium I stayed has a bad name from the police raids it gets every other day, I didn't experience any trouble, on the contrary, everyone I crossed paths with was nice. I'll miss the lake too, and the boy who wore jeans and stripped shirts and nearly missed the bus all the time.
So when I got to my new place, I felt heavy with fatigue, sadness and a river.
But my friend said she'd come online and chat with me after work. She's been my friend since high school and always makes me happier.
I read a few chapters of Anne of Green Gables. It's an amazing book. It gives me such an imagination.
Yesterday I did some more editing and proof reading, not as much as I would like but I'm getting somewhere.
I will do more and talk less, rather type less words..
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
day 19
"Yes."
So when I saw him take a different route I stood up and walked to the front to ask him again.
"Are you going to Maybank?"
"No"
"You said. You. Were . Going . To . Maybank." I said through gritted teeth.
"Okay okay, sit , sit, I go."
I sat behind his seat fumming and preparing for war. Here we were very close to Putrajaya Central, yet I was supposed to be a half hour journey in the opposite direction. We got to the station and everyone alighted. I didn't move an inch.
He drove off at 200km per hr, and I was thinking wo hoo!He's taking me back to Maybank. Then I thought, oh no, maybe he's a suicide bomber and is going to crush
the bus into the first bridge column. So I sat silently and hoped.
Ah, then he turned and I saw Maybank.
"Terima Kasir!" I said to him and flew out of the bus.
He drove away, back to the station. Perhaps cursing me, perhaps cursing himself for trying to be clever.
I was smiling really hard, it's unusual for that to happen. The least I expected was to be kept packing at the station until the next bus came half an hour later.
Chapter 5 and 6 is going pretty well. I need to edit the punctuation since I've changed the narrator to third person. I expect to have more time next week I will finish them off and start tying the rest of the chapters. There's no response yet from the publishers. I have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to have a look at it and decide whether to publish. I expect response on one of them, which I sent 7th April soon. Meanwhile, I applied for a copy writing job in one of the Malaysian publications.
I'm tired to the bone marrow, and I will be shifting again on Friday. You'd think I'd have got used to it by now but every time I have to move, which is every few weeks it always feels like a major life shift, which it is in a way because I'll need at least a week to adjust at my next place.
This chic: The men from the Lake Side
I can’t sleep for various reasons so I might as well tell you an embarrassing story about that time when the whole 32 years of the woman...
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I pulled out this story from my upcoming book- Going to buy A plot in Maaĩ Mahiũ. This is too dark for a funny book. I will add it to my ...
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Teacher Teacher- Kamande wa Kioi Teacher teacher teacher, my teacher Wherever we shall meet, just know I shall give you a kiss. ...
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Ngai! How do you view me, you?….Aii…. I am not getting you clearly Can you repeat what you said? Or maybe one of my dials ...