At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. Its like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And its not so important happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away.

-Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy"

holiday to do list:

• wake up at 4.30 am, shower, last check of things to bring.
• get taxi to the airport at 5.30
• arrive just as the domestic terminal opens (6 am)
• check-in (try not to look nervous because you don't have a valid visa)
• pre-flight checks and breakfast at 6.30
• depart at 7 sharp
• arrive in phu quoc 55 mins later
• get to resort and leave bags at the counter (room will not be ready until around 12 noon)
• breakfast and lounge at the beach. oh, and get a massage!
• wake up after massage and find room ready earlier than expected
• unpack and head out to town (such as it is) for lunch
• get back on motorbike and travel to the pearl farm
• nothing much to see, just more pearl jewelry (of which there is a surplus in manila) so after a quick drink, head back to resort for more beach side lounging
• have sundowner drinks with co-workers staying at same resort. make their daughter cry.
• go back to room to shower and dress for dinner at really nice restaurant. order steamed grouper, hong kong style, grilled scallops with garlic and stir-fried morning glory. yum!
• putter around town after dinner and take a quick look at the (small) night market
• head back to resort, stop at the wine shop, check out the menu for the ocean bar and grill (dinner for another night)
• back in room, watch tv, eat chocolate, sleep.
• wake up at 8 and repeat beach side lounging and eating. awesome!

now back in saigon, and on laundry detail. sigh... holidays should really be longer.

"After all, is it not the way we humans shape the universe, shape time itself? Do we not take the raw stuff of chaos and impose a beginning, middle, and end on it, like the simplest and most profound of folktales, to reflect the shapes of our own tiny lives? And if the physicists are right, that the physical world changes as it is observed, and we are its only known observers, then might we not be bending the entire chaotic universe, the eternal, ever-active Now, to fit that familiar form?"
— Tad Williams (Sea of Silver Light)

Shadowrise coming out as 2 novels? Memory, Sorrow and Thorn all over again.... Coming March 2010

the calm before the storm...

exactly a week after ketsana lashed out on the philippines, another one  is on it's way to wreak more havoc. parma is now a category 5 storm system. rainfall is predicted to be not as much as ketsana (one can always pray...), but wind speeds are at 241 km/h.  our prayers are with you, mga kababayan.