Athens....Last weekend!!

Sunday
6:30 am

Oh for god sake…what is razor-sharp object piercing into my eyelids…I try and to force myself to open my eyes…but I fail desperately …put my head under the duvet and turn…

6:35 am
…I can hear a loud…ZZZzzzzz which occasionally becomes …Khhhhorrrr with a random frequency…I toss and turn a few more times before my brain gets into gear…I close my eye lid…and see bright little dots…and damn…. razor-sharp array of light…close my eyes again in form of lady bird trying to escape a naughty 7 year old boys trap and now the room is spinning…bloody hell what is that scratching noise?

6:37 am
I look towards the light again…oh I see…it must be the sun coming through the curtains…what time is it I think to myself? I fish for my mobile phone on the arm of the sofa bed and I read 4:37…ummm trying to get brain to function arithmetically and do a plus 2 unconsciously!!!

It is 6:37 am in Athens, I am sleeping on the sofa bed in Alexandra’s flat next to the queen of snoring…man I wonder how her husband sleep with her at night… R, or chipmunk as we call her…since she squeaks in a chipmunk’s style when she is high...normally on Pepsi that is, is a friend of mine from university.

Now I remember this happened last night too…and I wowed that I will get Dee to sleep on the sofa tonight…damn I was too tired to remember….

6:40 am
I slip out of the bed and walk towards the window, I can hear the horns from outside…wow Greeks are early risers…it is Sunday for god sake! I pull the curtain away and open the first door (two doors instead of double glazing…odd!)…and I can hear a man’s voice shouting… ‘kalimera’ , which reminds me of calamari and the fact that I am hungry…but in actual facts means good morning in Greek!

As I open the door to the balcony….the scent of orange tree blossoms ( bahar narenj) hits me and reminds me of my grand fathers place in Chalous…for a few moment I had flash backs of the garden and the little ‘Parchin’…and orange trees above the little pool ( houz!)…!!

Back in Athens, it is almost 7 am and people are just coming home from the late night adventures, I am not surprised, these guys start going out at 3 am…I feel so old!! I wanted to go to bed at 1 am…and Dee and Alexandra had to drag me along in the busy streets where people were sitting outside of Café’s in the pavement drinking merrily…and I was pulling faces in style of ‘mishe bekhabam’!

I was kind of woken up by the time we got to this club called the Privilege, was pretty amusing. A big barn type club with roman style furniture and red velvet setting, a delicate but amazing chandelier and get this…no roof…so you could see the stars while you are drunk on Orzo ( some red vodka thing!), comfy sofa’s…not too mention good looking Greek blokes!!

I read some where that; Alexander the great followed a policy of integration between the Greeks and the Persian communities, encouraging marriages and applying the formula of magnanimity and generosity, which had formerly brought success to Cyrus.

I smiled to that thought as I recalled last nights experience…ummm…I guess I couldn’t argue with Alexander!


7:05 am
Found my way to the kitchen through suitcases, lighters, and something sharp that I am guessing was some ones hair pin and make an attempt to make some toast! But am too sleepy and go back to bed! Put the pillow over my ears to lock out the ‘Khor khor’…and the merry Greeks already up in their balconies….

7:10 am
…tossing and turning….I thought after a while, you get used to a new mattress. You find a position in which you can just about sleep. You learn to lie with your back away from the bumpiest bit, turning your feet so that they don’t fall into the saggy part. And when you finally get to rest on your own bed, it feels odd, wrong somehow. You almost miss the contortion.

10:30 am
What the heck is going on now!!?…I feel a kick…and the following squeaky noise…oi…wake up…! Move your bum…it suffocates me…!!
WHAT? ...here is the queen of sophisticated sleeping telling me my very attractive (I would like to think!) Iranian style bum (pear shaped...in case u are wondering) suffocating her…while I have hardly had a few hours sleep from her snoring…I could swear at her in Farsi…but that won’t go well as she knows all the responses better than me and her memory is rather good...in fact she can be Mnemosyne… (i.e. the Titan of memory and the mother of Muses!!!)…so I leave it at that…pull the duvet to my side and kick her out of the bed….

10:40 am
Dee is very mad at R (you can see her infuriating looks...like I am going to take revenge so bad...u won’t know what hit u!)…she has just woken the whole house up…with excitement of course…come on look at the sun…we are going to miss the ferry!

Oh yes…we are suppose to go to an Island…damn…I wish we haven’t mentioned that to her!


11:30 am
There was no point in resistance…we looked like the ‘ghoshoone shekast khordeh englisa’ in Daee Jan Napoleon’s war stories verses Mash Qasem’s incredible courage and credibility!

I got out of bed while R has put the music from Greek MTV…’go shorty it is your birthday’ to full blast…So I made the run for the shower before I get attacked by 3 other chicks to fight for it!!

I have now my Ice coffee out of the blender sitting in the balcony in the sun watching the people go by…the lady on the opposite balcony is airing her sheets while the one next door is reminding me of a scene we familiar to us all in Iran just before Nourouz and so called ‘Khane Tekani’…yes you guessed it…she is airing the carpets…’Farsh mitekooneh..’….this made me smile ….and then the funniest thing happened…I heard a van passing by with a loud speaker…selling vegetables…oh man…they have ‘Namaki’s and ‘Sabzi foroush’ here too…amazing!!

I guess little things make a big difference. Deft, delicate touches can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. They can make something dull seem fascinating. They can make something cheap seem expensive. I am not trying to claim that style counts for more than substance but in a surprising number of incidences, the two have almost equal weight. Right now, I seem to have the bulk of what I need… a break from the ordinary!

3:00 pm

Finally, we are on the Ferry on the way to Hydra, an Island that we have been told by Alexandra has no cars and the means of transport are beloved donkeys!!!

Settling in my plane like seat on the ferry, I opened my book to read, but my eyes are too tired and I just decided to let them wonder off.

The city that gave birth to democracy, Athens brims with culture, history and currently builders. There’s a heck of a lot of re-development taking place to resolve the usually grid locked streets in time for the Summer Olympics which return in 2004. Athens has always been a city of change and although much of the modern city is a result of post-war dollars from the United States, a lot of its history is coloured by the occupation of the Romans and Turks. While the Parthenon can’t fail to impress, standing atop of the Acropolis for the last two thousand six hundred odd years, a lot of the cultural treasures were looted by other nations in the eighteenth century. My history is not good, but I guess they do hold a lot of grudge against the Iranians…after all we weren’t’ exactly friends 2000 years ago were we!?

We all learned the story from fifth-grade world history and ninth-grade civics. In the beginning, all was darkness, except for some little pockets of organized life in China, India, and the eastern Mediterranean. Then light broke upon the Aegean Sea, and the Greeks discovered democracy and the worth of the individual. The light was almost extinguished by Christian superstition but began to shine all the brighter in the Renaissance and Reformation, bursting into flame during the Enlightenment, which culminated in the American and French Revolutions, and, since then, Americans (and their European followers) have marched unswervingly in their progress toward Huntington's "liberty, equality, individualism, democracy, rule of law, private enterprise" -- to say nothing of free abortions, Jacuzzis in every Holiday Inn, international human rights, gourmet food you can heat up in the microwave, fresh Mexican fruit from a market run by illegal Korean aliens, freedom from religions that claim to possess the truth ... !!

I quite enjoyed the little Café culture in the cobble streets near the Acropolis and around town.
Apart from the streets night life everything here reminds me of home, the music, the people, the city’s structure and definitely the yellow cabs with the old Taxi drivers which have put up plastic flowers and tacky decorations in their cars…flash backs of Orange Peykans!!

As we walked up the hill yesterday to see the Acropolis, had Frappe’s ( Greek version of Iced coffee!), Souvlaki and enjoyed the 28 degree sun ( since we have already had out one day of summer in London…!)…I couldn’t help thinking; As curious as they were about other cultures, the Greeks divided the world between Greeks and "the others," whom they referred to as bárbaroi, a word that may be an onomatopoetic rendering of foreign babble. Although the term "barbarian" certainly included such wild peoples of the North as Illyrians and Scyths, it was more typically applied to the degenerate subjects of the great empires of the East, especially the Persians.

Herodotus, who was the first extant writer to have taken up the conflict between the two civilizations of the Mediterranean, spent a fair amount of time hopping from island to island, roaming through Egypt, and living among the barbarians. The results of his casual investigations (or "histories," as he called them) form the most entertaining (and perhaps even the most honest) work of history ever written. As a Greek, Herodotus had no doubts about the superiority of his own civilization, but he had grown up cheek-by-jowl with Carian bárbaroi, and he was fully aware of the splendid virtues of the Persians and of the cultural antiquity of the Egyptians. His openness to alien cultures extended to the point of gullibility, since he appears to have uncritically accepted nearly every preposterous story told to him by Egyptian priests.

Well despite what we read of history and the fact that Greeks ‘be khoone ma teshnan’….they seemed very nice warm and hospitable people…even to me!



4:00 pm

I was woken up…again…must be the 10th time today…by R...screaming come on the deck and see the view…so I get up tumbling and walk up on the deck…!

I have to give it to her…it was an amazing view of the little Islands…little houses and no sign of pollution!

4:30 pm

I can hear the siren…and there we are… Hydra…a little Island a short distance away from Athens, wow….how pretty is this!

We are too excited to find a place for staying the night…so we hit the beach and catch the last couple of hours the sun lounging around the stone hedged beach…drinking…talking…and a dip!

7:45 pm

We sat there quietly watching the sunset…no one said a word…I guess everyone was deep in their own little worlds…R must have missed hubby and is probably thinking how romantic would have been if he was here….Dee must be thinking ...can’t wait to get some sleep…Alexandra is probably dreaming of how to get rid of us…and I am just totally lost in the moment and can’t think of much but tomorrow!

Now, let me ask you a difficult question. Is it true that we need help to see the future? Or can we see it perfectly well? Could it be that we are concerned about our vision? Are we hoping for a second opinion or an alternative point of view? Are we, perhaps, a little overwhelmed by what appears to be looming so large on our horizon?

I guess no matter what way we think about it and how much evidence we get that we can perfectly see the future or the events of tomorrow... but we are just having some difficulty in believing the evidence of our eyes. Shall we say if what we see is inspiring, trust it? And if it is not, change it? What if we ignore it?

8:15 pm

“Izzy Wizzy let’s get busy!” That’s what Sooty used to say, before tapping his magic wand firmly on the counter. Or rather, that’s what Mr Corbett used to say that Sooty had said. Sooty, of course, was a glove puppet – famous for never speaking a word. People had to interpret his gestures. Which brings me on to this weekend’s kind of magic… For as long as we believe that power rests in someone else’s hands, namely our beloved R ( although unlike Sooty…She can’t stop talking!)…we will be ok…so she takes the lead…we walk around…brows the little shops…admire the little white and blue houses and retire to eat…at a little place by the sea…where we can see the stars…the lights of the boats in the bay and the soothing Greek music coming from the bar below…!!

And yum yum…Sea food Linguini with Greek Salad, Calamari’s and fisheggs!…I don’t think I have ever eaten so much at once!!!

Monday
00:30 am

Alexandra and I have excused ourselves and retired to our little room which we managed to rent with the help of the guys from the restaurant, and have left Dee and R on the Pier…!! I am too tired and I fall sleep as I hit the pillow!!!

The bed is actually a bit hard…but I am too exhausted to even care….

00:45 am

ringggggggg ringggggg…..what now….I can hear a mobile ring…I reach out for mine and press the red button…back to my deep sleep again…

ringggggg…….blurtttttttttttttt….this time I actually manage to open my eyes…the green light is on and it says ‘Dee’ on the screen…I guess some where in my brain I try to compute why is she calling me at this time…but obviously… I press the red button again…as you do!

Riiiiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggg….damn…YES…I blurt out…she is being very conscious of my bad mood and quietly says…”ummmm we are kind of lost!!!” That wakes me up….but can’t think so I just hand the phone to Alexandra who is now up as well with all the commotion..!

01:00 am

A big bang followed with giggles and damn…knocks on our door…Dee wants her bag which is in our room….this better be the last of them!! I am knackered…and very ‘Saggy and bad akhlagh’…..

01:05 am

Silence….. finally I can sleep……

01:07 am

Wishful thinking that was…knocking on the door again….

Now R wants her sun glasses…..WHAT???? Can’t it wait till tomorrow?...

Obviously not…..

6:30 am

ddddderedeee………..Alexandra’s alarm….

Wake up we are going to miss the ferry …..Oh my GOD……

07:00 am

We have managed to drag very moody R out of bed….decently dressed and outside….going down the stairs in the little Alley…everyone is kind of moaning and groaning….

07:10 am

the donkeys queued up to start the day….one of them is looking at me funny….’Dareh chap chap negah migone…’

What seems to be a zillion of cats have lined up by the fisher man’s boats and where they all jump in for little fishes thrown for them is rather amusing….

07:15 am

Siren…..the boat is here….

Got some sleep on the boat …thank god for that…

11:00 am

Back at Alexandra’s flat…R is feeling rather poorly…can’t figure out if it is sea sickness…lack of sleep or simply too much talking!

While we give her some tablets and put her in bed…Dee and I are getting ready to go SHOPPING…..hooray….

Human beings were born to shop. This is what they were placed upon the earth in order to do. The creator said, “Let there be people – and let them have credit cards. And let there be online catalogues for those who cannot get to the malls.” You doubt this? Then why, pray tell, are there so many retail outlets in every town centre? This is no haphazard accident of commerce – this is the divine will. Isn’t it? Then think. What else is there in life now that we can see as indispensable yet which actually matters far less …imagine?

So we hit the shops ……

10:30 pm

A day of shopping, more Frappe’s and Souvlaki and plenty of R’s sick ( sorry…..)…and we have only got couple of hours before our flight…

I sit outside in the balcony, smelling the Orange Tree blossoms ( bahar narenj)…and wish we didn’t have to leave this early…and try to inhale as much as I can to take a piece back with me for mum and Dad…especially Dad…I bet he has missed it so much!

Leili Emshab porsid : chandta shivan mondeh ta labkhand zadan? ... chandta bose mondeh ta ashegh shodan?..
Man goftam : Khabarist resideh....to mageh khabar nadari...!!

Leili Emshab goft: Khabe abi khabe aftabi mikham...darya va mojaie shekan shekan...
Man goftam : booye darya booye sahel...darim miresim...kami digar ta'amol!

Spent the Bank holiday weekend in Athens with some friends from University, 3 of us went up there and stayed with a greek friend of ours...it was great!
I have written my diary of events...I just haven't had a chance to put it up here...

I will at some point...I promise...

It is just that I have exams next week which is the right pain and tomorrow is the deadline for my project proposal, which I still haven't got as far as picking yet....and work is hectic...so bare with me!!!

"All you need is love..." So sang The Beatles. But they of course, lived in a far less sophisticated world. Things have moved on since then. Now, we have internet sites, reality TV shows and mobile phones. Had they been writing today, Messrs Lennon and McCartney could well have taken a different line. "All you need is a Sim card"they might have sung instead. Or would they? Some things, actually, never change, Nor do some people. Today's drama seems, in essence, truly timeless. So too, is the solution to apply to my problem. Love IS all it needs some might say...but is it really!?
It is true what they say;"Things will carry on getting silly until someone does something sensible". The problem, here, is that only crazy people ever imagine themselves to be sane. One has to be pretty ignorant before deciding to proclaim oneself wise. You have to be thick-skinned before you decide to describe yourself as sensitive. And you have to be big-headed to call yourself humble! So... let's look again at that sensible step one needs to take.
It is ridiculous, is it not, to suggest that I might be the best person to make it?
Well then.....
oh no...I wish there was someone you could hire to make decisions for you...like interior designers...or landscape architects...there should be personal decision making officers...!!!

None of us appreciates being awakened. We resent alarm bells when they ring. Even if we happen to know that we are waking up to something really good, we like the idea of getting in a little more shut-eye first. Usually, I need a cup of tea before I can decide quite how I really feel. And normally have a cup in my hand while hugging a pillow as I am being taken through a shift of consciousness. And this morning as I am being shown, taught or reminded of something, I feel a bit put out. I liked things the way they were. I was used to it. ummmm May be I should just put the kettle on!!!

People love to judge one another. Given the slightest opportunity they reach for conclusions and comparisons. It is doubtful whether the cosmos itself has quite so many strong opinions. The universe, after all, is a very big place with room for an awful lot of diversity. Now think of this notion of “deserving”. How relevant is that, really? Is there actually an angel with a scorecard in some distant etheric realm watching us all carefully day and night? Shall I ask, "What am I entitled to."or do I need to Ask, "What am I being given?" ....The answer, as I discovered this weekend, is an 'awful lot'.

Have you ever got into the car and started to drive, only to realise that you have inadvertently left the parking brake on? For a while, you can’t work out why your vehicle is so sluggish. Then suddenly, it becomes obvious. I guess sometimes, we make a similar error with the vehicle of our life. We begin to wonder why we just don't seem to be getting anywhere and we feel frustrated because progress is so slow and sluggish. Then it dawns on us. We are holding ourselves back. We are letting ourselves be weighed down by irrelevant fears. Untill the pennies drop. Light bulbs illuminate. Realisations arrive. Suddenly we understand what had been a mystery. One part of us says, "Oh no!"and the other says, “Of course!” ...We all fear facts and discover that these can challenge our view of the world. No matter how open-minded than most people I am but I still prefer to see myself as a person whose insights are impeccable and whose actions are always beyond reproach. Of course, in reality, no such individuals exist. So I suppose all is left is that I have to be brave, to learn the lesson life wants to teach me today...Would life will get happier, instantly?

When you are hungry, the simplest question can seem like an intimidating challenge. When you are sleepy, the easiest task can appear like an entry test for MENSA. When you are running late, when your family are being grouchy, when your team have just lost a game, a pessimistic perspective soon develops. We rarely make enough allowance for the importance of timing. I guess I should remember that some things – for some people (including me) will prove easier to do or deal with tomorrow than today. So I guess I will stop thinking about what has put me through this shock today...and worry about it tomorrow!

He asked : When is the darkest hour?
She said : Just before the dawn!
He asked: When are things most likely to change?
She said : Just when we have got used to the idea that they will never change.
He asked :When will we have learned our lesson?
She said :When we realise that life holds more lessons than we can ever learn.

People love to make clear announcements in confident tones and lead us all to believe that they know what they are talking about. But they rarely do. Progress, comes in spite of – not because of – the intervention of experts. We can tell people that a situation contains little hope. As a white lie...we do it all the time at work...( I am a consultant..give me a break!)...but can we do that in our personal life, and with our friends. Just so that it might make them a little happier?? I guess not...That would be wrong! But then again...who sets the right and wrong? Is it like what they say "Medicine amuses the patient, while nature effects the cure"... I think not ...Nor is this the only realm in which credit is often wrongly attributed. The deeply superstitious will frequently testify to the efficacy of their plans to avoid spilling salt or walking under ladders. "Look,"they will say, "I did all the right things – and they must have worked because I am still here."But that would still have been the same even if they had done all the wrong things?". so does this mean that we need to follow an insurance policy so expensive that we need an insurance policy to cover our ability to afford it???

Why can't leopards change their spots? You would think that in this go-getting, commercial world of the 21st century, someone would set up a beauty parlour in the jungle. A chilled little place with a gym, a spa and an on-site laser tattooist. The beasts could come there for stripe adjustment and spot removal. The Elephants could wear their trunks, the leopards, their leotards! Actually, I don't even think we need to go to Africa to fill such a gap in the market. Right on our doorstep there are creatures of habit, insisting that they can do things differently from everyone else!! ummm...I shall say no more...can't give away too much now can I?!!!

Desires are expensive things to have. If we can only manage to persuade ourselves that we want nothing, we can save ourselves a great deal of money, time and "emotional investment."All business people know that it is much easier to drive a hard bargain when you feel dispassionate – and conversely, that you can soon be taken advantage of if you deeply yearn to take possession of something... or someone. That is going a bit too far I guess, the problem is we can't really own people...or can we? We can't change them to our likings… can we? It is like the cars and elephant metaphor; Cars, like elephants, have two distinctly different ends. Go round the front and they seem very appealing. Go round the back and you had better be wearing a clothes peg over your nose. Hey, that's life. Two sides to every coin. If you are hoping to persuade elephants to stop doing what it is that elephants do several times a day, you are not going to get far. Nor are you likely to find a combustion engine without an exhaust. So does that mean that no matter how possessive we may be, it is not easy to change things the way we want them to be? Especially if the so called "things" in question are the people closed to us? I guess we do occasionally get the option to position ourselves where we can enjoy the advantages of a certain situation without having to look so closely at what's wrong with it. But hey that is tough too!!!

"Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try... " Ah, but is it? Most of us find it difficult to envisage a world without a heaven. We may try hard to seem cynical but deep within, we are all idealists. Not only do we like to dream of an ever-after that is always happy, we also like to feel that heaven is a place on Earth. We keep hoping that any moment now we are going to enter it. ya right?!! Wake up... The "ever-after" bit I am not qualified to comment on. I have very mixed feelings at the moment of whether there is any truth on such a thing...or what the people who came up with that concept were actually thinking!!! My power of cynicism extends only to now ! And all I can think of is "when will I get a little taste of the heaven" they keep promising us?!

We live in an instant, just-add-water, push-a-button, microwaveable-in-under-three-minutes, zap-the-remote-control-and-see-the-war-before-your-very-eyes kind of a world. Not everything about it is good. Too often, we lose our appreciation for essential natural processes that need to happen slowly. We look for ways to hurry them just as we look for ways to depersonalise the injustices that we can see yet seemingly cannot influence. We end up feeling remote. And we end up looking desperately for something to put us right back in touch with the nicest part of reality.
Some people are now staring at their TV screens all day, watching the rolling news in a mesmerised daze. Others are getting the merest occasional glimpse of the war or shall we call it PWN ( Post War News). They notice a headline as they stroll past a news stand or catch a few words of the six o'clock bulletin. Who can say which group is better informed? The propagandists are showing us only what they want us to see. Even if it is not what we want to see at all. I guess it is up to us not to let others to warp our view of key situations and not get blinded by science. I suppose my granma is right when she says: "Ask your heart what it sees. And trust that."

This weekend I decided to retire...retire from this unfair and brutal game of give and take...perhaps retire to a little house on the priory with white fences and a cat who hasn't got a name! Perhaps I would sit on the porch on my rocking chair with the cat and stare at the lily path...! Perhaps I will take up knitting too...but who would I knit for...Perhaps I will make little outfits for the cat!...and perhaps the children from the village will come up to watch the old lady with the cat...Perhaps they will come and play in the yard and I sit there on the porch...on my rocking chair with the cat and watch them play...perhaps I will make them cookies! But then that would mean that I have to take my eyes of the path!
Perhaps a little bird will take refuge in the kitchen and becomes friend with the cat...an addition to our little family! Perhaps I never close my eyes...just in case I miss what goes on the lily path...Perhaps spring blooms come and go...Perhaps the summer warm wind blows...Perhaps the leaves fall as the autumn comes...Perhaps the snow falls and I watch the lily path covered with white crisp snow...closing my eyes...hoping for spring blooms again...year after year!

Some people say, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Others disagree. They say, "Little things count for a lot." To someone else, my current drama might look trivial. But from where I am standing, it seems like a very big deal. And how can any one ever really say what matters and what doesn't. If something is important to me now, it is important and I don't have to justify myself nor do I need to apologise for experiencing a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Have you ever started to feel like an arrow that is about to be fired by someone else’s bow? where you suspect you are being used as a pawn in a greater game!. And you feel a sense of the inevitable about what is happening, yet you are not sure whether you are happy with it, and you wonder whether you can turn back time? Can you stop what has already started? Can you Ignore criticism and suppress doubt? Go with the flow?, even if you are not yet quite sure where that flow is actually going?.
My Dad always says; you are never too sure of anything until it surprises you! But are there really such things as happy surprises?....

"Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans." This old Sufi saying, was one of Patric Walker's favourites. It became attributed to John Lennon after the late great astrologer quoted it to the Beatle in a New York hotel. Soon after, Lennon gave an interview and he used that phrase. Ever since he has been credited with this particular piece of wisdom. I am not sure if any of this really matter....Only in one way maybe. I think life is also what happens to us while we are busy watching other people. And the more energy we give their stories, the less time we have for our own!!!

Tried to put a picture up....but failed badly :(

Some things never change. They last forever. They will always be what they always were. Our deepest, most emotional bonds for example. They may deepen and strengthen or they may even suffer some stress and weaken. But in some shape or form they will be with us our whole life long. Even death cannot part us from the people with whom we have made a permanent connection! ....:)

I guess some things are just not worth thinking about. The more attention you give them, the more intimidating they seem. And, of course, they are almost always the things we simply cannot bring ourselves to ignore. It can be as hard to resist thinking a particular thought as it can be to stop smoking – or give up cheese cakes. We know we really shouldn’t but we just can’t seem to help ourselves. I don't know why I am talking about this kind of thing to you today!!! Hey this diet thing is making me cranky......

Did I ever say that the journey isn't important; it is the destination that counts? ...I am sorry if I did...because now I change my mind if I ever have committed myself to such idea...I took a completely different route to work today...walked a bit...even took the bus...I can confidently say the journey does matter and the destination is irrelevant...as long you have a set destination...how you choose to get there can make a big difference in the overall scheme of things!!!

The world divides up into two types of people. The pots... and the kettles! Or, if you prefer, the hypocritical and the inconsistent. We are all as bad as each other. We all look suitably horrified and outraged when we discover other people’s glaring contradictions. And we all manage to turn a convenient blind eye to our own, equally bad, double standards. The grass may be always greener on the other side of the fence but the snow always tends to be whiter, purer and more driven on our own side of it!!