Enlightenment tree

That lady saw me tinkering with my curiosity and walked towards me. “You like it?” she asked. “It’s pretty,” I answered.

She then became animated in explaining that ‘this is the tree where the Buddha was born under.’ Wikipedia explains that under this tree the Lord Buddha achieved enlightenment or Bodhi. Also known as the Sacred Fig, it takes 100-3,000 years to fully grow.

My World Tuesday is brought to you by Klaus and the My World Team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Sylvia

Listen to your heart, frog

Monday Mayhem follows

It’s the final week of the love month. Here’s Listen to your heart by the Swedish pop duo Roxette.

Amanda @ Bloggin with Amanda hosts Musical Monday

XmasDolly of XmasDolly, Lori of Shewbridges of Central Florida, Larry of Cakeblast, and Callie of JAmerican Spice host Monday’s Music Moves Me

Denise @ Run DMT hosts Music Monday Blog Hop

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Monday Mayhem: Viral Monday F***

Look how she tried. I never would have guessed it’s something that hops. Poor baby.

Harriet hosts Monday Mayhem

The Seven Deadly Sins

If I don’t reach seven illustrations for each sin it’s because I have limits.

1. Pride. Seven great things about yourself. Financial independence / Imagination / Emotional resilience / Showing the ex-hubster I can do what he thinks I can’t2 –

2. Envy. Seven things you lack and covet. J / J jr / Math aptitude / Entrepreneurial skill

3. Wrath. Seven things that piss you off. Men who propose marriage at the wrong time / Inaccurate research / Santa Demonitas (sluts pretending to be morally upright)

4. Sloth. Seven things you neglect to do. Laundry / Dishes / Breakfast / Sleep / Volunteering / Freelance job

5. Greed. Seven worldly material desires. Shoes / Antiques

6. Gluttony. Seven guilty pleasures. Facebooking when I should be doing something else / Household brands: fake and original / Twirling jealous wannabe morons at work with ‘bite-my-butt-if-you-can’ attitude

7. Lust. Seven love secrets. Thanks for saying “secrets” I don’t have to type them then.

Credits:

Bud Weiser hosts Sunday Stealing

Midnight Murdina of Not all That Wander are Lost

Desperado

“Sawadee krap!” the Eagles greeted Bangkokians Sunday night. Exuding cultural cognizance Tim Schmit spoke a whole sentence in Thai and the Impact Arena erupted. Woe is me. I’ve been in Thailand 13 years and I didn’t even know what Tim said. Anyway I felt like I got back a decade younger being happy and thrilled at their performance. A trumpet played the intro to Hotel California. I never heard that before. These are 13 Eagles hits that I love:

1. Desperado
2. Seven bridges road
3. I can’t tell you why
4. Take it to the limit
5. Life in the fast lane
6. Best of my love
7. Take it easy
8. Busy being fabulous
9. Love will keep us alive
10. In the city
11. Long road out of Eden
12. Lying eyes
13. New kid in town

Megan and Janet host Thursday 13

There will your budget be

Tags

Eagles, Family of Felines by Lowell Herrero, Lang & Wise

At Tea Talk we briefly share how we are feeling and what we are thinking. Visit Ruth @ Celebrate Friendship for more

I’m having hot milk without sugar. Bangkok is running a 33o C temp but it’s freezing inside the faculty office where I am at the moment.

It’s a Lang & Wise Collector mug which features a painting called “Family of Felines” by Lowell Herrero.

I’m feeling ‘light’ (for lack of a better adjective).  I mean I’m not wearing make up and jewelry which is unusual at work but I’m liking it.

On my mind is The Eagles’ Seven Bridges Road.  It’s the very first song they sang in concert here Sunday night. As a little girl I remember listening to that song while playing jacks on an uncle’s living room floor. A friend on FB shouted out that she is kicking herself for not attending the gig. Comments got in. One went like this –

“Where your heart is, there will your budget be also”

Bangkokian on the rocks

Sunday morning, Elephant Island. The sun had a hard time coming out which was perfect for the skin of this visiting Bangkokian. It was her last day on the island. Very soon it was back to reality. Back to work, skyscrapers, crazy traffic. These quiet rocks and the general calm would help her recharge and face the capital again.

My World Tuesday is brought to you by Klaus and the My World Team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Sylvia

Best of my love

The Eagles went live in Bangkok last night. I swayed on my seat and let snippets of a recurring reverie harmonize with “…oh-oh-oh…sweet darling, you got the best of my love…” Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Timothy Schmidt, and Joe Walsh thrilled deeply. My mind wandered around powerful concert lights flashing inside Impact Arena. It must have headed later towards one direction….

This video features the song on the band’s 1974 album On The Border. I was then only learning Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Fast forward thirty-seven years, I relate well with the song. So does one beating heart faraway in the vast, cold blue. It’s timelessness.

Amanda @ Bloggin with Amanda hosts Musical Monday

XmasDolly of XmasDolly, Lori of Shewbridges of Central Florida, Larry of Cakeblast, and Callie of JAmerican Spice host Monday’s Music Moves Me

Denise @ Run DMT hosts Music Monday Blog Hop

Hearts and books

Tags

Dasa Book Cafe, Jacquie Lawson, Pervasive Developmental Disorder

“A time to look over our week, recall blessings great and small and pick our five favorites to share”

Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for more.

1. Support network. CJ’s second clinical impression, which is pervasive developmental disorder bombed me in the skull recently. As soon as I let friends in on that, moral and emotional boost came pouring in: encouraging thoughts left on Facebook, private messages that tell me these friends care, online chats and phone calls lessened the weight. The fact that CJ’s dad refuses to have anything to do with all this doesn’t have to make this all miserable. I take comfort in being reminded that

“When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.”

2. Little, lovely surprises on Hearts’ Day. J, who has been gone for two weeks due to connection issues managed to come back online exactly on VD, greeted me, and disappeared into the blue again. I thought ‘what was that?…’  Re-focusing, I hurried my nostrils into work. But surviving the day turned out not so bad after all. I could take bittersweet. These landed on my desk –

Cupid was nice to me. He sent not arrows but this –

Oh to be young again! I had to put some cynicism on hold while witnessing students smooching in front of me. And yes, I had a go at giggling and letting love thrill me albeit inconspicuously.

3. Jacquie Lawson e-card from Thom. Beautiful and classy are twins. I love such perfect combination.

4. Buying books. Put me inside a book shop or any place filled with books and I am a happy, content soul. There was hot mocha on the mug I was holding while spending gratifying moments admiring shelves of books in Dasa. I did promise not to buy books until I sort out shipping problems but I broke that promise and I was happy to do so.

5. Reading. This week I’m lost in Lazarus Vault – 12th century knight adventures interspersed with an impoverished grad student’s job in modern day London. What a relaxing escape and how I relate!

It’s not what it seems so don’t wander

Lazaruz Vault by Tom Harper tells of knights and castles; a 12th century poem kept deep in a Scottish forest. The star character, a gradschool student lured by old world affluence, is wondering about what lies on the 6th floor of her employer’s headquarters as much as I furrowed my brow over some words in the story. There could be more as I haven’t touched chapters 20 – 53 yet. I make each vocabulary simple with just the obvious term of the definition and reminders intended to warn my mind against wandering off.

1. hauberk is a shirt not a partner in crime

2. bittern is a bird not a betel nut

3. fascia is tissue not a hue

4. vavasour is a tenant not a sour guava

5. breton is a horse not a variant spelling of briton

6. brigand is an outlaw not a brigadier

7. declension is an inflection not necessarily a decline

8. donjon is a keep not a dungeon

9. seneschal is a butler not Senegal in the 2000 FIFA World Cup

10. fewter is a holder not Harry Potter’s cauldron

11. letch is a satyr not the grub in Lion King

12. tannoy is a loudspeaker not a tan alloy

13. proscenium is a wall not “Mr Van Helsing, your reputation precedes you.”

Megan and Janet hosts Thursday 13.

Through the rain

Tags

Eagles, Thomas Carlyle

At Tea Talk we briefly share how we are feeling and what we are thinking. Visit Ruth @ Celebrate Friendship for more

I’m having Oishi black lemon tea.

My glass is a company-issued one I seldom use. It’s been hibernating in a drawer for years.  The sun is blazing hot outside and my fridge has ran out of my first drink choice this afternoon – cold water, so both glass and tea came in handy.

I’m feeling a bit impatient.  The Eagles concert is sold out but a student of mine whose company promoted the Deftones last week offered to help get me a ticket. I’m waiting for her to call back.

Wait, wonder, hope…

On my mind is patience or at least the illusion of it.  I practice the virtue by planning what I am going to do if I do not get what I want, like watching one of my favorite bands live. If I missed the Eagles what would I do…

Eat?… Read?… Have another go at golf this weekend?….

Think?… of what?… I had been busy communicating with my son’s psychologist and occupational therapist, arranging therapy sessions I forgot to book my seat at Impact Arena for Sunday. Ah well, I will make up for it some way, somehow. In other words I am coping.

“Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.”
Thomas Carlyle Quotes