First Cut is the Deepest

For ipah & nic, big james morrison fans

Too Many Angels

Here's another song of Jackson Browne's that I loved way back then. What a voice, what depth... Sadness can be beautiful too...




There's an angel on a ribbon
Hanging from the armoire door
There's a cupid with his feet crossed
On the bird cage by the door
There's a baby angel drummer
His eyes are open wide
And two more tiny cherubs
On the mantle side by side
Too many angels
Have seen me crying
Too many angels
Have heard you lying

There are photographs of children
All in their silver frames
On the window sills and tabletops
Lit by candle flames
And upon their angel faces
Life's expectations climb
Where the moment has preserved them
From the ravages of time
Too many angels
Have seen me crying
Too many angels
Have heard you lying

Bring the morning on
Voices sing of day
I want to step out in the morning sun
Through the flood of tears

I want this darkness gone
Your sweet face appears
These apparitions coming one by one
But there's no end in sight
Only the dead of night
And too many angels

Too many angels
Have seen me crying
Too many angels
Have heard you lying
Too many angels

Bring the morning on
Voices sing of day
I want to step out in the morning sun
Through the flood of tears
I want to greet the dawn
Cast away these fears
Forget about the things we could have done
Bring the morning on
Voices sing of day
I want to watch the children as they run
Through the broken years
I want this darkness gone
Your sweet face appears
These apparitions coming one by one
But there's no end in sight
Only the dead of night
And too many angels

Midnight Swim

I swam at the Portage Lake when the moon was full and had this song playing in my head: Moonshadow by Cat Steven.

Listen to it here

Camping Trip at Lake Seneca

Before I went to Texas, I had the opportunity to take a utilize my many days of annual leave. So I went to visit my friends in Ohio before school starts because I know once school starts, it will be very hard for me to get away. I don't have a car and the US is not known for its public transportation. I think there is a distinct possibility that I will not leave College Station in the next 4 years. So I managed to go to Ohio and Michigan and a little Canada. Very little actually, just went across the border and turned back around so that I can enter the US on a student visa. Before that I entered on a tourist visa.

Trivia: Lake Seneca is Ohio's third largest lake.

My first fish!!! And I caught it using my friend's son's SpongeBob pole. That was hilarious! Very exciting to say the least. They were surprised when I told them that this was the first time I went fishing. Fishing is generally considered a "boy thing" in Malaysia. So my first fishing experience and my first fish... who'd've thunk it? :)

Jason & Nicki invited me and some friends to go camping at Lake Seneca and we had a lot of fun. A very luxurious kind of camping if you ask me. A camper that sleeps 8 people. So no sleeping under the stars. It's sleeping in an RV under the stars.

These are Jason and Nicki and their son Colson. They introduced me to a game called "Corn Hole". Basically it's an addictive game where the objective is to get little bags of corn into a hole about 30 cm in diameter is cut out of a board measuring 1 meterx 0.5 meter. Quite fun for people with some measure of hand-eye coordination. Since I haven't any of that, luck is the name of the game. Sometimes I got holes in one, sometimes I missed and there are times when I would take someone eyes out and send them running away.

These are my friends Bruce and Emily. We sat around the fire talking the night away with Jason and Nicki. Time for the grown-ups to have fun when the kids are in bed.

This is Lake Portage in Michigan. The good life, man!!! This picture is taken about 10 steps from the house. What is more wonderful than waking up to this in the morning and the phrase "go jump into the lake" is not an insult but an invitation to cool off when the sun gets too hot.

I have been shown extreme kindness and generosity. Nicki and Jason, Emily, Bruce and his family have all opened their homes and hearts to me and invited me in. I feel extremely honored and privileged to have caught a glimpse of their everyday life and culture.

Ok... I'll be honest. The fish is not as big as my face... that's an optical illusion. Real size of fish:

Signing off.... Joy!