my parents came to see me this weekend. i'm glad to touch base with them, but also glad that i'm here. this time i asked them to tell me stories from their family tree. very interesting...i wish i could meet more people from my dad's family, but i hardly go where they are. why? his hometown is far more civilised than athens, which is a sprawl without character and without cohesion. i'd gladly visit there, people up there have courtesy, a trait that people in athens have forgotten. strange that my father hasn't really kept in touch with his family. his sister has though. perhaps i could join her to one of her trips up there?

now looking for xmas flight tickets. life is good.

still at work  but listening to the music of the english/carribean guy, which is...very interesting  shaggy, barry white, marvin gaye, frank sinatra, bob marley, coldplay, nina simone, bits of chris rock and eddie murphy's standup comedy, and lots of old artists i don't know, all mixed up together. the rest of his team take the mickey of this guy's taste in older music, but i like the mellowness of it and many of these songs can be found in my ipod too . i kinda stand up for him every time they tease him because it takes guts to be different  and his dad is a guitar player in a band, so i think they shouldn't mess with him because he has listened to a whole load of stuff that the rest of us don't normally get to hear. also i think they shouldn't mess with him because he is superfit  

i'm reading a strange book i borrowed from shee ming's library, it's called 'chasing the dragon'. it's written by jackie pullinger, an english woman who went to hong kong about fourty years ago with zero money or connections and tried to help the gangs overcome drug addiction by...preaching to them the word of god. i don't think she was a model citizen by any means. also the book is heavily edited to play down the struggles and emphasize the successes. however, the story is definitely interesting, if only because i've never come across such a close description of the triads or Kowloon Walled City. it must have been quite an experience to be there. still a third of the book to go.

my boss's mum is not well. he has to take leave every week to pick her up from hospital in Yorkshire, put her in a home, fix stuff in her house etc etc etc.

Life is short. Don't want to let it pass by.

Sometimes i fret too much. Goodbye fretting, hello living.

the friday gathering was really good fun!!! should do it again soon!   we seem to be at the intersection of bus 88 from marsham st, esa, rtkl, the aa, the bartlett, feilden clegg, and who knows what else...so come again

(i should have posted this on friday night but i was too tired, on saturday i was too busy with that play and on sunday i was too busy arguing with a friend. hey at least arguing means we are not avoiding the problem, which would weaken the friendship. but now all is good again, hey life is good la!)

i do have internet now, but it comes and goes. who knows what's really going on with this broadband service.

the bird flu might get here soon. so when do i stop buying chicken? apparently the uk will wait until it hits the country before they decide to bring the chickens indoors. so right now the chickens are all outdoors waiting for to catch the flu when it gets here. anyway, here's some advice from the independent in case it does. scary. I hope we won't have to get there.

What to do if a pandemic strikes

If avian flu starts to pass rapidly from person to person, sparking a pandemic, protecting yourself and your family will be largely in your own hands. There will be little that the Government or doctors will be able to do to stop you catching it.

Existing flu jabs will be of no use. Anti-viral drugs, such as Tamiflu, can reduce the severity of the illness if taken within 48 hours of symptoms first appearing, and should save lives. But, in the short-term, supplies are scarce. The Government ordered 14.6m courses of the drug last spring, but was relatively late in doing so and we are some way back in the queue.

So what can you do in the meantime? First, don't panic. Try to minimise contact with other people: that will not just provide self-protection, but will help prevent the virus spreading.

Get in stocks of food and water and try, as far as possible, to sit out the pandemic. The authorities will almost certainly have closed schools and theatres, cancelled sporting fixtures and may restrict transport.

Otherwise, self-protection means reverting to what may seem old-fashioned rules of hygiene.

The virus can be breathed in, or taken in through the skin. So carry a handkerchief for when you need to blow your nose or sneeze. Cover your mouth when you cough. Remember the old rhyme "coughs and sneezes spread diseases".

Wash your hands frequently. Experts say you can catch the flu from handshakes or doorknobs. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Never share mugs, glasses, cutlery, towels or toothbrushes. Use paper towels to clean surfaces regularly, then bin them.

i've been emailing fast and absent-mindedly. i don't like it. i sound so rude in emails.

PLISS FOGIF ME. ESP. XINEWONG!!

i'm at the internet cafe. WHAT? yeah. my tiscali is still broken. WAH. i used to come here when i was a newbie in london and blablabla... memories. now i gotta go across the road and buy some more drinks for da birfday dinnah tomolo.

jane and olestes have da birfday on da same week! wah.

ok running out of credit. please do not email me at the tiscali address beacuse i cannot check it! please email at epr or better text me until i finally get the internet up and running again.

In a dramatic rebuff to President George Bush, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the man who dared to tell the Americans that the main plank of the US argument for waging war on Iraq was based on a lie.

The Nobel committee bestowed the prestigious award for 2005 on Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN official who rose to prominence by exposing the lengths that America would go to in its efforts to build a case for war.

www.independent.co.uk

i changed the title at the top. i guess i change all the time. i guess someone with a life of little change would probably get tired with me. i can't help it though, and i have no choice, to improve i must change. i promise it's for the better.

christianity is on the decline in the west, so western-educated people are rarely drawn towards it. however it is easy to see when people are in essence truly living a christian life, without actually knowing it or consciously praying or going to church, cell group, etc. i can see it because i connect with them a lot. you could call them 'christ-like'.

i've bought this counselling book and it's very useful, however the way psychiatrists define conditions of the soul/mind/heart  as 'x disorder' sounds like everything we are is in some way or another a disorder. how much of something is healthy and how much of it is unhealthy is still rather unclear to me, perhaps it is to be revealed within the next few days (only just bought the book yesterday). for the time being it seems like I personally have pretty much all the disorders in the book, and a lot of my friends have a good number of them too. so are we all doomed? shit, i bought the book cos i thought i should know a thing or two when i talk to people, but the book seems like we're all so deep in one or the other weakness..

being too selfish is bad
being too altruistic is bad
being too dependent is bad
being too independent is bad
being too open is bad
being too reserved is bad

yeah, whatever. the difference between this kind of book and the other book i'm reading ("what's so amazing about grace" by Philip Yancey) is that the former focuses on analysing disorders ('this is what disorders humans have), while the latter focuses on forgiving them (we are all very disorderly but we need to learn to forgive these flaws in ourselves and in others). going from the latter book to the former feels shit, needless to say. but loving without knowing the human soul is useless, so i feel that i have to trawl through it.