No More Funerals

Last week, for the first time in my life I attended a funeral, of a dear friend of mine. He was tall, dark, handsome, with exceptional intelligence, sharp sense of humour, and an optimistic outlook on life. Victim of cancer, he died of it way ahead of anybody's expiration age at just 36. Not totally unexpected as he had been sick for almost a year, but that didn't make the pain any more bearable for his family and friends. Not for me. For the last few days I had not been able to talk about it, write about it, nor think about it, even to myself. Life is such, so full of surprises and eventualities; some call it destiny and I think I am amongst them. I believe in coincidences, chances, telepathy, premonition and, yes, destiny. Or any eventuality to call it by another name. At times I even look for them, sometimes I find them, contemplate them, share or accept them and, sometimes, I write about them. Not sure though if I believe in the predetermined coincidences or chances, but they do usually give fairly clear indications or directions how things might go or end up. For some unexplainable reason I knew this dear friend, respected and loved, would not be there for me forever. But never have I thought it's death that parted us. Fully aware of my own sensibility and the way I get emotional even seeing a stranger suffer or a stray cat die, I had decided years ago I would not attend any funeral, not anybody's, not even my parents (that was due to unusual and unavoidable circumstances) I had not done so although, there had been a couple of occasions when social etiquette demanded I should. This time, it's the mother of my friend who had specifically requested my presence, and I have high respect for all mothers, especially when this one was in extreme pain losing her only son. That's over now. I feel as though a small part of me had died too. I will never attend any funeral again. Not even my own!!! Tags:destiny,funeral

Current Mood: Complacent

Alias 'Bonny & Clyde' - Sequel To My 'Millionaire Fugitives'

Actually the New Zealand couple, the 'Millionaire Fugitives' I blogged about yesterday, are called Leo Gao and Cara Young. But the local media had nicknamed them Bonny And Clyde, who had suddenly disappeared without a trace after one fine day recently, when they inserted their cash card in the automatic machine, they noticed that they had a balance of 10,000,ooo New Zealand dollars.

Ten million New Zealand dollars, or some 5 million Euros. Leo and Cara who had just the day before in their account only figures in red, thought such things only happened in films. So they immediately remember Woody Allen's film 'Take the money and run'. That's exactly what they did: immediately created a new account abroad, transferred the bulk of cash into it, threw something in the suitcases and took the first plane out of the country.

They had a small petrol station in Rotorua, a touristy town of 55,000 inhabitants, in the north of the country. They lived in the outskirt with the daughter of Cara with her previous partner, and the parents and brother of Leo. Their finance was so tight that they had requested a loan from the bank, equivalent to 5,000 Euros.

The news is now in everybody's mouth in New Zealand, and by now in most parts of the world, and had, strangely, sparked off an unusual moral debate. Started with the central question: What would anybody have done? So asked newspapers, radios, and TV channels. With consternation on the part of the police, the politicians, bankers and moralists en general, a great majority says exactly the same thing, that they would do as Leo and Cara did, take the passport and credit card so as able to collect the funds and run like gazelles.

"We wish them the best of luck", "Banks are thieves and they have been served what they deserved.", and 'May you enjoy the good fortune" or phrases in the same vein have been circulating all over the net by Bloggers in many parts of the world.

The most asked question is where have they gone to? Speculation points to South Korea where Leo came from, or China where he has contacts. Their photos have been revealed by Interpol, and the New Zealand police have interrogated many of their family members and friends trying to discover likely indication of their whereabouts. The Wespac Bank, with central quarter in Australia, have not offered rewards. They said they have been left with no money!

The episode was attributed to human error: instead of depositing in their account 10,000, a tired or strayed finger had slip in extra zeros to become 10,000,000 It's more than likely they would be caught sooner and not later what with every single police is watching out for them. How much money could they recover by then is another question mark.

As the Wespac Bank's motto says: 'One must take full advantage of life to the maximum'.

Tags:bonny&clyde,bankloan

Current Mood: Blah

25 Health Myths Debunked - Interestin Info

An interesting look at 25 Health Myths that need to be debunked once and for all. So called medical facts often aren’t and it helps to shed light on these myths so people will be better informed about how these things affect their health. From tanning beds being safe to not swimming for an hour after you eat there’s sure to be a health myth in here that you’ve heard of.

City Of Poets

'Los Jocs Florals' are literary competitions that started in the 14th century. In 1859 it was restored and celebrated arduously again, now completed 150 years. On Thursday afternoon the anniversary was highlighted with the traditional ceremony of giving out prizes to the best poems from a vast collection entered in the competition. This act inaugurated the intense programmes of recitals and many other literary and cultural activities that spread out in the course of a week, in museums, libraries, town squares, gardens, and other public locations of the city, within the frame of Barcelona Poetry, organised by the Institute of Culture.

Symbolically, in the patio of Virreina, where a participating olive tree had been planted, on the branches of which the public, those who believed themselves poets or with don of writing poetry, can hang their work. In this case haikus - a form of Japanese poetry that is somewhat short, believed to be one of the oldest continually-used poetical forms in the world.

Even the municipal food markets have adhered to the week long of poetry. In many of them, while purchasing you meat and veg, one can listen to poems through the loudspeakers. In the ample lists of public locations are recitals in competition or for pure listening pleasure. Often these are divided in groups of journalist, writers, teachers, students, to shopkeepers, housewives, and children's work, etc. Including an anti-poetry comic group reciting bordering absurd and hilarious poems. There are also invited international guest poets taking part.

The Chinese also hang their love poems on trees everywhere in the country where there are trees, on the night of the Lover's Festival, equivalent to Saint Valentine's Day.

Tags:haikus,poetry

Current Mood: Artistic