The Year of Celebration

I'm reading a book by Matt Haig called  Reasons To Stay Alive . As you can rightly guess from the title, I'm looking for reasons. I'm not actually enjoying the book very much, but that could be because when I'm depressed enjoyment isn't easy to come by, or I just don't like it, but yet I plough on in the hope that it will provide the magic potion that convinces me. Every time I'm about to stop reading something from the next page catches my eye. The first was that he began to write of Graham Greene. Greene's book The End of The Affair  challenges and inspires me. The opening line is my favourite of all the books I've read: "A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."  I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Colin Firth. There are times when I can't sleep or I'm too depressed to even read that an audiobook is akin t...

I have gratitude today. I try to have it everyday, but let's be honest, it can be damn hard when you're in the throes of a major depression so sometimes I just forget. I find writing a gratitude list can help (to be fair I often count my blessings in my mind rather than a piece of paper, which might not be as effective, but it certainly still does something). Today I am thankful to and for Sarah Frick. Despite the fact that we have only met twice (through her lovely husband John who often comes down to Bermuda for deep sea fishing) and the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean separates us, I consider her a soul sister. The reason I do is because I have been deeply inspired by Sarah's faith, hope and 'grace' over the last couple of years. Sarah writes a blog called Love Letters to Grace, which began following the loss of her days-old daughter Clara Grace. Sarah has chronicled her life since that time in the most beautiful, devoted way, by sharing those feelings with ...

I've been negligent, I know. It's not just you, YOC, it's every piece of writing in my life. I'm suffering from the dreaded...dun dun dun...WRITER'S BLOCK. I'm not even sure if that's the right terminology for what I'm experiencing, because actually it's more that I'm hating everything I've written in the past. Since losing my laptop I haven't written a single new word of  The Hardest Part , my novel-in-progress. Likely because I lost the last 15-20 pages and I'm resentful. It's been stagnating on page 287 or whatever for two months and I now think I hate it. There are parts of it that I love (usually individual sentences), and I know what I'm trying to do, but I'm just not executing it in the right way. I keep opening the manuscript, reading it, becoming exasperated and deciding that before I make drastic changes or toss the whole thing I'll leave it a few days until I'm in a better mood. The thing is I've...

I woke up this morning in a foul mood. That turned into hysterical tears as I skyped with the lovely one and complained about my life. My worries revolved around my choices in life, that as much as I have maintained my integrity regarding my career dreams, I'm poor and nothing is really going on for me professionally. Now that I'm back in London I see all my friends from law school frequently and they're all in stable jobs, earning quite good money and I'm just struggling to stay afloat. I usually comfort myself by admitting that I would be miserable if I had taken that path, because it's just not for me, but sometimes all this integrity can be overwhelming.  Then a few hours after this panic that had emotionally exhausted me I received some fantastic news. The  Bermuda Arts Council has decided to provide me with a grant to help publish  The Little Cottage . I was ecstatic for the rest of the day and actually felt a certain level of validation concerning pur...

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote. Time has certainly flown by and life has changed dramatically. As of a couple of days ago, I am officially a London resident. I said farewell to the Vancouver rain and hello to the London fog (no doubt the rain is not far behind).  Why did I leave the west coast? Well, both Canadian and American immigration processes are nightmares. I got far along in the process with the US, but need to put together more evidence. I haven't even tried with Canada as the waiting process is two years. And I need to be working now . So I'm now ensconsed in the joys (ha!) of job-hunting. I so wish that my acting and writing paid all my bills, but alas, that is not the case (for now). I've been applying to all sorts of things, legal work included, but I'm really looking for something that will spark my creativity. So that I'm not dreading the work day and I feel like my 8 hours per day are spent doing something I enjoy. ...

Well....it's been some time since I posted. Mostly because the Year of Celebration was over quite a while ago. When I started the blog I had only intended it to last a year, but often wondered whether I would continue. I started to lose momentum towards the end, but I've decided that why should celebrations only last one year. Maybe I should rename this to the YEARS of Celebration. Either way, I'm back in the blogosphere and will hopefully remain here for longer this time (no promises though!) After a year and a half away I'm back living in Los Angeles. I've missed it, and I forget the feeling it gives me when I'm here. I know a lot of people aren't LA fans, and to each their own, but for me it feels nourishing. That's not to say I don't have my freak-outs, or anxiety attacks (just had one earlier this evening to be fair!), but I feel like I'm moving forward at least through all of that.  Since I was 11 years old I've known I wanted to...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'm in a Book Club called B3 (Bermy Book Babes). Clearly, an all-female book club, it's a great chance to open my mind to books I wouldn't usually read and have a good old natter once every couple of months. One book we read a few months ago was The Help, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I went to see the film tonight with Aziza and my younger sister Claudia and it was very faithful to the book. My only issue was that, and I know this sounds controversial, but many in Book Club agreed with me, that the Black women couldn't stand up for themselves, and they needed a White woman to essentially come to their rescue and make them see the light. The book was written by a White woman, so I can see how it would be told from her perspective. But it was an extraordinary book, and an excellent story.  Here are some quotes from the film: "Fried chicken just tend to make you feel better about life."  "If ...

On July 21, 1899, Ernest Hemingway, the American novelist and short story writer, was born. I have already quoted Hemingway here , but he's such a prolific writer he deserves another. I'm writing a short story/picture book at the moment so I'm very focused on writing: "A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. " Today in 1969 the Space Race reached it's most important milestone. A man walked on the moon. Well, two actually, Lance Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. What an incredible feeling that must have been. Maybe one day in the future there will be commercial flights to the moon. Now that would be something to celebrate. My mother is Malaysian and we have plenty of family in Singapore and Malaysia. Today is Racial Harmony Day in Singapore, and being multi-racial I would always celebrate that.

The Apple II, one of the first personal computers went on sale today in 1977. Seeing as I use my mac to update this blog, and spend hours a day on it (both wasting time and getting things done) I have to celebrate that. I switched over in late 2008 and I'll never go back. Sorry Bill Gates, although I do appreciate all the money you give to The Global Fund. Today, I went with Tal and his family to his son's graduation from his grade in Hebrew School. It was also the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Temple Ner Tamid in Palos Verdes. Though raised Christian I think it's important to explore other cultures and belief systems and I enjoyed my first Temple experience. This was the day in 1956 that Elvis Presley introduced 'Hound Dog' on The Milton Berle Show , and absolutely scandalised the American audience with his dancing, and was only filmed from the waist up for a long time following that. So of course, I share that video. Damn THE Man! Today's...

Well today is officially STAR WARS DAY!! Like many, many people I watched all three original Star Wars on repeat throughout my childhood. And of course today I'm celebrating the one, the only, the sexy....Han Solo. I wanted to be Princess Leia not for the amazing braid danishes, but so Han would love me....sigh. Lots of other things to celebrate today including the fact that it's the 84th Anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (without which we would have no Oscar which I'm going to win in a few years) and the date in 1959 that the 1st Grammy Awards were held. A day of movies and music...yes please! Today's Quote comes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea, as he won the Pulitzer Prize for it on this date in 1953. "Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready."

Today in 1847 Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary and is most famously known for establishing the Pulitzer Prize. A pipe dream of mine is to win a Pulitzer for Drama, never mind the fact that I've never finished writing a play AND that I'm not American and therefore ineligible. It's my prerogative to be ridiculous and far-fetched in my dreaming (though I consider it bold and daring) especially as life and society tends to limit us to the here and now in reach. In keeping with today's literary themes, one of my favouri te novels was published today in 1925: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As I've just finished a book for my book club, the fiction portion of my reading plate is empty so today I'm beginning Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection of eleven short stories by Fitzgerald. I'm so swamped with lines and research right now that I liked the idea of small, short stories I could absorb and enjoy in portions. I've already read The Curious C...

Day 2 of my year of blogging and I'm discovering that for each calendar day there exists a multitude of reasons to celebrate, and it's going to be difficult picking just one, (or even two) for that matter. However, if I chose all to celebrate I'd have no time in the day to get anything actually done. So here's to selective celebrating. Today resulted in a main celebratory reason, relevant music and a quote. I'm thinking that trio may be my template from now on, but to be honest, I've never been particularly good with structure and rules so I'll likely frequently divert from that plan. Hey, it's (and I'm) a work in progress. Today is International Children's Book Day, which originated in 1967 and is observed on Hans Christian Anderson's Birthday. So to celebrate, I read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, which is one of my favourite children's books. If you haven't read it, you must. To me it's not just a story of unconditional ...