Long Way Round

Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World
Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
With Robert Uhlig



‘...we were riding at the end of the day and the sun, setting in the west, warmed our backs and threw our shadows ahead of us on the road. Just chasing our shadows as we headed east. All the way round the world to get home.’

In 2004, McGregor and his buddy and fellow actor Boorman rode over 20,000 miles in four months from London to New York, chasing their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska then all the way through Canada and America before catching the plane back home to London.

McGregor is no ordinary actor and certainly no ordinary traveller, but the ultimate goal and spirit so aptly encapsulated as the book title that he shared with travellers alike is simply to get home. There are parts of the book where I stopped, reflecting on my life’s journeys, and fired the same questions at myself just like what he was doing throughout the entire journey. And finally came to terms with life itself.

Whoever has ghost-written the book—I assume it’s Uhlig credited not on the cover but the title page—has done an amazing job, perhaps with a little help from the travellers’ diaries. There’re parts I chuckled and wished I could crack jokes like that:

English humour at its best: ‘Vasiliy and I returned to the hotel, a former haunt of senior communist party cadres, the KGB and Politurbo members when they were in town…Charley and I tossed a coin for out rooms, and having won, I found myself in a massive suite.
‘I’m in bed where Nikita Khrushchev used to sleep,’ I told Charley, who had a tiny room.
‘I hope they’ve changed the sheets,’ he said.

On language barrier: ‘After all, Jamie has told us there were two English words that were understood the word over: fuck and Beckham.

Streams of sweat and tears had been shed, most frequently on the bike on the road, or dirt tracks, and less often but more profoundly in Unicef centres in Chernobyl and in Ulaanbaatar:

Ewan: ‘One evening we were taken by Unicef to visit some street children. We met a group of about ten boys in a busy street in a commercial district and then climbed with them through a manhole in to the dusty, stifling maintenance pit they called home…. One of them had a tattoo too, so I showed them mine and they all wanted to touch it, the youngest stroking my arm in a really sensitive way. He kept touching the skin and I could see he was desperate for human contact. He was still a young kid and all I really wanted to do was to throw my arms around all of them.’

What a man.

If you are in the UK, visit www.unicef.org.uk/longwayround or
www.supportunicef.org if outside the UK.

Oopsy Daisy!

A bench . A wooden bench. A worn-out wooden bench at Kew Gardens which ended an elusive search ignited years ago by a certain film called Notting Hill and Ronan Keating’s music video. For what should be a commonplace fixtures in London, these vanilla wafer brown furishings must have been tucked away behind tall concrete walls or barb wire fences out of my reach until I stumbled upon them, in abundance, at Kew. There’s no Hugh Grant nor pregnant Julia Roberts resting her head on his lap, but this bench has since become synonymous with ‘happiness’ and ‘marital bliss’ in my dictionary. Adorning the gardens like a constellation of stars, each of these benches is autographed with a metal engraving of a donor’s name accompanied by the years of birth and death, which makes them a bit intimidating to be seated on.
The Merriam-Webster’s definition of a bench is ‘a long seat for two or more persons’. I chose to stand on that day.


Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Angelic Alison

Don't mistake her for a son,
For her name is Alison,
An angel of the tender age of less than a month!

(sorry about the less than perfect rhyme!)

亦舒的blog

http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1227636382

「我要很多很多的爱。如果没有爱，那么就很多很多的钱，如果两件都没有，有健康也是好的。」-- 亦舒

Lamb’s Paradoxes

Have your crisp and eat it?








Being a footie fan for twenty years, I haven’t touched a football for even two seconds.
Travelling makes me find home less foreign.
I wear jeans and pants but secretly desire to wear that little dress for that special date.
I tried experimenting with make-up but was told I don’t need any.
Eternal Sunshine is the name of my blog except the sun is my worst enemy.
Sometimes I moan about a rainy day.
I was mistaken for an American Born Chinese at Heathrow when I’m always so proud of my British accent.
I’m painfully shy but talk to strangers like they’re friends of many years.
I love to bake but almost never eat my work.
A vegetarian for fifteen years, I have a weakness for pate and foie gras.
I work for the Film Archive but am never a big fan of oldies.
Contrary to everyone’s belief, Everton is my first team. My childhood hero and dream man Gary Lineker used to play for them.
Gary Lineker broke my heart when he got married after the 1986 World Cup but mended it when he and his wife Michelle were separated in April this year, twenty years later.
I rarely feel lonely when I am alone, but is almost certainly overwhelmed with the senseless of loneliness in a crowd.
A very impatient person, I don’t mind waiting as long as it’s something/someone worth waiting for.
Worst of all, I read to avoid writing.
I am a Gemini.

Life’s Paradox

Perplexed and lost, the question of life's paradoxes has been circulating my head lately. And in this beautifully written piece I found some comfort and solace (emphases are mine):


Life’s Paradox
By George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that
We have taller buildings but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less;
We buy more but enjoy less
We have bigger houses and smaller families,
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, yet more problems,
More medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much,
Spend too recklessly,
Laugh too little,
Drive too fast,
Get too angry,
Stay up too late, get up too tired,
Read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too
Seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our
Values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too
Often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life,
We’ve added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but
have
Trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information
to
Produce more copies than ever, but we communicate
Less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;
Big men and small character;
Steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce,
Fancier houses but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers,
Throwaway morality, one-night stands,
Overweight bodies, and pills that do everything
From cheer to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window
And
Nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology
Can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can
Choose either to
Share
This insight, or to just hit delete.
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones,
Because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember; say a kind word to someone who looks
up
To you in awe, because that little person soon
Will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to
you,
Because that is the only treasure you can give with
Your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I Love you" to your partner and
Your loved ones, but most of all mean it.
A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes
From deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for
Some day that person will not be there again.
Give time to Love, give time to speak, give time to
Share the precious thoughts in your mind.

To all my friends in my life, thanks for being there.