Daily Haiku

And the saddest part
Will be, how you'll never know
how cherished you are

LB

London: Part Three

London is my one true love

A playground for my insomnia

Her streets chaotic and messy

But her appearance prim and proper

She is unapologetic

With the longest past of anyone I know

Once queen of half the world

She shares with me how she’s grown

She pulls me to her heart

We see museums, paintings and sculptures

She knows so many faces

An array of class and cultures

She takes me out after the sun goes down

But it does not feel like darkness here

With artificial lights always on

There are no external monsters to fear

She has expensive taste

And robs me of my pounds and sense

As her drunken lips are loose

Her posture no longer tense

Her public façade crumbles

And reveals her private self

Torn between duty and liberty

Her eyes plead a cry for help

A shadow of her former self

She cries, and simply doesn’t see

The past is not what defines you

But helps shape you to be

The city of worlds and memories


LB



N.B. This work was submitted for my end of year assessment and as such I was not allowed to publish until after my course had finished. Any plagiarism of this or parts of this will be picked up on through anti-plagiarism software.

Berlin: Part Two

She brought me alive for one of the few times I recall.

A mixture of new and familiar

I felt at home on the subway

Going underground as I followed her

As we sped along to her past

She was clothed with colour

And indecipherable words

A girl with many faces

She was at ends with herself

Offering promise and warmth

Whilst being unbearably cold

Layers upon me, but still shaking

The frosty air reached deep inside my bones

As she showed me the line that ran across her

A scar from a wall made of stone

The last red and silver leaves fell

Onto her pristine skin

Her canvas of art did not reach this part of her

She was tall, modern, exciting.

Everything about her had purpose

Her gate gave way to a square

Uniformed men lined up for her

As the harsh sun lit up her hair

A beautiful combination of old and new

But deep within her also a sadness

For all the suffering she had seen

Her reputation now tarnished

The city of love at first sights and opportunities missed.


LB



N.B. This work was submitted for my end of year assessment and as such I was not allowed to publish until after my course had finished. Any plagiarism of this or parts of this will be picked up on through anti-plagiarism software.

Amsterdam: Part One

We arrived in the morning, the cold air still hung low

And I never imagined I would love a city for her looks

Her small frames held a sense of undiscovered land

Of beauty trapped in the cracks and crooks

She was in her own world

Separated by the deep blue lines that weave like veins

Between her dark and narrow streets

She was cold at first, but after time she changed

She was laid back but not sloppy

Old fashioned, but kept up with technology

She played hard to get, keeping the best parts of her hidden

An individual in a world of millions

She dragged me along her cobbled feet

Whispering temptations in my ear

I inhaled the smoke she gave me

My vision becoming unclear

I stumbled along the street

As red lights shone above our heads

Blurry and hazy

My eyes feeling lazy as she pulled me along

I drank black hot liquid

As she giggled at my incoherency

Her devilish eyes upon me

The room sinfully dark and cloudy

She took me up her slender stairs

Lured me to her white wooden bed

And in the morning she was gone.

The city of one-night stands and everything wrong.

LB

N.B. This work was submitted for my end of year assessment and as such I was not allowed to publish until after my course had finished. Any plagiarism of this or parts of this will be picked up on through anti-plagiarism software. 

Videos?

My lack of updates is again appalling but my laptop keeps dying and I haven't been bothered enough to fix it yet. But yeah, I'm thinking about doing some video posts, mainly for book reviews because, well, it's something different and there are so many times I can write down that a book is good and read it.

All I've been doing this week is working and hanging out with friends and my ear is still blocked! I didn't realise how much not being able to hear effects my ability to talk to other people.

I've also started writing this week, which is good as my creative juices need to get going considering NaNo is just round the corner...

Anyways, small update about possible video crap. I am now going to post my poems from last year's assessment. Which, I will explain what I was trying to accomplish in my personification within a personification which I find really hard to explain.

LB

Life's been cruel to me, but it sure is easy to park

Just a quickie!

As I said before we moved house and the internet was down hence my lack of posts. I did start writing them until my trusty macbook decided that it would stop working. Basically the RAM is a bit dodgy and it keeps cutting out, it's surprisingly working now.

Replacement laptop. 

New room is new?

I'm still waiting to put the main section of my furniture together as many dowels broke and I am waiting for them to be delivered. Once they arrive my room will look spiffing in no time. I would like to do a post, just because I love my room, it took such a long time to get it perfect and I am almost there.

Still not read anymore for uni. :s

And it definitely starts on the 25th. Aside from all of the above and work, I have been very, very sick. So sick in fact, I haven't been able to hear for the last week. Finally a doctor saw me today and it turns out I have an ear infection, in both ears. Marvelous. Thanks for taking your time on that!

Toodles!

LB

Chengdu

Sadly we had to leave Yangshuo behind us and move on to Chengdu. Home of the Pandas and what used to be the capital of Shu (for those of you unfamiliar with this, search Romance of the Three Kingdoms). For years I have always said that if I went to Chengdu I would hold a one. And I did. At the time it was the best thing I had ever done in my life. Like seriously, they're dying out, when are you ever going to get to hold A PANDA!

I've fast forwarded a bit. Leaving Yangshuo at around 8am, after another all nighter in preparation for the twenty three hour train journey we had to endure, we were all a bit sad and very much hanging still. I know it seems like we all drank a lot (which we did) but we did do so many other things too. I digress. The train journey actually was not that bad as I slept for probably six hours, woke up, had some instant noodles, much like we get here but as all the writing is in chinese it is hard to know what level of spicyness you are getting. I got BBQ seafood judging by the taste and pictures of prawns on the front. It was good. Then I read Little Women (one of my set texts for this year) and went back to sleep.

We arrived in the afternoon and had the option of a massage by a blind masseuse  and after the train journey it was eagerly welcomed. I did not quite realise how bad the tension in my shoulders was and how also how bad my leg muscles were. I have restless leg syndrome, which I know doesn't even sound real. We had a couple of hours to walk around some markets but not enough time to really explore. That's the only downside to a timetabled trip, yeah you can not do the options but then miss out on stuff. 

We only had one night here and we tried a famous Sichuan hot pot, known to be the spiciest of the spicy and it did not disappoint. Despite the drinking I had done I had not actually got really drunk until this night where I had my first taste of Bijiu, Chinese rice spirit. At around 80% I'm not surprised it burnt my oesophagus. 

Next day was panda day!  We had to get up early because they don't like the heat that comes with a typical Chinese summer. Me, Pat and Sally (our guide) also did vodka shots at one point the night before, so suffice to say I was not at my best, but I am very lucky in that my hangovers aren't really...hangovers? So we got on a bus to go to the Panda Breeding Research Centre, managed a few hours sleep and tad dah we arrived. I really cannot put into words how awesome it was just seeing pandas munching on bamboo and not really moving.

Then the four of us who wanted to meet the pandas went off to get our little nurse cards and watered some bamboo for them and then went to see one! It really sucks because whoever was taking my photos seemed to miss all the best parts, like I held it, kissed it etc. But at the end of the day. I held a frickin' panda. A PANDA and I don't care if no one else is excited.

After our panda expedition we made our way to the Giant Buddha of Leshan, something I had read about and was so happy to be going to. There were loads of temples along the way and then we had to queue but it was definitely worth it. Again pictures really do not capture the magnitude and size. :(

At the end of this crazy two days it was already time to move on to Xi'an, the walled city, the ancient capital of China.

LB

RIP Franklin

Franklin, my beautiful iPhone 3gs, finally died.
We went through so much together.
I'm so glad we shared China together
Oh I want to drown my sorrows in alcohol.
:'(