the day has it all

today is the last day of the year. and it is time for everything in the universe to show the entirety of them all. as for the day, today has it all. from the freezing blue sky of winter to the year end sale along the passage, my mind comes to a conclusion that the year end has to be completed first before another year comes along. fireworks and champagne will soon be served and cheering laughs will be heard as well. while all the canal are starting to freeze, and there is no way for boats and ducks to float, yet the winter has offered another kind of serenity for a year end. to quote from shakespeare, all is well ends well. or to excerpt another fancy words from a particular song, "every new beginning is some other begining's end". though time is irreversible, but i believe that time is our friend. we should be patience with it, and let it leads us.

for me, i also have personal outcome that i have achieved so far. but lets put it aside for a moment. because most of all, the year has been a complete one for me. for i have you today.

reading room

despite of the comfy room in elandstraat, there is another hideway for hours of uninterrupted reading time. as the international city of law and justice, s'gravenhage has equipped herself not only with the international court of justice, but also with a credible law library with an outstanding collection. and there is the place where i spend hours of the day. located very close to the place i live, it becomes my nearest escape corner. regardless of its abundant sources which are considerably sufficient for my study, its tranquility also provides me the warmness of a little home outside my own place. maybe its because the big windows that show the tall bare trees in winter misty sky, or it probably because the librarian always treat the books nicely so that i have never had trouble every time i started a conversation with a book i read. all in all, it is another place in this city, where time always shows its hospitality.

vredepaleis from the top of dorus building

frozen bike

look at this bike. although this is not my bike, however it really represents how my bike will look like. i left it at the bicycle shed, and since the winter has been increasingly cold, i think it has left some traces of dusty snow on top of the bike's pad.

have a little faith in me

after spending half of the day with good food and taking the so called candid pictures, the day ended its brightness in a little place for hot drinks in down town. sitting in a wooden chair, a sweet tunes catched an attention. the singer played it very well, and he spoke softly about the time. and for time, there would be no end, like an endless circle that makes an eight. the song was just nicely fit to the winter. as the night always comes with its darkness, it entices the feeling of wanting for security.

a dusk of elandstraat

the second day of christmas. the day was tranquil as no one wanted to spend time outside their homes. though the sun made the day colored with blue sky and yellow sun, but it was insufficient to bring the happiness to the streets and cafes. the city was occupied by the silence of celebration. it did not look overwhelmed, but the humbleness of joy painted the faces and the smiles i have seen all the way. coming out of its serenity, the calm winter night was slowly approaching. it left traces in the sky, a dusk of violet and orange.

hear them sing

at one of my favorite spots in this city, there was a choir and a tall bright tree right in the middle of the the passage. people and time are getting closer to the tip of the joyful season. in the mean time, these people, they were kind of holding back the time by their seasonal songs. as they successfully have stopped people to have a considerable glance to the performance, their enchanting voices were also filling the emptiness for those who can not be with their loved ones. my mind wandered around the idea of those soldiers in battlefield, far away in the desert of nowhere. i guesss, they only have to celebrate it with the starry nights and the endless wishes out of the mountainous hills. but when i found myself in the middle of the crowd in the passage onceagain, warm thoughts suddenly got into me. though i am not in the middle of the celebration, but while myself was hearing them sing, the lovely thought of home has dismantled an alien in a foreign land.

in between

in times between...

for the nitty gritty life enriching ingredients

obviously the distant does not a big problem today. since the world is shrinking, or should i say...flattening (?), thoughts are easily flying across the continent. as the menu of today is about the nitty gritty life enrinching ingredients, the fears and dreams were pouring down like a light rain in winter from a long best friend from down there in south. talking about how days can leave such impressions that actually offer the space for us to retroactively digest all the subtleties in it. and put it in the wok, steam it for another consecutive moment. let the ingredients enrich the main dish.

the longest night

if the day were shorter, then the night would be longer. for the dark is the beauty of all soberness, then winter would be the season with the utmost humble attitude. there is no sparkling golden leaves, or summer sunshine with its seductive glances. spring is still months away with its colorful tulips and daffodils. all we have now is winter. dimmed silver lights get blurry in the midst of moderate sunlight. days will surrender to the longest nights. and in this silent, you can talk to yourself loudly.

last supper

after months of whirlwind papers and breath-taking schedule, the last autumn and winter season of classes are finally finished. and tonight's choice is the italian restaurant across the canal where we all should meet and enjoy the last supper of our-one-and-a half-year of quality time together. there is no doubt everything must have an end, there is nothing last forever. there is an end in the new beginning. as my lasagna salmone is served, i enjoy it spoon by spoon from the white oval plate. im sure it was cooked precisely and wholeheartedly. i taste it as i digest the last one and a half year of our times. it has built like a spider web in the sky of my horizon, soft like a burning incense. the odor flies somewhere in the air and lingers invisibly. somehow those traces of time have enriched my life.

many good wishes

talking about many good wishes, i think they are very easy to find. it's like having good times during breakfast, having good shoes, or good travel to see places that make you want to visit. and you obviously can see all the good wishes, when the starry night is above there and the rough sound of waves thwirling on shore. they are all good wishes. i wish you could greet them the way they transform themshelves along the journey. safe travel.

anniversary

to quote from a website, anniversary means the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event. time. event. the sequent. a cycle. a life.

wasabi and the tale of mr hendrix

a delightful evening in early december. celebrations all over the town have just finished the night before, left the city under the clear sky and the warmness of the winter queen.

and wasabi, the magic green pasta danced with mr hendrix in the dimming room. surrounded by apetite and dignity, the last round for those sticky rolling seaweeds were unpredictably stung like bees with wasabi on both sides of them. ouucchhh...

another round for sinterklaas

for a sophomore's journey, sinterklaas is once again coming to town. and in this particular weekend, things are so unpredictable. whilst some things are on top of the day's priority, i expect no present. but apparently the santa never forget those who drown in piles of papers, a chocolate with an initial is received, given in the pieter de la courtgebouw. bedankt.

mr. d'Arcy and the oil field

in 1908, william knox d'Arcy found oil in commercial quantities in persia. since then, the black gold entered the stage of world politics in the region. the adventurous australian then established an oil company which then was nationalised by the persian several years later. the possession of this natural treasure has been entangled by the twist and turn of interest in this anarchical society. maybe mr d'arcy only wanted to experience the excitement of treasure hunting when he and his men drilled the oil well nearby the masjid-i-sulaiman. or he probably did it for the sake to accomodate the luxury of life offered from the refinement product of oil. to taste the world.