Hazel Ceej

Now I see what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that's what.  ~ Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses Ed Warren observes that the devil exists, God exists. He did not specify 'ghost' but that could well include Casper and his relatives whom I believe in but do not want to see except in films. On my way to see The Conjuring I snapped this photo from a speeding bus of the Prakhanong klong, a tributary of Chao Phrya. The water looks peaceful enough to me. If I closed my eyes to the wires and vandalized bridge, that is. Mae Nak Prakhanong, is a film I watched while traveling from Huahin to Bangkok in 1998. It portrays normal life in Prakhanong, then a village; of people rowing their boats in the klong to visit neighbors or go to the market. Scenes especially those around the water are engulfed in eerie serenity. You see Mae Nak  is a ghost. She is probably famous as I have yet to meet a Thai who has no idea who Mae Nak is. Her love story with her so

Honey, honey, how he thrills me aha... This is one of those blue-sky holidays in the chili patches. We are in the sunflower fields of Thailand. The farmers there sell honey aside from sunflower seeds and sunflower wine. Drogba forsakes football for the day to bottle honey in Saraburi. A tourist blows a honey kiss. Honeycomb up close  Honey pool The sweet, therapeutic liquid in Regency Scotch. Regency : to an anglophile like me, the merchandise is sold. ~0~   ABC Wednesday * Our World * Sally's Blues * Mellow Yellows * Ruby Tuesday  

The nephew turns 13 . Is that when kids officially become a teenager? I did think Cacoi may boycott this cake. But being the crazy aunt I could sometimes be, I went ahead and bought him what I call the Beatrix Potter Beauty; and at the same time wondered how I could make it up should he not like it. But bingo! He debuted a promising teenager smile and I exhaled happily.   At the food-laden table the birthday boy's friend said grace . His words were elegant and cute for one so young. I realized how mature this boy sounded than many adults I know including myself. We concluded the party at King's Park where we had lakeside pizza and body stretching in the park gym; explored a minor maze and walked flower-lined trails. It felt really good after long months of stilettos, drab AC hums and ear-ritating lift bells. Cacoi in blue shirt, his friend in white, and siblings Jovi and John Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes thi

Thanks to calamari I found Dory And the lemon grass juice transported me back to  those late afternoons long ago when Ma would start preparing dinner and would send me to the backyard to get a sprig of lemon grass that she would add to her fat mackerel soup.   I like calamari ; been eating bowls and plates of the rings from time to time since falling in love with them hanging out late 90s in Planet Hollywood - a place which seems to have disappeared from view along Bangkok's Ploen Chit Road .   That's how a little hankering led me to Dory I was admiring the dainty windows and staring at the ceiling while waiting for my food. Aren't these chandeliers reminiscent of anchors?   But then of course it's seafood and Dory If I could not associate the words I might as well start imagining a trident before Ariel and Flounder come gliding by.   But what do you do when your order takes long to arrive and you're waiting in th

It was a quick search for a blue liner to match the dress I wore that day. I rarely use this kind of thing on my face; they tend to get forgotten in the innermost corners of the drawer.  So I  rummaged deep. And out came something that slowed me away from the normally hyped speed of doing things at work. A thoughtful friend gave me this card when I was going through a very tough time. Memories came rushing back as the card kept me company by the rustling photocopier. Soon the serendipity put me in a trance. The world went by like always. My forehead transformed into a screen for a little panorama from 1999. Up and down the emotions went. There was stardust on 'joy and wonder yet to be explored....'  ~ 0 ~ Inspire Me * Gemma's Mellow Yellows * Sally's Blues

~ Sepia Saturday ~ That line is not mine. I mean I can't take it off my head since reading [Alan's] Marilyn's "You can choose; or go with armour, helmets... pantomime, theatricals, warlike women or big sticks "  It's probably too much Nanny McPhee . I have become a fan of the unruly children-featuring film since becoming a mom to a handful. Anyway, sticks. Perhaps something like a sceptre will do? And I got this photo from a recent Golden Reign Exhibit,  with exactly just that. Known as Rama IX, Thailand's American-born King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's longest-serving current head of state and longest-reigning monarch in Thai history ( Wikipedia ) He is also the world's richest royal with a fortune estimated to be worth more than $30 billion ( Forbes ).  King Bhumibol (pronounced POH-mee-pahd) is shown on the photo with his wife, Queen Sirikit and son, crown prince Vajiralongkorn, holding his sceptre, which is adorned by Garuda, a mythical h

~ Sepia Saturday ~ Rain. I associate it with a weekend spent with friends frolicking with an army of tame fish in a national park. I remember it because that was when I learned that to deliberately stand in the rain just for the fun of it is sheer joy. The other reason was these delightful swish-swooshing catfish  They sense it when people approach. They come near as if they know dinner is served.  We fed them string beans. What a greedy bunch! Further up a slope as we continued to hike we found this moss-covered chedi made from laterite. It was built to commemorate King Rama and Queen Sunantha's visit to the park in 1876. Queen Sunantha drowned when the royal boat capsized in the Chao Phrya river.  A Wikipedia entry describes the drowning, "despite the presence of many onlookers they were forbidden on pain of death to touch the queen - not even to save her life."  Nearby is a sign that forbids anyone to come near if they are not properly dressed. I took this shot using

The few visitors in the throne hall of King Narai's palace were leaving when I got there. Pleased with the solitude, I lingered. The quiet seemed to usher in an opportunity to commune with the spirit of the ruins, however fleeting it was. Like usual thrones this one is elevated.  Over at his palace King Narai had foreign dignitaries, those of France's King Louise XIV whose practice of wearing high heels was hypothetically due to his short height.  There must have been some influence or connection there. This is the Dusit Sawan hall. The stairs are steep. Imagine King Narai going up the steps to sit on his throne. I fancied going up. It was uncomfortable, but then I'm no king and they must have adapted some fashion of climbing steep stairs in 1666. This is a close-up of the memorial plaque by the throne. It portrays King Narai granting an audience with French ambassadors - The ruins still exuded so much character. Ambling behind the throne was like play

Fave Five: week's highlights A little note for new bloggity friends: It's been an old blogging practice of mine to keep a record of what's positive and good about the week. For several months I have been unable to do it due to a few bits and pieces both on and off line. But I am doing it again. It's quite a good exercise in gratitude and optimism . There's nothing like celebrating! So on to exactly what I'm talking about, these are some highlights, five of them, of my week: Catching up with movies Thank goodness for days off.  I managed four of them in two afternoons. Fast and Furious 6 emphasizes teamwork, Hangover III friendship; The Great Gatsby shows lengths humans are willing to go to to gain acceptance, Jurassic Park introduces DNA to pop culture. Crichton's Timeline It took me awhile but I got the reading done . I appreciate and love novels that are intelligently researched.   Overseas phone conversation with the kiddo CJ: Are you finished workin

Never in my life have I worn so much jewelry as I have during my wedding. Strangest sensation. There I was squatting on a wooden floor, hands clasped in prayer wondering what was going on while  nine monks chanted Pali in my clueless face for three straight hours. It was a Buddhist ceremony. The almighty (ex)Mom-in-law orchestrated the entire event. I did nothing but marry her son.  While barefoot the rest of my body was bedecked with 24K gold jewelry. Well, except the silk skirt which was heavy with hundreds of rhinestones sewn around a foot high above the hem. I don't think I will ever go through such wedding garb again. But I'm keeping the rock (ring is studded with six dots of diamond) and this- This pendant is a replica of Phra Buddha Sothorn or Luang Phor Sothorn which is the religious symbol of Chachoengsao, the city where the then husband and his family come from. In Christian countries Phra Buddha Sothorn is like a patron saint of a town or province.  Here's a d

If you dined at Sometime's Cafe & Bistro , you do so surrounded with books and antiques. What I remembered while admiring old decor at Sometime's is the same as when I saw one feature of this week's Sepia prompt: cameras. My Aunt Rebecca is a widow who raised a brood of nine on her husband's photography business. Endeared to the device that played an important role in their survival, one of her grandsons was named Yashica. Something during Aunt Rebecca's husband's funeral always made me wonder why it was like that. No one in the family ever discussed it. I suspect it's because everyone thinks her crying got a bit out of control. Once I took my mother aside to wring out her opinion of her sister's behavior, and she frankly observed that her sister's display of emotions was rather exaggerated. The scene at that wake must have created different emotions among those present. This pen and ink Study in Emotions by Charles Le Brun shows Aunt Rebecc

"Let us make, instead of war, an everlasting peace...." ~ Virgil, The Aeneid  Book 4, lines 130-136 For years I wondered why my father liked green. I didn't mind that he bought Mama a pair of high-heeled glass slippers with a light green tint until he bought me a dress that was military green. Of all colors! He was a typical man of few words and when he passed away, I realized I would never be able to ask him why he favored green so much. I resorted to guessing. There are instances when I ask myself why I do certain things. It was most probably Father why I colored this girl's dress green. She's around books and I relate to that. Father gave me The Aeneid when I was in 6th grade. I didn't understand the gift and wished he gave me the normal Nancy Drew instead. Why The Aeneid ? Of all books! Could it have been his Jesuit upbringing? (which reminds me of the new pope right now) I vaguely remember him mention they were grilled in classical poetry during his Notr

My word associations from this week's photo prompt:  boxes = Nanny McPhee and the big bang (2005 film) skirt =  great-grandma Fortunata Paraiso Fronteras (I never saw her legs ever) machine =  Singer sewing machine A friend toured the house of the Marcoses in Luzon last week and she took this photo of an old sewing machine in one of their stops - Grandpa's Inn . We were telling fun stories on Facebook about how the pedal would move by itself in the dead of night. It looks so ancient, at least to us, that we just assumed it's haunted. Does anyone know of a sewing machine brand other than Singer? I haven't seen any other, nor have I gotten around to finding the brand of the ones we see today. We had this sewing machine at home with a 'bloody' memory for me. Over the years it has served a different purpose - a table for flowers, the laundry, and sometimes stray books. Once a cousin hid a match of spiders in one of its built-in drawers. I was about five years ol

Research papers or PhD proposals don't count, right? Yeah, I write those and sometimes a speech to kick off a university business meeting. The rest of the time I play with recreational haiku, and that's that. So I'm no writer, but once in awhile I date some daiquiri. When the calendar showed 1-1-11, I headed off to a beach town, the Thai Royal family's summer home. I did balance the table with something healthy. Now we don't play with our food but we certainly can have fun: Guess which writer loved daiquiri: Edward Thomas, Randall Jarrell or Robert Frost  Clue : " The land was ours before we were the land's..." Read at JFK's inauguration .  *More on writers and what they love to eat here .* Someone once said 'it takes four men to dress a salad. One for the salt, one for the pepper, one for the vinegar and one for the oil."  Can you name which men? Here are your choices: a . yeoman, barman, monk, gamekeeper b . wiseman, madman, miser, s

What spirit is so empty and blind that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? - Michelangelo  Why is the Mom in this family picture smiling? Oh, I know. The Dad is wearing shoes. Old Photo Album But my mother was also smiling in our family photo. All three of us look about the same age as this family. Mama said she explicitly told Papa that day long ago that we would sit for a family portrait so we were to don something formal. But lo and behold Papa came in flip flops! Mama wasn't very happy about it. She still placed our picture neatly in the family album though. Family is family, slippers or stilettos. What is unknown to me, besides the identity of this family, is how Father (rest in peace, Pap) ended up in the photo studio wearing slippers when he wore shoes virtually all the time. In fact we only saw him wearing slippers during his retirement. Ah well, so much for shoes. I have

People will forget what you said People will forget  what you did But people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou We were talking modern and post modern stuff in communication technology. Somewhere in the discussion was a mention of old bicycles. Professor R drew an example of what bicycles were like around the early years of its invention. I thought her drawing was enough to make me recall the same figure I saw on encyclopedias as a kid. Classmates chuckled their amused curiosity. My own association with this ancient bike model has since been psychological bashing around a paper I presented at a national research conference. It turned out Professor R was chair of the steering committee that decided the fate of my thesis, one of many under Humanities. She launched an eloquent critique looking like she was going to eat me alive in front of those co-presenters. Academically vicious. She is beauty and brains personified. Mentally comatose from the scholarly beating, my