wellington square park

as often happen in the days of our life, time goes in a speed that somehow seems too fast leaving no moment for us to reconcile with it.

however there are but some few captured moments, which we reflect as our most memorable impression of such times.

now, the town is in the embrace of the autumn. the season squeezes it tightly, letting all the possible colours to come out in forms of falling leaves, decorating the streets sophisticatedly.

soon, winter will unveil its truest face, and the wind and the rain will cover much of the darkest days of this shire.

but the rejoice of our hearts, with the companion of the light-hearted friends, free thinkers of all over the land and various continents, and the warmth of our long black gowns, surely, all will be more bearable.

as it was told, it has been so for hundreds of years. and it will be the same again this time: six years since the day of the first snow.

and i feel, to borrow a quote from dylan, as if i was so much older then, six years ago, and that i’m younger than that now.

memory

many of the things they practice today here in england, and here in oxford more specifically, are based on tradition.

they conserve their way of doing things very rigoriously. and this kind of routine is not regulated by law. it is just a rule of the game that everyone must follow. from one generation to the next they pass the tradition steadily. and everyone i know is quite happy to embark this way of tradition willingly.

if one asks the logic explanation for, say, why should we wear dark suit, plain-white shirt, white bow tie, black shoes and black gown for matriculation, the answer is of course because they have been doing it for hundreds of years. so why change now? they said.

hmm...

now, imagine a professor saying this to you:

"please try to be on time, because the dinner has never been late for four hundred years."



and this is a sample picture of how the dinner table looks like. i took this picture in one of the oldest college, called "new college", dated back from around the 13th century.

to the four corners of the earth

this picture was taken somewhere on the road from london to oxford, last friday. now i am on my fourth day here in oxfordshire, the region in england where oxford is located. matthew arnold, a poet from the 19th century, beautifully described oxford in his poem thyrsis as a sweet city of dreaming spires, one that needs not june for its beauty's heightening.

i spent my first days wandering around the old town and trying to provide myself a proper basic knowledge for survival.

i am grateful and humbled to be here, especially that it is autumn. you can walk the road and feel that crispness in the air and the smell of fall. also, i always find the falling leaves scattered around my window pane each time i return to my room. that is a true sign of nature's cycle of course.

the place where i reside now is a victorian house. i occupy half of its lower ground. so low that when you sit on the chair looking at the window, you could see only the legs of the passerby. not their faces. it's more as a sanctuary, especially because phone signal can hardly touch me down here. hohoo...

but i am content. you see this house now. well, it's not exactly the one where i live. but i like it. it has a red dress to fit the season's fashion. in autumn, it is quite fashionable for houses to "wear" that maroon gown. soon, it will turn yellow, before the fresh of green come again together with spring.

i name this picture "call me autumn".

as of the place where i live, it is a hall provided by my college st. cross. i have already had some ideas to explore about this college. but first, let me share with you that i feel at home here. the college has a motto that goes like this "ad quattour cardines mundi", which means "to the four corners of the earth". sounds adventurous to me. hoho...

fix you

dear old shoes... it was about the time you are treated with the best care by the best shoe-doctor in town. i intentionally brought you to the day care maintenance so that you can shine on brightly and step with pride when you and i walk the streets of the cities we once visited in our past once again.

i had to let him polish and wipe you clean. see, now you look so much younger for your age, hohoo... tomorrow if the day is not raining, or in sunday, let's see if we can find some new pairs of socks to accompany us in our "volgende" journeys. sooner or later it will be another story of "there and back again". ready, good friend?

a timely song

i am quite in a mood of laying back, and this tune from the floydians feels timely to me...

ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
waiting for someone or something to show you the way...

tired of lying in the sunshine
staying home to watch the rain
and you are young and life is long
and there is time to kill today

and then one day you find
ten years have got behind you
no one told you when to run
you missed the starting gun

and you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
racing around to come up behind you again
the sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
shorter of breath and one day closer to death

every year is getting shorter
never seem to find the time
plans that either come to nought
or half a page of scribbled lines
hanging on in quiet desparation is the english way
the time is gone
the song is over
thought i'd something more to say....

"home, home again. i like to be here when i can. when i come home cold and tired, it's good to warm my bones beside the fire. far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell calls the faithful to their knees to hear the softly spoken magic spells..."

your time is gonna come

october could be so moist to me.

there.

vahdsolo

there is no dragon in sight. yet most of the people seem to be away. leaving me with plenty of room and time and tunes to enjoy the cold room here by myself.

the colleagues got ill. flu touches them one by one. first ross the boss and then ruby tuesday. hmm... health is an important issue to everybody, indeed.

i hope you all get well soon.