No Room for "Perfunctory"

The weather outside is supposed to be -2c but “feels like” -7c, that is according to uk. weather.com. But no matter, I survived the short evening walk with a friend going to church for the carol service tonight. There was for me a feeling of “settled comfort” in celebrating Christmas the traditional way—that is, singing traditional carols and hearing angel monologues and reading the Good Book and again reflect on the fact that what is being celebrated and remembered is an event so awesome it impacted history and humankind more powerfully than any other thing under heaven.

Yet after the whole thing, we stayed behind and over warm cups of tea or coffee, biting delicately on mince pies, chit-chatted about where everyone was going for Christmas, how the weather was getting really chilly, how some still have to wrap up work and all that. How ironically perfunctory life can settle back to be after a carol service.

An hour’s reflection on Jesus---or maybe a season, and lives move on--until the next season. I feel a bit of sadness that I could actually be so perfunctory about Christmas. It means more than minced pies, or the funny Christmas decoration of a stuffed Santa climbing into a window in the house beside the church, or hot tea with milk or a box of chocolates, or the number of Christmas cards I’ve received and arranged nicely in my room.

It’s a good thing that God is never perfunctory—that word may not even be in His dictionary…oh well, I simply breathe a little prayer, that my heart may be eased with this fact because I know that my love even at its best, can never even begin to match up to a whisper of His.

I pray that He will amaze you (and me!) with His love this Christmas.

Chocolate-Covered Bliss

I'm sorry that I'm not really sorry about not being able to share these unbelievably rich, melt-in-the-mouth pieces of bliss with you...

London 101

One of the first things I was trying to work out when I first came to the UK was how on earth I can get myself to London. And the answer came in the form of blogpal Jen! Like a true jetsetter, she came to UK for a visit after a job-connected training in France and asked if I wanted to come over and stay with her in her friend's place in Essex and go around with her in London. So, what else would be a better motivation to finish three 4,500-word essays, I ask you?

So here's the state of my room pre-London...

Anyway, Jen and I had a lovely (so Brit of me, ey?) Friday of walking around Central London. We took turns taking photos, enjoying the architecture of the Natural History Museum...
...enjoying clear blue skies (for a change, no rain, at least for that Friday anyway...),

...feeding a squirrel with skyflakes crackers (and yes he/she loved it and came back for seconds!),

...enjoying the scene at dusk at Kensington Park...

until Jen's hands turned numb from the chill...and mine, too a few minutes later. So a mug each of Starbucks' Eggnog Latte (yum!) to hold helped defrost our hands nicely.


It was great to have Jen as tourist guide since the London underground system looked scary...

...and her expert guidance gave me more of a handle on it--so actually being with Jen was like taking a course on London 101, which was a great help!

Hey, Jen--come back again when I'm still around, okey?

A Night in the Life of a Student in Panic

typetypetypetypetypetypetypetype……hmmm…. typetypetypetypetypetypetypetype

wordcount…435…*sigh*

typetypetypetypetypetypetypetype (yawn) typetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetype

wordcount…1080

typetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypetypety….

coughcoughcoughsneeze!sneeze!sniff!sniff!

checkblog

bloghopbloghop

typetypetypetypetypetypetypetype typetypetypetypetype

typetypetypetypetypetypetype

wordcount 1504 *sigh*sigh*

coffeecoffeecoffeesipsipsip

checkinbox

checkinbox

readreadreadreadeditediteditreadread (I can’t believe I said that!)deletedeletedeletedelete

coughcoughcoughsneeze!sneeze!sniff!sniff!

wordcount down to 1301 *sigh*

typetypetypetypetype...

toiletbreak

stomachgrowls…waterwaterwaterglugglugglug

glanceatpacketofpotatochips *sighs*

“butidontwannabrushmyteethagain!”

*sigh*

typetypetypetypetypetypetypetype typetypetypetypetypetype

typetypetypetypetypetype

wordcount 2300 coughcoughcoughsneeze!sneeze!sniff!sniff!

checkbookcheckreferencecheckinboxcheckblog…

yawnyawnyawn

checkinboxcheckblogchecktime

yawnyawnyawn

*SIGH*

Stare@screenstare@screenstare@screen…

wordcount still 2300 (ofcourse)

yawnyawnyawn…

typetypetypetypetypetypetypecoughcoughcoughsniffsniff

typetypetypetypetypetype

coughcoughcoughsneeze!sneeze!sniff!sniff!

wordcount 2700

clickxclickx

blinkblinkyawn..yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnn.....

*sigh*

stretchstretchstretchyaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnnn.....

poweroff

….1800 words more to go….*sigh*

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PS. Sorry I am so deluged right now...will bloghop when I am free from all these...