ANNOUNCEMENT: IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG...

Ladies and fellow men,

I have returned and I have survived. I have managed to tolerate stupidity and ridicule. I have prevented myself from being infected by the inane and mundane. I have gathered strength - physical,mental and spiritual. I have gathered both moral and real knowledge. And of course, I have gathered tales. Tales no man dare not to laugh. Tales that are currently undergoing construction due to confidential reasons.

So, hang in there.

But here are excerpts from literary texts that more or less describes what tales I am about to spin with regards to my journey. It aptly summarizes myself, the environment and the others:

'...He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, Sir; I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment...'

-said Mr Enfield to Mr Utterson when the latter asked the former to describe Mr Hyde in the book Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

'...Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some land post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him - all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination - you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate...'

-said Marlow on how a change in the environment can show Man's true colours in the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1902)

Thus, I have come back a weathered man. A moulded man. A loving man. A funny man.

And as they say:

Immerse your soul in love

- from the song Street Spirit [Fade Out] by Radiohead from the album The Bends

Let the show begin....soon.

13 September 2007