The following quote is from the epigraph of 'Systems Thinking, Systems Practice' by Peter Checkland, a classic text on systems thinking. It is a book I should have opened when I first borrowed it, because it seems so helpful for my assignment, and not a day before it's due back in the library.

"It is very nice to have feet on the ground if you are a feet-on-the-ground person. I have nothing against feet-on-the-ground people at all. And it is very nice to have feet off the ground if you are a feet-off-the-ground person. I have nothing against feet-off-the-ground people. They are all aspects of the truth, or motes in the coloured rays that come from the coloured glass that stains the white radiance of eternity."

Stevie Smith

When I changed the title of this blog to Coming Up for Air and added the subtitle Keep the Aspidistra Flying, I was in despair and resigned to fate. I didn't realise that things would actually turn out the way I hoped for and it is indeed ironic that I'm now studying in a place that's strongly linked to George O.

Just by attending lectures, I somehow feel that I'm now smarter than I was before I started term. Perhaps the months of doing nothing atrophied my brain. Or perhaps knowledge transfer by osmosis actually works!

Archbishop Rowan Williams' Nightmare

Has the Catholic Church found a brilliant albeit sneaky way of tackling the issue of celibacy in the priesthood by embracing conservative Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church (including their married priests)?

The move to welcome 'the sheep back to the flock', having them in full communion with 'Mother Church' yet allowing them to retain their identity, including married priests may just be the solution to the decline in the number of priestly ordinations.

Thoughts After the Tate Modern

A lot of modern art appears to serve the sole purpose of being a mere display of pretentious intellectual masturbation by the artist in question (just like this blog). Often, the intellectual masturbation is mutual when a critic seems to be able to derive great meaning and depth from the 'artwork'.

A mirror, a piece of canvas with a hole in the middle, a long, thick rope on the floor - these are some of the pieces of great art that the curators of the Tate Modern decided are worthy enough of display.

But what is art ? It is subjective and the fact that an artwork can stimulate debate and provoke thought and emotion, however pretentious, is a sign that perhaps it is serving its purpose after all. Maybe.

I guess the most important lesson I've learnt after all these years in higher education is that there is no 'right or wrong' or 'yes or no' answer to the questions that matter the most.

Tee Keat the only one who can lead the Chinese ROFLMAO

I almost spurted hot tea all over my keyboard in disgust when I saw the following headline on The Star Online - Tee Keat the only one who can lead the Chinese. The article was a letter written to The Star by a Dr Daphne Loke, USA. My thoughts:

1. Oh puh-leese!

2. Poor Daphne. I hope it wasn't her but the editors of The Star who penned that patronising title.

3. Who can lead us Malaysians, and not to doom. Is there anyone out there?

Poems on the Underground

"Ladies and gentlemen,

I understand that this is a crowded train

but would you please avoid

leaning on the carriage doors

as it makes the train lose motoring."

(Tube announcement during morning rush hour on the Jubilee Line)

For emergency release

turn key this way.

(Sign next to Lift 3 at Goodge Street Station)

The average construction worker's home

Would the average construction worker be able to afford the house that he is employed to build? How long would it take him to earn enough to pay its price? What's the situation like for the average construction worker in another country?

188 (Russell Square to North Greenwich)

At Holborn, two BVC lecturers board and sit behind me and talk about their Malay(sian) students. Indistinct voices, I only catch snippets:

"They have to get used to the confrontational style"

"They have a few good ideas"

They appear not completely satisfied with their Malay(sian) students but seem hopeful.

They alight at Elephant and Castle.

Pass by a hairdressers called 'Spendalot Please' near Bermondsey.

The driver sings, not just to himself, but over the mike. He implores us to 'Put on your dancing shoes'. Google tells me the song's by Cliff Richard.

I get off soon after.