Parting is such sweet sorrow...

I faced a sensory overload the first time I saw you. Before I did actually see you, I had dreamt up fantastic visions of several versions of bliss and anticipation was the reigning feeling here.

What I appeared to you like, I shall never know... but then again, new people are nothing new to you really. I guess I did somewhat feel we would get along quite well... that you would treat me with kindness if not actually welcome me...

Looking back, it hasn't been that long really. And yet, it feels like forever. In a good way. You did make me feel comfortable, welcome and have been kind to me... I have loved every minute that we have had together. With you, I think I have finally found my bearings and my feet have found ground, my dreams have taken wings to approachable skies, I seem to have found that inner scrap I was trying to locate frantically... with you, I have found definition.

You've seen at my best, and my worst... you've given me the gift of widening horizons and of wonderful friends I would not have found if not for you. Of sparkling nights, snowy mornings, summer evenings that last long and appreciation from quarters I never knew existed have I been blessed. We did have our sad moments too... but far be it from me to blame those on you.

Our association has been the high point of my life and I shall forever remember it as such.

I must part from you now though. I have loved you and you have made me feel loved in return... but you cannot claim me as yours; you never will. I belong to another and that is how it shall always be. I must leave you to return to the one who claims me but I shall be back. I have a presentiment that this hiatus shall be the end of things as we have known and much shall have changed when I am back. I'm hoping that whatever happens, we'll take it in our stride and make something beautiful of it... because that is what we do. I shall miss you though.

London, you have been amazing.

Here's to you... here's to us.

Eh?

I just might have received a compliment today.

We were working on a volume of facsimile texts which have basically been scanned/copied from old crumbling books, cleaned up and presented nicely as a new volume compliation and it's tedious work, getting rid of annoying pixel size dots while trying your best to not erase the dots off 'i's, the dashes off 't's and such.
I had successfully managed to pencil in a bit of missing text or two without making it look very obvious when my colleague W commented: "Well at least you know that if publishing doesn't work out for you, you can always become an art forger."

Brits! :)

W, thanks a ton... it's been great working with you... wish we could have gotten to know each other better though. And here's wishing you loads of luck with your new job and life forever on! I do hope we stay in touch :)

The Reason

I think I know why God made me a human being.
Had I been any other creature I'd have given in to laziness and preferred to stay home snug rather than brave the cold and go out to hunt for food. And then I'd die of starvation.

The Things That Make Me Smile

I used to wonder what love is
And never quite found an answer that fit
Carried on searching, things were always amiss
Philosophy and platitudes weren't enough to render
All world seemed to have been remiss
While feeling and fact seemed torn asunder

But now I know
It's the warmth of your embrace
On a cold, windy night
It's the spot on your shoulder that seems just right,
The glee on your face when you're surprised
Your petulance when you're annoyed
It's the longing in your eyes
When we've been apart for a while
It's these little things that make me smile

It can't be that love's blind
For how would I see you?
And opposites cannot attract
If it has to be a meeting of minds too
Certainly not happiness and mush because
Without pain and sadness they aren't worth much

But now I know
It's the warmth of your embrace
On a cold, windy night
It's the spot on your shoulder that seems just right,
The glee on your face when you're surprised
Your petulance when you're annoyed
It's the longing in your eyes
When we've been apart for a while
It's these little things that make me smile

We quarrel and we make up
And though the hurt sometimes stays
It's the hope that makes you wake up
Wishing the eternity of these days
It's appreciating the other for every little thing
Wanting to stick together minus or pluz the zing

Thinking of all that while my heart floods like the Nile
It's these little things that make me smile

I knew not what love was
But now I know
It's the warmth of your embrace
On a cold, windy night
It's the spot on your shoulder that seems just right,
The glee on your face when you're surprised
Your petulance when you're annoyed
It's the longing in your eyes
When we've been apart for a while
It's these little things that make me smile

By The Twenty-Threes

Dedicated to LB