The Witch of Portobello

Back from one week of camp. Glad that I've brought my ipod and 2 books in, due to the lots of waiting time in between activities. i'm still the mosquitoes-magnet outfield despite multiple layers of inscets. These little commandos paid with their dear life trying to get close to me as i channeled my restless energy from our last sat choir to these buggers.

Read "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho in the firing range and in camp over the past few days. Its a very interesting book and forces me to rethink about the relevance of the 'conventional' path. It seeks to explore the following "How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of whom we are?"

The book is told through a series of interviews with many characters, some who knew Athena (aka The Witch, Sherine Khalil, or The Mother) well, and some who don't know her at all. The second half of the book kept me awake at night thinking about the journey Athena went through to harness her power, to liberate people which led to her ruthless murder. Is it worth it all?

"Athena's great problem was that she was a woman of the twenty-second century living in the twenty-first, and making no secret of the fact, either. Did she pay a price? She certainly did. But she would have paid a still higher price if she had repressed her natural exuberance. She would have been bitter, frustrated, always concerned about 'what other people might think,' always saying, 'I'll just sort these things out, then I'll devote myself to my dream,' always complaining 'that the conditions are never quite right."

Deidre O'Neill, known as Edda (Athena's teacher)

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yes guowei, i do love trival things too. watching Gossip girls is such as splendid waste of time as it allows your brain to completely zonk out.

btw, Wanted is a quite an entertaining show, terrible plot, good acting, and action sequence that is just 'over'...left me wanting to curve my bullet during range after watching the show on wed though.