Welcome to my blog!

Why Jacaranda you ask? In case you are reading this the other side of the world and are not sure, Jacaranda is the name of a beautiful tree, which blooms around Oct/Nov, mostly in the Eastern states of Australia. Its flowers are the most exquisite shade of blue-purple, the nearest comparison probably being hyacinth blue, so who could not be inspired to write by such a spiritual colour? When the jacarandas start to blossom, you know it's exam time, but you also know that Christmas is just around the corner. It is said that if a jacaranda flower falls on your head as you walk underneath a tree, good fortune is sure to follow, so guess who did a lot of walking under jacaranda trees! Watch this space for changing images of this lovely tree!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

East meets West, or does it?

Having just spent a few days in snowy Berlin Stadt with my goddaughter's family, I took the opportunity to interview a variety of people about how life had changed since the fall of the Wall. Berlin was one of my old stamping grounds, you could even say, as the song does, 'Ich bleib Berlin meine alte Liebe treu' (I remain true to my old love, Berlin.), so I could relate to what these people were saying about their lives, before, during and/or after the Wall. However, what suprised me was that there was still some tension between the Osties and the Westies. I don't want to quote examples here as the whole experience has inspired me with the idea of writing a feature story or maybe just a collection of stories of a reunified Berlin under a capitalist system and a reunified Viet Nam (another of my old stamping grounds) under a Communist system.

If you would like to add your comments and views, I'd love to hear from you.

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