The blessing of the LORD

I got a weird email today... no idea who Gertrude@bluesteel.com is, but she apparently sent it to me, with the subject line: "Discount health titles delivered anywhere - with discounts!" ... I personally don't quite see the correlation between subject and content - make of it what you will:


The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for want of wisdom.

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

It is as sport to a fool to do mischief but a man of understanding hath wisdom.



The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

We should consider every day lost
on which we have not danced at least once.
And we should call every truth false
which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.


Friedrich Nietzsche

the force

Is there a name for the force that pulls you away from something you really HAVE to accomplish, in order to do something utterly trivial and useless, that could be done at ANY time?
I am writing this under her influence.

[I chose the force's sex to be feminine because DIE KRAFT in German
is feminine and so is LA FORCE - no sexist or other discrimiation.]

She amazes me. She is so seductive, so overpowering. Like a strong scent or perfume will make you follow a woman through the grubby, crowded tunnels of the underground or like the smell of fresh-baked cookies will make you fight your way to the kitchen - she will get you to do what she wants you to do... but at the same time she can be overcome so easily, with just one little act of will, just one "No!". Easier than the cookie-smell on a hungry stomach.
What amazes me most about her, is how she appears on the stage of your conscience: uncostumed and audacious. She doesn't pull the strings behind the scenes or dress up and pretend to be someone else. She makes her actions and intentions very clear: "I want to get you to do something else. Something much less important, which will mess up all your plans for getting this thing finished."
She can offer no real reward, as the action she lures you to perform is trivial and has little longterm gain.

What is her name?

Or is it escapist thinking to detach that force from the self... to even seek to give her a name? ...Probably.
After all: it's me who doesn't want to write this dissertation.

The five star cummunist

A 'salon communist'.
That's what my family often call me. And today was a pretty perfect example of that.

I flew into Bangkok late afternoon, completely exhausted. But as always when I fly - I had dressed up a little: a red paisly patterned shirt with my new black velvet pinstripe trousers and my old, worn-out blue velvet jacket.
I was travelling light - only the little 19th century suitcase, about the size of a large hat-box and my beloved man-purse. But all the style didn't help, because - as always when I fly - I was late and in a hurry at every stage of the journey and thus somewhat sweaty and smelly by the end.
So the purpose of this trip is neither style nor salon communism - I'm flying to Bhutan in the Himalayas to inaugurate a develpment project with the Royal University of Bhutan together with my mother and two brothers, who had already arrived in Bangkok (apart from Delhi the only airport that Druk Air - Bhutan's Royal Airline - flies to) a day before me.
My mother had generously booked us into "The Oriental" - a fine choice, from what I'd heard. I said I'd be quite happy to stay in a youthhostel on 'Cowsan Load' for $7 a night, but she insisted.

So after a fun taxi ride with a friendly Thai guy called Get (?) I arrived at the hotel. I hadn't noticed that my two brothers and my mother had seen me arrive from the lobby and were lining the entrance doors in Japanese-hotel-employee style: bowing with their hands pressed together in front of them as I entered. It was a very sweet welcome - I hadn't seen them for three months.
The lobby was filled with warm light and wonderfully enchanting smells. A MASSIVE fresh flower arrangement, looking like a super-size bouquet, made the centre-piece of the wide, glass-walled room. A beautiful little Thai lady with a sweet, soft-spoken voice approached me before I could even sit down in one of the comfy sofa chairs: "Welcome, Mr. Ibing. Would you kindly give me your passport, so I can check you in?"
A minute later she returned with the room key and a bracelet made of ambrosial jasmine blossoms strung together with three larger, sturdy purple blossoms of another kind.
I was stunned. Luxury and comfort are beautiful things.

However, the travelling had left their marks on my jacket: as we sat around a little glass-top table with a bowl of salted cashew nuts on it, chatting and catching up, my older brother Benedikt noticed a little swarm of mosquitos circling above my velvet jacket. "I haven't seen any mosquitos since I got here. And now there's a whole swarm above your jacket!"

Then I got 'escorted' to my room by the pretty reception lady. Now I have grown up somewhat spoilt, but the luxury of these hotels always amazes me.


The hotel has a definite fresh flower theme going on, which is wonderful. I had barely enjoyed the peace of the 11th floor room and being on my own after all the travelling, when the unnecessarily loud room-door-bell rang. A humble and friendly man dressed in white cotton bowed with a tray in his hand: "Welcome drink for you, Sir."
But it wasn't just a glass of great orange juice: Next to it was a tiny little flat basket with three open blossoms of a dark pink exotic flower, with little droplets of water sprinkled over it. This was the essence of luxury: not only is that which is provided of the best quality, but it also comes with something purely sensually pleasing that has no other purpose than to please.

Dinner was amazing. I stuffed myself, partly because it was just so delicious, but also because I thought: better have as much of this as I can before going back to my student existence.

- I just had to! -