I've had the luxury of time, so I've been doing what I've always loved doing but simply did not have the time for in a very, very long time. Reading. I used to be a verocious reader; from the kid's books like the Enid Blyton Series & Roald Dahl, to the trashy Danielle Steele and Sidney Sheldon, to the semi-intellectual books such as autobiographies. But cos of work and lack of time, I've not been able to read as much as I would love to.

But in the past 3 weeks that I've been free, I've read 4 Sidney Sheldon books: The Best Laid Plans, Nothing Lasts Forever, The Sky is Falling & The Sands of Time (No need to think sort of books); SOLD by Zana Muhsen about a woman and her sister who were subjected to modern slavery in Yemen by their dad; Desert Flower by Waris Dirie which talks about female cicumcision and the lack of freedom of choice and the oppression of women in Somalia. The latter 2 are damn good books. Very thought provoking.

And....I'm in the midst of reading 2 books right now...Not sure whether you guys read the Sunday Times 2 Sundays ago, but they talked about reading more than one book at one time. Like reading them for different occassions. Book polygamy or something like that. Which is exactly what I'm doing right now. I'm in the midst of reading Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie, a continuation of the 1st book (Desert Flower) and it talks about Waris's quest to create awarenes of the plight of people in her home country where famine and violence were rampant and the women had no voice or a face. So far so good.

And at the same time, I'm reading the last instalment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I know, I know....It's so passe cos everyone knows what happened to Harry Potter except for me. I bought the book when it first came out, in July, but I haven't had the time to read. So am doing that now.

And today, when I was out with Maya, I bought 2 more books from Borders! 2 New York Times Bestsellers! The first one is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The book has had rave reviews and it touches a topic which I'm very interested in: the turbulent Middle East, Afghanistan to be exact, told in the eyes of an Afghan boy.

And the other book I bought is titled Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was watching Oprah two days ago and this book was featured on Oprah's Book Club. And the author of the book, Elizabeth Gilbert, went on the show and talked about the book and my interest was piqued. So when I saw it at Borders, I bought it sraightaway. The book is about a woman's quest to rediscover herself through eating in Rome, praying in India and loving in Bali. I'm intrigued.

I can't wait to get started on the 2 books! Must finish my Waris's book and Harry Potter first. Will probably bring the new books to Australia and read on the plane or something. :)

It feels so good to be able to do nothing but just lie down in bed and curled up with my books and not worry about meeting deadlines, or having to rush to work or worry about unmarked scripts, etc. I like...

Anyway, I met Maya today for a sinful tea of nothing but dessert. We went to this place at Paragon called Canale Patisserie and we had the most sinful chocolate cake, melt in your mouth raspberry macaroons and Nutella-filled crepe, drizzled with caramel, and cream, and sugar, topped with nougat and caramel ice cream. It was so sinful but so good....

Kill me can? I devoured most of this.



Maya and me





I had fun. We did a little shopping but most of the time was spent at the Cafe talking, talking and talking. It was great. Will miss doing this with you when I'm gone, Maya. :)

I'm leaving in 2 weeks time. Can't wait!