Sometimes Even in a Crowded Cafe, You....

...somehow encounter yourself......

Bored one weekend, I found one gem of a travelogue as I was browsing through shelves upon shelves of books at Border’s in Wheelock's Place. This is a treat I have been allowing myself when I yearn for a good read over a nice, warm cup of vanilla latte. I see that this has come to replace my trips to Powerbooks back when I was in Manila.

While a community library is also fine by me, I sort of get seduced by new books that I often prefer to read in places where I can see various scenes come to life. Sitting in a café, somehow allows for some vignettes of life as seen in a new light, and a bit of slow, easy time for ruminations quite elusive in the cold, musty atmosphere of a public library.

Well, Hemingway felt the same? :>) And he is, you know, vrai un personnage.

That being said, on a grey, rainy weekend, I allowed myself to be carried away in Sarah Turnbull’s lovely travel memoir set in my dream destination – France! A lovely telling of a journey by a feisty, young journalist from Sydney who traveled to Paris on a whim to meet a guy she barely knew and ended up finding not just love, but a new life I truly enjoyed a glimpse into the true nature of Parisians and life in that gorgeous city.

The book is a bestseller and I heard has come to be regarded as a classic of sorts in Australia, the author’s native land. I’d have to say it is an endearing look into the life of those who must dare to cross boundaries in response to life calling us to live it as it is sometimes meant to be lived. That is, with faith, courage and a sense of adventure.

For the past four or five months, I know enough of being a woman in a foreign land. Of how it takes a lot to remain my Filipina inner self yet open to the highs and lows of navigating my strange new world. Of how I got crazy one day and crossed borders to start over in the bustling city-state that is Singapore, surviving its fast-paced culture, discovering the paradoxes of this melting pot of races and allowing my unending journey to push me on to uncharted courses.