Monday, July 18, 2011

Last Evening by the Lake...

We go for a walk around a lake near our house. The lake is artificial - created to handle rain water overflow. The path around the lake is about a mile and a half, with beautiful willow trees and a couple of hillocks. I am constantly reminded of one of my favorite books from childhood Enid Blyton's Secret Island.

Last evening the sky was a spectacular song of lilac and pink wisps of clouds, an almost full moon lit up the twilight sky. A lone mother duck was protectively swimming around her little duckling. A lady was walking a mean looking dog (some dogs no matter how "cute" or "cuddly" they may be have this certain nasty look)!

A "Donahue" was flexing his arms and a nordic blond showing off his ugly tattoos with those creepy Gothic sinister looking creatures all over his torso. Ugggh! People I hate tattoos. Especially these kind. Coming back to Donahue - that's a name I assign to overweight balding middle aged men - with ruddy complexions who look like bank managers. (Are you actually asking, "Why?" - then you need to be certified - not me).

Going for a walk there again - hope it will inspire me to write better posts than this :-)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Reverse Peeping Tom Syndronme



Okay there is probably a correct term for it - but I am not going looking because:

a) too lazy
b) don't want to visit any dubious websites (which could literally open up a can of worms)

What I am referring to is a series of murder-mystery books featuring amateur detective Rei Shimura (she's half Japanese and half American) who lives in Tokyo, Japan. The first book "The Salaryman's Wife" was quite interesting - but the rest of the series headed steadily downhill.

Each book takes up a certain aspect of Japanese culture - kimonos, or manga for example, and the story revolves around that.

I wont get into too many details about the books themselves but what struck me was that in each book - there is a voyeur - ranging from complete strangers to Rei's own aunt who witness or overhear Rei's "intimate" moments.

Wait ...wait... wait the reason I noticed this was that I read one book after the other and couldn't help noticing this and it was almost as if Rei has this hidden longing in her that such things should be witnessed!

If you have ever read this series - let me know what you think...