“A glutton for punishment” means someone who seems to enjoy doing something that you consider unpleasant, according to Cambridge Dictionary. “A glutton for punishment” is also a title of Richard Yates’ short story in his “Eleven Kinds of Loneliness” short stories collection. In this story, he described the day when Walter Henderson has been fired. It …
“Let’s have Fika!” K said with excitement. Right after I touched down in Stockholm, K met me in airport and announced we should have Fika. So Fika is the first thing I did in Stockholm. And I like it! Wait a minute, what is Fika? Fika is a Swedish tradition. An English word for …
The dirtiest house Sophie has ever seen was Howl’s moving castle. Sophie was the cleaning granny in this castle. She was actually 17 years old, but she was under a spell that made her a 80 years old granny. Even if she was not under the spell, she was an old woman inside, who confined …
Eine Liebe kenn ich, die ist treu, War getreu, solang ich sie gefunden, Hat mit tiefem Seufzen immer neu, Stets versöhnlich, sich mit mir verbunden. Welcher einst mit himmlischem Gedulden Bitter bittern Todestropfen trank, Hing am Kreuz und büsste mein Verschulden, Bis es in ein Meer von Gnade sank. Und was ists nun, …
I know the title is obvious plagiarism from the air “The Trumpet Shall Sound” in Händel’s Messiah. The air is about the life after death, when the trumpet sound, the dead shall be raised, and we shall be changed, because in Christ shall all be made alive. Actually this writing is not about Händel’s Messiah. …
Come on, jump on the skiff. We go rowing on the Caribbean Sea now. Do not be panic, when I tell you I do not really know how to steer the skiff and I have no sense of direction. But I have a book with me, the book written by Ernest Hemingway. That is to say, …
If one thing from all the stories I read could be true, what would I wish for? Somehow, as I was reading “Mio, my son”, I discovered one wish …
In the year 2015, summer, in Basel at flea market Petersplatz. I picked up the CD box “George Frideric Handel Organ Concertos Complete”, 5 CDs for 6 franc. 2 years have past since my first organ lesson, and I was in my 2nd year of music college. I never heard about “Organ Concerto” that time, …
“Rapunzel, let down your hair!” a six years old girl talked to this tower. The tower stay silent, she knocked on the wooden door, “hey, faster, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” I was thinking, if there is a door, it could not be the Rapunzel’s tower. “I guess Rapunzel lives in another tower, this tower …
Roses could be found in many stories: Alice in Wonderland, Mio my Son, Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, you name it. Days ago, as I entered the rose garden nearby, I think of the little prince. The little prince was overwhelmed by thousands of roses. The reason was, this rose garden …