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History
This city has no history. There are no stories attached to it. We know it’s called Bath, this city, this former town that sprawled into its current form, but like an unnamed species, we do not know this animal either. Do people come here, or do people leave? Do they have a choice?
We give up all our memories when we enter, and some of us do this most gladly.
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Dreams
The Devil sits in his carriage, in silence but not solitude, as the train crashes rushes rumbles across the English countryside. The tickets indicate a trip from Evesham to Bath Spa, but this journey seems to cover a greater distance, over landscapes beyond the ever-present geography.
You can’t read his face, and the Devil, well, he’s not known to show his hand before he’s got you and got you good. Thing is, this is the Devil you’re playing with. He’s got you from the very start. Love at first sight: It’s a terrific game he’s got going.
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Flow
The river has its own strength, its own unknown agenda. It carries you along but you’d be wise to see you might not always end up where you intended to be. Original destinations are altered, mourned over and finally forsaken. Some days you don’t really have a choice.
Let the river carry you, let it flow. Follow the waters, the current, and go wherever you may go.
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Windows
The gates of heaven and the gates of hell remain closed and when they open, none may tell. The bridges and the paths, the walkways and the streets without guards; O we keep one foot ahead of the other, we cross and we cross, oceans and mountains, the span of What Is Known and What Is Lost.
Stop.
Take a rest, take a breather. Look around you, and look you further. What do you see? No, don’t tell me. Let this be your own song, your own private memory. You shall have secrets to tell me later, we shall share our stories.
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Unison
Let us play our notes together, let us sing with one voice, in this vale of ghost-white flowers, the scent of their springtime an unequal chorus.
You trace the lines on my palm and tell me I have a very long life, longer than what your own palm offers. I close your hand in mine, palm to knuckle, life-line to life-line, “This is ours, from now till we finish, our story shall end with the same chapter.”
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Faerie
The Grimms would have you believe in a fairy godmother, a benign creature bestowing boons upon those blessed few. The brothers sanitise the tales, the storytelling informed by their German sensibilities and sensitivities. The English are not that easily alarmed.
They share, over a waning fire, the gloss and the glamour of a Faerie Queene, a lady most imprudent in her beauty and her cruelty. She exudes charm and magic and manages her affairs by the change in the winds. They’d call her a witch or a sorceress but they know better: She is Magic itself.
One looks into her eyes and is lost. She waits by the grass, the maiden the wyfe the mother. In this she is ever patient. The boys the men the saplings they come to her, they always come. She is magic, after all. One look and you are lost.
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THE LADY OF BATH • Bath, England
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Copyright © 2009 Kenny Mah Ying Fye.
~ The Great British Invasion ~
Part 1 • London
Part 2 • The Cotswolds
Part 3 • The Lady of Bath
Part 4 • Lake District
Part 5 • Edinburgh
Part 6 • Return to Bath
…
*sigh*
Such beauty, such poetry, such love.
Such is the Magnificence of one greater than us.
Thank you KM for sharing such beauty with us.
Gosh, who’d have thought sheep wandering through the meadow would look so good on photo?
Great PS effects too!
Cheers,
Ken.
P/S: The picture of you and Devil is TOO cute! He he.
‘The Two of Them’???
Why not ‘The Two of Us’?
So nice to see all the pictures
Thanks for sharing them…
Beautiful spring, reinvigorating stroll and lilting prose.
Very very nice English country side!
Another beautifully written piece. My Saturday morning is complete, once again; thanks to you, dear Kenny Mah.
Greatings, Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Tania
A fantastic togetherness in a faraway land , basking in rich historical vestiges of the symbiosis of 2 great empires. definitely treasurable moments to last a lifetime
I love how your posts are never half hearted. Each one is meticulously constructed, the words configured, the mood tuned, the images framed to perfection! Puts the rest of us lazy buggers to shaaame!!
The Fairy Queen looks so serene sitting on the grass. If this was a painting it will be a Masterpiece! =)
That’s som really cool shots! Love Bath! Did you drop by Stonehenge on the way back?
i saw this post that day but i wanted to read every line to absorb everything in, so here I’m now! Your words are really beautiful, it’s like everything flows in unison
you are the envy of so many, having the words flowing out as fast and easy, it’s a gift from God, my friend. Photoshop is easy to learn, but lyrical words can’t be learn
Msiagirl looks gorgeous! I can see her as a pixie.
You’ve done a great job with that picture.
Your writing’s amazing. I like the little details — wyfe, faerie, queene.
Oh so lohmantik! Words, pictures and .. I said this before haven’t I. Nvm. Just wanna leave a comment.
=P
lovely post! btw, your pictures looks so very nice.…somewhat like lomography
oh wow! that shot with the flowers.. so romantic.. sigh:)
Ah.…. Bath looks so beautiful. Your writing is also so beautiful.
the valley of white flowers and true love! =)
beautiful pics with beautiful words. u da man.
to think that i’ve actually skipped this when i was in london last year? arggghhhh!!!!
hey, really good to read yr new post. it’s been a while…hehe
magic is in the air… =)
aiyoooo, so lomantik, i am speechless. gagging, almost.
Ah, but the sheep weren’t so much wandering through meadows … more like stalked by yours truly, all in service of the perfect photograph.
In a way, it’s ‘Every One of Us and Them’, no?
Thanks, dear. These are but a small portion of all the pictures I took in Bath. There just wasn’t enough time for me to prepare all of them.
Methinks that’s exactly the effect I was going for — a stroll through spring, the season of the year, and the season of the heart. Some springtimes are evergreen, yes?
Well, the English do take good care of it.
And my workdays lunches would be complete too, with more vegetarian food at the Buddhist temple with you, my dear. Shall we say passionfruit juice for two?
Danke, danke. You might want to watch out for the comments update rather than the posts though as I’m not updating the posts as often as I’d like to these days.
… may they last our lifetime, and that’d be plenty.
Nay, my friend, every blog has its beauty and its benefits, its own mirth and its many merits. Mine is more like the slow tortoise of all blogs… you don’t see it for ever and ever but it will surely appear, sooner or later. LOL
Mayhaps not the “painting” but the lady who sat for it? She’s certainly in an entire league of her own; a masterpiece in my eyes (and I’m sure her very lucky husband would agree too).
Not the Stonehenge, though that was certainly volunteered by our hosts. Sometime quite close but catch that in the next chapter.
Haha, thanks for taking the time to let everything sink in. Strange thing is, as I’ve shared with you before, the words come fast and easy (and thus perhaps could probably do with more severe editing to avoid the resultant logorrhoea) but the pictures take me close to forever though they look deceptively simple.
Maybe it’s just me needing to be more efficient with my Photoshopping.
Ah but Photoshop is far from easy for me to learn since I haven’t any sort of formal training or even a manual. Mostly just clicking random buttons till something works the way I want it to.
The words, on the other hand, yeah they are pretty much everything. At least I can still pound them out even without the help of a software or original photography. The words can come straight from us, and that’s something we can take with us, anywhere.
hahahaha we also never learn photoshop! its like trial and error one. lol! the more u practice, the better u get!
yeah its your words that count. hee
Truth be told, she was just sitting on her neighbour’s lawn while we waited for the neighbour’s wife to return with Msiagirl’s kids. I was actually snapping pics of weeds when I looked up, saw the opportunity for a shot and snapped it.
Now, months later, I’m very, very happy that I did.
psst. that is a baby cow in your picture…
oo scruffy me! Iz my hair really dat purple? Beautiful post as usual. yes Bath is really that nice.
faerying awa’ xx
ROFL!!! Yeah, I guess I just followed the thread of the previous comment without checking the pic again. Anyway, ovine/bovine… they’re almost the same ma…
Your hair? The purple? You can’t get purple that purple in the mundane world. That’s magic, that is.
Hahaha, I sure don’t mind you’re repeating yourself. Else I’d just be writing to a blank screen, no?
… which reminds me, I really do need to practice more of this Photoshop thingy, haha.
I always wanted a lomo camera but just never got around getting one. I suspect the results would be wonderfully random but then, there’d be no room for me to play around further with the pics… or would there?
better slow then never! also the quality of ur posts make it worth the wait! =)
it’s interesting how u differentiate between the writing n the photos parts. i remember u said before u do the photos first then u write. what about doing it the other way?
Well let’s hope you guys don’t have to wait much longer for the next instalment!
I do that sometimes, just not as often now. Maybe I should try that for my next few posts?
Them just flowers lah…
… and you, my friend, are beautiful too.
Now bottled for only $9.99!
You so gotta head there, man. Bath is simply perfect. I love it to bits.
… and the water, the soil, the grass, everywhere it seems…
Yes, yes, oh yes!
That’s passion (fruit) for ya!
Don’t gag, my friend… and I can’t ever imagine you speechless.