Hols are over. I have about one and a half days more of respite, but a crazy term beckons ( don't ask me how i know.. some things you just know ).

Receiving news about my not-too-flattering grades yesterday is not my idea of an ideal conclusion to a decent holidays, but there you go... I really wish these things wouldn't affect me so much.

On the other hand, a Lin Yutang close at hand is always useful, and i quote :

" The Chinese approach to the problem of happiness is always negative, like Diogenes who proclaimed to the world he was a happy man because he did not want anything. Unlike Diogenes however, a Chinese man want quite a few things. But he wants only the things that make for happiness, and at the same time does not insist on them of they are out of reach.

He wants at least a pair of clean shirts, for Diogenes in the story book may exhale a certain kind of spiritual fragrance but Diogenes as a bedfellow would be a different story. But if he is extremely poor and can have only one shirt, h will not mind either. He wants many children, and if he is weathy, a good cook too, but if he is not born with such 'voluptuous' luck, he will not be sorry either. He wants a filled stomach, but congee and pickled carrots are not so costly in China; and he wants a good jug of wine, but rice wine is often home brewed, or he can pay only a few cash for a bowl at the good old wine shops. He wants a secluded hut, but if he cannot have the luck and must live in the city, he will not be sorry either. For he would have, in any case, a cage-bird and a few potted flowers and the moon, for he can always have the moon.

A strong determination to get the best out life, a keen desire to enjoy what one has, and no regrets if one fails : this is the secret of the Chinese genius for contentment. "

They should make living life without reading at least one of the books he has written a crime.