SECRET SCRIPTURE 9

Roseanne and Tom just had their marriage in Dublin in the church at Sutton afterwards they went to a Hotel to celebrate even though none of their families where there. They danced in the dancehall and later while Tom smoked a Russian oval cigrattes they discussed the benefits of living in Dublin and for the first time in this book their was a mutual romantic part both of the characters confessing in a low key manner their love for each other. After their wedding they were on train a distressing images were explained how in the springtime there was no market for lambs so  the farmers had to kill the lambs in the fields. The rest of the pages are explaining that a new leadership that was being formed and how Tom despised this men and how he got a hand made shirt and was going to talk and object. Then we are told about the routine that Tom and Roseanne has during Saturday night and that Tom was always saying that you can tell a lot about the state of a  country from the quality insults at the Saturday night pictures.

SECRET SCRIPTURE 8

At the moment the most recent pages are all about Dr Grene's Commonplace Book. Dr Grene is the doctor or psychiatrist at the asylum his mission (apart from taking care of the patients ) is to find out the reason why Roseanne was brought to the asylum in the first place. However to do so he needs to dig up the uncomfortable past of Roseanne. Which is a challenge in its self because Roseanne is not always willing to contribute or zones out. While he his investigating Roseanne personal life, his own personal life has had enormous difficulties with his wife just passing away. He is now doubting every step he takes always judging himself and contemplating the meaning of his life. Recently he disconnected the phone that he had bought his wife but in the night he hears it ring and hears her voice. He decides to go downstairs into her room and see her phone. As he is doing this, Dr Grene is having enormous flashbacks of his wife dying and her breathing episodes. Finally he arrives enters but emptiness. This part was one of the most tense chapters because of the doubt if there was his wife's ghost.

Last Part of SEA history: Challenges regarding Independence

Post-Colonial and Challenges of independence in Southeast Asia

Hey there! Peter here, I finally finished this book right before the vacation. Therefore, I would like to share what I learned in the last chapters of this book. First of all, independence comes with a price, many countries fought to win independence and suffered heavy casualties. After they gained independence, problems like poverty, political turmoil, economic crises came up. It varied for different countries.

For Thailand, even though we already have independence and was never colonised, political and foreign affairs became a major problem for Thailand after world war 2. During the world war 2, Thailand was on Japan's side. Thailand evaded the penalty after Japan lost by using skilful diplomatic skills. However, after that, Thai politics were in turmoil. As more Thais receive education, they started questioning the monarch which had absolute power at that time. Before the war, there was already a small revolution in 1932 that brought 700 years of absolute monarchy to an end. Thailand was governed by constitutional monarchy. It was in 1963, that the military took complete control over the country. However, in 1973, there was another revolution against the military. It was 1980 that the conflict inside the country started to calm down. On the other hand, the Thai government is not stable until this day.

Revolution in 1973

For other ex-colonised countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, there were other problems. Since the colonial powers were sponsoring the national treasury, when they backed away, the treasury were almost empty. There were heavy demands on the national budget. Health and education in the countryside was also a problem to these new governments. For Indonesia, the biggest problem is 'maintaining national unity' and freedom of religion. For Vietnam, the problem is that the country was left divided. Communists parties in the region were also getting powerful. However, the economical problems of these countries were quickly solved after the maritime southeast asian countries found oil resources. Each countries started developing their own resources (rubber, spices, oil) and sold it to the outside world. Soon, these problems will disappear one by one.

Modern map of Southeast Asia

~End~

SECRET SCRIPTURE 7

After going off my book for a while the story has yet again managed to hook my attention back. In the story I have discovered how Tom McNulty and Roesanne the main character met and fell in love. The classic love story of them. Tom rescuing Roseanne from the water as she was struggling to stay afloat and then realising that she was the waitress at his beloved coffee shop......It came to the point were she was to meet his mother. Even though Roseanne is a polite, mature and beautiful woman she had a terrible encounter with her soon to be mother in law.  Roseanne entered Tom's mother's  small but cute bungalow that had  the overwhelming smell of boiling lamb she sat down on a old lumpy chair and the was introduced to Toms mother. At first she had a gentle look but her voice was not so gentle. She was a tiny lady and was dressed in black, her and her husband both being tailors. Then she started speaking and even with the lack of words that she pronounced all were unfriendly. Suddenly the point was made and was very clear because Mrs McNulty was a strong Christian and Roseanne was a Presbyterian (Protestant) and just because of Roseanne's religion Mrs McNulty would not be kind. This couple of pages really annoyed me because even if a woman is perfectly polite respects Jesus and even goes to church but is not 100 % Christian she is not accepted into a family.

Since I last posted on the blog,  a lot of interesting things have happened in the story. The main and most important one is that the boy went to this pub and sees a mysterious man. (I am not sure whether you remember, but in one of the first chapters, Pip helped a convict, who escaped prison and gave him a file that he stole from his home.) The plot twist occurs when the man takes out the file (the exact same one) and stirs his drink with it. A few moments later, he also gives him a small amount of money. That really shocks the boy and makes him realise that the person, who is actually helping him become richer and a gentleman is not Miss Havisham, but the prisoner who he helped in the beginning of the book.

I think that Charles Dickens wanted to show the reader that when you help people, (no matter how big or small the favour is) you would most likely be awarded for it later. Even though, you shouldn't aid others only hoping to get something in return, most likely they will do something good for you in the future. That is also true about the opposite, once you harm someone, they will try to get revenge or something bad is going to happen to you (karma).

Here is a quote that I think is appropriate : "Don't worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you."

The Reader (End)

So I've not been updating to the blog as regularly during this 2nd part of term but here is what has happened so far:
I now actually know what the "kid" is called, his name is Michael Berg. 

After the trial ended and Hanna confessed of having "written" the letter saying she was guilty and what happened in the church, she was sentenced to a lifetime sentence in prison whether as the other defendants from the trial were only sentenced for a few months in jail. 

After Michael finishes his studies in law he gets married and fathers a child. He is unable to succeed in a long-term relationship, however, and divorces after only a few years. He is largely uninvolved with his family and does not have any strong friendships. Eventually Michael begins to correspond with Hanna in prison. Instead of writing her letters, however, he records himself reading aloud from books. He forwards the cassette tapes, devoid of any personal communication, to Hanna in prison. He eventually receives a "thank you" note from Hanna who has used her time in prison to learn, read, and write.

In 1984, Hanna is released from prison, having served 18 years there. The prison contact Michael and ask him to become involved in Hanna's release from prison and reintegration into society. Michael finally gets an apartment and a job, but however he does not communicate with Hanna directly. On her last night in prison Hanna hangs herself in her jail cell. 

Blood of Olympus Theophile Clive-Worms



I, like Max S, also read the book Blood of Olympus. Likewise I read this book because the author wrote a series that I read a few years ago and I read his new books for old time sake and I learn a lot from them. Rick Riordan first series of mythological books was the Percy Jackson series, which at the time I loved. His new series of which the book B of Olympus belongs to is called: Heroes of Olympus, this series involved many more heroins (included the characters of Percy Jackson books). Which in effect complicates things because we are all used to the main character from the old series (called Percy Jackson), who also had the role of narrator, but now in the new series its a chapter per character so eight characters is eight different people speaking! So eight main characters is hard to keep up with!
  Blood of Olympus was the last book of this series and I am sad to say goodbye to the greek mythology, but this book was very disappointing. For three main reasons:
1st: I find the writing much too childish (even though I am also a child, I prefer reading book with a higher level of vocabulary).
2nd: The ending of the book is very disappointing (not sad but disappointing for those who are half way through the book :))
3rd: In Rick Riordan's  Percy Jackson series, Percy one of the only narrators, so we all became 'close' to him, but as I explained the new layout involves different characters and Percy only speaks once during the entire book which is very sad because he is the coolest character. Concerning Percy not narrating much, he also gets left out in the action and you feel that at the end of the story Rick Riordan just wants to take him out of the picture and give him no futur :(.