Overhead #24

"I'm here to help the poor, not to be poor." From one NGO worker to another NGO worker.


After all, everyone has bills to pay every month. 

Day and Night

3.00 PM: Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh is deserted almost to the ghost town eeriness and quietness.

3.00 AM: Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh is hopping and bobbing with loud traditional Arabic music, colorful neons lights, fruity scents of shisha, mouth-watering aroma from the restaurants and endless throng of holiday makers coming out enjoying the night, as if the carnival is in town.

Indeed, what a day and night difference. And I suspect the 40 degree Centigrade temperature has got something to do with it.

Light Read

Finally I chewed down The Antelope's Strategy by Jean Hatzfeld over my last holiday. Before that I took quite a long time finishing off The Machete Season (also by the same author). The account of both the survivor and the killers in the books on the Rwandan horribly bloody episode in 1994 was extremely raw and painfully gruesome. They were both quite a heavy read, not exactly cheerful holiday reading material.

Then I moved on to The Daughter of the Killing Fields by Theary C. Seng. A memoir of the author and her family's survival during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s in Cambodia. Well, not exactly a cheerful picker upper page turner.

It was depressing. Why was I reading such mood downer during my holiday? What the hell was wrong with me?


I don't think I could do this anymore. I don't think I would like to do this anymore.

So the moment I saw this one while browsing at the bookshop, killing time waiting for a friend, I could just hear it calling my name, begging me to bring it home. The title said all. I knew it would be a fun read. I could certainly use the change of pace and mood of my reading materials. After all I was on vacation.

Indeed I chuckled and laughed and hollered all the way through, back to back. I absolutely loved it!

Highly recommended! 5 stars! 2 thumb-ups! 10 out of 10! A must read!