Much has happened, not least the arrival of the Boddhisatva and then her departure along with the Gentleman Friend to a conference while I have stayed on in the Bay Area. It’s easier to be with difficult relatives when there are not others around as I am not on guard and trying to keep everyone happy. Today I went out, first for a Mexican lunch and then SHOPPING – came back with a number of new t-shirts, very satisfying indeed. My beautiful and extremely expensive linen t-shirts which developed holes in New Zealand have been patched with complementary fabrics so I hope they will last a bit longer. I’m still rather low on trousers, but they are always particularly difficult with my body shape (narrow waist, wide hips) so I will keep looking and perhaps switch to long skirts as I did in Malaysia.
In two days I go to Mexico, hurrah! I have also planned out some Spanish language learning, which is very exciting indeed and feels like an opportunity not to be missed.
Last night we went out to dinner at one of the hottest spots in Palo Alto, a Pakistani restaurant which, rather unusually, wears being Pakistani proudly on its sleeve (although it does serve that abortion of the culinary world, chicken tikka masala). It was done up in particularly irritating fashion, with truck art (in English and commissioned from an NCA artist rather than actual truck artists), a mural of Qandeel Baloch, and lots of books (seemingly bought in bulk from a second hand bookshop) New Yorker cartoons and photos with Silicon Valley celebrities. It was packed with tech bros, the usual pasty faced, dark haired Zuckerberg clones. But still, it was nice that it wasn’t pretending to be Indian. I had a Salt and Pepper style chicken burger, which wasn’t too bad. You don’t get often desi-Continental chicken burgers outside the homeland, so it was nice to have one.
Work has amped up in its usual all or nothing way. Hence all the recent extravagance, no doubt.