There is black magic afoot here in Lahore. A few days before I arrived a taweez, a talisman made of a scrap of green fabric was found hanging from my grandmother’s bookshelf, inscribed with mysterious letters. It was promptly burnt as the protests made it impossible at the time to take the prescribed remedy of […]
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Goodbye SEA
I was supposed to go out for a final lunch, but slept badly so woke with a headache and cancelled the reservation. Instead I packed, worrying all the while about luggage allowance (this turned out to be not an issue). Among my purchases is a slightly embarrassing one, a very lightweight wok. I wanted a […]
Fine fish
Had my blowout meal in Bangkok this evening, at one of the city’s best sushi places. It was very good, quite a delight, and plenty of things I’d not tried before, such as a baby snapper and seasonal squids and eels. I didn’t go for the premium omakase which cost half again as much though […]
Rabbit
Read a good SF short story, called Rabbit Test. It was exactly the sort of thing that makes me want to cry. It’s a very American story of course, as it’s about abortion and control of women’s fertility, but the story is such an old one for women, of constant control, of advances and setbacks, […]
Shopping
I went shopping for gifts today, and came back with some UV tops for various nephews and nieces, curry pastes and chocolates for various people. This was after a final trip to Benjakitti park, finding a new way there which makes it possible to reach the parts I like most directly from the BTS and […]
More annoyances
I’m in a rather annoyed frame of mind today, easy to take offence and feeling persecuted by everything. At one of my work places, I got very prickly about a proposed piece related to Eid being shot down (Islamophobia! I growled to myself), and felt my experience and expertise was being undervalued. Not something that […]
Annoyances
A bit of an annoyance today as it turns out my credit card has been blocked and the only way to unblock it is by calling the bank. What is particularly annoying is that I didn’t know there was a block at all, I thought it was an internet issue so kept trying to use […]
A bruise on the mind
And after my mixed feelings about the other two books, I read Never let me go. One reviewer rightly described it as leaving a bruise on the mind. Astonishingly visceral for all the simplicity of its premise, with scenes and conversations – like the one of the title – playing out in horror, and characters […]
Return to Benjakitti
It was over 40 degrees so of course I went for a walk in the park. I left at around 4 and got to the park around 4.45, with a stop along the way to buy a bubble tea. I had planned to find a spot to drink it in the park, but it was […]
Morning error
This morning I made the error of drinking a large glass of milk as there was too much milk and it was getting a little old. Unsurprisingly, I’ve had a slightly unhappy stomach all day. I read another Ishiguro book, The Remains of the Day, today. I had actually read this already but remembered little […]