I was woken in the night, rather unusually, by the sound of voices and music from an adjacent flat. The song, from the very first words, tugged at my memory, it was definitely something from my teenage years, something that I had not been fond of, nor disliked, but it was ubiquitous and had sunk […]
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Hanging garden
Visited what might be the most beautiful commercial space in KL, the interior of the Botak bar on Petaling Street. It’s upstairs from Choca Foodstore, a longstanding favourite, and was spectacularly done up in the shabby shophouse style that Malaysia does so well, with tropical greenery falling over the bar. The drinks were nice but […]
Primordial gadgetry
My uncle Gadget arrived late last night or rather early this morning as he stopped at the airport for a leisurely coffee and a cigarette. He is here for two days en route to Australia and leaves tomorrow night. Uncle Gadget is the man who gave me my first computer when I was eight years […]
Three volcanoes
An interesting overview of Mayan geological history.
Three billboards
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has an irritating title but was unambiguously good. I was amazed by some of the stupidity in reviews and so on, particularly those complaining about a particular character’s redemption arc (if that is what you think of as redemption then, well, I don’t know what to say). It was very […]
Leaving home
Our next step has been confirmed and we will leave KL in the coming months. The city has become a sort of home, and life here has become life rather than an interlude. This was brought home at our celebratory dinner last night at Sushi Azabu where the staff recognised us and greeted us as […]
Gong xi fa cai!
Our building celebrated Chinese New Year today, with a lion dance and a dragon dance and a small banquet. I was glad especially to see the lion dance, as though I’ve seen the ‘dance’ bit of it quite a few times now, I’ve never been around, or close enough, on time, to watch the ritual […]
Dream
I have a headache again today, but this time I know exactly why. I had a dream this morning, of a fairly ordinary day. I was soon leaving the country and my mother and I, with younger siblings in the backseat, were driving around running some errands. We had to stop at someone’s house on […]
Stupid sentimentality
Today was almost overwhelmed by sentimentality. I watched the first episode of Aakhri Station, which was getting some buzz as a good new Urdu drama series, sort of like a feminist Black Mirror. The conceit is that it is set in a women’s carriage on a train from Lahore to Karachi and each episode is […]
Headachy day
A second headachy day, and indeed a headachy night as I woke up several times feeling awful and once, sure that dacoits had robbed the bank vault – which bank vault, who knows. I think these are tension headaches due to very tense shoulders. I really should go for a massage. In any case, I […]