We went to Sushi Azabu for dinner, my favourite restaurant in KL and on very good form last night, with some entirely new things (firefish with firefish liver), and others that were particularly delicate and delicious (prawns, scallops, fatty tuna etc). A lovely bit of skipjack tuna, which I had not preivously had as sushi. […]
blog
Back to the jungle
It’s the GF’s mother’s final weekend in KL and we took her on a long-delayed stroll through Bukit Nanas. This is a small forest reserve on a hill (with, reputedly, some secret tunnels) in the middle of KL and a five minute walk from our flat. It’s amazing how quickly the sounds and feel of […]
Last generation
I went to get my waxing done at a new place, conveniently located at the end of the street. The woman who did the waxing was a Sikh who had arrived from Indian Punjab four years ago. I felt a little hesitation, as I always do, when meeting those on the other of Partition. All […]
Madras Lane
The GF’s mother was giving a talk on mental health (she is a psychotherapist) at the GF’s organisation so I walked her there and then went to Chinatown to buy soup spoons with roosters on them (requested by my good friend who is trapped in Multan), and continue my somewhat desultory quest to try lots […]
Not my Islam
I thought this had some interesting things to say about the conflation of hijab with Muslim women. The one thing possibly more harmful than invisibility is simplistic or tokenistic representation. I am torn between acknowledging that in L’Oréal’s campaign there is a value for people who don’t see themselves represented in the mainstream media, and […]
Goodbye
Goodbye Ursula Le Guin. You shaped my teenage years and since then your meaning has only changed, not diminished.
Bills bills bills
Paid off a bunch of bills, welcome home indeed. This is a brief respite before travellers and visitors return. Indeed, much of the afternoon was spent arranging flights for an uncle who will fly through Kuala Lumpur in March. I also rather regretfully told a much beloved aunt that I am not in town this […]
More success
This morning we went to Brahma Tirta, an art studio I had, after some really vigorous sleuthing, as the place where a batik wall hanging originated. I had seen this wall hanging in a shop in Bali, lusted after it, but then said nothing as I was not in the market for wall hangings. When […]
Great success
A highly successful morning. After a great deal of research and mulling I had found that a good place to buy batik was Bima Sakti, a women’s collective near the new royal cemetary of Imogiri. So we went there this morning and found ourselves in a really lovely village amidst the hills, with rice fields […]
Long drive
Another visit to Borobudur this morning, and again the school groups were in full swing. I suppose I can’t begrudge them, though I certainly got very annoyed at a little phalanx of Buddhists: all white, dressed in flowing robes, with fixed, desperate expressions (not even the la-la-enlightenment one saw in Ubud), circling the stupa and […]