The best UN day is undoubtedly World Steelpan Day, even though it refers to the music rather than the cooking implement. I particularly like the creativity with which it is linked to the achievement of the SDGs.
blog
Octopus people
My personal trainer, in Pakistan, told me, wide-eyed, that it’s such a strange coincidence, all of my clients seem to know each other! Such is class in Pakistan, especially Lahore. I didn’t say it, as a small tentacle of the octopus, but: Even today, amidst complaints about the nouveau riche, the Pakistani and especially Lahori, […]
Winter arrives in Istanbul
Winter begins properly today, the temperature has plummeted and the sky was heavy and grey, with the tiny pellet-like light rain that falls like snow. Unfortunately we have had to start reducing our heating temperature, as the underfloor heating must be taken down a degree a day, and we are going away soon. I bought […]
Money
The book that made the the greatest impression on me in the last few months was Amis’s Money. A remarkable piece of work, though I hated reading it and took several breaks, and I plan to reread it quite soon. Will I ever read any of his other books? I doubt it, but this was […]
Pill bugs
Also known, according to Wikipedia, as roly polies, woodlice, slater bugs, cheesy bugs, sowbugs, doodlebugs, butcher boys, cellar bugs, carpenters, bed pissers, closed pork, parson’s pigs, bench biters, chiggy pigs, chuckie pigs, little pigs, potato bugs and gramersows, a list which one might reasonably be sceptical about, but in any event the scientific name for […]
Bus bhai bus
This morning we caught a bus, unusually, but something we has tried last weekend, and we’ve been rather slow in using the city’s bus system. There are a lot of buses, but there is also a lot of traffic and the buses are often crowded and their routes are not the clearest. The morning’s bus […]
Last sunny day
Today was the last sunny day in what has been a very warm winter thus far. From tomorrow onwards the clouds will come, and then next week the temperatures are due to drop to zero. I spent the day working, finishing up the final edit of a very interesting monograph, quite gripping as these things […]
Crack in the pan
I remember now why I stopped writing this blog. The day to day was too tedious to record, while the interesting was too interesting to bother with opening up my laptop and writing about it. So, today, a cracked earthenware oven dish. It didn’t even crack today, that was a few weeks ago, but today […]
New arrangements
There are many new arrangements in place since I last posted. Most importantly, I have purchased a very small wooden desk and a very large wooden chair. Actually, most importantly we have purchased a bed and mattress that is actually comfortable, but after that, this desk and chair are the greatest improvement to my well […]
Return to work
It was the quietest winter I’ve had in a while, I think, in terms of taking time off and not having work to do. On the weekend the GF and went for a very pleasant walk in the Belgrad forest. The first part of it, which was on an established trail, we passed about a […]