We were a simple pair at our Chinese lessons. It must have nearly driven the teacher mad. My most unfortunate moment came when we were practicing sentences and she asked us ‘what is your teacher’s name?’ and we had no idea. After staring at each other wildly for a few minutes I said “Liu”, trying […]
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Return to Spanish
I have just come out of my first Spanish lesson in months. There were some shameful shortcomings, but still a good session despite having to do it over Skype. I was a bit startled to see my teacher, the one from Medellin, had blinding white hair, partly thanks to lockdown perhaps. Their lockdown is in […]
Practicality
Sunday was meant to be a day of practicality. I went out with the intention of purchasing three new tops, one of them black, cleansing oil, face wash and a few other bits and pieces. I returned with a black linen top and the intent to return and buy a linen shirt. Plus two bowls […]
An ozzy brunch
The four of us decided to go for brunch today. This is a meal that enrages me more often than not as it is all too often over-priced, mediocre in flavour, more interested in Instagrammable plating or catching trends than quality food. Plus, the sight of hollandaise sauce from a packet, or a baked-from-frozen croissant, […]
Occlusion
The last couple of days I’ve had a bit of a dip, an occlusion of my normally sunny disposition. Partly due to physical reasons certainly, but also it was one of those periodic instances where the despair at where we are caught up with me. It will all eventually come to an end, and if […]
Terrible error, perhaps
I have take a step that I might regret, which is that I have arranged for, and paid for, Spanish lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So on Mondays and Wednesdays it’s Chinese and then a switchover to the other language. I am more worried about the Chinese suffering than the Spanish; since I know the […]
On my own
A very pleasant day today, on my own terms for once. It was a working day but unexpectedly light as something didn’t come in when it was supposed to. Meanwhile the GF had a meeting at lunchtime, so I went off by myself, first to a very well known lo rou fan place where I […]
More distancing
Yesterday morning the GF and I walked westwards, through the Botanical Gardens which were small, but free and very pleasant. I do like tropical botanical gardens, the wild lushness combined with being well-kept. The streets were quite quiet, late morning on a Sunday, and Easter I suppose, though there were few indications of that despite […]
Note of caution
The newspapers and so on have been getting over-excited about the BCG, and I had also started to hope it was true, for all my ‘it’s population, not individual’ muttering at family members who sent the pre-print of the study. So here is the note of caution.
The only way to visit a museum
The GF and I returned to the National Palace Museum, using two-for-one tickets we’d purchased a month or so ago when we went to its southern outpost in Chiayi, on the way back from Alishan. Social distancing measures have been imposed in Taiwan, and this mean that only 100 visitors were allowed into the museum […]