blog

Crabs in the sky

Miraculously, I was able to leave the office at around 2; another could leave at 2.30, and soon we were on our way to Lahore. Cars are so much nicer than buses, there’s no question of it. Certainly quicker. It was a fairly smooth trip despite fears of fog until we approached Lahore — at […]

A blow to the wallet

Last night I went looking for a gift for someone whose spouse had recommmended the purchase of a Tom Ford cologne. I have never purchased cologne in my life, so when I arrived at Shams (an old high-end import shop in F6, currently very Christmassy) I was thrown by the finding that there were at […]

Kitchen wars

There is an ongoing war with the kitchen. They have refused to serve breakfast at the desk in this office, saying they are not permitted, but there are witnesses to a whole ‘train of trays’ with eggs, French toast etc, being taken down to another department. The kitchen liaison, an elected staff member, is considered […]

Graceless

OK, never mind. The detailed judgement has come out and includes the immortal order: We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be […]

Engrossed

So engrossed in work was I yesterday that I completely missed the big news of the day – the verdict against Musharraf and his sentencing. Can’t approve of the death sentence, of course, but this is basically the least likely one to be carried out, ever. But otherwise it is to be celebrated. There must […]

Meagre pickings

After working for much of the night on Sunday, I finally finished my work at 6 in the morning. Felt fine the next day, as I normally do after a night without sleep – it’s the second night that gets me zonked – just a bit slower than usual and unwilling to make much of […]

Dancing horse

Well, a slight exaggeration. In the morning my host and I drove down to Chakwal to the ancestral (my great-great grandmother’s) village where there is a family farm. It came into the family about 20 years ago as part of a settlement of a decades old property dispute and since then we have been trying […]

Old age

Read about a study today, that some sort of DNA analysis suggests that the genetic lifespan of our species is about 37 years. Well, I’m past that now, so clearly on borrowed time. Can’t say it makes one feel much better about those I cared for who died young, but were older than 37.

Filth

What a bloody miserable result. Worse than I could have imagined it. It’s really truly devastating. Brexit now a certainty. Austerity, Tory cruelty to the poorest and weakest. Rising nationalism. Destroying institutions. Institutionalising lying. It’s unbearable to see this tide sweep across the world. What we had was imperfect, but it was not the brutishness […]