It was a hot day and I went along what is known as the Granite Way, thinking it would be more sheltered than the open moors. It probably was, but still a slight misjudgement as it’s a pukka cycle path, so the surface was glaring when the sun was very hot. Still, a very nice […]
In Devon
I am in Devon and sworn to have cream teas. I arrived today at around lunchtime, got myself some fish and chips and ate them in a park, then wandered around a bit, got groceries, and ended up at a tea room for my first cream tea. It was served by a blonde woman with […]
The Globe
Met a friend, one repeatedly met, for a post-lunch walk with the GF. He managed to chart a really nice way through Islington and over to Shoreditch. London is a very green city sometimes. It made me quite nostalgic for London, though the warm weather certainly contributed. We ended up in Whitechapel and then got […]
Classic car
Last night a gardener in the neighbourhood was held up at gunpoint outside our house and relieved of whatever he carried. There is a classic car parked in the driveway, belonging to an uncle in the US who dreams of taking it with him, has already spent millions of rupees on it, and will need […]
Visitor from afar
A visitor from afar arrived last night. I went to the airport to collect her. The airport and the way to the airport have evolved greatly over the years, such that they are virtually unrecognisable every time I pass through, at least the outside of the airport, but the inside is the same miserable beige […]
Climate changing
We went to the somewhat-ancestral village today, up on the Potohar Plateau. Too long a drive for a 1-day trip, but my companions don’t like staying the night there. Along the way it poured with rain on the motorway while passing through the Salt Range, and there was lightning. At the farm itself, it was […]
Past the barricades
A neighbour is a senior politician and though one notorious for cutting his sail to the wind, is wanted by the authorities in the current situation. All the streets around our house are barricaded and full of very miserable policemen (one told me, plaintively, that he wished it would all end as he was sick […]
As usual, late to the game
Finally tried out ChatGPT about six months after all the rest of the world. Even knowing what it’s capable of, it was startling to begin with, but interesting how quickly one started to recognise the non-style of the ChatGPT style, the written equivalent of a composite portrait. I can definitely see that will be useful […]
Dining with the neoliberals
Invited to dinner by a relative I’m fond of and reached to find that she’d also invited a couple of other aunts and uncles. It was an uninteresting evening, though enlivened by a couple of neoliberal uncles of a kind whom I, in my global woke bubble, rarely encounter, so it was refreshing to see […]
Tea time of the new school
Went with a friend to her place. She now lives in the upstairs portion of her grandmother’s house in belated acknowledgement of adulthood whilst an unmarried woman. The joys of being 40. Had tea with her and another friend in this interesting new environment, however conversation was dominated by the punctures on the second friend’s […]