In the morning we went for brunch (of course) and there was a long queue, but enlivened by a little sparrow picking delicately at a croissant, and the Chinese Malaysian (I think) man ahead of us who was clearly much more interested in chatting to other people than his glum companion. Interesting, the clientele was almost exclusively East Asian, uniquely amongst similar trendy places we’d been to. I wonder if it was because this was right in the centre of town (the others were just the main bits) or if it had been featured on a Singaporean blog or something. Anyway, it was very good brunch as I am now starting to see is just how it is in Melbourne. We then went to the Victoria market, a university-day favourite of the Gentleman Friend. He was a little – not disappointed, but more that he had since seen good markets all over the world and it was no longer the revelation it had been. But it was still very good so we bought some cheese and bagels for later. Then I came back to the flat and have been slaving ever since. I think I last got a proper night’s sleep on the 25th. Since then it’s been working most of the night and on one night, of course, was the flight from Thailand, when I couldn’t really work but didn’t sleep so much as close my eyes and pretend to.
I did listen to a very good podcast, an interview with the musician Ali Sethi, whom I know slightly. He talked in a rather interesting way about raag, about the nature of learning, about being illiterate in multiple cultures, which is something I have thought about a lot recently.