Not Wharton

The full moon lit the sea up all night so I woke, mistaking it for dawn. The sound of the sea was lovely, and whilst I wouldn’t say I slept very well, I did wake feeling quite relaxed. In the mid-morning we took kayaks out to the mangrove lined creek. I enjoyed it and wondered […]

Diversity

We went to Sushi Azabu for dinner, my favourite restaurant in KL and on very good form last night, with some entirely new things (firefish with firefish liver), and others that were particularly delicate and delicious (prawns, scallops, fatty tuna etc). A lovely bit of skipjack tuna, which I had not preivously had as sushi. […]

Not my Islam

I thought this had some interesting things to say about the conflation of hijab with Muslim women. The one thing possibly more harmful than invisibility is simplistic or tokenistic representation. I am torn between acknowledging that in L’Oréal’s campaign there is a value for people who don’t see themselves represented in the mainstream media, and […]

LA in the rain

I’ve been binging on Raymond Chandler for the last little while. I read The Big Sleep whilst in Timor-Leste, followed by Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye, and am now most of the way through The High Window. Nothing has had the pyrotechnics of the first yet, though I love them all. They are […]

Old friend

I met a very old friend after very many years last night. We had been friends when we were about nine, now it is 28 years later. We were at school together in Karachi, and then I moved to Lahore. She came once and visited, but then we drifted apart as children do. We reconnected […]

Mee

A call from the bank had me spend most of my morning there. One of the transfers to our Sumba hotels had been returned as it was the wrong account type. The bank staff continues to be obliging and well informed. One day I’ll stop being surprised by this. I took the opportunity to go […]

OMG

I just finished the third volume of NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. What a way to end. The first volume, The Fifth Season, was fantastic and really ended on a high. The second, The Obelisk Gate, seemed to me to simultaneously flag and to jump the shark. The third volume, The Stone Sky, brought the […]

Catkins in Karachi

I’ll admit it, I loved reading the Famous Five books and didn’t really have strong issues with them. I enjoyed the adventures, wished I could see a painted wooden caravan or run away to a private island, or find myself trapped in tidal caves. I had no idea how miserable the English weather really is. […]