Today’s Chinese lesson went better than Monday’s, when both the GF and I felt rather stupid and beaten down. It made me very thankful that I was always quite good at school, as it was a taster of how deadly it is to be made to feel like an idiot and given no time or […]
Black rocks
This article made me a little teary. Last night was the first meeting of the board of a publication I am involved in. It’s a semi-academic publication and all the others involved are academics of one sort or another. A pleasant bunch, but it definitely ran on university time and the meeting extended for 90 […]
Looking back
I was reading through some of the older posts on this blog, as one does. How quaint the earliest ones on the coronavirus now seem. I think the first is from the end of January, at which time I was well aware of the virus’s existence and was concerned chiefly about the irritation of wearing […]
Tidal rage
It has been striking to me, increasingly so over the past months, the voices that are absent in the West. Strangely, I feel they are more present in India, in Pakistan: I mean those who have been most affected by what is happening these days. I read of millions losing their jobs or being furloughed […]
Next steps
The GF and I are starting to think about our next steps. A month from now our commune will be dissolved (thank heavens) and we are considering where to go for our final month in Taiwan (however, however). The current frontrunner is Taitung, a sleepy southern town in beautiful countryside. And after that remains a […]
Sad Eid
A plane fell from the sky in Pakistan, it’ll be a sad Eid. Two survivors, which feels miraculous: one who returned to consciousness and groped towards a light and leapt off the plane wing before the fires reached him, the other flung out, still strapped into his seat, to emerge only with a broken bone […]
Sweat not tears
The ICC has announced that in this age of coronavirus, it is not permitted to shine the ball using spit. Sweat is still fine. Shahid Afridi’s days of gnawing the cricket ball are long over, but even his imitators will no longer get away with it.
Golden horse
On Saturday we left, just as the crowds arrived. We took our bags and went to I-Thao for lunch, wanting to try indigenous food. What had been a deserted town was now packed, though still far from capacity, as people arrived for the weekend. This was only Taiwanese tourists, as there are none from overseas […]
Other side of the lake
The next morning, after a good breakfast, we got a drop to the Wenwu (civil / military) temple, thinking that Friday would be a good day to go since this was one of the most popular spots and would be sure to be thronged on a weekend, even in this time of coronavirus. For me, […]
Sun Moon Lake
As expected, my plan to stay to myself whilst at Sun Moon Lake failed. On Thursday we left at around lunchtime, taking bento boxes with us to eat on the train. I had Spanish in the morning – a good lesson and I’m enjoying the book – so it was an early start for me, […]