This afternoon I went to the cinema with a friend for a matinee showing of Wild Robot. It turned out to be the children’s screen: there was a (now-defunct) ball pit down front, the seats were shaped foam sofas on the floor, and there was a slide running down the side. There were two other […]
Movie night
A rare movie night last night – rare for me, as the GF watche something almost every night, while I find it hard to do so. We watched Into the spiderverse, probably the Marvel film I’ve liked best though admittedly that is not the highest bar ever as they just don’t resonate with me. It […]
A rabbit in the corridor
This morning a series of deliveries was made. Unfortunately the first of these was a very large and heavy fridge. First, the box wouldn’t fit through the front door, so the delivery men finally took it out and then it just about fit. Then, even removed from the box it wouldn’t fit through the kitchen […]
Return to the big screen
The GF and I went to see Dune in the cinema last night, in one of the swish local cinemas with reclining seats etc. We took along a little cup of chocolate mousse and it was all very pleasant. The film itself wasn’t too bad. It was too long, and the characters spent rather a […]
Free at last
All guests are gone, and the cousin with COVID is quite self-sufficient, hurrah. He is in very strict lockdown indeed – when I went to drop off his instant coffee, a man rushed out of the building shouting ‘very bad, your friend, very bad!’ At first I worried that the cousin had developed bad symptoms […]
Third time lucky
Today, our third attempt was successful. The first two had been during the week in which I absconded, to go to a tiny Japanese restaurant with 10 seats, which we had heard was very good but didn’t take bookings. The first time, we arrived before it opened and found it shut. Instead, we found another […]
Buddha vs stegosaur
This morning we hired a car and driver and went to Fo Guang Shan, a large monastery and Buddhist site outside Kaohsiung and home of the world’s largest seated Buddha, as well as (it turned out) a menagerie of animatronic animals including a mooing stegosaurus. The place itself is immense, set on a hillside overlooking […]
Past the inland sea
The western end of Tainan is Anping, which was once a bar of land or sand enclosing wetlands and lagoons. Yesterday we took a taxi there (I fear my resolve to take buses has been broken by the heat), stopping for a terrible lunch. The GF didn’t think it was as bad as I did, […]
Eid everywhere
Today was Eid. For once it was Eid everywhere in the world, including in Pakistan where the usual farce around the sighting of the moon reached new heights. The science minister, Fawwad Chaudhry, was previously the information minister in which he characterised himself by a particularly jahil enthusiasm, like a gormless and corrupt Chemical Ali. […]
Leashed rabbit
This morning we went to Tamsui, a town by the sea and a river and visible from our windows. The day I arrived was the final day of the Chinese New Year and I watched fireworks all along it, far below our condo building on a hillside above the town. The Boddhisattva is in Vietnam […]