I started following the election results from around 7, with the Star newspaper’s live feed in a background window. Later I added Malaysiakini, which had less conservative estimates, as well. Through the evening, as I had dinner and did some work, the numbers kept ticking up, mostly the ruling Barisan Nasional to begin with (there […]
Election night
I went to sleep around midnight. There was still traffic on the roads, and when I looked out of the window towards one of the city’s main roads, I saw motorcycles and cars zooming past with party flags fluttering. I watched for a few minutes and counted dozens flying the red, blue and white Pakatan […]
Morning mee
Another breakfast excursion today, this time to Pudu, one of the old Chinese parts of town known for especially delicious Chinese food. It’s about a 40 minute walk but I decided to take the trundling old monorail to Imbi and walk 10 minutes from there. It was around 9 on a Sunday so very quiet […]
Myanmar breakfast
I had to go to the GF’s office near the Petaling Street area to collect some documents today, so decided to leave a bit early and go to one of the many anonymous Burmese cafes dotted around the area. I went to Gantawin, perhaps the safest option as it actually has a marker on Google […]
Night market
The GF left for London last night, bearing a suitcase full of demons. Fortunately he was not asked to open his bag, as while the demons were perfectly legitimate, they would have been quite odd to confront a customs official with. The boxes are also gone, and with them my cold. And the air conditioners […]
Packing begins
This morning we woke with the resolve of packing our belongings to return to London. After a slow start, it went well. For certain definitions of well, perhaps – we didn’t even start packing boxes, but did pack the GF’s suitcase for his brief trip to London next week, went for lunch and are now […]
Bad grab
The GF’s workplace has cancelled our residency visas, of course, which is perfectly reasoanbly. The annoying thing is, they have cancelled them effective his last day of work, following which we would be overstaying our visas. It’s all very well for him, as he is going to London during that time and can return on […]
Adding up
Moving out seems to be a rather expensive proposition. Getting all the air conditioners serviced, getting the curtains cleaned, getting a professional end-of-tenancy cleaning, cancelling the internet, shipping away our belongings; it’s all adding up. And that’s leaving aside the minor optional extras such as repairing a hinge or replacing the filter cartridge for the […]
10 leadership lessons from Nehemiah
We went today to watch the GF’s former colleague preach at his evangelical church. Previously, the only church services we had attended together were his father’s funeral and the clown service in Hackney, so I suppose we are yet to experience, together, something that is not out of the ordinary. The church belongs to the […]
Dosa desire
I went for lunch to the newly opened Mavalli Tiffin Room, the outpost of a famous Bangalore restaurant. The delicious, if sleep inducing masala dosa, with a little pot of ghee to pour over it, and a rava idli, made me feel very sad indeed to be leaving Asia where the food burns so brightly. […]