Quick work

I was going to meet a friend, and saw this on the side of a bus. A couple of days ago all the senior PML-N members of the cabinet arrived in London to ‘consult’ (and pay respects to) Nawaz Sharif, which was pretty outrageous. And this bus was presumably either spending by the high commission […]

Genteel seaside town

Yesterday, we walked around the beaches and the town. The GF went for reiki while I strolled about. Whiststable is a tourist town but also the sort of place well-heeled people retire, so there are plenty of fairly expensive shops selling linen skirts, French wooden toys, etc. There are innumerable places selling oysters, and much […]

The builder’s ring

We came to Whitstable yesterday afternoon, a pleasant seaside town in Kent, just in the Thames estuary. I’d been here before as the GF’s parents have very close friends near here, whom we’ve visited as well, but never overnight. This time we’re staying for the weekend and other relatives of the GF arrive this evening. […]

Another shit Eid

Technically Eid here was yesterday, and there were the usual dressed-up families, all taking advantage of a rare Eid falling on a UK bank holiday. As usual I decided to keep it for the day it’s celebrated in Pakistan so had it today. Got a gift from the GF’s mother who was very sweet, but […]

To the almost-country

Took a train out to the almost-country, not too far from Milton Keynes, where a relative of the GF lives in a lovely spot along several waterways. The house itself is beautiful and historic, the gardens are wide and green, the hens copiously lay eggs. Less keen on the interior, as it’s a bit dark […]

Bad timing

I chose to restart the blog on the most uninteresting day possible, one where I was working all day (and indeed late the previous night), didn’t manage to leave the flat one, and the only respite was to make dinner as it was my turn. I did discover the wonders of steaming, though, something I’m […]

Other people

We were invited to brunch by the friend of a friend of the GF. It was to celebrate their climbing Mount Kenya, specifically a bit which requires very technical climbing. It was a funny old gathering. Mostly women. The friend of a friend was a thin white American woman and her fellow climbers were two […]

Circle of life etc

Well today the wildlife had taken care of the zebra, or at least most of it. I hadn’t gone to see it for the past couple of days but the GF tells me that on day 2 it looked much the same but had clouds of flies around it while on day 3 it had […]

Voices from the radio

Radio Pakistan apparently has podcasts. They are exactly as rubbish as one might expect them to be. There is a comedy podcast, an international news podcast and a sport podcast. Ridiculously, there is no music podcast, though it must have tremendously rich archives. But I subscribed to the comedy podcast and listened to an episode […]