It is Britain’s misfortune to have been ruled by such people, entitled men who don’t feel they need to master a brief and sneer at those who have to endure the consequences of their actions. – Hari Kunzru writing in the NY Review of Books Also this: Their arrival “over here” was one of the […]
Infuriated
I have given up on Brexit, though I was amused by one of the Guardian’s semi-regular vox populi features on the weirdos who voted leave: The 73-year-old former builder and engineer said he had been lied to by the leave campaign. “They didn’t tell us the true facts. They kept us in the dark like […]
Cool winds
The heatwave has broken, or rather, moderated. The wind has changed and it is far cooler. I learned today of the horse latitudes and the roaring forties. Winds are very romantic. Far less romantic is fucking Brexit. Damn them.
Day two
The flu continues. I slept better than before but woke with a truly terrible headache which persisted for most of the day. Finally I gave up on working and emailed asking if I could send the work back later than proposed. With the worry of not having done the edit lifted, I dozed for a […]
Market morning in Sulphurtown
In the morning we went to the Rotorua farmer’s market, which turned out a disappointment, perhaps because it is so close to Christmas. Only about 6 stalls, of which three sold prepared food. The greengrocer’s stall was nearly out – they sold their last courgette to the person in front of us – and the […]
Hipper Auckland
I woke up before the Gentleman Friend as usual and spent the morning listening to some of the top songs of 2018 lists. It is remarkable how one falls behind with music as one grows older. Even leaving aside the 8 month period in 2005 when I was an indie music freak in Montreal, I […]
Crunch time
The Brexit storm has struck, and I do feel some pity for Theresa May, despite her own hand in her misery. Also some admiration for her ability to keep going, like the Black Knight, even though I wish she’d just done the sensible thing and called off the whole business and let the Brexiteer loons […]
Shameful
What a dispiriting day for Pakistan. Another one, that is. Another full day of rioting and looting and rumours. The army saying they can’t interfere in every little issue in Pakistan (not that they don’t otherwise, maybe the rioters were careful to avoid the army’s extensive property portfolio). Then the assassination of Sami-ul-Haq striking abject […]
Riotous day
Rioting all day across Pakistan. One sibling trapped in Islamabad, one using all sorts of feints to get to the airport in Lahore for work in in Karachi (and then to leave the airport). A parent trapped in the ancestral village where he had planned to be overnight, but has been unable to leave because […]
Not happy
Today, Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian peasant woman, of blasphemy. She had been accused by two of her Muslim neighbours after they quarrelled when she brought them a drink of water and they refused to drink from a cup that a Christian had drunk from unless she converted to Islam on the […]