I am wondering today if I was any use at all to that woman. I feel rather guilty: what I should have done is got an Uber, gone to her flat, picked her up with her four children, and brought them to my flat until their return could be arranged. But what if her family […]
Food magic
This morning a misdirected message arrived advising me to feed my mother frozen and grated lemons which would kill her cancer cells and leave the healthy ones alive. The sender apologised, it being a few years too late, but it reminded me of how irritating I found the many, many recommendations for miracle cures that […]
Routines
I think routines will drive me mad, yet here I am.
Not much to say
This is an even more boring post than others, I am sorry. Let’s see. Another new episode of Game of Thrones last night, I continue my hate-watch of it and wish it would end but can’t look away. I’ve disliked it since the first episode. The acting remains dire, the politics questionable, the writing execrable […]
Post-industrial paradise
I had lunch with a person who recently wrote a white paper on deindustrialisation in Malaysia. Fascinating how this has suddenly become such a hot topic – not just deindustrialisation, at least in developed countries, but the next step, the de-servicing of the economy with AI and automation taking over. I listened to a radio […]
The best shark
The best shark is undoubtedly the tasselled wobbegong, although it would have been even better had it been named the tassellated wobbelong as I originally misread it. However, it is a fine looking creature. Runners up include the porbeagle (well named), the goblin shark (peculiar) and the cookie cutter shark (commendable hunting strategy). The hammerhead […]
The Balmis Expedition
Just learned about the Balmis Expedition, a 19th century philanthropic expedition to vaccinate the New World against smallpox using 22 orphan children as reservoirs of the virus, passing it from one to the other by skin to skin contact over the course of the expedition. Good lord.
Green thumb
We are both enthusiastic plant owners, but less good at keeping them alive. The Gentleman Friend’s boss is a keen gardener and on a brief visit this weekend was horrified at the state of the plants. He insisted on applying fertiliser and watering them himself, gave strict instructions on the plant care regime we should […]
Dispiriting day
Not my finest day at work: I prepared a document for finalisation and sent it off to immediately get a query because the title hadn’t been changed to the new format. I fixed it, sent it back, moved on to something else. Then realised 3 hours later that the reason the title was in the […]
Back to work
Returned to work, finishing up edits and holding a meeting on skype. The meeting led to new work which sounds very interesting and will, potentially, shape education in Pakistan for the next decade or so. In the evening we sat to watch Better Call Saul but did not with the after-effects of phone calls and […]