This was the first morning that I went out onto the heath for my exercising and it was pouring with rain. I didn’t have even a yoga mat so resigned myself to pushups etc in the wet grass and optimistically pictured myself like a grunting marine in a training montage. The reality was less inspiring […]
Crick in the neck
Something of a rite of passage today as I injured myself whilst doing crunches on the heath. Nothing particularly terrible, just a pulled muscle in the back of my neck/shoulder, but an affront nonetheless. I do feel since I’ve started this whole regular workout business I feel every ache and pain more than I ever […]
End of the age of aquarius
The weather here has been strange. The first week of June was unseasonably cool, in the low twenties, and in the teens in Multan, which the sun approaches closer than anywhere on earth because of the saint who invited it down to cook his fish. But now it’s as hot as June should be with […]
Classic car
Last night a gardener in the neighbourhood was held up at gunpoint outside our house and relieved of whatever he carried. There is a classic car parked in the driveway, belonging to an uncle in the US who dreams of taking it with him, has already spent millions of rupees on it, and will need […]
Climate changing
We went to the somewhat-ancestral village today, up on the Potohar Plateau. Too long a drive for a 1-day trip, but my companions don’t like staying the night there. Along the way it poured with rain on the motorway while passing through the Salt Range, and there was lightning. At the farm itself, it was […]
Experiments yield fruit
My first encounter with the bizarre side of Chat GPT, in requesting a song about duck farming in the style of Bruce Springsteen. This came after a few questions about duck in Pakistani cuisine for which the answers were the usual plausible + suspect. But this song is just weird. I mean, terrible – an […]
Top shops
There is the old classic of Butt Sweets and all its variations, like Butt Lights etc, always good for a giggle. But I was especially keen on one sighting from today, on a road which has lots of tile and sanitary ware (ie sinks and toilets) shops: Quixotic Tiles. Mystifying but delightful. I can’t work […]
As usual, late to the game
Finally tried out ChatGPT about six months after all the rest of the world. Even knowing what it’s capable of, it was startling to begin with, but interesting how quickly one started to recognise the non-style of the ChatGPT style, the written equivalent of a composite portrait. I can definitely see that will be useful […]
Sinking back
Sinking back into Lahore today, a little underslept, and the usual quiet drowsiness. I feel less at home every time I come, and wonder if I will keep coming when those I wish to be with are no longer there.
Rabbit
Read a good SF short story, called Rabbit Test. It was exactly the sort of thing that makes me want to cry. It’s a very American story of course, as it’s about abortion and control of women’s fertility, but the story is such an old one for women, of constant control, of advances and setbacks, […]