Another milestone to middle age reached (after the gratification a few days ago at rising house prices) as the GF and I subscribed to the Financial Times and I have started reading it every morning. It is an excellent newspaper and very refreshing after the Guardian. The line it takes is clear and it seems […]
Unfounded optimism
Increasingly likely that my dismal optimism was unfounded. They are saying the right things, but it’s easy to read between the lines: women can work in line with the Shariah (as we define it); Shias are free to worship as they wish (because we know they respect the caliphs like we do), etc. It is […]
Watching history
Watching Afghanistan gives a true sense of history unfolding, even in my lifetime. I was born around the time the Soviets entered Afghanistan. In my earliest memories the war next door was a fact of life and its effects were barely noticed because they just were. Then there are the memories of the Soviets leaving, […]
Despair
The new IPCC report has been released, and the desire to just roll over and close my eyes and pretend to be asleep till I die is very great. The one cheerful thing today was listening to a podcast about Emmy Noether and while I can’t say I really understood her breakthroughs it was a […]
Clients return
A client call this morning, for a promising new project. Fingers crossed it works out better than Skype. Emails are starting to come in from clients, particularly the academic ones as they are clearly using the summer to finish up papers left hanging in end of term duties. In the afternoon we went to see […]
In the flow
This week’s tai chi lesson opened up today and managed to revive my interest in it after a slow start. This is the fourth week and for the first time we had a sequence of moves, in a flow. A pleasant change from week 1 (standing), week 2 (swinging arms) and week 3 (standing). At […]
Back on track
After a longish holiday and returning to find my computer would not come on and taking it off for repair, I’m now back online. I’ll fill in a few posts from the last month retrospectively, but in this one I’ll list some key points and events. First, my computer is working again, hurrah! Who knows […]
Back to the doctor
After last night’s consultation I caved and returned to the hospital seeking a doctor. It was not easy as walking is difficult and my hands are rather grotesque at the moment. Nevertheless I made it there by taxi, to a nice older woman with an interpreter. She is a dermatologist so was more interested in […]
Shattered
This morning I turned on my computer for a bit of work and – it would not come on. The power light stayed on, the fan was on but the machine was cool, and nothing. Dead. It looks like the motherboard, which has long threatened to expire, might finally have died, and of course this […]
Grief receding
I wonder if others are relieved when the intensity of grief fades? I find it sad in itself, this receding of grief. There were years when 15 June was almost unbearable, once I even left work early because I couldn’t bear the date. This year was not like that, the least like that. Even the […]