Not much to report, but as usual work has flared up like eczema; more welcome than that, but no more pleasant. I would like to be a person of leisure. We went into Blenheim’s high street for lunch yesterday. It was a very nice walk; down a quiet street then through a park through which […]
Bad blogging
I made a failed attempt to change the theme of this blog yesterday. I use Suffusion at the moment, which is excellent and super customisable without needing too much faffing around with CSS etc. Unfortunately it’s no longer supported or updated and has been getting slower and slower load times. Looking for an equally simple […]
Still raging
The fire outside Nelson is burning hard, and another has started on Rabbit Island, the wooded bit opposite the narrow part of the estuary in Mapua. Our hosts from the last few days came to say goodbye and were clearly very shaken, and an artist friend of theirs whom we met a couple of times, […]
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 […]
Heat wave
I have woken this morning with a terrible cramp and restless dreams about my mother’s china, unused for fifty years and perhaps now unusuable. There has been a heatwave in New Zealand for the past few days and Nelson is bearing the brunt of it. The landscape is parched yellow, very beautiful with the sea […]
A night’s sleep
A night’s sleep after a very long time, it feels! Certainly since leaving Thailand. I did wake up at 6, having slept at 1, but then forced myself to sleep till 8. Happy day. The rest of the day was quiet. I worked away on one of the reports in the flat, which is fortunately […]
In the garden
I took advantage of the time difference to finish work due this morning by around noon, and then had my first proper day in Melbourne. We went first to the very cool Rose Street with excellent graffiti and the hippest patisserie I have ever seen. We bought three pastries – a plain croissant, a pain […]
Market morning
In the morning we went for brunch (of course) and there was a long queue, but enlivened by a little sparrow picking delicately at a croissant, and the Chinese Malaysian (I think) man ahead of us who was clearly much more interested in chatting to other people than his glum companion. Interesting, the clientele was […]
JJ Market
In the morning we went to Chatuchak Market. We’d been there on our first visit to Thailand over ten years ago, and had forgotten how immense it is. We found the section we were looking for – sections 2-4, where the trendy young designers are. Ten years ago I bought myself a canvas bag that […]
Inside
I was inside for most of the day, as it was back to working and the Gentleman Friend was not feeling well at all. I am increasingly convinced that he did have at least the start, or a mild form, of high-altitude pulmonary oedema, which is often deadly. But he is not one to go […]