Well, troubling is not quite the right word. It was a bit restless, I think I’m now close enough to the move to be both overwhelmed by what needs to be done and it’s still too early to take any action on it.
Today I was very restless indeed. First we met the Woodland Creature for lunch at Uokatsu, a pleasant Japanese restaurant in Hartamas, but one that I’ve been to far too many times in recent months and it is not exactly where I wanted to have one of the few weekend meals remaining to me. It was also very noisy, and my order – a shirasu don, which turned out to be a rice topped with baby fish, seaweed and an onsen tamago – was more interesting in appearance and concept than in flavour. It was also really noisy, and my face hurt from smiling. We did hear that the Woodland Creature, who works for one of the big international companies in Malaysia, woke on the day after the election to learn that all colleagues had fled the country after getting a series of late night calls from their bosses urging them to flee as the election results started coming it. Which seems to show how disconnected these global companies and their staff are, and how fearful.
Then we went to Publika, our last visit there, and wandered through some stalls and galleries and down its so-called artist’s row. I saw a nice linen top, but of course it was cut to East Asian bodies so didn’t accommodate my South Asian hips. We went to Ben’s which is a supermarket with excellent stock and laid out like a circle of hell. I was supposed to get rice, noodles and cleaning supplies; I could find none of them so the GF had to dive back in. As usual, visiting a supermarket on a Sunday, and particularly one as disorientating as Ben’s nearly did my head in. I went to the hardware store to find the specific cleaning supplies I needed, we returned to the flat where the GF succumbed to jetlag and stretched out on the sofa, while I, in a burst of anxiety and nervous energy, scrubbed all the skirting clean and then lay down and stared at the ceiling. Then I read. I realised also that I have far too many books on my Kindle, piled up and waiting to be read, so have imposed a moratorium on purchases for a while.
So, yes, dissatisfying might be a better word.