purple car

i never saw a purple car

i never hope to own one

but i can tell you anyhow

i'd rather see than own one

change of season

the end of the year has officially started.

reflections on china

• lots of tobacco smoke
• GPS with pinpoint accuracy
• the default volume is broadcast level
• unbelievable service, when they have a mind to it
• toilets sans TP, more's the pity 
• mix of rural and tech

all told, this has been a most enjoyable and smooth trip, i tell HOM. one is cautiously optimistically considering venturing off the urban track for the next foray into the motherland.

clever little hotel girl

the hotel room has a dinky personal assistant that you activate by calling xiaodu, xiaodu!

she is enthusiastic indefatigable and only mildly gets on my nerves with her unsolicited music which irritates after a few seconds. but she is a mine of random information like the weather the news and today-in-communist-history and she is of course perfect for adjusting the temperature and turning the lights on and off.

HOM and i are in discussion to adopt for ourselves a little xiaodu.

suzhou

 

• the train station is milling with people
• streets of old suzhou are picturesque clean and milling with people
• the garden is awesome grand and milling with people
• lots of smokers walking with their ciggies outdoors and indoors 
• limited concept of personal space in elevators and elsewhere
• getting caught in the crossfire of someone else's conversation
• and getting unceremoniously pushed out of someone's way
• oh, and touts at every corner

in a word, crowded.

liu sha bao

gets the award for favorite snack discovery for this trip. chewy melty skin with just enough salty sweet insides to coat the sides with a little bit left over but not so much it drips all over your fingers. it's the cousin to the sophisticated hong kong version but i think i prefer it like this.

fashion victory

i finally master the mechanics of the hair stick.

it occurs to me a whole world of hair accessories opens up directly.

magic

as honeymoon-y a day as it gets, i think. thankful and full.

room with a view

really quite glad for the hotel room this time. there's something about indigenous brands with non-holiday inn vibe that gives you a waft of that magic from your adolescent years when the highlight of the social calendar was a nightcap in a hotel lounge high up over the city.

shanghai day

we awake to wet weather, typically known as bad. strangely this old lady stands bad well. she has a sophistication that rises above the bedraggledness and manages a drenched chic. it helps that we are dry and cocooned in the hotel as we make our alternate plans for the day.

early thoughts about shanghai (day 1)

• the white rabbit is everywhere
• those dinky stations where you can get a battery to charge your device
• QR-coded cashless transactions: quite cool really
• superb mandarin and as melodious as it gets
• but fishwife-level communication otherwise
• aaaand fantastic food (so far)

shanghai, china

i hold two images of china in my head, i tell HOM. there is the mid-century developing nation with leafy trees in dingy neighborhoods and drab-bish blue-clad middle-aged folk practicing taichi and wolfing down noodles on rickety tables before going to work in communal factories, courtesy of an amalgam of lu hsun's short stories and PRC docu-movies of the seventies. and then there is the high rise mega city with eight-lane highways electric cars state-of-the-art amenities and effortless elegance and sophistication, as if the bund leapfrogged into the new century without any intermediate squalor.

it is quite delightful to be able to integrate both images today.

time for change

lovely time of the year when sunsets get more dramatic and nights get cooler. (of which sunsets this is but a washed out example.)

retreat in JB 2

pampered individual with picky palate reflecting on the ideal hotel breakfast buffet spread:

• coffee machine coffee. none of that drip stuff please
• an egg station with runny yolk cooked whites sunny-side up to order
• a selection of hard and soft cheeses and not the kraft cheese slices!
• add smoked salmon and a girl is in breakfast heaven

retreat in JB

reflecting on hotels, specifically hotel bathrooms:

• forget the bathtub, gimme a good-sized shower stall
• with a powerful shower and hot water on tap
• AND a kerb that stops the shower water from flowing out
• with a shower stall door that slides or opens inwards
• and the towel rack within convenient reach 

holiday inn city centre certainly ticks all the boxes. with din tai fung next door. this is quickly becoming my favorite hotel for HOM to have meetings in so that i can be the trailing spouse at.

gratitude

we attend J2's exit seminar as her PhD journey nears its end. 

i don't pay too much attention to the details because i am busy being impressed by the slides and her style and my thoughts. my baby, i think. that little urchin who shared her fishballs with me. that girl who became a teenager at eight. her own woman today, generous able and strong.

that cup is full to overflowing. may your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.

ming yue

third visit to attempt purchase. first success. 10 packets of your peanut candy please, we murmur. 

word-of-mouth hype meets masterful queue management becomes legend.

middle-aged date

roof top bar on a rainy night. panoramic ipoh skyline, the tag says. 

but it's raining so the doors to the outside are locked.

rest

after the church i wander into the attached cemetery which turns out to be a fully cemented patch of monochromatic headstones and lots crammed together. yet it is a place of repose and cool breeze under an overcast sky and i see chinese characters roman numerals and tamil script beautifully and egalitarianly juxtaposed. this is the malaysia of my childhood. tanah pusaka berbagai bangsa di dalamnya.

though a great world removed from the gaudy chinese cemetery of my childhood which is responsible for many adolescent nightmares and much PTSD.

exciting sighting

if you look very carefully amongst the zinnias there is a special buzzing being that i initially think is a large bee but is actually a hummingbird!!! in the tropics!!!

2024 is shaping up to be the year of the hummingbird.

a pause

i wander into a catholic church on a saturday morning. the caretaker hustles his dog away so i can enter. the church is cavernous quiet and welcoming. i spend a time in stillness with the sound of the flowing water for company.

it is a pity that protestant churches with our energetic outreach strategies do not open our churches for personal meditation on days that are not sundays. also a pity that modern buildings are somehow more utilitarian than contemplative.

insta pot

unboxing ourselves into the modern age.