exertion in middle-age

pickleball elbow

/pi.kuhl·bawl el·bow/

noun

medical

1. just like tennis elbow, only less glamorous.

hiatus

coffee. us. rain outside. good book inside. then a nap.

an excellent afternoon.

junket

half-day trip into JB almost purely to feed ourselves. BKT and egg tarts and CKT with coffee for resuscitation. we go with Jo and Ma who have unexpectedly become friends over work-outs and meals and who we will miss when they relocate to Japan. all the more precious because we make fewer friends as we grow older.

invisible women - sarah long (2017)

dilemma.

decent writing. sharp observations. female friendship.

vs.

so much unhappiness. marital infidelity. unidimensional males.

life is too short for mediocre reads. should i abandon this?

national day 2024

a day late, but we celebrate national day with national colors repast and the parade, as always.

i've crossed all the borders an' all that but i am grateful for my adopted country and for that fateful decision decades back that brought me here.

death on gokumon island - seishi yokomizo (1948, translated 2022)

classic detective story in the style of agatha christie and the japanese equivalent of judge dee with courtly detectives multiple bodies and a meaty solution.

the only problem is the hero's tendency to dandruff. maybe that was a humanizing trait in the post-WWII years but these days a girl can only tolerate so much hygiene aberration. i can accept cigarette smoking as a sign of his times and his stammer as a necessary weakness but dandruff is right up there with body odor.

in conclusion: will plow on and enjoy the murders but may have to discreetly avert eyes when he scratches that bird's nest of hair.

final separation

one final cuppa and then exit clearance.

who woulda thought the gal had 11 more years in her back in 2013?

grateful and glad.