faith of our fathers, living still
in spite of dungeon, fire and sword
the speaker chooses this for the response today following a sermon on the fifth commandment. with all respect and even though i am fond of its soaring melodies it is a rather odd choice. a congregation of first and second generation believers mixes poorly with a song of catholic martyrs indeed.
yikes.
woman kills her third husband marries her fourth who kills his second wife and his adopted sons then woman and man live happily for almost 40 years after that. oh oh maybe woman kills second husband too.
most ghoulishly unpleasant story of the couple that got away.
yikes.
this time by a human, for ten times what i pay the machine.
and what a massage! she hits the pain points unerringly drives me to the edge of tears and pulls me back into a looser more limber state. we cut to the chase when i tell her just neck shoulders and back; you can forget the arms and the legs, and i don't want oil. the bonus is she doesn't make small talk either.
i feel almost ready to return to civilization and to work.
ramblingly wide-ranging history of modern society as it develops from the medieval to the modern and my one take-home point is that europe (and especially england) of the years up to the present were dark indeed. of especial horror (and most difficult to read) is the chapter on toilet practices. you can practically smell and feel the stuff.
vintage bryson, pretty much.
J2 sends us a recording of little A describing the world cup game.
他提ball ; 他跌倒； 他头痛；他坐下来。with entirely unrecognizable prosody almost unrecognizable tonality but (you gotta admit) much sharp observation.
we are torn between grandparent-ly delight and much generational horror.
fantastic location with an impressive history complete with cast iron corinthian columns unfortunately tucked away on levels that no one usually visits. decent room decent breakfast decent gym temporarily unavailable spa but with two dinky public massage chairs. and ultimately marred by poor choices of interior decor which rob it of real polish and make the front entrance look a bit secondary. it's also too bad our expectations are contaminated by memories of that other impressively historic place.
we take a break from group activities* and scuttle off for a non-aromatic tea break
starting with an early morning visit to the air-side passenger lounge, all shiny and freshly renovated. we serendipitously meet an old friend and catch up over coffee. after that we circle the place a few times looking for the exit, on account of unhelpfully discreetly placed signs, together with (we notice surreptitiously) a few other passengers also trailing their suitcases behind them.
my next seat neighbor today is adolescent-sized and most pleasantly self-contained. he kindly spends the flight engrossed in his soccer movie and does not seep into my seat at all except during a particularly exciting bit o' footwork, when he grips my armrest and raises it in his excitement. nothing a friendly tap on the shoulder does not solve.
as for me, i watch food porn. which the japanese do really well, with lots of macro shots in saturated colors of glistening munchies in osaka and kyushu today. my only grouse is that they really need to ditch the close-ups of people eating. most de-appetizing.
also, we catch a glimpse of a former government minister boarding late, without fanfare, into cattle class (with us hoi polloi!) most democratic of him, i think. i also think that he must like the color pink, because he wears it and so does his carry on bag.
and finally, in the grab ride to the hotel, in the middle of a rather comfortable journey, i put my hand to the aircon vent to adjust the airflow and discover that malaysian grab vehicles may not come equipped with a/c vents.
my aunt died peacefully. thank you for looking after her.
more than many others N saved me from chop chop self-righteous institutionalized efficiency. her trust was full her faith grounded and her acceptance complete. she expected my time and i learnt to give her my presence. she expected my prayers and i learnt to plead for her. thank you for telling me, i say. it was my privilege to know her.
slowly crawling out into the sunshine of life
after a long week of work
after vacation
that's payback for you
