tech help

today HOM and i are haunted by an old chinese melody that we both recognize and that we both cannot identify and that shazam gives up at as well. but the google app allows me to hum the melody and ta-dah! the song is 母亲你在何方. how we ever did things before the modern age i do not know. 

good evening

red sky at night, shepherd's delight

looks like the portents are for another hottt day tomorrow.

at least it's pretty.

woman in a hat

starting my most ambitious project yet and breaking new ground with silk thread on a ginormous piece of aida. for which pre-printed and pre-gridded are pretty much non-negotiables these days.

resurrected

nine months later the case is finally settled and the stop work order is lifted and we are looking to renewed efforts in the new week.

HOM and i are amazed humbled and grateful for the manifold mercies that lead to this. at the same time unfortunately the old stresses of hustling the various players also self-resurrect. 

but if God can lead us thru the one surely he can lead us thru the other. exodus 14:14, isaiah 43:2, psalm 31:15. all OT verses. there is a pattern here.

the murder room - michael capuzzo (2010)

the story of how the vidocq society comes about interwoven with the key cold cases they crack over the years and run through with the lives of the main players.

the story takes a bit of time to come together possibly due to writing style. the cases are sometimes riveting and sometimes a bit befuddling. the lives are interesting enough but unavoidably unidimensional.

it all becomes a trifle ponderous and i am relieved to speed read to the end and be done with it. what i need is incisive prose and an unbeatable plot. that, or lyrical prose and homey story. i feel like i am thinking bonhoeffer or a modern asian writer.

faith of our fathers

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.

alice and gerald - ron franscell (2019)

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.

another goodbye massage

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.

at home - bill bryson (2010)

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.

little commentator

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.

jb is gentrifying. random spots are ig-worthy and you can see the care with design. call me shallow, but i rather like it. less grit more shine and certainly cleaner. now they just need to diversify away from f&b and retail pharmacies.

preferred poison

HOM goes for his massage.

i wander the mall.

and find my favorite type of massage.

satisfying and without human contact. the way i like it.

breakfast

pretty neat dimsum handiwork

in air conditioned comfort

mostly local clientele

nicee

lounge rat

the air side lounge is where my pretensions to fraternity and equality end and i unabashedly accept with gratitude the place to sit the access to grub the free wifi and the general air of shabby gentility. 

whatever happened to the shiny eyed socialist democrat?

quickie trippie is over

flying home today but feeling as glad as when we fly home after a longer time out. same anticipation same loose schedule same delicious inactivity. same disrupted feeling same vague guilt and same malaise looking for fruitful action. 

3 days is the new fortnight.

in other news, i am glad i attended this high school reunion. grateful again for the shiny friendlinesses and unexpectedly easy camaraderie and meeting up with people i have not seen in over 40 years.

the royale chulan

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.

date escape

we take a break from group activities* and scuttle off for a non-aromatic tea break

followed by an umami dinner.

oishi. i am grateful for HOM's willing conspiracy. 

*the group decides on a durian party which my olfactories have no way of surviving. to be followed by a late dinner which i will decidedly be half asleep at.

lunch

hungry and conveniently close to this place and miraculously luck out on the last table for two in the place after which we watch the waiting benches outside fill up with an unstemmable gloating feeling. 

the food is good too.

quickie trippie to penang

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.

fare thee well

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.

monsieur mediocre - john von sothen (2019)

disarmingly self-effacing and charmingly self-aware socialist democrat. he writes an especially good counterpoint to the earnest anodyne the newspaper columnists sprout these days.

gasp

slowly crawling out into the sunshine of life

after a long week of work

after vacation

that's payback for you