weather update 2: an ode

cataractous vision

environmental smog

please. rain.

date night

in the midst of haze

and mugginess

we go

on a

middle-aged date

at a new izakaya HOM discovers

practically at our doorstep. very impressive

weather update

muggy hazy a tad smelly and quite unpleasant. more of the same tomorrow. the a/c is weeping in exhaustion, as am i.

in other news, am trying for a dopamine hit tomorrow with visit to the hairdresser. hair can always grow again and the prospect of something different is exciting and i hope i don't need this reminder in a day.

aural assault reflections

people have choices

and vote with their feet

and we can't even tell you

cos we already schlepped off

before the feedback QR code appeared

but

please

have mercy

choose good speakers

who are focused and clear and 

do not keep saying long story short

because their short comes from speaking veryveryfast

aural assault

today i skip church to attend a course. the premise is great: each speaker gets twenty minutes to update us about the latest exciting developments in his field and then we switch to the next fellow. quickly building up a strand of lustrous pearls, as it were.

unfortunately the whole thing pivots on choosing excellent speakers. which. some. people. so. are. NOT. hence we are subjected to a couple of well-articulated verbal train wrecks during which the audience quietly scrolls social media. 

at the end of the morning session i decide to schlepp off. if i have to listen to waves of words playing at double speed that make no sense whatsoever i might as well just read up the stuff at home.

if you think i feel crabby you are right.

final Q

dinner date to begin the final quarter of the year. on the one hand we can now start a legit countdown to christmas. on the other hand i am just a little bit horrified that the year has behaved true to form and continues on a runaway track to freedom.

in other news, his mercies continue to be new every morning as well, breakneck speed notwithstanding.

da haze of 2026

there is a fine mistiness to everything that looks almost wintry except for the temperature the green leaves AND THE SMELL.

yesterday's downpour was much welcomed is late lamented and barely budged the smog.

au revoir! 2

we say goodbye to J1 and Yi. as we said goodbye to J2 Ji A and E.

HOM's cystoscopy comes up next.

life marches.

amid the blessings, the weight.

amid the joys, the shadow.

God keeps.

inspector alleyn - ngaio marsh (1930s)

finally starting on these, half a century after first learning her name. agatha christie was just much more easily available at the jaya supermarket bookshop back in the day.

alleyn is my kind of ultimate detective: clever but courteous compassionate generally non-dysfunctional and (so far) quite free of unnecessary angst. so that one can just enjoy the murders.

au revoir!

final brunch of xlb and sjb and we're off!

i hope we can do many more such trips, HOM says. yes, i agree. but lovely too to have had this one. we are thankful.

if we are ever in shanghai around, say, our anniversary date, and resources permit, i tell HOM, i want to stay at 和平饭店. HOM says ok.

last dinner

our final nite before we decamp. we choose laozhengxing, our old favorite on fuzhou road, all quiet with wide apart tables for gentle conversation and the familiar great cooking. 

it's been an altogether lovely interlude before re-entering the old grind and facing HOM's upcoming re-scope.

so call me shallow, but i'll take shanghai any day over urumqi.

lady of the moon

super long lines on nanjing road today on account of the festival tomorrow. unlike back home the mooncakes here come out warm from the oven. in any case, glad we are not in those snaking waits.

sudden light

to attend to needs. to anticipate the needs.

to attend to the predicted. to attend to the unexpected.

attending. inattendu. may we learn both.

attending

we leave the pub. room elevators this way, the fellow at the door says.

we exit the elevator. breakfast to your right, murmurs the guy at the lobby.

i balance my bowl and my plate. let me help you with the bowl, ma'am, the waiter says, and suits his action to his words.

where's the trash bin? i ask the concierge. let me take it for you, he replies, and my trash disappears.

there is being courteous and helpful, and there is quietly and smoothly anticipating my needs which is a whole different level of hospitality. 和平饭店 gets the gold amidst a host of great service contenders this trip.

ye olde jazz band

a misnomer if there was one. they play 70s oldies shanghai classics hokkien songs and when the saints come marching in. just not jazz. but i have a roaring good time nevertheless.

we should do this more often, i tell HOM. live music has a specialness that youtube doesn't.

yummo

special lunch treat in that elevated restaurant* with friends celebrating their wedding anniversary so we get the love treatment and rose petals. the food is gorgeously umami and (plebe that i am) i enjoy it tremendously and forget to enjoy the view.

*at the top of the shanghai tower

duoyun

like a magical enclave in the sky. the book culture looks alive and well and it almost feels like a travesty to look at the non-book distractants. dad would have loved a visit here. i buy my first paper book in years, partly because it calls out to me (shanghai! women!) and partly because dad would have bought a book or two as well.

thoughts on travel-mates

very tiring types:

• the one who must cover every possible location and tick it off his list
• the one who must take twenty photos in various poses at every possible spot

my kinda folks:

• the one who needs the loo at every stop and in between too (me)
• the organized punctual ones with no actual agenda of their own (people i like)
• the optimizer who gets the best deals and gives the best suggestions (that's HOM)

the soul-suckers:

• the one who gripes at everything and trusts no one in a foreign land
• the sucker who buys every tale and the produce attached as well
• the one who talks non-stop (arghhhhh)
• the one who listens and hears nothing and then asks what? when? what?

as you can see, i am indulging in a bit of therapeutic ventilation.

le stash

 

i guess i am committed to longer hair now. *gives a delicious little shiver*

fairmont peace hotel

there was the e&o, and there is the 和平饭店.

same modernized vintage esthetic superbly delivered. a tad less real estate than the e&o, possibly due to more exorbitant prices. but on the bund! at the cusp of walking street! with his-and-hers sinks! separate closet space! multiple charging points!

it wasn't on the bucket list before but it's there now.

full disclosure: there's no laundry room but there's a gym.