you might want to marry my husband - yap swi neo (2021)

shamelessly nostalgic enlightening and tender. the writing is not perfect but it'll do in a pinch. a few of the stories are really rather superb - deceptively straightforward lovingly detailed and satisfyingly twisted. 

damn good read.

to have and to hold

through the seasons, with joy upon joy

and through sorrows unimagined unthought

from swirling storm to almond blossom

we rejoice, and rejoice yet again

and so we are thirty-one

quickie trippie

we do an in-and-out as the quarantine-free travel lanes open, HOM and i. it is smooth and unexpectedly pleasant if you discount the disproportionate number of tests we are subject to. for posterity, and for what it is worth, we have:

• a pre-travel PCR
• an on-arrival PCR at destination which we forget to pre-book and hence scramble to pay for
• an on-arrival PCR at home the next day (because quickie, remember?)
• and we have ARTs due on tuesday and saturday
• plus i have my work-mandated ARTs monday and thursday

the quickie will never be the same again.

but it is good, and a precious thing, to see the folks again, if only for a day.

the thursday murder club - richard osman (2020)

smashing good read, is what i say.

in a sly eccentric understated and always politely witty way that has me the moment i meet Elizabeth. with a plot that is convoluted enough to meander gently to several satisfying conclusions. and chapters that are nicely short-ish and sharp-ish. 

this is what i've been waiting for, i think. there is children's fiction and young adult and all the rest of it. it's high time the retirees had their own believable relatable superpowers.

omicron

just as we gingerly inch our way past the delta peak

right as we are cheering our high vaccination rate

time to rediscover an outraged morality and share more freely 

and high time to dust off the old greek alphabet

staycating

time for HOM and me to do the tourist-at-home thing and spend some hotel points. and hey, hotels have heard us since our last frivolous stay:

• no more bland subliminally icky wall-to-wall carpet
• no more bath tub. about time, yesss!
• simpler electrical controls. as in, on. off.
• simpler bathroom tap controls. as in, left. right. hot. cold.
• in-room nespresso machine ♥
• wall sockets everywhere, especially USB ones
• and room wifi that doesn't kick us out every 2 hours

with thanksgiving and in awe

for a strangely disjointed frankly dysfunctional year

for work to do that must be done yet

for friends and colleagues who become friends

for fellowship and laughter and opportune tables

for new family that God adds

for old family that God keeps

for the new path that God opens

for the familiar path that God preserves

for all these and much more

thank you