Sunday, April 22, 2007

Bits & Pieces

11.40

Woke to find out that United could only manage a draw with Middlesborough last night. Are they now stuttering in the race for the title? Chelsea have a tricky trip to Newcastle today so let's hope for the best.

I didn't try to stay up for the football last night as we came back fairly late and very tired from an evening at Vivo City, just one more amongst Singapore's multiplicity of shopping malls. We took the bus there as it's on a direct route from where we live. The great thing about going by bus is that you can use the journey to read as well as doing your (very little) bit for the environment. I wasn't exactly keen on going but it was a reasonably painless experience and we found quite a good place to eat - the Fig & Olive. I think Noi has had it in mind to try them out for quite some time. We also bought (or rather Noi bought for me) some new weighing scales which also do other extremely invasive things like measuring your body fat and body water, at least I think that's what the salesguy said. Body water, I'm not too sure of & need to look at the instruction book to find out if that's what they calculate and why one might need to know about this.

This morning I finished D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, which was what I was reading on the bus yesterday when in multi-tasking mode. I picked my copy off the shelves when we in KL after I completed Beckett's More Pricks Than Kicks. Lawrence has never been a writer with whom I've felt in any kind of sympathy, except in short bursts (though some of the poetry works its magic), but I suppose I felt an obligation to revisit something substantial of his and see if time had changed my attitude. It hadn't. The novel has its moments for me - the section dealing with Ursula's experience of teaching is extraordinarily resonant - but for most of its length I felt outside Lawrence's peculiarly intense world, though generally able to have some appreciation of what he is attempting.

15.09

Just back from Geylang market where we had a more than nice cup of tea and Noi bought chicken & stuff for tonight's dinner. We're heading over to Woodlands where Rozita will provide the other half of the dinner and the girls will crown me the 'King of Cadoo' (at my request.)

Once in a while I find myself wondering what it might be or might have been like to meet a particular writer. I don't think I would have enjoyed meeting Lawrence. The character to whom I seem closest in The Rainbow is Mr Harby, the dreadful schoolmaster and bully of Ursula. Sometimes literature can be less than reassuring.

On the other hand, I suspect meeting Joyce would have been a hoot. Though he would probably have tapped me for a few quid - well worth it in his case.

17.04

I've been pushing on with Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club this afternoon. It's one of two novels I picked up at the library last week and I suppose I picked it up expecting light entertainment with a bit of an edge. I enjoyed Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency more than somewhat. In fact, I left my copy with Mum in Manchester thinking that she'd enjoy it too. I don't think The Sunday Philosophy Club is in the same league though it's been an easy, enjoyable read. But I do think the writer is a little too fond of his main character, who is, in turn, a little too fond of herself. Normally I like novels with decent, likeable characters at their centre, but this one doesn't work hard enough to convince the reader of how difficult it is to be convincingly decent and, well, good.

22.30

Just back from playing Upwords with Fi Fi & Fa Fa & Mak Ndak at Woodlands. Great fun for all.

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