A Day in the Life - So Far

Woke for the swubuh prayer but went back to bed after completing it and slept until 9.15. Got up again, only to remember Chelsea's victory last night in the cup final. At least it didn't go to penalties which is the worst way of all to lose. Felt a bit depressed but then considered what a great season United had all told. Such are the benefits of a sense of proportion.

After showering, read the Sunday Times (the Singapore version thereof.) Possibly the world's worst newspaper. The Life section (now, I think, called lifestyle - ugh) increasingly reads like some particularly crass magazine for women. Only the cartoon section is worth anything, with Get Fuzzy, as always, the highlight of the whole thing.

Listened to Dylan's Planet Waves whilst reading, followed by The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but didn't listen closely enough to do the material justice. I'm growing increasingly convinced that music actively listened to is a beast of a completely different nature than music as wallpaper (or, worse still, lifestyle.) Once I finished reading the paper I reread a couple of the short plays we're doing as part of our next show, which has now found its name: Made in the Middle Kingdom. Ta da!

Marked some Theory of Knowledge stuff & prepared my record book for the week ahead, breaking off for a while to drink the hot sweet tea (prepared by my hot, sweet wife) and eat hash browns for breakfast. Normally I'd eat cereal but we got the hash things in thinking that the girls might be staying over, a plan that fell through.

Listened to The Pogues's Rum, Sodomy & the Lash whilst continuing to mark. Broke off when our neighbour, Noraini, visited. She and her family are moving out today. Noi was watching proceedings from the back balcony & giving me a running commentary on what Noraini's kids were doing, who was loading the van, and the like. By the time Noraini took her leave there were floods of tears from both Noi and herself. I was reminded of a line from Death of a Salesman, spoken by Willie's wife, Linda, that my sixth form English teacher, Jack Connolly - great guy, wonderful teacher - told me years ago was a great truth: Life is a taking leave. (I hope I've got that right.) Anyway, true, and painful, it is.

Temporarily finished doing school stuff around 2.30 pm and took Noi to Geylang Market to shop for the spices & mutton she needs to take to Melaka the weekend after next to cook for the weddings of a younger brother & sister. She will be cooking for 1000 people! There was a lot to carry and we needed the help of a young Bangladeshi helper to get it all to the car. (Typically generous, Noi paid him double the going rate suggested by the stall holder. He deserved it. The afternoon was unreasonably, unremittingly hot and tiring.) Before loading up we had tea & vadai, the latter being red hot and soft and delicious from having just been fried.

Now we're back home, with me writing this and still marking in between paragraphs. We're off to Woodlands this evening to play Happy Families with the girls, Noi having found a set of the playing cards at a shopping centre yesterday. No doubt Fuad and I will miserably recall the misfortune of last night's game, but I don't mind Chelsea winning too much. I have a bit of a soft spot for Mourinho. After all, a man who calls his dog Gullit can't be all bad.