Water, Water Everywhere

After a visit to my friendly neighbourhood back doctor yesterday afternoon (I’m still on plenty of medication but my condition has distinctly improved) we made our way north to Maison KL, stopping only for a quick cuppa and a bit of nosh at the Ayer Keroh services where I met Rachid’s brother and we made fun of Rachid crying over the United / Arsenal result In the semi-final. I should perhaps point out that the family in Melaka is a hotbed of support for the gonners, and I intend to enjoy going there on Sunday and taking a deeply childish revenge for the Emirates game early in the season, which I unfortunately watched there with all sorts of rapscallions getting in my face.

On arrival here things were generally in good order, but we faced a bit of a headache with the water supply, carried over from the last time we were in residence. We thought the pump was damaged, the one that supplies water to the tank that feeds the showers, the toilets and the hot water supply. This resulted in a cold shower for me this morning, though in this climate that’s hardly something to moan about. Anyway Noi arranged for Ah Seng, our friendly neighbourhood contractor to come around and his plumbing guys solved the problem in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t the pump, which we’d had replaced about five years ago, leaving us a bit miffed over the idea it had failed again, but an outside supply tap that someone had foolishly switched off. I hasten to add that for once I was not that fool.

So now everything is in order and we’re reminded of just how privileged we are to have all the fundamentals, and much beside, that we need.

This morning, and early afternoon I got a fair amount of marking done interspersed with reading from Mailer – I’ve now reached The White Negro, probably the finest essay in the book and one that had quite an influence on me in my callower years – and Alan Moore & David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta. A bit of a surprise this one as it wasn’t even close to my must-read list (which is pretty long, I can tell you) but I tend to associate this house with the pleasures of graphic novels – I keep most of mine here – and I’ve greatly enjoyed picking it up again. This time I’ve been ‘reading’ the art work with a good deal more care and generally following the story more closely after a somewhat breathless original reading, for the gripping story.

I also indulged my ears with a bit of Richard Strauss’s Salome. I got hold of this as a result of what Alex Ross has to say about it in The Rest Is Noise (most of which is good.) Fortunately that won’t influence me over much as I’ve forgotten the details and I’m trying to listen hard with open ears. Frankly this is part of an attempt to educate my ears particularly regarding opera, and the world of serious music in general. I intend to be fairly systematic about this, but don’t worry, my systems never work. This morning’s listening was intriguing. Something along the lines of: I don’t immediately get this, it’s all too busy for me, but I think I will be able to tune in if I really try. And I intend to really, really try. More anon, I think.