In Pieces

Starting a new term and remembering to put things together bit by bit by bit by bit. And then another bit.

Of Good Cheer

Driving through Alor Gajah the other day Noi asked how I thought it compared to Denton & Hyde in terms of the essential health of the township. We both thought it came out of the comparison well. There's no sense of the death of the High Street as in so many small towns in the UK. No boarding up of shops and vacant spaces appearing. Quite the opposite. And I'd say the same is true of Tampin from what we saw of the town last night. If folks are struggling here, and I'm sure that's true of at least a few, probably more, it isn't visibly manifesting as a general sense of economic woe. And similarly this morning as we were eating a late breakfast at Warung Nek Muna's next door, the crowd there, with lots of small children in tow, appeared full of vim, ready to get on with the business of living in cheerful fashion.

Mind you, I'm inclined to think that a bit more attention being paid to reducing the general amount of litter defacing the streets and drains would add even more good cheer.

Not In Fashion

Drove out to Tampin this evening, quite a distance from Alor Gajah. Enjoyed ourselves at the Kayo Cafe with Yazir & Wan & Maya. An old-fashioned place for an old-fashioned dinner for old-fashioned kind of people.

Left Undone

No work could be done at Maison KL today as it's a public holiday here in Malaysia. But Ah Sing reckons he needs a couple of weeks more to complete all that needs completing and to put things back in some kind of order. So we made our way to Melaka in the afternoon, figuring that Noi will make her way back to the homestead some time in late July when all's done to re-establish ordinary life.

We're lucky not to have strict deadlines on our domestic arrangements over here. We've got a range of places to retreat to when necessary, which is an unusual privilege, to say the least. I really don't mind if we're still putting the final touches to the place as late as December this year; I'm pretty good at delaying gratification.

Questions Of Value

Decided that I need to consciously restrict myself to watching material of genuine value on YouTube. To that end I thoroughly enjoyed an illuminating lecture on Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time this evening, learning a lot about the exact circumstances in which it was composed and how the great composer understood the notion of time in relation to his own music. Unfortunately I also watched some celebrity-related rubbish in the course of the day which I'm too embarrassed to link to. It's so easy to be shallow, eh?

Visiting

Drove over to Shah Alam today to see Sharifah & Hamza. Sharifah isn’t feeling too well at present. She’s been bruising easily and her blood count doesn’t look good at all - now awaiting the results of further testing. We’re hoping for the best.

Managed a thoroughly cheerful evening despite our concerns, so in that sense all is well.

On The Floor

Work on the new floor in the house proceeds apace with quite a number of the tiles now in place. Must say, I'm happy to be away from it all for the moment, though it will be nice to get back to life as usual. We're hoping to do so by the end of the week, though I suspect it'll take until the year's end to get everything in real order. Good to have a project to look forward to, I suppose.

Street Life

It's warm of an evening in the city, which makes walking pleasant from my point of view - though I think Noi has her reservations about over-doing it. It's also refreshing to walk around without coming across too many folk who are obviously struggling. Hope this is a sign that most of those at the bottom are being provided for, one way or another. Across three evenings we've probably walked by around ten people who looked like they didn't have anywhere to go and might well be spreading themselves out on or around the pavement. None of these looked particularly vulnerable, and one can only hope that looks weren't deceptive. 

Mind you, there were small children involved in three cases with the young women looking after them seeming to be surrounded by and guarding their few possessions. But the kids looked well cared for. Somehow this didn't seem as desperate as it perhaps should have done.

The Big City

Took a stroll this evening to Bukit Bintang, generally taken to be one of the most happening places in the city. The experience served to confirm the obvious. We are small fry in a very big place. This is massive, perspicaciously noted Noi as we drank a cuppa in a shopping centre known as The Pavilion:

Mind you, it was interesting to note that the room for prayers in the centre, tucked away down a long corridor off the 4th floor, was relatively small. Presumably this was not one of the designers' priorities. 

Keeping It Real

Put in another shift at the gym in the early afternoon and did not enjoy it at all. Which is making me wonder if I'm setting the resistance too high on the machines I've been using - varying the trainer of choice today. The sense of the effort required to get the wheels turning feels similar to the setting for my usual machine (which is the highest resistance available for that version of the elliptical  trainer) but after a time keeping going on these different machines takes quite some doing. I don't mind the idea of making an effort in the interest of keeping reasonably in shape, but I'm not sure it should feel quite so forbidding. Indeed, I'm sort of surprised I've managed a full one hour session today and Thursday.

For the last fifteen minutes today I kept myself going by visualising myself slurping down epic amounts of cold water as soon as I got back to our room. And I can assure you the water tasted especially good when I was able to make the fantasy real.