Just Wandering

Spent the evening sampling the considerable charms of George Town in Penang. The streets are authentically run-down, yet quietly pulsating with life. We ate at a P, Ramlee-themed restaurant and found ourselves treated to music from the man himself that genuinely sounded amicably charming - and the fact that the food was excellent made for a gently memorable evening.

And since the journey here from KL was uneventfully easy-going, and the hotel we're in is more than a bit pleasant, today joins the count of highly-satisfactory days scored in this vacation.

Just Watching

Took delivery of a new television set today. Now receiving Apple TV, but having problems installing the app which will enable Noi to watch her Malay dramas. Our old Astro box no longer plugs in, so it looks like we'll be abandoning that subscription and watching stuff online. Nice to be able to watch a bit of telly together, but I'm struck by how little we really need this. Still, need to acknowledge we're lucky to have it.

A Force For Good

Very glad I decided not just to skim-read the early chapters from Frederick Douglass's Life and Times on his years of slavery on the grounds that almost everything therein is a repeat of the material on those years from My Bondage and My Freedom, which is in itself an expanded account of the pithy Narrative of the Life. For some reason the painful injustices of slavery as experienced by Douglass seemed even more intense on this re-reading and his remarkable strength of personality came through even more vividly than ever.

I'm now embarked on his account of the years of his freedom, so the narrative has a sense of novelty about it as I've only got the vaguest notions of what he achieved in those years. But you wouldn't need to be a detective to guess that his life is going to be an extraordinary one given the qualities he shows in his youth. The man is one of the most abundantly formidable I've ever read of. I'm not sure he always gets it right, but I am sure he lives with an overwhelming drive to do what is right that is deeply inspiring, and chastening. 

Catching Up

Enjoyed a neighbourly makan session at our place this evening with Susan & Mike & their daughter, Ashley. Good to catch up on the gossip from the taman, and Malaysia in general, and share tales of adventures overseas - nattering about everything in general and nothing in particular.

In The Background

Did you know that there are people who need to have the tv series Friends being screened in the background so they can lull themselves to sleep? It seems that the show has been a mainstay of the streaming service Netflix for several years, but now they're dropping their screening, and there's been an outcry from fans who desperately need the comforting familiarity of the many episodes to drop off to. According to the article I was reading about all this, it's the predictability of the rhythms of it all that do the job for these folk, sending them happily to the land of nod. I certainly didn't know this, or suspect anything like it, until I read about the phenomenon today, and I don't think the new information has in any way enhanced my life

Indeed, the way in which I found it out, idly scanning the news just to fill in time, frankly, is strangely reminiscent of what these viewers, or, rather, half-viewers are doing. I'm feeling acutely guilty at the moment at just how little of real value I've accomplished today. I've read hardly anything of genuine value, requiring effort and attention. Just trivial stuff off the phone, with me sometimes scrolling pointless comments on the pointless stories simply to fill in time, it being too much trouble to extend myself further.

So instead of feeling complacently superior to those who employ an old favourite comedy as a narcotic, I'm worrying that I'm only too ready to embrace my own version of brain-rotting substances at the first opportunity. 

Keeping Still

Nephew Ashraf popped round today to help us make some sense of the problems we're having with the electrics of the household. Not quite solved everything yet, but achieved a reasonably steady state. Stayed on the hill; a deliberately quiet, unadventurous day was in order and we've been enjoying it.

On The Move

18.06

A grey day. A lazy day. A sleepy day. A snuggling day. Neat descriptions from The Missus. And we’re on the road. So far, so good. Now supping tea at Ayer Keroh.

20.15

Now munching dinner on the hill after one of the easiest passages north we’ve ever experienced. Talk about smooth-sailing!

22.23

Now installed in Maison KL with most things working. Will be able to stop moving soon!

22.45

Spoke far too soon. Sudden blackout meant we needed to deal with dicey things going on in the main fuse-box. Now celebrating the equivocal joys of home-ownership as things remain dicey. But grateful for a roof over our heads.

Covering Up

Spoiler alert: more first world moaning ahead.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling increasingly out of sorts with the barrage of advertising I encounter online. Somebody somewhere seems to think I need to subscribe to a course in tai chi for the elderly and interrupts every video I'm watching to tell me so. I'm never going to subscribe to any such course, largely on account of the fact I find the ads so irritating. And weirdly patronising. As are the ads for the six month course in AI that I'll never get involved in.

And why is that every story in the Graun online gets covered up with ads as I'm reading along, often meaning I lose track of where I'm up to? I'm used to the idea of reading as a reasonably soothing activity. Now the online version of the activity is usually mildly unsettling and occasionally feels impossibly fragmented.

The irony of it all is I never buy anything advertised, so if I'm being tracked by the surveillance capitalism they talk about, why don't the capitalists give up on me as a sad loss? I won't mind at all.

More Plans

We're off to Maison KL next Tuesday, which means we're now figuring out what exactly we need to do whilst we're in residence. It strikes me that I'm quite good at making plans. But not always effective in carrying them through. Mind you, having said that, somehow The Missus and I contrive to keep the place in something like running order, which isn't easy when you consider just how much there usually is in need of repair.

I think it would be reasonable to claim that most of the things I needed to do before setting off north have been done, with one glaring exception that I'm managing not to do by posting to this Far Place when I should be doing it. Oh hum. You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson by now considering my advanced and advancing years. But I somehow haven't.

Plenty Going On

We quite enjoy watching The Morning Show on Apple TV and got to the end of the first season yesterday. Lots going on, all of it suitably dramatic. But we got lost trying to follow the first episode of Season 2 this evening. Is this what life is like for the rich & successful? Makes me more thankful than ever for the uneventfulness that marks our passage through the world.