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Showing posts from December, 2013

This is England

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This is England Winter Country Town Empty Skies When cycling the cold roads under these skies with a bottle of blackcurrant juice and a banana I listen to a playlist on my iPod. Rhythmic music works best since it segues with cycling cadence. "Twilight" is one of my favourites. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oayrvqJgWXU‎ Twilight by Frankie Beverly and Maze Current reading : Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburo  Oe The Shining by Roger Luckhurst The Interrogation by Jean Marie Gustave Le Clezio Listening to:  My God is Blue by Sebastien Tellier Cold, bright meadow Winter River It is difficult to describe what one feels looking at a scene like this (without breaking into nature poetry). So I'll let Benjamin Britten do it with the help of a precocious American child. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF1jYAQr-FU Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra Op 34 from the Henry Purcell. If you

Hard Rain

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Welcome to readers from Luxembourg Malacca, Malaysia Malacca arrived as a moment of joy after the rat-infested promontory of Kota Bharu in the north-east of the country. The overnight bus doubled up as meat locker. Icy air-conditioning combined with movies played all night at ear-splitting volume. And now the morning. Walking into Malacca in a daze. In Kota Bharu the rats came out at sunset. They overran the town. The size of toy dogs they lumbered up to piles of rotting vegetables left over from the market. These rats were corpulent, overfed, languid, the sign that they had no predators. I would not have been surprised to see them smoking cigars together. The Straits of Malacca are the longest in the world (500 miles) connecting the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.  Malacca, or Melaka, is a cute town. Low key, pretty. Below is a Malaysian tower mosque in a sunblind street. Kampung Kling mosque, built 1748, is situated