Nice, downbeat tale of a desperate writer’s tangled web. Mick Jagger is fun to watch in support.
Journal articles
Sydney
Coffee, turkish bread, great weather (except for the rain) and fun people. Aaah.
Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks — The Brunettes
1960s bubblegum pop meets modern retro stylings with a New Zealand indie vibe. And if you understand that sentence then you’ll enjoy this album. I did.
Auckland
Still green, beautiful and mad-keen on sailing, just as I remembered it.
Blue Mountains — in NSW, Australia
The 11-month drought started to break while we were there. Everybody was a bit confused at all the water that was falling from the sky. Still lots of nice sunshine though.
Mount Fuji
Fuji is visible from central Tokyo (e.g. from my office building), but only on clear days. In January we went to Hakone, near Fuji, to stay in a Japanese inn and soak in hot pools. Riding a cable car and then a ropeway up a nearby mountin, we got a rare clear view of the mountain.
The photo was taken after riding the ropeway up the nearby mountain. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind was so strong it was hard to stand up straight, and freezing cold too. I went through great discomfort getting the photos.
Moral Hazard — Kate Jennings
A wry look at Wall Street, told in the voice of a outsider who has a much bigger problem than mere money to deal with. The world of investment banking may be even more dodgy than we thought. Now they tell me.
Gosford Park
A rollicking English country estate whodunit. Great fun. Stars more famous actors than you could poke a cloak and dagger at.
Amrita — Banana Yoshimoto
The story of an extraordinary few months in the life of an unusual family in Tokyo. The narrator is engagingly curious, with a tendency to wax philosophical; the plot starts off conventionally but then comes over all mystical. Quite fun to read.
Hakone — near Mount Fuji
Stayed in a ryokan with an onsen (spa), fabulous food and, marvellously, good heating. And the view of Mount Fuji from the aerial cable car was stunning – no fog, no obscuring cloud, just a magnificent white mountain.