YOLD

My lesson from Thursday night: when wearing a nice woven silk tie, don’t lean across a table with a rough edge for a protracted period of time. This course of action may well result in the little threads becoming broken, loose, or otherwise completely stuffed up.

Actually maybe not completely. It just looks a bit… well, wrinkled. At least from some angles. I’ll see if I can batter it about with an iron or something.

I’ve just finished reading The Year Of Living Dangerously. Yes it’s true, I’m not a particularly fast reader. That is, I don’t seem to have (or make) much time to read. Most of it’s confined to the trip to and from work, which is only about 15 minutes each way. And some of that on the way home is taken up by reading the trashy (but free)MX. So, it’s taken me a month or so to get through it.

What sparked me off reading the book – seeing the movie, and the character of Billy Kwan being based on my father – has faded somewhat as the story has weaved its way to the September 13th attempted coup. He was still there, but less prominent in the plot, and the rich characterisation which introduced his character has reduced.

It’s not Kwan’s beliefs (political and otherwise) which are based on dad, but rather his mannerisms. I’m happy to say that my dad doesn’t have the same strange fascination with dwarves that Kwan has — in fact my dad says this probably comes from Koch himself, who although not a dwarf, is a tad on the short side, and may have a bit of a hang-up about his height.

Anyway it remains an interesting read, especially as Hamilton walks head-long into the coup attempt. As I said when I started reading it, the themes are still very much present in the world today: the clashes between western and other cultures, the moral questions over poverty, and the involvement of journalists in the stories they cover. Definitely recommended.