Interspersed with work this week (it's a study week, so there are no lectures, but there is always lecture preparation and a host of other things...) have been little bits of Lunar New Year.

On New Year's Eve morning, we had breakfast at Chow Kit market (lots of buyers and lots of bustle, but some stalls had already closed), and had a walk through the always charming Kampung Baru..





In the evening, we had tea at the KLCC Ben's, and watched those gorgeous fountains, whose intricate choreography never fails to mesmerize and move me.



To Pavilion next, to watch Jackie Chan's Dragonblade. LOTS of blood, surely not all necessary. But Chan is always likable; the plot satisfyingly reinvents the eternal divide between those who believe in a pluralist, multi-ethnic peace and those who are out to divide and rule; and the modern-day questions it raises were intriguing: where is today's "Silk Road Protection Squad", and under whose imperial peace will these Uighurs and "White Indians" and "Huns" and "Parthians" have to coexist today?

The evening's drizzle muted the local firecrackers and fireworks, but a thunderstorm eventually gave nature's big welcome to the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram.

On New Year's morning, we went to the Islamic Arts Museum. My third visit, but none the less interesting for that.



Lot 10's Hutong was insanely busy that evening, but we eventually procured a table and some food. (Durian snow ice for me, inspired by that durian stall the previous day.)

We rounded off the day at Village Bar in the Starhill Gallery, whose food basement we'd missed on our last visit. A very pleasant venue for conversation and drinks (alcoholic and otherwise).



And this morning, before settling down to work, we strolled some of the always picturesque but today holiday-quiet streets of the neighbourhood.

Lucky...