I continue to work like a donkey. There is ALWAYS too much to do... So the small treats -- a couple of hours of celluloid here, a sweet morsel there, a little conviviality some other place -- are really important.

Kung Fu Panda 3 was this week's much-needed Wednesday outing. It's undemanding; it's fun. The pandas are adorable, and the animation is fabulous.

And after seeing KFP3, what do you need? You need DUMPLINGS (and, ideally, steamed buns too). And then you need to take pictures of pandas. Because you're besotted.



Even better than KFP3 -- yes, really -- was Zootopia. The eye for detail is quite wonderful, the ear for dialogue spot on. It's really funny, while also being genuinely inspiring. World, take note.



Our Korean streak continues (although, alas, there's no time for continued language-learning). We met up on Sunday with some friends at Dubuyo in PWTC, who do a very good-value lunch special. Each diner gets rice, soup, side dishes, hot barley to drink, and a dessert (in our case tofu and a tangy grapefruit sauce), and there are four dishes for the table (we chose pajeon, spicy chicken wings, chicken bulgogi, and a tofu and seafood stew). I don't think it's as authentic as my favourite Sopoong, but for MYR 100 for four, it's not to be sneezed at.

On a slightly higher-brow note, we took in a trumpet recital last weekend. On our Mermaid programme there also figured a Brahms Serenade and Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, played by Pacho Flores, from Venezuela. We liked him so much we went back for his Sunday concert. It sounds like a terrible cliche to talk of Latin passion, but this music, by Spanish, Uruguayan, and Venezuelan composers, was nothing if not hot, by turns fiery and slinky.

And who knew there were so many kinds of trumpets in the world? Or so many different kinds of mutes to put in them? Or that, given the amount of water that comes out, you could imagine a Mr Bean-like mopping person appearing half-way through?

Another pleasant surprise this week was The Pullman's happy hour, where they do good-quality two-for-the-price-of-one wine. It's a nice place to repair to with colleagues, especially on a Friday evening after two meetings and a research seminar.

And in the dessert category (because who can survive hard work without regular sweetness):

A Cadbury creme egg... I haven't had one of those for years, and it was delicious. It cost a whopping MYR 5, and it seemed a little smaller than I'd remembered. Otherwise I found it wonderfully unchanged -- although apparently it has been.

More of Whittakers' wonderful Artisan Collection. Marlborough sea salt and caramel brittle this time. Yum-mee.

And Pavlova. From Serai. Pretty nice for an out-of-New-Zealand Pavlova. Their pandan banana fritters are good, too.