Since returning from India, my days have been long and work-filled.

But, of course, KL manages to pop something magical into even the most dreary of weeks.

I thoroughly enjoyed La la land. What a beautiful movie. A feast for the eyes and the ears, yet with a poignant, oh-so-realistic story of what might have been. "If we'd just done things differently, what might have been?"

And, in our home movie experience, we've not only watched Saving Mr Banks, whose evocation of the way childhood traumas define us I actually found quite moving, but also embarked on a new K-drama, Sign. This is another of these forensic pathology crime dramas, but with the usual Korean twist of corruption and hidden hands. There's been one dodgy episode, but the rest have been fine and exciting.

(We obtain all this home celluloid, by the way, from Speedy Video, which always sounds like it's straight out of Alexander McCall Smith. We really should get into streaming, but it's still nice to browse a real shop.)

We had our usual breakfast at Tommy Le Baker last Saturday, and picked up kouign amann for tea. We used to have these for New Year's in Brittany, many decades ago. Ah, the nostalgia...







On the way back from Tommy's, we happened upon a little Pongal ceremony at a local eatery. We happily joined in. (And we returned to the place for breakfast a few days later. They do good uttapams.)

As the milk boils over, may the year overflow with blessings for us all...



We also enjoyed a thoroughly virtuoso organ recital at the Dewan Filharmonik one evening. The only problem was that we were a fairly clueless audience, and didn't know when the pieces had actually stopped... After two unapplauded offerings, and with two still to go, the guy walked off, possibly in despair... Presumably someone alerted him to the problem, because he reappeared, was duly applauded, and sat down to play the rest of the programme. He must have forgiven us because he played two encores, including a bit of Bach's Toccata and Fugue.

And of course, it wouldn't be KL without its wonderful contrasts...