It was a day late, but my strawberry New York cheesecake sundae, from Paddington House of Pancakes, looked pretty Valentinesy, I thought. In its sweet, creamy depths lurked lots of the tiny "dollar" pancakes that are PHOP's speciality.

We followed that little frivolity with the much more sobering Human, a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

This is possibly the nearest thing we'll get to a God's-eye view of the world...

It layered amazingly beautiful aerial footage -- both landscapes and living subjects -- with full-face-to-camera oral testimony, edited from the answers to the same 40 questions put to humans around the world. Love, contentment, poverty, spirituality, violence, death: we ran the gamut of emotions.

Human beings open up when they feel they are being listened to. And freed from the shackles of expectation, they talk to the camera like they talk to God or their own soul. Just as God's does, no doubt, your heart cannot but ache for the frailty of humans, the struggles they face, and the courage and hope so many are able to bring to bear on their short time on earth.

Many of the shots emphasized how many we are. So many brides and grooms, so many people in rubber rings waiting for that fun wave, so many rag-pickers riding the billows of the digger-stirred trash-ground... The juxtaposed interviews, on the other hand, underlined the total individuality of every single human who has ever lived on the planet.

Immensely moving.

At the end, the camera follows a watercourse etched in the ochre ground. As tributary after tributary feeds into the main channel, the shape resembles the tree of life.

Let's celebrate it while we have it.

Otherwise, it's been a Korea-dominated week...

We've been back to the inimitable Sopoong for Tteokbokki.



Malaysia has experienced a real, live, K-drama-meets-John-Le-Carre at KLIA2.

And, after a run of fictional intrigue, we reached the last episode of Sign, the forensic K-drama that has kept us darkly entertained over the last few weeks.

Great ending, though terribly sad... Park Shin Yang clearly doesn't do happy endings.

Back into celebratory mode for the weekend, however.

Another graduation.

And another gloriously exuberant Spanish concert from the MPO, with glittering, blood-stirring music by Turina, Navarro, de Falla, and Gimenez. The conductor, the solo clarinet player, and the dancer/castanets player all hailed from Madrid.

After which, you cannot but return to Fresca for tea and churrrrrros. This time we had two dunks: chocolate and cajeta (a caramel dip made from goat's milk).

Dear KL. There's so much to enjoy.