The weeks since the last KL diary have been filled not only with work but with preparations for moving. So it's been even busier than usual.

But we did get to see Murder on the Orient Express.

Not so fantastic, this. Johnny Depp is great as the blaggard of my title. And I quite liked Branagh's slightly heavier portrayal of the great sleuth Poirot.

But it was a very talky movie, and none of the huge stars got to do much starring. The early scenes looked as though someone had gone crazy with the computer-generation. (As this critic puts it, it is at times an "inexplicably fake-looking film", even though much of it was shot using replicas.)

Of course, I loved the train (and the Trans-Siberian has hiked a number of places up my to-do list). And all the critics rave about Sidney Lumet's 1974 version, which starred Albert Finney. That would definitely be worth a view, too.

There was also time for a trip with colleagues to The Barn in Pavilion. Not a bad place. You can get a glass of very acceptable house red for 15 ringgit.

But what to do with STUFF has been a major preoccupation.

Despite having distributed a number of books to students, we still had a sizeable amount, and needed to devise a more wholesale solution. We tried the Kurau Community Library in Bangsar first. They turned out not to be looking for donations at the moment. But it is a truly fascinating space.



And the visit also gave us the opportunity to try out Proof, which specializes in wine and pizza. This is not the cheapest of places, but we had a carafe of good Shiraz, and our pizza -- smoked beef, artichokes, cherry tomatoes, pearl onions, and scamorza -- was delicious. (Never heard of scamorza? Me neither. It's apparently "an Italian, spun paste cows milk cheese belonging to the pasta filata family". None the wiser? Me neither... The taste and consistency were commendable though.)



But I digress. Back to books.

Public libraries are an area of KL life that I obviously haven't investigated seriously enough. And -- surprisingly perhaps, given that we're in the TLDR era -- community book ventures seem to be thriving.

It is with one such, Rumah Attap 84, that a sizeable contingent of our books have now found their home. This new venture is on Jalan Rotan, which also hosts the little art gallery we visited back in the summer.

Our books are reportedly set to increase the current English-language collection by 50%. Here they are, bagged up and on their way:



The rest have either gone, accompanied by a motley collection of other household goods, to charity, or are waiting in my office for my return.

Meanwhile, it's Christmas...