The last time I posted was from the top-deck of an A380 en route to California ahead of a stag do in Las Vegas. The time before that was from the aftermath of the Ishikawa earthquake in north central Japan. Literal ups, figurative downs. Some shaking-side-to-side. This time I am on a plane to Dubai for a trial: shaking in all directions.
Another figurative down has been a very significant weight loss: I woke up one morning in a Las Vegas hotel room – bleary-eyed, dazed and confused (and that was just on seeing the $25 bottled water – and realised that my figure was less Princess Leia in gold bikini, than full-pomp Jabba-the-Hutt. Something, as they say, had to be done. And so, at least in part, it was. Close to 20kg of blubber lost, I feel released to return to other projects, and some of you are kind enough to humour me - it’s all I ask – that you enjoyed the blathering I set out in these posts and would like to read more. So I will give you what you want.
I think what I will do is this: there will be two posts from Things I Love each week. One will be on a literary theme. The other, more capricious blathering. There will be ad hoc posts of a more epicurean nature, most likely my reviews of decent gin martinis I have had (“Gins I love”[1]). Let’s have the literary stuff on a Tuesday and the blather on a Friday. Gin is good for any day of the week.
So that’s the plan: less blubber, more blather. More books, more trucs, more gin, lemon and vermouths.
[1] Relatedly, I can hear the sound of ice cubes shaking from the cabin crew galley on this flight. Please don’t let them be shaking my first ever martini at 35,000ft...