sundries

[rm]

dr_is_in's husband passed away this morning after a long illness. Despite the seriousness of his health condition, he'd been making good progress lately and this was somewhat unexpected at this time. To add to the tragedy (and I am heartbroken that this is the second time I've had to post something like this this year), Tami needs our help in order to have a funeral for her husband. They'd been struggling to get by for some time now, and with a focus on day-to-day survival, no one was ready for this. I've never met Tami personally, but we've had significant contact online and know she's an actual person who has just experienced an actual loss.

People were seriously not kidding about the intensity of the pressure changes up here. Last night I woke in the night with intense nausea and vertigo and came in this morning to hear a colleague was at home vomiting from a migraine as the sun tried to burn off the cloud seal. When things cleared briefly, my ears popped and I had another dizzy spell, and my face has sort of ached since, but I'm mostly okay now. I am, apparently, getting off easy, and I'll be glad to be back down to Zurich this coming weekend.

Patty and I made some plans when we vid chatted yesterday, both for Zurich and for when I am in the UK. We've agreed to go down to London on the Sunday before I leave and stay at the ridiculous hotel I stayed at last time at the end of my Bristol trip, as she wants to see it. We'll go to our favorite restaurant on Brick Lane and we'll spend some time in Camden. We've also agreed to plain other excursions when we see each other in person this coming weekend because it's easier then.

I've been thinking, brought on by a recent post of Patty's where she mentions missing New York (and links to this fab article, which I don't agree with all of, but love with most fibres of my being), about places I love versus places I miss. I love London, feel absurdly and easily at home there, but I don't ache for London. New York and Sydney, I ache for. Burlington, VT and SF's Chinatown too. Interesting stuff. All places where I've had both love and loneliness.

My endless New York.

Speech and harm: examining the power of slurs.

A fiery way out for women in Afghanistan.

Visiting the kitchen at The Ivy.

Europe house of the day: Nightingale House.

I have survived the goblin episode of Merlin, It was terrible through and through. That said, I totally see why some people care about this show now. It's taken on just a slight edge of something I can't put my finger on in S3 -- maybe it's just that Merlin looks slightly older, but the show has this energy of teetering on a great abyss now, and even if it's still a mess as narrative and structure, that teetering is damn compelling.

Aaaaaand, it looks like it's officially Gatsby for the next Luhrmann film with DiCaprio officially playing Jay Gatsby. No surprise, but official's official. Gah, get me back to New York.