This just in from Luigi in Fiji (or wherever he was when he sent it).
"Yeah yeah ok ok, here they are …
Hullo this is Ruth and these are my Oscar picks. I used to be quite cocky about the annual face off between Luigi and myself -- mainly because I always won. I won for years and years and years and years. Then Luigi moved to a place where he could actually see some of the movies that were nominated and he started winning. Which is weird because movies win Oscars for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with how good they are and you should be able to pick the winners without having seen any of them. Anyway, now that Jeremy's in the running I hope to start winning again, or at least to not be the biggest loser. Okay, without further ado…
Yesterday, walking from the conference centre to the hotel, we found a dead snake on the pavement. Significant, or what? Turns out Ruth hasn't even seen Blade Runner. So the snake had no more than the usual curiosity value for her.
Dinner: more exceedingly fresh fishy stuff, flip-flapping and cl...
Advised to go to Bintang Walk in search of good local cuisine, last night we ended up at a covered food hall about the size of a football field, though not as wide. Down each long side were booths that each seemed to specialise in a limited repertoire of dishes. We approached Kee Yuan's Seafood and asked the man what he had. He pointed to a glass tank clacking with crabs and in a couple of minutes the deal was done. Seafood noodles and steamed crab. We sat down at a table, bolted to the floor, on chairs bolted to the floor. Our host arranged for someone else from way down the food hall to bring cold beers, and we waited.
Kuala Lumpur is "very Blade Runner". I confess I lean to the Futurama interpetation myself, but a woman who has already visited Chinatown (while I've been oscillating between hotel and conference centre) assured me it was so. In that spirit, my colleague Ruth wishes it to be known that she is available for anyone who would care to stalk a replicant through the rain-soaked streets of KL. She doesn't know what that means, but I do, and that's what counts.
