Good news from a friend

At a recent work event, I complimented one of my colleagues (a gentleman in his 70s) on his outfit, and he told us proudly that his shirt actually belonged to his son, and he had managed to lose 40 kg since the pandemic began, by walking 5 km in a big park near his house, and doing a thirty-minute workout every morning before going to work. He's been doing this for at least a couple of years now, and we all congratulated him accordingly. He has significantly reduced his risk of a serious case of COVID-19 as well, which is good. He's fully vaccinated, but medical care here is iffy, and in view of his age and previous size, it would have been an unnecessary additional risk.

He's still overweight, but hopefully not for too much longer.

I have cautiously restarted the swimming, which had to stop for the last few weeks because of regular end-of-monsoon thunderstorms. The lightning strike that shook my house a few weekends ago was only about 20-30 metres away from the building, which is practically handshake distance for a lightning bolt, so I am taking no chances.

In some places, the reaction from pandemic lockdowns has led to the return of some unfortunate, and hopefully this time short-lived, fashion phenomena. Orange makeup. Patterned tights. Large shoulder pads. Corsets. Micro-minis. Some appear to have already died the death (pin-tops), and I expect the rest will follow in due course. Almost anything can look good on the right body and in the right context, but some things are less flexible than others.

On the other hand, it's nice to see bright colours for suits, and the apparent return of women's trouser suits with properly-cut, straight-leg trousers, rather than those skin-tight numbers fit only for the Korean boy-bands of a decade ago. This is of some direct interest, since my tailor has retired, and COVID-19 travel restrictions have kept his replacement in Bangkok off-limits since last year.

Cinnamon and 'cinnamon'

A really interesting article about the Sri Lankan cinnamon industry from Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/10/18/harvesting-true-cinnamon-the-story-of-the-ceylon-spice

Housekeeper is Sri Lankan, so Before COVID, I used to get regular supplies of Sri Lankan tea, spices (including cinnamon) and Sri Lankan ginger biscuits, The Best In The World (TM). We use both cassia and cinnamon, for different dishes, and there is a clear difference. Cassia is an ingredient of Chinese 5-spice powder, so it goes into all the Chinese cooking, but for everything else, whether curries or baking, we use true cinnamon.

My family's house in the motherland has a full-grown cinnamon tree, and while we don't harvest it for the bark, bunches of the thinner, leafy twigs make lovely, scented green bouquets at Christmas.