Well, we're in a hugely better place than we were at the end of last month. Nigel's operation went better than anyone had dared to hope. Since then, he has been in recovery mode. Which has meant life has been a bit dull and quiet, but that's much better than being "interesting" in all the ways it could have been.

He's really doing very well, but anything that involves poking around in people's heads is a reasonably big deal, so we're waiting for his next visit to the specialist before we start planning anything.

Starting to emerge from all this has really brought home, I realize, how traumatic these last six months have been. Mid-March was when it all started, and Nigel basically had to deal with two and a half months of pain. There were all the side-effects of medications to manage; there was the rollercoaster experience of things seeming to get better, only to turn dramatically to custard again. It was pretty exhausting. Then we had a wonderful June, and a good beginning to July. Things are looking up, we thought. Then came covid. And then there were a pile more hospital visits, plus the anxiety about the operation.


So it's wonderful -- really wonderful -- to have that all behind us. But it has spooked me, I think. I had two minor medical things to check out recently, and though neither turned out to be a problem, both times I found myself thinking: OK, here we go again, my turn now, the other shoe dropping... It's as though I've lost my confidence that life can ever again be anything other than a big, unpredictable worry, where you're just waiting for the next pile of crap to fall on your head. I detest this mindset, and wish I could make it go away. But it's like getting back in the saddle after a motorbike accident: You do it, but you're never quite so blithe as you were before...


Anyway, September... Lots of nice food and drink. Kuching is REALLY good at that. Lots of gentle walking. And a great day out at the Borneo Cultures Museum.

Plus lots of movies and reading... With 11 posts, it has been a record-shattering month on The Velvet Cushion... Three film posts, featuring movies set in France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, New Zealand, the United States, Afghanistan, and a swathe of Pacific islands. A songs round-up, covering some of the great music I've come across as a by-product of language-learning activities. And seven posts on novels/short story collections: Two set in Africa, Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, and His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie; two in North America, Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So, and Still Life by Louise Penny; one in Asia, but by a European author, Honeymoon in Shanghai by Maurice Dekobra; and two in Europe, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, and Shoot for the Moon by Reyes Calderon.

All interesting, all stimulating, all laying the ground for further intellectual exploration. But it will be nice to be venturing further afield again.