In praise of sudoku

 As my years advance, I have become more aware of my declining mental health and cognitive abilities. I can see the effects of this on my own mother who is in the middle stages of Alzheimers.

I have tried various methods to counter this and one of these is doing the Japanese mathematical puzzle sudoku. I found it has improved my memory and analytical skills. And its quite enjoyable to do. It also works well with the modern tablet and Ipad age. On my chosen sudoku app, I’m on the hardest level already with less than twenty clues in a nine by nine grid.

In praise of going to museums

Throughout my adult life, I have always been fascinated by museums, I have my favourites (Imperial war museum London and the Louvre, Paris) which I been to many times and will continue to visit whenever I get the chance.

As well as learning something and being entertained, I have found them to be places where I can relax as well. Some are expensive, some cheap and some free.  Plus the museum restaurant is a good place to find a hearty budget lunch.

Today I paid another visit to the Hong Kong Palace Museum to see the ancient Egypt exhibition. It was smaller than I expected and well presented.  There were no mummies available but plenty of coffins and statues. One thing I learnt was that mummification of the dead in Egypt continued into the Hellenic and Roman periods.  Also the entrails of the deceased were removed, stored in jars and entombed with the body, very unpleasant work for the unlucky one.

Since I have already seen the other galleries I left after not long afterwards.

Lunar New Year

It's that time of year again, the new lunar year is upon us, today is lunar new years eve and tomorrow its the year of the horse. Here in Hong Kong its a time for family get togethers, sharing presents and putting up decorations. As a Chinese person, it helps gets through the depressing months of January and February, especially when I lived in the UK. All I can say is happy new year everyone.

In praise of…………. watching live sport

Yesterday I went to Reading to see some friends for dinner, in order to maximise my time there, i went to watch the local football team play at extravagantly named Select-A-Car stadium.  Reading FC played Barnsley in a third tier match. The game ended in a 2-2 draw and it was good way to spend an afternoon.  Obviously the skill levels were below the levels of the EPL, however it was the excitement, frustration, joys and the sense of shared community spirit which caught my mind. Here you can let out your emotions alongside your fellow fans and spectators.  This cannot replicated in a pub or watching it via television at home. Despite advances in technology, nothing matches the thrill of watching something live.

Jerusalem string quartet

Last night I attended a concert performed by the Jerusalem String Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in London. This combo from Israel has been attracting the pro-Palestine/antisemite crowd over the years so I decided to see and listen to them for myself.

The pieces performed included one from Mozart, Shulamit Ran and Ravel in that order. I have been to a few classical concerts in the past few years including a number of BBC Proms concerts.  The pieces were delivered with passion to a polite crowd that included several chinese concert goers. It was what I expected. Wigmore Hall being a rather small venue was perfect for this, as it gave me a cosy in ones’ living room experience.

The Rise of Skywalker

 On my flight from Hong Kong to London, I watched the last box office installment of the Star Wars franchise, “The Rise of Skywalker”.  All I can say is that this is the worst film of the franchise and Disney has truly ruined what George Lucas created.

My criticisms include CGI use of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and most controversially the re-spawning of Emperor Palpatine.  They could have written Leia out of the story and the re-spawn of Palpatine meant that the entire ending of episode six, “The return of the Jedi”, meant nothing.

The only redeeming feature was the cameo given by Dennis Lawson as Wedge Antilles.  I agreed with the prequels and also with “Rogue One” but the films after Return of the Jedi should never have been made. 

bodø/glimt vs manchester city

I had the pleasure of listening to this game on BBC Radio 5 Live and all I can say is well done bodø glint.  The BBC has many faults, especially in news reporting but it does live sport really well.