Miss Clueless

 What did I do on 7th March? Woke up late. I was in the bathroom when housekeeping started knocking on my door. I said 10 minutes and closed the door. Got ready and off to the beach. Walked as usual. A lot of walking every day. Found myself a spot and read for a while.Ate some snacks. Always have snacks in my tote bag. A Vietnamese book. A multigenerational story set during the Vietnam War. The Mountains Sing. It's sad to think about what Vietnamese people have gone through. "I wonder why foreign armies kept invading our country. First it was the Chinese, the Mongolians, the French, the Japanese, and now the American imperialist." Can we humans do without war, please?  "War isn't kindness or sympathy, Huong. War is death, sorrow, and misery."  As I was sitting and reading, from my peripheral vision, I saw a father take the seat next to me. He was watching his son play in front. I didn't even look at them, but I thought they were Koreans. I'm not sure...

 Woke up in my own sweet time. Read in bed for a while. Got up. Made coffee, the free coffee sachet from the hotel. Turns out it was strong black coffee. I am not a strong black coffee girl. But I hate to leave it like that, so I added both the sugar packets. Drank and got ready. Went for a little walk to a bakery, Vera Cakes, and bought some bread. Then, I headed to the beach. Walked for quite some time and decided to take a beach seat. Paid 40000 dong and sat there. Started reading, of course. A fruit seller came, and I bought an assorted fruit packet, 20000 dong. Also asked the beach seat guy for a tender coconut, 30000 dong. I ate some of that bread, so smooth, soft and tasty. Sat there for nearly two hours. Talked to my family on Whatsapp video call. Then it was time for lunch. I started walking back to the room. Looked around for restaurants on the way. For some reason didn't feel like going in any of them. The previous day, I had lunch at the Indian restaurant, but I couldn...

The room where I stayed in Hanoi wasn't good. As in, I wanted to leave as soon as I entered. Mold on the walls and ceiling. I'm okay the room wasn't new, but the furnishings didn't look tidy. The bathroom didn't look clean. I guess the owner is okay with how things are. Or he has other important things to worry about that he can't really be bothered by the state of the room. Who knows! Now, would I recommend the room to others? Absolutely not..  Checked out at 11:40 am. Booked a cab to Hoan Kiem Lake. Sat there next to the lake with my luggage. Gosh, the wind. Cool. But sitting for 3 hours with that breeze on your face while having your period!!... Nice view, though, and I got a shawl, a cap, and a face mask. Sat there with all that on and started Greek Lessons by Han Kang. All that time, several people came, sat next to me and went, one after the other. Ahem,  I'm officially someone who reads in public. At the cafe the day before, then at the lake. (I don...

 Took myself out on a solo trip. Boarded a morning flight from my home city, reached Kolkata airport for the connecting flight, went to the lounge and had lunch (thanks to my sister who got me a card with lounge access). I used to access the lounge in my travels before, but ever since I left my job, all my cards have no longer been accepted. Anyway, after lunch, I came out of the lounge and had some time before boarding the flight. I was sitting by myself, then two uncles came near me. One showed me his phone, indicating we had the same phone, and asked, "Can you charge my phone?" It was a little confusing. I asked him, "You want to borrow my charger?" He said, yes. He had left his in his checked-in baggage. Hmm, I didn't want to lie that I didn't have my charger, thought what harm is it? Let him borrow. I gave him my charger. He said, "You're also going to Hanoi, right?" I said yeah. He went to the charging point. I would have been happy if he...

 End-of-month blog check-in. I am very tired, and I'll keep this very short. I read these books this month. 1. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative by Mark Fisher Heard of Mark Fisher before, read this following a book rec on IG. Need a good understanding of American and British pop culture to better grasp the book. Still, it's worth reading.  "The relationship between capitalism and eco-disaster is neither coincidental nor accidental; capital's 'need of a constantly expanding market', its 'growth fetish', means that capitalism is by its very nature opposed to any notion of sustainability."  Truth! 2. All About Love by bell hooks I was searching for a book by bell hooks, following the same IG book rec from above, but found this instead. Again, worth the read.  "To truly love, we must learn to mix various ingredients- care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication."  I think th...

Seventy-nine? Looks like this is the number of books I'll read this year. Why? Because I read fifty-nine books in 2024 and sixty-nine in 2025. I can do it. Not fretting, though. The number of books is not important. What's really important, real readers know. To summarise the books I read in Jan: 1. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 2. Human Acts by Han Kang 3. My Friends by Fredrik Backman 4. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa 5. James Baldwin, The Last Interview and Other Conversations 6. Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman 7. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin 8. The Day the World Stops Shopping by J.B. Mackinnon 1. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky About free will, rationalism, ego, and contradiction. This is a reread. This time, I am more empathetic to the underground man compared to last time. I guess I grew a little. I may not get the full depth and meaning of the book. But I got enough to find it interesting.  Also, Fyodor Dostoyevsky...

Sixty-nine, not bad! Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul Arrival/Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf 🙌🏻 Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Glück Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah 👍🏻 The Enigma of Arrival by V. S. Naipaul The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 🩵 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 👍🏻 Anne of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan The Stranger by Albert Camus The Lady with the Little Dog by Anton Chekhov The Color Purple by Alice Walker Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin Beloved by Toni Morrison 🙌🏻 The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Kiki’s Delivery Service, Eiko Kadono The God of Small Thing...