Quintana Roo

Makes me think of Quantas and kangaroos = Radio Roo!

(¿Anyone else remember that silly little talk children{s show on CBBC?)

Today, I petted and held a baby crocodile, had a boa constrictor draped about the neck, and got a kiss from a friendly Macaw called Anna.

Tomorrow, we{re going into the sea with snorkels and the cenotes with oil-free sunscreen.

I{ve always wanted to see a manatee (mermaid).

Dinner was yummy fresh fish, rice, and veg.

Fishing will be fun, along with the sunrise at sea.

¿Why aren{t there more Asian people here?

Who could have telescoped

that I will have arthritis in my left hip but Dr. M who was a good 40 minutes late. Apparently, there is nothing to be done save to plug on, plunket onward, do what I have always been doing: impulse-buying cookies that are a bit too stubborn to the tooth, peddling my bicycle slow enough for comfort, pining away for cats I may never own.

I hope this fit of the blues passes as it's slowing things down. We're off to the Mayan ruins for spring break next weekend. When we come back there is that scramble for door tickets to the hottest event in town: the Association of Asian Studies' annual conference, this year unfurrowing like a kingly array of weighted intellectual brows in the most dangerously shoppable city by the Bay.

But in the face of all this and that last bedraggled final I have yet to crack open like some sort of puzzling stone egg, I bought a proper red lipstick today. Wonder how it will look in daylight.

It is also comforting that Jamaica Kincaid is still listed among the English faculty at Hahved. I've heard that Marjorie Garber also walks her precious pooches in the common green. A girl is allowed to be star-struck from afar, isn't she?

I never thought I'd say this

But Sontag was right: disease is not sexy.

I've been bowled over by this flu for almost a week now and only this afternoon have I reclaimed taste and free air, though this new awareness only makes me recoil from the smells of illness. A sick body is not a welcoming body though I did feel a little incandescent in the beginning due to the dull and duly burning fevers. I drank a river dry and sucked at the stones at bottom. It was little use. I began to worry that my blankets would not forget those vapors once those in my head cleared.

My fingernails felt too long and transparent, obstructively, lightly tapping on everything harmless. And what shall I answer to the man on Friday? I haven't cobbled anything together from the archives--what sort of platform will I pull myself along on at this techtonic rate? A hole-ridden one that lacks the charm of a much loved but rotten rug where the family dog had affectionately lain for years, reluctant to leave the bald spots.

God I wish I had a pet. A cat. No, a kitten. No, just peace.

everything I didn't know about 600 BC I learnt from Vidal

Which always makes me think of "vide" in that horrible French sense... "Creation" has pulled me through a rather lot of cocktail party moments. But how long could that dream last?

I think I'm coming down with a bona fide cold despite having had a decent run of life without such inconveniences since... I don't recall. Must read legal cases and be ready to sum up, unless I wake up tomorrow with a swollen plum in my throat. In that case, I may stay home after all and leave the freshly powdered slopes of Heavenly to more insouciant folk.

At least highlights from "The Silver Flute" are friendly and familiar. Even if I can't quite sing along today :(

this always had been one of my favourites

Caspar David Friedrich's "Monk by the Sea"

Oh and "Walk the Line" was worth seeing, but sadly overrated. The voice just wasn't there. Nor was the social conscience and Christian (in the best sense) underpinnings of his "Man in Black" practice. It wasn't a fashion or self-pitying statement.

That said, Joaquin Phoenix did well with what he had. And that's all anyone could ever hope to do. And in case you're reading this, J at H, I've been meaning to write a long time, but you know how time keeps millstoning itself under and under till the camera itself is pushed into the dark?