Mosquito, Haberdashery And The F Word

I’m on holiday next week - away to the freezing cold.

Won a few games today, so did D, and R whilst poor J only got one. But that is one for everyone in the least. Twice I called ‘Mahjong’ at the same time as another player, but them’s the breaks. So a lot of fun, jolly chat and a couple of Goulashes. The awesome Ann looked very flash with new pixie haircut. So nice to see bravery and non conformists, yes, even amongst my pensioner’s mahjong group.

On ‘holiday’ from my visual arts course and still taking a break from the Vietnamese novella. I’m thinking of rewriting it completely as since putting it on the back burner, my brain has reformatted it a thousand different ways and although the ending remains the same, the characters have continued to develop. Poetry book still unfinished since November. I have no excuse anymore. I am suitably rested, no longer in any pain (thank you) and I do have some time on my hands.

I am looking forward to seeing the origins of Mary Poppins next week. I fly on Wednesday after going to a day’s splendiforous workshop with Ukulele master James Hill on Tuesday … and on Monday... practice and pack.

I was bitten by a mosquito underneath the chin this morning. It’s beyond itchy and adds to the already double chin. Been drawing portraits this week and researching designs for linocuts. I’m still waiting for the water based inks to arrive.

I’m crying a thousand tears over the warring state. I can’t stand to see the Ukraine War and the Gaza genocide, My beloved Africa is in turmoil country to country and now USA is getting involved in the Middle East. I’m ashamed my government has come out in support of Donald Trump . Are they so scared of him that they daren’t stand apart? Where will it stop? I know I have friends who do not share my views but like them, I won’t be silenced. There’s a part of me that feels like an elastic band, twisted to its fullest capacity when I read/see/hear the news. Whenever it crosses my mind I feel sick to my stomach. Powerless. Scared.

However, on a lighter note…earlier, something funny happened. Everyone is polite and on their best behavior in Mahjong. When I utter ‘shit’ or ‘knickers’ when frustrated with a tile, no one is offended . I was looking around me, everyone focused on the games. Then, did I really hear someone mutter ‘Fucking Pung’? I think I did because one of the other players on our table immediately glanced behind me to see where it was coming from. Brilliant I thought. Fucking brilliant.

I’ll pop out now, Lincraft (Haberdashery store) is having a 50% closing down sale. There must be SOMETHING there I don’t have.

GOOD GAMES TO PLAY

LITTLE JOE - A chow in each suit, a crazy chow and a pair of winds

THREE PHILOSOPHERS - a chow in each suit, a crazy chow and a pair in any suit

JEAN’S MEDLEY - A red and gen dragon with four crazy chows

BOMBSHELL - A chow in each suit, a concealed pung of winds and a pair of dragons (or a pung of dragons and a pair of winds. (No calling PUNG!)

MAHJONG TRIVIA

The U3A website cites this about Mahjong: “Joseph P Babcock who was a rep for the Standard Oil Company in Suzhou collected and interpreted the many conflicting variations throughout China. Arabic numbers engraved on to the tiles were first intro by Mr Babcock in 1920 when he imported to the USA sets of tiles in sufficient quantity. He simplified the game and introduced a standard set of rules which could easily be understood giving us the game of Mahjong as we know it today”.

I find it funny that American Mahjong uses the terms BAM, CRAC and DOT instead of Bamboo, Character and Circle.

Pip pip

J