Collected Attempts

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I. Breaking

Trains of Thought

XXXVI. Grab RailFrom BER (Flughafen Berlin) to Spandau: S9 all the way. I couldn’t find the...September 25, 2022

XXXV. Striking Out AgainIt’s a day after a rail strike and the 7:38 train to London is...July 30, 2022

XXXIV. Two trips, apartThis is a well-behaved train-set of passengers. A man with a colourful Amalfi coast...April 10, 2022

XXXIII. MaskedJourney 1 There are more people waiting on the platform than I had expected....November 14, 2021

XXXII. Extrusion and involutionOn Line 6 from Gangcheng Road, a man moves nut beads around a string. The...July 20, 2019

XXXI. memoriesLike a commute, a Renaissance garden is a buffer between outer landscape and internal...January 6, 2019

XXX. frayedA watch of nightingales, a kit of pigeons, an abandon of thoughts. The equivalent...August 18, 2018

XXIX. balls & bugs“The signaler tried to terminate us early at the last station.” A new reason...June 3, 2018

XXVIII. progress?A bulky man in a jacket wears a gold watch and brown suede slippers....May 5, 2018

XXVII. cire perdueBetween Coulsdon and Redhill from the train I saw decommissioned red telephone boxes stand...April 2, 2018

XXVI. 04/02/18-18/02/18; cut and carveI get up early. An email woke me. I had forgotten to switch my...February 18, 2018

XXV. 17/01/18-03/02/18; drawing linesThe train is full. I settle into a seat in the first-class compartment. Here...February 3, 2018

XXIV. 19/11/17-16/01/18; chthonic hypostasesOld sustains new. Ruins are reductions to an essence. The past lies in fragments...January 16, 2018

XXIII. 16/10/17-19/11/17; apparent designThe layout of the courtyards and gardens of Zhu’s family mansion in Jianshui was...November 19, 2017

XXII. 07/08/17-15/10/17; better distractionsEntertainment forced on you at the airport: first at the queue for the security...October 15, 2017

XXI. 28/07-06/08/17; inward rhizomesA house, a home: we labour and work for shelter. We fear squalidness in...August 6, 2017

XX. 02/07-27/07/17; accrualsThe train makes an additional stop at Hitchin. The travelers there are aligned in...July 28, 2017

XIX. 09/06-01/07/17; uncanny valleyAsked by the FT’s “Small Talk” whether he keeps a diary, David Vann responded:...July 2, 2017

XVIII. 19/05-09/06/17; seguesNotes vanish with a software upgrade. What was lost? Artificial intelligence on desert island...June 10, 2017

XVII. 15/05-19/05/17; folding, in and outA few people are waiting at the end of the platform for the 5:59....May 20, 2017

XVI. 08/05-12/05/17; untiedA man with thick-frame glasses and a white beard browses his facebook feed: regional...May 13, 2017

Running

#15 LZB-AWT-LZBI ran this route 3 months and 1 day ago on a winter morning....March 7, 2021

GCR #14 – RYS – Ashwell – RYSThe use of a gold card is not essential to Gold Card Running. The...April 13, 2020

GCR#13 – BDK-RYS (top)Running means self-isolation, I have never understood the point of running in a group....March 22, 2020

GCR#12 – RYS-AWM-RYSThis winter feels like late spring, the fields are green already, birds are getting...December 30, 2019

GCR#11 AWM-RYSI am just in time for the train from St. Pancras. St Pancras: a...October 31, 2019

GCR#10 – HIT-LETIt’s a week of interesting delays: delayed due to waiting for the other half...October 2, 2019

GCR #9 – AWM – RYSNada suele ser más difícil que no fingir comprender. Nicolas Gomez Davila Balance is...September 11, 2019

GCR#8 – RYS-BDK-RYSThe marathon distance is the benchmark of running distances: Phedippides died of exhaustion, but...August 26, 2019

GCR #7 – HIT-RYSHitchin isn’t far from Letchworth, but it feels an extra degree removed: it’s not...August 18, 2019

GCR#6 – AWM – RYS6.1. The route from Ashwell and Morden’s station (actually in Odsey) is now familiar....August 15, 2019

GCR#5 – LET-RYSAt the end of a tiring run I inevitably think about not really wanting...August 10, 2019

GCR#4- AWM-RYSI prepare for the first afternoon run from the return commute. I admire people...August 5, 2019

GCR#3 – BDK-AWMMy right knee aches a bit, has been aching all week. Perhaps I should...August 3, 2019

GCR #2 – RYS-AWM-RYSCalf muscles seize into fits of tightness over five days. Time to rest. The...July 28, 2019

GCR #1 – AWM to RYSAn FT article about running⁠—part of a series called “Rise of the Runners”⁠—activates a...July 21, 2019

guanxi

September 18, 2022

A language is a long way

April 24, 2022

Grab vegetables 抢菜, Study Notes, I.

April 19, 2022

Just begin again… Learning 中文 after the Olympics....

Tried and abandoned

Arima Hot Springs and Mount Rokko, IFree-wheeling downhill through the hot-spring town of Arima I almost hit a rubbish collecting...December 26, 2020

Passo Giau II, ImpureI’m not the only rider this time. I think impure thoughts aimed at overtaking....December 16, 2020

Passo Giau I, The Scotland of ItalyA travel writer called the Dolomite Mountains The Scotland of Italy “because of its...December 14, 2020

Work or play?Edited excerpt from Drinking with Proust (Leanpub) Image: Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Santeul by Gerard Edelinck, ca...January 8, 2017

Boni goes bustEdited excerpt from Drinking with Proust Image: La Vie Parisienne, de Castellane Advert In the winter...December 10, 2016

Forever Young, Osteria Veneta. Part III/IIIOsteria Veneta’s wine menu is heavy. The cursive script has to be deciphered line...December 3, 2016

Forever Young, Osteria Veneta. Part II.Two starters and two glasses of wine are ordered as the only course. A...October 29, 2016

In search of lost balanceEdited excerpt from Drinking with Proust (Leanpub) Image: Advert for Vin Mariani, a lithograph by Jules Chéret,...September 26, 2016

Forever young, Osteria Veneta. Part I.“It’s too quiet.” The keeper of the one-man bar next door has sauntered over for...September 3, 2016

On wine snobsImage: Caricature of a Snob in The Book of Snobs by William Makepeace Thackeray Excerpted...July 28, 2016

Oiling the wheelsJuly 26, 2016

Drinking with ProustImage: Un bar aux Folies Bergère (Manet, 1882) Excerpted from: Drinking with Proust (Leanpub) We...June 25, 2016

Wine laurelsFrom the archives. Shortlisted for the Young Wine Writer of the Year Award in 2013....June 23, 2016

What do you expect?What do you expect will happen? We usually think in simple terms: better or...June 23, 2016

European union (Longing for Langelina)Image: Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Italia und Germania Germany loves Italy and, in a painting...June 12, 2016

The bits in wineFrom the archives. Shortlisted for the Young Wine Writer of the Year Award in 2012....June 6, 2016

MarktwirtA restaurant called Marktwirt is just a hundred steps or so northwest from the...June 5, 2016

KorkedAre there good wine bars in Munich? Why would you expect any? When a wine...June 5, 2016

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