Anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time reading. Jim took this pic of me in our hotel room in Kuala Lumpur a couple of weeks ago. He had meetings over two days so we stayed the night in the Gardens Hotel. There is a spectacular shopping centre adjoining the hotel – miles of shops, including all the designer outlets – Gucci, Armani, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, etc, etc – and an amazing food hall. While Jim was catching up on emails, I ventured out in search of coffee. I eventually found the San Francisco kiosk, where they were amazed that I wanted no sugar in my coffee, and scuttled back to the room feeling very much the country bumpkin. I also had the prospect of a day on my own in KL, ending with finding a cab to take me to the company’s offices to meet Jim. It doesn’t sound onerous but the size of the city, the number of people and cars and the maze of roads and highways (called expressways here) was daunting. So a coffee and a bit of a read was what I needed before my big adventure. I was reading The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal. I’ve been tardy getting to this book, which was published in 2010 when it won the Costa Biography Award. It has been on my reading list since then, so when I saw a copy in Browsers in Hamilton, I pounced. I can highly recommend it.