I have just come home from church to find — in a rather startling manner — that my chair is broken. It gave way under me. I will go to the bangketa outside the grocery later and buy myself a little plastic stool, so I can continue to comfortably sit at my computer desk.

My top-floor apartment window, 6 stories up, faces north towards the airport and the city, and today is a beautiful, clear day. The sun is out, but not searing, and there’s a delightfully invigorating wind blowing and dispersing the Manila smog, so I can see all the way to Ortigas, and even up to the mountains north of the city. What a pretty view for a relaxing Sunday afternoon! I’ll post a photo of it here sometime.

Just to cap off the experience, I have popped La Dolce Vita — music from Renaissance Naples, performed by the King’s Singers and Tragicomedia — into my CD player. Aaahhh, I simply adore ancient music from the Renaissance and early Baroque. Last Friday, I purchased a CD of Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium, and it was absolutely beautiful.