In Africa

In Africa, he said, he didn’t have to wonder what to do with paper in the way he had to wonder what to do with it here – carrying it around in his bag, mostly – sometimes his mother carrying it – they all were carrying it – sometimes one of them carried the paper that the other person needed but couldn’t get until that person returned; he had missed appointments because the paper he needed was in somebody else’s bag; in Africa, he said, if anyone had paper, you took it and sold it for food.

Pens in their pockets

The night that Qirkz was closed down, it is said that the people who had been sent from the council to turn out the audience were identified by the way they wore shirts with pens in their pockets.

Nostulgia

At the conference, as soon as she pronounced the word nostalgia with a blunt ‘u’ in the middle – saying nostulgia, in this way, at least five or six times – I became too distracted to follow what she was saying.