Okaasan

I was at the international terminal at 7am to welcome my mother, returning from a month in the Land Of The Rising No. Of Grandchildren. While those around me abandoned manners and concepts of personal space to jockey for vantage points, I admired a line of pretty Etihad air hostesses in their decorous designer uniforms. (The Emirates ladies have a slight edge.) It was 9 by the time I got Mum to her train, so I decided to grab a semi-greasy breakfast and wander the city until Kino opened for business. In the park opposite the station, an elderly Chinese woman was doing a kung-fu pattern* with a red fan. No doubt there were deadly applications behind the fluid motions. There always are. Wander, wander, wander. Entered the bookshop on the stroke of 10 and found, in the comics section, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, Volume Three - Wolves At The Gate" (2008) by Goddard/Jeanty/Whedon - score! Coincidentally, it contains a "Japanese vampire goth gang", to quote Xander.


*In karate, they'd call it a kata.