λάθε βιώσας. Eclectic (and often cryptic) musings. French-Mediterranean by heritage, Aussie by choice.
Joined January 2009
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FRValue retweeted
Sea Urchin-Oyster Duo; Nori Cracker, Seaweed Gelée
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A Grasse, dans les secrets du champion des parfums au naturel Robertet trib.al/uP7PACJ
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FRValue retweeted
Jun 10
1/6 Quick thread on B&M FY26 earnings. Was the 14% pop warranted? $BME
More on my substack.
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My last week in Osaka I did something I had been putting off for the entire year.
I went back to the ramen shop where I had eaten my very first meal in Japan.
Nine months ago I had walked in jet lagged and disoriented and barely able to string two Japanese words together and the owner had handed me a bowl of ramen and pointed at a seat and that was the extent of our interaction.
I went back on my second to last day.
He was there, same spot, same energy.
The man was a constant in an otherwise constantly changing year, He looked up when I came in.
Owner: You again.
Me: You remember me.
Owner: You came in nine months ago, you looked like you'd been through something.
Me: I had just arrived.
Owner: I know, you had the look, the just arrived look.
Me: What does that look like.
Owner: Terrified but trying to hide it.
Very obvious.
Me: I thought I was hiding it well.
Owner: You were not hiding it at all.
Me: sits down I'm leaving in two days.
Owner: Back home?
Me: Yes.
Owner: pause How was it.
Me: thinks about the whole year. All of it. Harder than I expected. Better than I expected. Both at the same time.
Owner: That's Japan.
Me: Is it always like that?
Owner: For people who come here seriously, yes.
Japan is not a comfortable country to be foreign in. But if you stay anyway it gives you things.
Me: What kind of things.
Owner: pause Depends on what you needed.
Me: What do you think I needed.
Owner: studies me for a moment Nine months ago you looked like someone who had lost track of himself.
Me: quietly That's accurate.
Owner: Now you look like someone who found something. Not everything. But something.
Me: pause I found out I'm more capable than I thought.
Owner: nods That's a good thing to find out.
Me: It only took nine months of being consistently confused and occasionally lost and once accidentally attending a wedding.
Owner: looks up You attended a wedding.
Me: Wrong door, wrong floor, i bowed my way out.
Owner: laughs. Real laugh. First time I had heard it. Only in Japan.
Me: Only in Japan.
He made me the same bowl he had made on my first night.
Or as close to it as he could remember.
When I finished I said it was the best bowl I'd had all year.
He said :
Owner: I know.
The certainty of people who have done one thing excellently for a very long time.
I bowed when I left.
He bowed back.
Neither of us overdid it.
We had both learned the right depth by then.
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This happened at a convenience store in Tokyo at 2am and I think about it at least once every week.
I was buying water and whatever looked edible at 2am which in Japan is honestly a lot of things because Japanese convenience stores are built for exactly this scenario.
The man behind the counter was young, Maybe twenty two, He had the expression of someone who had been working the night shift long enough that the concept of time had become theoretical.
He scanned my items, then he looked at me.
Cashier: Can I ask you something.
Me: Sure.
Cashier: You're foreign.
Me: Yes.
Cashier: You came to Japan on purpose.
Me: Yes.
Cashier: *pause* Why.
Me: I wanted to live somewhere different for a while.
Cashier: Different how.
Me: Different from everything familiar, different enough that I'd have to pay attention.
Cashier: *stares at me for a moment* I want to do that.
Me: Go somewhere different?
Cashier: Go anywhere, i've lived in Tokyo my whole life, i've never been further than Osaka.
Me: Where would you go.
Cashier: *immediately* South America.
Me: That's specific.
Cashier: I've been learning Spanish for two years.
Me: At night while working here?
Cashier: I have a lot of slow hours.
Me: *pause* Why South America specifically.
Cashier: Because it's the furthest thing from this. *gestures at the fluorescent lit convenience store at 2am*
Me: *looks around at the convenience store*
Me: *looks back at him*
Me: I think you should go.
Cashier: My parents think it's irresponsible.
Me: How old are you.
Cashier: Twenty three.
Me: Twenty three is exactly the right age to do something your parents think is irresponsible.
Cashier: *pause* You think so.
Me: I think the regret of not going is worse than whatever happens if you do go.
Cashier: What if I hate it.
Me: Then you come back with a story and better Spanish.
Cashier: *long pause* My manager is coming. *quickly* But thank you.
Me: Go to South America.
Cashier: *scanning my water* Thank you for your purchase. Have a good night.
Manager walks past. Everything normal.
I walked out.
Two weeks later I went back to the same convenience store at a normal hour.
Different cashier.
I asked about the young man with the night shift.
The new cashier said he had quit.
Said something about a trip.
I bought my water and walked out smiling.
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B for Bologna.
May 31
You just won the strangest lottery: 8 weeks in Italy every year, for life, fully paid.
One condition. You pick a single region now and can never set foot in another.
Where are you spending forever?
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One of my favorite accounts…
Girl: My grandfather got banned from a zoo.
Me: That's impressive.
Girl: It wasn't his fault.
immediately his fault.
apparently grandfather visited same zoo every week for years.
always sat beside one specific monkey, they became friends somehow.
Grandfather: He understands me.
already dangerous, then one day monkey escaped enclosure.
zoo panic.
alarms, staff running, children crying.
where did they find monkey?
sitting beside grandfather on bench, both eating sweet potatoes.
Zoo Staff: Sir.
Grandfather: What.
Staff: You cannot encourage this.
Grandfather: He came voluntarily.
Monkey apparently refused to leave until grandfather finished lunch.
that's how you get banned from zoo.
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K-Beauty everywhere…
May 29
Korean beauty is coming to America in a big way, as Olive Young opens its first U.S. store. on.wsj.com/3RQkgrn
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As some of you noticed, I dived back into $ALLUX.PA late last year with an average cost basis of €266 (3% position). It was too cheap to pass. Share price is now up 43% from its lows (at €338). Based on the financials released yesterday, BVPS is €422 as at 30/6/24.
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FRValue retweeted
May 26
The legendary jazz saxophonist, who collaborated with the likes of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, created a form that was thrillingly risky, impetuous, and uncertain. By the end of a six-plus-decade career, his name was synonymous with the art itself. newyorker.com/culture/postsc…
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