At one point in my recent travels, I started having trouble plugging in my Samsung phone. I went off in search of a T-Mobile store at a shopping center in Bangkok — thanks Google for sending me to a ghost store, bounced off a phone store and a phone repair store (who wanted 800 baht to fix the phone). After failing to communicate blowing out the USB port to the repair place, they sent me to another floor where there was a Samsung store I thought, but it was a Samsung repair center.

I certainly did not impress the young Thai guy at the desk either with my Thai or my hand sign skills, but he went and got me a numbered ticket. I watched the TV monitor for the ticket number since I’m not great at reading or understanding Thai. Then to my surprise, when my number came up the announcement voice switched from Thai to English and I was directed to a desk where the Thai woman spoke English. Gadzooks, I thought. This ain’t the first idiot tourist that’s been in here! Anyway, she disappeared with the phone for a minute or two, returned after removing something from the port, and handed it back to me after plugging it in to show it would charge now, and she did not charge me for the repair.

In the city of Mandalay, where there ain’t no flying fishes nor have there ever been any flying fishes along any road going there either, a woman on the tour ran out of space on her not very new Samsung phone. Not knowing that it was of the vintage where you could take the back off it and look, I googled the phone and determined it would take a microSD memory card. The morning before we left, we finally had a chunk of time and I suggested we Grab a tuk tuk, hit a phone store, buy a microSD memory card, and tuk tuk back to the hotel before the bus left.

I googled the closest phone store as one is wont to do in unfamiliar cities, and casually asked the doorman for the best closest phone store. He gave me one that was a bit further away, but I entered it into Grab, the tuk tuk arrived, and off we went through the morning rush hour traffic in Mandalay.

When we got to the phone store, about twenty sweet young things approached us in matching phone store uniforms to help us. Since neither of us spoke any of 136 languages of Myanmar, I asked if anyone spoke English. One of the girls said ‘yes’ and I carefully explained that we needed a ‘microSD card’ for the phone which produced absolutely no response Now trying not to be the usual idiot tourist, I did have a picture loaded on ma phone of a 128GB memory card, which I thought would hold a whole lottta pictures.

‘Memory card?’ she asked and off we went to the memory card area. A discussion broke out in the local language, and a tech guy was summoned who knew more about the phone than I did. He recommended a 32 GB card, Ma mouth almost dropped open when they pulled the back off the phone and inserted the memory card. I had figured it had the newer SIM card, microSD popup that you need a pin to open — yes I am past my eye exam date. Vivian paid for it, they made sure it worked, and we went outside to Grab a tuk tuk back to the Mandalay Hilton after saying goodbye to our twenty newest friends.

I’ve been off cavorting in Egypt for a couple of weeks, well, back last Wednesday to be more accurate. The weather turned as we got to Minneapolis and my sister, who was also on the trip, was stuck here either waiting for planes or waiting at the airport until she finally got a flight out to Fargo 250 miles way. We all thought they coulda made it with a plane, but then again, we don’t fly planes. The highways were closed off and on. I’m sure she now knows the Minneapolis airport better than I do. We spent a remarkable amount of time toing and froing from the airport at rush hour as that seems to always be the time something came to a no-go. With the nearest Interstate entrance ramp twenty-five blocks away and a constant state of snow or blowing snow, moving around always took longer than anticipated. We did drag her to see Sunken Cities at the MIA, which was interesting after two weeks in Egypt at Cairo and points south of there.

I bought a big new Sony camera to take with me to Egypt and took a few pictures. I’ve gotten about five days up on Facebook. The albums are public, but my profile is private, so I’m not sure how to get people past one and into the other. My attempts using an incognito browser ain’t been a great success.

My lazy-ass photo processing process ain’t up to the level of the new camera yet, and I’m mostly trying to process pictures to jpgs, enchance them a bit, cut out the stupid, and post them. I am trying to post them in discreet groups rather than “Here’s 600 pics from Aswan” that’s my usual wont. For example, Abu Simbel – Rameses II – Inside — it’s still 600 pics from Aswan, but at least you know what you’re getting into. 😉

I was the resident self-appointed know-it-all for the group of six I was traveling with, the one that put Ramses the II in the Middle Kingdom at least once, but I think we all had a great time. Egypt was great, except for the traffic in Cairo. I could have stayed twice as long. We went Giza, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Lake Nasr, Aswan, Nile, Luxor, Cairo. I took too many pictures through the bus with the big Sony. I shoulda used my cell phone. I expected a larger number of out-of-focus pics, but I think I done good. It did seem like time’s winged charriot always hovered near in the form of “Don’t be the last one on the bus.”

A couple of people had got something while we were there, but I survived fine until I got on the plane back home, when I could feel something settling around me. I’m doing a different antibiotic and I have a small jar of codeine cough syrup to see me through. (I wanted a gallon, but I’ll take what I can get.) I denuded the house of chocolate one night and decided that “No, it does not work as well as codeine.”

I am starting to load pics on fotki, where I have a few. Link Something between me and Photoshop and fotki is flipping pictures, so keep a limber neck. Pics from the Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings are up on Fotki, and I’ll be adding more as time goes by, maybe even flipping the flipped ones back. With luck, this link goes to a full-screen version of the Mortuary Temple of Pharaoh Hatshepsut

A Tuba to Cuba
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary, History, Music Directed by T.G. Herrington, Danny Clinch, T.G. Herrington
This joyous documentary follows the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Cuba for a celebration of musical history and common bonds.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Fighting with My Family
NYT Critic’s Pick PG-13 Biography, Comedy, Drama, Sport Directed by Stephen Merchant
Dwayne Johnson helped produce this charming comedy about a family of professional wrestlers, their chops, drops and drama.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Clara’s Ghost
NYT Critic’s Pick Not Rated Comedy, Drama, Family, Thriller Directed by Bridey Elliott
This unhinged comedy shines a spotlight on a family’s maladjusted dynamics.
By TEO BUGBEE

Sorry Angel
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama, Romance Directed by Christophe Honoré
Set in early 1990s Paris, Christophe Honoré’s new film presents us with a middle-aged, H.I.V.-stricken writer falling, wearily, for a bookish 20-something.
By GLENN KENNY

Pájaros de verano
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra
Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra follow their Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” with a saga of the drug trade set amid the Wayuu of northern Colombia.
By A.O. SCOTT

High Flying Bird
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama, Sport Directed by Steven Soderbergh
The director Steven Soderbergh teams up with Tarell Alvin McCraney and André Holland to take on the contradictions of modern sports culture.
By A.O. SCOTT

One Million American Dreams
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Brendan Byrne
This haunting documentary guides viewers through heartbreaking tales of the lost souls buried on Hart Island.
By GLENN KENNY

The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019: Animation
NYT Critic’s Pick
This year’s Oscar-nominated shorts will make you cry, laugh, cry, think, cry, wonder, and cry some more. Have we mentioned they might also make you cry?
By BILGE EBIRI

The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019: Documentary
NYT Critic’s Pick
This year’s Oscar-nominated shorts will make you cry, laugh, cry, think, cry, wonder, and cry some more. Have we mentioned they might also make you cry?
By BILGE EBIRI

Daughter of Mine
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Laura Bispuri
Ardent and primal, Laura Bispuri’s drama addresses complicated ideas with head-clearing simplicity.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Velvet Buzzsaw
NYT Critic’s Pick R Horror, Thriller Directed by Dan Gilroy
In this bilious satire, Jake Gyllenhaal plays an art critic on the edge of sanity as the paintings he covets turn murderous.
By GLENN KENNY

Never Fear
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Ida Lupino
“Never Fear,” a 1949 movie directed by Lupino that has been superbly restored, tells the story of a dancer felled by polio.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

The Image Book
NYT Critic’s Pick Drama Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film is a gloomy, lively essay on some disturbing history, cinema and himself.
By A.O. SCOTT

The 5 Browns
NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Ben Niles
A new documentary tells the painful but ultimately hopeful story of a classical music quintet of siblings, three of whom were molested by their father.
By GLENN KENNY

I spent most of July and the early part of August in Europe, about a week each in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon. I also spent some time in Azay-le-Rideau with friends in the Loire valley. I took a lot of pics, most of which seem to not show the things I think were memorable — climbing stairs in Lisbon (everywhere and all uphill, curse you Google Maps), the food and places in France, Madrid, and Lisbon. I spent a lot of time in museums and art galleries, and most let me take pictures. (And I did take pictures) The Prado, sadly, does not let you take pictures, and one of the highlights of the trip was the Prado, especially the Bosch exhibit at the Prado. Anyway, pictures coming. way too many pictures coming. The rambling security people in the Lisbon airport asked me which country/city I liked the most — I declined to answer it and he still let me on the plane.