It feels like the end of summer was just a few days ago. And yet autumn's practically come and gone. I mean, the leaves are mostly mulch by now. And yet, it's not gone below zero at all. Time is flowing in fits and starts. It pauses, takes a breath and then just dashes forward a few weeks.
It's crazy to think that the "mini-cruise" to Denmark was actually the beginning of this month! Feels like absolutely ages ago! So basically running the Holmenkollen relay in May gave us all free vouchers for Oslo-Copenhagen return trips on one of the ferries, so we thought, why not :). A first in about six or so years.
It was quite fun being on a ship again, mainly because it was all fun and no work :). As we sailed down (and eventually back up) the Oslofjord, it was really nice watching the land on either side sailing by. Noticing details of the landscape, some of it ridiculously familiar, others new.
The six or so hours in Copenhagen were also really fun! We just mainly walked around. Enjoyed some of the coastline, the castle, some churches, some parks. Lunch at a really nice little cafe with a very short, but nice menu :). Getting up close to a heron! (Until the dog came by that is.)
Strictly speaking I suppose the trip was mostly still September, I just posted my previous post before we left I guess. And since then the world feels like a bit of a blur. The autumn colours did show up in earnest. Although briefly. Then it got kinda wet and extremely windy, so they disappeared. The days started getting shorter, the mornings darker. Then the hour changed, and things briefly got brighter...
In between I ended up adding another new country to the visited list. Switzerland. Another work trip. This time to Zurich. We did manage enough time for a guided walking tour around the centre of the city, which managed to mainly whet my appetite for a more thorough exploration at some point in the future!
Zurich felt like a fantastically old city, but in a way where it's all still very much alive and vibrant! There seemed to always be a lot going on! We even got a brief view of the Swiss countryside through a train trip halfway across the country into the French part. Briefly the seasonal clock seemed to have been turned back, with the colours and leaves very much back in evidence.
Unfortunately I returned with a fairly annoying cold. Fevers are never really fun. Particularly when you can tell your thoughts are bordering on the delirious. But you're just aware enough to notice, not enough to stop...
I think it's fair to say cycling is over for the year :/. It was definitely fun while it lasted, even though the most cycling I did was to and from work :).
It's been relatively quiet on the book front. I finished reading Srinath's book. And it certainly was an eye opener. I don't know that there's a lot more to add from my post last month, except I guess to add that I learnt much about my country of birth that I had already known, but had somehow lost, or forgotten. some things that I'd never known. But it was all wrapped in a comforting sense of familiarity that made even the bizarre approachable.
When I moved on to Starry Messenger, it was quite a shock. I'm not sure if it was mostly the writing style, the switch in subject, or just the fact that after a month of reading books written in familiar rhythms, this was altogether more foreign, and the adjustment required was significant.
I think over all I was left with a positive impression of the book. The beginning and end felt a bit too rushed and breathless. Almost as if Tyson was trying way too hard to make his point. With the rest of it he seemed to calm down a bit more, which made reading more pleasant :).
It was a pretty quick read, and since next month's book club book arrived from the library a lot sooner than expected, I thought I might as well read Free sooner rather than later. To be perfectly honest, I knew very little about Albania or its history other than the existence of Enver Hoxha (and how to pronounce his name thanks to a particularly memorable section of Inside Man).
To say it was illuminating would be an understatement. Honestly, I'm still coming to terms with it, having finished it earlier this week. The writing is fascinating. I found the difference in tone between the first part, prior to the collapse of the socialist "Party" and the second part that came after the curtains were parted, so to speak, stark and particularly poignant given that it marked the before and after of a sort of loss of innocence. A "growing up" of sorts.
In the midst of the almost hyper lucid portrayal of a country and generation in flux and upheaval, it's almost easy to overlook the personal upheavals of the four generations of the author's family. I guess to some extent that does provide a vivid canvas on which she paints the broader story.
I have to say though, two in a row was enough non-fiction for me. So I've picked up the final book of the written-by-friends trio. Amrita Mahale's Milk Teeth. I'm just getting into it, barely a few pages in, but I'm enjoying the atmosphere so far :).
I realized earlier this week that I've got some extra days off that I'd been hoping would turn into a week or so off during the autumn. But said holiday didn't materialize. I guess I'm too tired to even really think about planning anything. So I'm just going to be lazy and take a longer end of year break instead. The trouble is, that's still a month and a half away.
Yeah, total dejá vu :/. End of year, running out of energy trying to stay afloat. Too tired to actually plan a break. Well, you'd think by now I'd have figured this out, but clearly, you'd be wrong :D.