Saturday 29 September 2018

Memories of twilight

Hmm, so it would seem that after a brief deviation from recent habit, I'm back to the end of the month before thinking about blogging :). Although, in this particular case, it hasn't been that much of a happening month. I know, I know, there's still the unfinished tales of Vestlandet.


(As an aside, I've been drawn back into the world of A Song of Ice and Fire once again! After first being introduced to the books back in university, and then having read the first two and a half books just in time for GRRM's announcement that A Dance with Dragons was far from the end of the series, I'd been mostly keeping a wary eye out for the last two [for now anyway] books to drop. And also carefully avoiding all contact with the TV series, especially spoilers! But then this caught my eye! And having finished half of it since yesterday, I've started semi-seriously thinking about ways to get my copies of books one through five from Kolkata to Asker.

So now for the reason for random aside: "Unfinished tale of Vestlandet... Hmmm. I wonder how long it'll actually take me to put it all down... Ha! Bet nothing nearly as long as it's taking GRRM to finish off SoI&F... Ooh! The Tales of Dunk and Egg!" You see! Obvious really :D.)


Anyhows. There was in fact one more trip before the end of the summer travels. A very quick weekend trip to the Netherlands. The circumstances were sombre, a funeral of a distant relative I'd gotten to know a bit in recent years and become rather fond of as she reminded me in some ways of my own late grandma. In the process though, I managed to meet nearly three dozen or so family members I'd hitherto only heard of and never met. A lovely day, under the circumstances!


Then there was the long wait at the police station which ended with some rather spirited singing of Happy Birthday to me. Also in the police station. Yet another first :). Although in this case I was merely waiting in a very nice reception area while members of the family laboriously tried to recall for the police everything that had been stolen out of our cars while we were having dinner after the funeral. 


It says something of the overall sense of love for the deceased and the strength of emotion yet peacefulness that had marked the rest of the day, that the drama of the theft was rendered only a footnote. There was some difficulty regarding lost passports and subsequent international travel, but all affected managed to do just fine, so it all ended well really. And in the middle of it all, I managed to try no less than fifteen different flavours of fabulous Italian ice-cream for what passed for lunch on my birthday! Got to love in-laws :D.


Since then it's been a bit more of getting back into some sort of a routine. While I'm not yet particularly keen to get back to working full time, the idea of having a job at some point in the near future is beginning to seem somewhat appealing :).


In the mean time though, we've started going swimming once or twice a week. In the mornings on weekdays, when the local pool is about as empty as it gets. 'Cos we can :D. There's also the Norwegian exams coming up within the month! A much higher level compared to three years ago, so some amount of studying is needing to happen. But on balance, it's only to figure out exactly how good (or not) my Norwegian actually is these days, nothing beyond a vague sense of pride on the line :).


The other thing that has occupied me a bit was my first experience of the phenomenon that is John le CarrĂ©! The Night Manager had been the book clubs' book of choice for September, and having recently finished it, I have to say, I've rarely read intrigue done better! The style caught me a little bit off guard to start with, I must say, but once I got used to the somewhat back and forth nature of the narrative, I really started enjoying the storytelling. There were also the odd hooks here and there: "...as she would later note..." or "...as he would always admit later...". And they gave the story an extra something I felt :).


The one thing I really did feel was a bit of a let down was the very end. I mean, come on! After all of that detail in the build up?!! Just a super vague quasi-happy ending?!! I was honestly hoping for something a bit meatier. What it has done though, is make me seriously consider watching the BBC series. I still cannot quite see Hugh Laurie as the 'Adonis' Roper. On the other hand, I have no such difficulty with Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan :).


So why no mention at all of the Malazan, do I find you wondering? Well you see, the better half thrilled me no end by presenting me with half the series in actual paperback on my birthday! So now I've decided to begin again, hopefully as soon as I've managed to finish with Ser Dunc!

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