Oh, the feeling of skis gliding on fresh snow!

The snow has, indeed, stayed!! Which has made for an excellent December, I have to say. For the first time since I've moved to Norway full time, I can say that the snow that first fell in November is sticking around, while more has come to join it, more or less regularly. The end result has been an excellent white December, and Christmas!

We've even managed cross-country skiing a few times, and with more snow coming, likely to go out again before long :). Which is great, because I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new pair of skis, wax-free ones at that! No more messing around with trying to get the right amount of the right coloured wax applied in the appropriate manner to a) have enough grip but at the same time b) not clog up the underside with snow. (Yeah, I was getting a bit pretty annoyed with my waxing results the last few trips of the previous season and the first one this season went just as badly :P.)

Otherwise, the year got just as crazy busy as expected towards the end, so I have really enjoyed the last couple of weeks. Time off, with no big plans, relaxing and having fun making yummy food, walking around in the snow, the occasional skiing trip, a couple of social calls with a very small number of friends and good Norwegian Christmas beer. What's not to like?!

While it's not cool to be missing the family Christmas get-together in England for a second year in a row, the fact that we could be there as recently as this autumn meant that it didn't feel as bad. Plus the upsides of a quiet holiday at home are definitely growing on us :).

Spent quite a bit of time watching films, for a change a lot of Marvel and DC stuff we'd generally steered clear of or just hadn't managed to catch in the cinemas for some reason or other. The Star Wars sequel trilogy was finally watched in full. With mostly meh-ish responses. The second Spiderman (Far from Home) and the first Venom were generally hilarious. Captain Marvel and Black Widow less so, but still generally enjoyable.

And then there was the DC stuff :|. I think there can be no doubt that the Marvel stuff just makes for more enjoyable film watching :D. The DC films are all so dark and broody. OK, maybe it's just the Snyder ones. We decided to watch the marathon Justice League: Snyder Cut which was a bag of laughs (not!) but did seem to at least follow through with most of the subplots and such. In some ways the two Wonder Woman films and Aquaman were ones I enjoyed the most.

The two films that I watched and thought, now this is stuff I really want to talk about, though, were Tenet and Dune. What an awesome pair of films! For completely different reasons I guess. But both left me with a definite sense of awe, pleasure at having watched them, and thoughts, questions and a sense of wanting more! Not something I've experienced often lately. To be honest, I really want to go back and watch Tenet once more. I was definitely reminded of the magic of Inception (rather than the bit of a let down that Interstellar was for me). Whereas with Dune I was left wondering (again) why I hadn't picked up the books yet, despite having crossed paths with the series several times in the past.

Speaking of books, I finally finished The View from the Cheap Seats! Some five years after I bought my copy, in the end :). And loved it! I think I just generally love the way Gaiman writes. Anything, novels, comics, short stories, introductions, afterwords, speeches... Speaking of the introduction (to other people's books), as I mentioned last time, some of them I found rather compelling! To the point where I've actually decided to base my upcoming book club suggestions entirely on books the introductions of which are to be found in The View from the Cheap Seats :).

Continuing on the Gaiman theme, I also got hold of his Eternals work and MorrorMask. The former I loved! The latter, I'm not sure. MirrorMask gets a couple of entries in ...Cheap Seats, and the feeling I am left with overall is that it's probably best experienced as a film. Which is what it was made as first. Who knows. But with Eternals, it was very much in the classic Gaiman mould. Great story, amazing characters, and a sense of action despite, as he says afterwards, lots of characters just standing around and talking :D

In between, I also managed to read the book club book of the month! Once I finally got it! This has to be the longest it's taken Adlibris to deliver me a book! Near about five weeks since I ordered it, when they'd claimed two to start with :|. Anyhow, Zealot, when it did arrive, was an odd read. I mean, the blurb wasn't really in keeping with the book itself I thought, in a good way. 

The flow of the book overall felt very jumpy. A lot of events referenced and cross-referenced in apparently random order. Added to the very non-linear way in which time flows in terms of what is being talked about, it can make for a pretty confusing read. In the end the overarching feeling I was left with was that at least the author seemed clear and open that this was their view on things and that in the end, faith is really a matter of personal choice. Or at least it should be. But I suppose that's just my take on the matter.

Hmm, this is kinda turning into a longish post :). And I haven't even done the usual look back on the year yet! I suppose the lazy and generally inaccurate way of dealing with that would be to say something like, oh well, not much really happened this year :P. Even on a personal level that would be entirely untrue.

We did manage the one trip abroad. And that was definitely a blessing. Up until a couple of years ago, many people didn't think too much about having family spread out across different countries or continents I suppose (or maybe that's just me). Taking somewhat for granted the ability to be able to just go see folks when one felt like it. I suppose gratuitous international travel may never be the same again. But there's something to be said for people being able to see new places and people. Experiencing new things, cultures, ways of life. Hopefully there'll remain some way to sensibly do that going forward.

I'm glad cycling was back on the menu this year! With some short trips and some long. I hope we'll continue to use this as a way to see more of Norway in the coming year. But first, I would really really love to have a cross-country season that's anything close to what we had this year :). I mean, what's the point of living in Norway if you can't go cross-country skiing right? :D I kid of course (well, maybe only partly).

At last, some white

I guess it's inevitable, but I feel a little bad to characterize this month as generally depressing :). It's entirely possible this is not the first time I've felt this way, and probably wont be the last. The daylight disappears fast, with the good-intentioned but ultimately pointless conceit of daylight-saving-time merely delaying the inevitable. The snow is generally yet to make an appearance, and thus we are left with a world largely colourless, dark and miserable.

This last day of November, however, has somewhat redeemed itself with the first proper fall of snow this year. (Yes, there was that dump last month, but it was overall too warm and every last bit of snow disappeared within a day.) The latter half of the month had been quite cold as well, repeatedly heading below zero, so that now the snow has arrived, it's likely to stay a bit. 

Of course, what would be really awesome is for it to get a little bit warmer (it's hovering close to -10 most nights) so it snows some more! Alas, it's still too early for any cross country skiing. But one hopes maybe it's not too far away. Yes, I know I'm being rather optimistic :).

As usual, the last months of the year mean a very busy time at work. In some ways I'm already looking towards the last couple of weeks of December. There's no saying what we'll be able to do by way of travel or celebrating the festive season, socially at least. But if last year is anything to go by, just having some time off would in itself be quite a nice thing.

Which is not to say I want to wish away the next few days. Cos that's the thing, regardless of how well or badly things are going, this is as good a today as I'm ever going to have. Today. And tomorrow is a new day with its own possibilities, joys and disappointments.

Speaking of disappointments, I'm not sure Ready Player Two was entirely a disappointment. But I did feel a bit let down. I feel like a lot of pages were given over to moping and navel gazing (I'm looking at you Parzival!). I guess while the first book had the significant novelty factor, there was little fundamentally new in the setting of this sequel to detract from the less than awesome plot line.

So now I'm back to The View from the Cheap Seats and enjoying it rather a lot :). I'm currently deep into the section with introductions for books, graphic novels and other things that Gaiman generally seems to have enjoyed, and the enthusiasm and the persuasiveness almost makes me want to try out most of the books in question! 

At the same time, I'm now in a sort of slow sporadic reading phase. No longer ploughing through book after book. Which rather fits in well with this book with its short and more or less discreet accounts of authors, films, comics and whatever else Gaiman seems to want to write about. A good counterpoint then, to the rest of life, which seems to be hurtling onwards. Not under control, but then when is one ever under control, really? :)

All those colours, blowing in the wind

What can one say really, that can sum up the feeling after returning home from a truly fantastic holiday? :) Well, it was good to be back :D. Jokes aside, I have to say that the trip to England was the best thing ever! Nothing really beats spending quality time with family.

Once we were back though, I was happy to see that the autumn colours weren't done for the year here in Asker! In fact the last few weeks we've enjoyed an unusually gradual shift through the yellows, oranges and reds as finally, come the end of October, most deciduous trees have shed their leaves.

It's made for a pretty good backdrop to several long walks while we've been making the most of some pretty gorgeous weather on the weekends!! But there's nothing hiding the fact that the days are invariably getting shorter and shorter.

We even had an early dump of snow! So there's always more of that to look forward to. At least I hope so. But I'm also hoping any more snow shows up after I've managed to switch over the winter tyres :). It'll be interesting to see how this winter pans out. In more ways than one.

On the books front, I decided to pick up The View from the Cheap Seats after some years. It was fun dipping back into Gaiman non-fiction briefly :). Before long, it was time for the latest book club offering, The Shroud Solution. About which, to be honest, the less said the better. Browsing through the racks of the library yesterday though, I found the sequel I'd pretty much forgotten I'd wanted to read: Ready Player Two.

A much anticipated autumn trip

This has been quite the month! Getting fully vaccinated meant that plans could be made to visit family in the UK for the first time in a very long time! There were still hurdles to cross of course, planning, booking tests, sorting out a lot of practicalities... We ended up getting the pre-flight tests at the airport a few hours before the flight. It seemed practical, but not necessarily the most conducive to peace of mind. But in the end all was well and we made it!

Flying after a gap of nearly two years wasn't necessarily as odd an experience as I'd expected. Most of it was more or less as usual. But having been away from groups of people for a long time, sitting tightly packed into a fully booked aircraft was a bit disconcerting.

Since then we've been very much enjoying the break and the opportunity to really catch up. As in a work context, but even more so in many ways, video calls just don't lend themselves to the openness of conversing. Even though video calls are definitely better than nothing :).

The weather's been overall very nice! We've been able to go on a few trips, including a canal walk which provided my first experience of canal locks in operation! (Which was particularly interesting after reading Three Men in a Boat!) There was a very cool visit to Stourhead where I was rather mesmerized by the grounds with the changes of elevation, the woods surrounding the lake with Roman temples in miniature dotted around. There was a definite sense of otherworldliness, something of a lost world tucked away from bustle of daily life.

We've also got a few runs in! After what was my first run for nearly a year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my various niggles and pains seem to have more or less disappeared in the interim :). Yes, I'm getting older, but the body does still recover, just takes a lot longer.

On the books front, in between book club stuff, I decided to catch up on some Jackson Lamb! The two novellas were very quick and easy reads. The Drop & The List showcasing I think the best of Herron's writing style. For a change minor characters had centre stage :). It also served to bring me back into the world of Slough House and provide some backdrop to Joe Country.

I'm not sure how much or how little I liked Joe Country to be honest. Which is a thing I find with most of the novels. It's a great story, very much in keeping with the feel of the series. As with the other novels, one gets to see a little more of the characters of the Slow Horses. (The ones that survive anyway, and sometimes those that don't.). But as the layers get peeled back you wonder if you really wanted to know more :). But I suppose that in part is the charm of it.

I can't say the same about The Child. The charm bit that is. Caught up as I was in planning for the UK trip, I never got around to getting a copy early, but then found one in the airport on the way out which meant the flying time was well used. Reading a large chunk of the book on the flight with limited other options of entertainment was a good way to start. I managed to get it finished fairly quickly, but instead of a sense of enjoyment, there was mainly a sense of relief :|.

It's a well written book for sure. It also deals with serious issues in an empathetic way. I guess the general sense of foreboding that cast a shadow over the whole story felt rather stifling. Was that intentional from the author? Was it just my own impression? Regardless, it will be interesting to see what the others have made of it.