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.
