The one where we could go places and see people again!

Right, where shall we begin?! This month has been crazy and happening enough, let alone the year :). In a good way. Mostly. I guess starting with December itself, it's been a properly white lead up to Christmas here! Although we did, after a gap of a couple of years, manage to finally spend Christmas this year with family in the UK! And continued the tradition of returning home on New Year's Eve. With a minimum of fuss as well, I'm happy to report :).

The trip to the UK was also a pleasant getaway from the unusually chilling temperatures hereabouts earlier in the month. The deep freeze was accompanied by some although not a lot of snow around us unfortunately. And while we've been away it looks like it's rained a bunch and turned things somewhat icy and wet :(. Oh well, now that we're back, maybe it'll get cold and start snowing again!

While in the UK though, in amongst the food and the merrymaking and enjoying the open fireplace, walks, more food and so on, a new family activity was embarked upon with great enthusiasm! A patched blanket was to be made, and we all decided to pitch in with the knitting (and in one case crocheting)! A large number of us were complete or at least relative novices, so the results were suitably wonky, at least to start with :D. In the end though, it all seemed to come together pretty well! Not sure this will turn into a regular activity, but I did find it really relaxing!

Relaxing feels like something I rather needed a lot. Although maybe not in quite the same desperate sort of way like the previous few years... The latter half of the year has felt pretty crazy busy with work. Things have changed, are changing, and in all likelihood will continue to change. Somethings hopefully for the better, others maybe not so much. Rather like life in general. But it does feel like the complete break from work has been much needed and very helpful. There's of course still a day more of holiday to go before that needs to change :).

Speaking of break, another highlight of the last month has been the weekend trip to Bergen! While it wasn't entirely spur of the moment, much of the planning was pretty on the fly :). We decided to take the overnight trains there and back instead of flights. Mostly to good effect :). Met up with some friends to catch a particularly special concert and also catch up (although some couldn't make it thanks to a bad combination of weather and flights :(). 

Enjoyed walking around the city. Went up to Fløyen and enjoyed a very relaxed lunch. Walked down a very snowy track again. Enjoyed visiting the amazing Pepperkakebyen, the Christmas market and generally just ambling around or hiding from the cold in a café :). Ended our stay in perfect fashion at one of the seafood restaurants by the waterfront before catching the train back.

Ended up following the World Cup final in between, with the best possible result ever :). No, didn't keep to my plan of not watching any matches in the end and did watch a few of the Argentina ones.

Looking back, there has actually been quite a bit of travelling since the spring. I've spend at least some time abroad every month since May. Including many new places (and countries) I'd never been to before! Which feels crazy given the last couple of years. It still feels a little unreal planning travel. It was of course amazing to be able to see family a bit more often again, and in some cases for the first time in years. But some pandemic induced habits will probably be good to keep in mind going forward.

When it comes to books I guess it's definitely been a big sci-fi year. While the Culture series has kept me occupied and enthralled since summer, earlier in the year came the unforgettable encounters with Dune and the Remembrance of  Earth's Past trilogy. There have of course also been other books, some more intriguing than others.

I did finish reading Lessons in Chemistry and while the end was nice, my feelings about it (beyond what I've already written in last month's post) seem to have been lost in the intervening month. I guess Surface Detail looms large in my mind right now having just finished reading it earlier today.

Having noted that Matter was the longest Culture novel I'd read up to that point, it was immediately superseded :). Unlike the former though, I had no trouble getting into Surface Detail whatsoever! And while it definitely starts with a bang, it doesn't particularly fizz out at any point either!

I have to say, even accounting for proximity bias, I really did rather enjoy the ending of this one :). Much more so than that of Matter. Sure, not all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted, but let's face it, this is Banks, so they never are. There is, regardless, a genuine sense of closure. Especially with the revelation right at the end! I mean, who says he doesn't do recurring characters :D.

Having now got pretty close to the end of the series, I feel less of my initial amazement at how different each of the novels feel despite being set within the same universe. But is that purely because the last two books I've read are a mix of the many different things from before? Who knows. Not that it makes the reading any less enjoyable. And there's still the last one to read :).

I do feel the magnitude of the loss Ian Banks' death has left is beginning to hit me. I hadn't actually realized how soon after finishing The Hydrogen Sonata he passed :(.

So looking back on the year then. Has it been a good one? In many ways, yes. But in some ways sad too. I suppose just like every other year, and yet unlike every other year. I feel like I'm repeating myself :). Is it a phase of life thing? I vaguely remember all these "best year ever", or "a year like no other" type posts in the past. And now it's like "same same but different" :P. Maybe I am just getting older :D.

There's been a lot more travel, but a fair bit less exercise. Lots more seeing family, but some meetings tinged with sadness. This was also the year when I became Norwegian, but "stopped" being Indian. All in all, I think it has been a good year. One that leaves me looking forward to the next trip around the sun. Hopefully some cross-country skiing. Hopefully some downhill too! And finally that much delayed trip back to India!

The dimming of light

After a rather surprisingly warm early November things seem to have gone back to normal. Well, kinda. The temperature dropped below zero, finally killing the plants that had been rather confused up until that point, even sending out some more flowers wondering if spring was arriving really early I suppose. Then came some snow!

That didn't last long however, as the temperature's gone back into the reds (i.e. above 0 degrees C) and the precipitation turned first to sleet and eventually to plain old rain :(. So most of that early snow's now been washed away. And that's taken with it the sense of brightness that snow cover seems to bring to the otherwise dark and miserable beginning of winter.

To add to the general sense of misery, after a couple of years of socially isolated winters, this year the early winter colds, sniffles, fevers and flus seem to be back with a vengeance. The Covid prevention habits are probably coming in handy though, as people seem to be getting things from their school-aged kids or public transport but then not necessarily passing it around too much :).

So yeah, it's been a great November so far :P. To be honest, I've hardly noticed its passing as I've been somewhat buried in work. The only travel further afield than Oslo coming from a one day work trip to Stockholm. My first visit there, and all I managed to see was mainly the insides of meeting rooms and the ever present water from taxis. To be fair, the weather wasn't exactly inviting either. Maybe another time I'll get to see more :).

Reading's been a bit slow as well. I did manage to finish Matter. Definitely the longest Culture book so far. And now that I'm done with it, not sure what to make of it to be completely honest. There were loads of bits I really liked. The ending left me feeling quite sad though. I was hoping Djan would make it through.

I think the main feeling I'm left with is a sense of being left hanging. The abruptness of the ending (yes, after nearly 600 pages, it still felt abrupt) leaving me oddly frustrated. I keep getting reminded of Phlebas in that sense. Although that book had a much better sense of conclusion and closure thanks to the epilogue.

I wonder what the last two Culture books have in store :). But instead of finding out, I decided to read next month's book club book, Lessons in Chemistry. And it's been quite the journey! I'm more than three quarters of the way through, so there's a lot of space for twists and turns still, but so far I've enjoyed reading it!

Which is not to say it's a "fun" book. There are definitely bits that make me laugh out loud. But many others that make me mad, leave me shocked, frustrated or just sad. And I think that's exactly what the author is going for. One of the more chilling aspects of the book is how even though it's set in the 1950s and '60s, it actually came out earlier this year, and the issues of sexism and gender based discrimination in workplaces is still so rife, making this a completely relevant book for this day and age.

Looking forward though, it's finally my turn to suggest books again! And instead of just being lazy and dredging up things from my to-read list, I went hunting through the fantasy section of our local library! I'm leaning more and more on the library these days actually. The last several book club books I've managed to find in the local one, and those that weren't available here, could be ordered free of charge from some public library or other further afield! Long may it continue :).

PS. Decided not to watch any World Cup matches this time around. This is actually much less of a sacrifice than it may sound. I'm not sure if I'm taking a stand specifically. Or if I am, what that stand is for or against precisely. But there we have it. I am checking the scores off and on though, and was happy to see that Messi got Argentina one step away from the brink yesterday.

Of long awaited conversations and the new amidst the old

It's sunny today! This is newsworthy because for the last week or two it has been anything but :|. Rain, mist, and fog have been taking turns, and on occasion joining forces, to make the world in general somewhat miserable looking. But as I say, today it's sunny, and we'll hopefully go out and make some use of it :).

In the mean time though, life's been generally ongoing in fits and starts. One of the constants has been the reading, so let's start there. Having finished with Look to Windward, and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought I'll just dive into Matter right after. However, for some reason I'm still not entirely sure of, I couldn't really get into it straightaway.

When I gave it some thought, it occurred to me that the Culture series could actually be considered in a way to be a trilogy of trilogies. If you put aside The State of the Art seeing how it's not actually a novel, then the first three, next three and last three novels have been written (or at least published) somewhat close together, but with a greater gap between each group. Does this do something to the tone of the books in some way? 

I do feel like I read Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons rather close together, and though the books were completely their own stories, there was a sense of crescendo, a building up of tension, as if Banks was shifting through the gears a bit. 

I had something of a similar feeling with the next three novels. There was something of a gap between my reading of Use of Weapons (partly just to recover from the end of that book and partly to catch up on the book club readings) and Excession. But then I read Excession, Inversions and Look to Windward in quick succession. And again, I definitely felt this sense of build up.

In each case, the third book in the sequence has been my favourite. The narrative has been more layered, the protagonist(s) much more shaded in grey, the conclusion emotionally charged. Which is not to say the other books didn't have those elements, just maybe not in the same way.

Anyhow, I did end up really enjoying how Look to Windward played out in the end. It wasn't the sort of shock to the system the ending of Use of Weapons was, but felt powerful nonetheless, especially the epilogue :). Banks does have an amazing way of putting things in perspective.

Then, as I mentioned, I couldn't really get into Matter, possibly partly just because I needed to give myself a bit more time to think about ..Windward. Fortunately, there were more book club books to read :). This month's book was actually one I'd been looking forward to! The latest (although since then there's another one been released I think, anyway) in the Jackson Lamb series, this time rather obviously called Slough House :).

Anyone familiar with my history with the series would be pretty surprised, I think, to read that I genuinely enjoyed this book! Partly this could have been the setting, I read mostly on the trip the US, either on planes, or in between happenings with the family in New York or Asheville (more on which later). Reading it in bits and pieces meant I could actually enjoy how Herron writes! I have a feeling I'd never really paid much attention to that before.

I have to say, of course, that the ending wasn't much fun for me. However, (and here I must warn you, some spoilers follow) given the ambiguity, and the previously telegraphed reappearance of Sid, I'm more at ease with River's situation this time around rather than a quarter of the way through Spook Street when it seemed like the OB had shot him in the face! Now I can look forward to reading the next book :).

And then, once we were back from the trip, the next book club book which I'd ordered from the Library was waiting to be picked up, so I thought maybe it'll be fun to read The Beekeeper of Aleppo sooner rather than later. Not wholly unexpectedly, this turned out to be a book I'd probably not have read had it not been for the book club. 

Regardless, I'm glad I did, because it speaks compassionately yet unflinchingly about the ongoing horrors of war, displacement and separation. Something that is otherwise altogether too easy to just hide from (in my privileged position of not being in one of those warzones, of course).

The Syrian refugee crisis is not over, but here in Northern Europe it's been rather buried by the war in Ukraine. Unsurprisingly and somewhat understandably. Regardless, it felt timely to be reminded of the ongoing issues in other parts of the world. But even beyond that, the story of Nuri and Afra itself was worth experiencing. Having finished reading it, I now feel myself gravitating back to the world of the Culture, so Matter will probably be my companion for the next few weeks :).

The post for this month, however, would be in no way complete without mention of the much awaited and anticipated trip to the US for a long delayed reunion with some of my family there as well as some visiting from India! And what an amazing trip it turned out to be!! :) For one thing, all the travels - the flights to and from New York as well as the long drives from New York to Asheville and back, worked out like a charm. (With the one exception of the hour spent trying to get through Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey, but that was really nothing in the grand scheme of things :D.)

We spent a lovely day in Manhattan, lazily exploring bits of the Upper East Side, Central Park and a brief tour into Midtown. The weather was amazing, some of the locations familiar from previous visits. But the biggest source of enjoyment was just being able to spend time with family again, not through chats and emails, or even through screens on video calls, but finally in person :). The last day of the trip was spent similarly in NYC, with some added catching up with friends we hadn't met in five years!

The week in between though, was utter bliss! The familiar long drives to and from Asheville served as an interesting counterpoint to the days in Asheville spent relaxing, walking, chatting, birding, catching up, cooking, eating, laughing and just generally enjoying being together :). Even got to catch one of my mum's concerts live for the first time in ages! And celebrated my aunt's birthday in style :).

The weather all through served us very well too! And for the first time in my many years of visiting Asheville, the autumn colours were on full and gorgeous display! In fact as we headed south, there seemed to be more colour than in the north east. Then through the week we were there the trees changed in front of our eyes from the occasional reds, oranges and yellows amidst the green to progressively more fiery riotous colours :). It was a fun time.

The fact that we had a week meant that things didn't need to get too hectic :). There were quiet times to take it all in. I suppose it can be easy enough to cruise along the path of one's own life. Stay (or grow) insulated from the other lives being lived all around us. There's good reasons for it, I'm one of those that does find social interactions beyond a point somewhat burdensome. But being able to share life does have the possibility to bring so much joy!

Well, it's been something of a travel filled summer-autumn this year. Especially after the enforced seclusion of the last couple of years. But now it's likely to be a bit more of a settled couple of months till Christmas. Traditionally not the most fun time to be living in Norway, what with the darkness creeping over everything and the loss of colour from the world around. But I feel the memories of the fun trips to Greece, Belgium and the US have fortified me somewhat :).

Doesn't stop me from already looking forward to the planned trip to the UK for Christmas though :D.

Obligatory Virginia interstate signage photo :).