I have a headache. Mainly because the weather is totally awesome :|. It seems that I've inherited my mum's ability to sprout a headache when spending significant amounts of time in hot sunshine without some kind of head covering. Oh well. One gets older... On the upside, Trondheim in nice summer weather is really pretty!
But let's back up a bit. May has been a month of a fair bit of travelling for me. First there was a work trip to the UK. (Yes! Those have started happening again. And while I'm happy that Covid is slowly relinquishing its grasp on the world, I still feel travel is more fun when not for work.) Heathrow was a bit of a nightmare with delays and such, but otherwise it was reasonable, as far as these things go.
The week after, when we were visiting the in-laws for a weekend of gathering and celebration, the Heathrow experience was curiously smooth! (Maybe they figured how I feel about leisure travel vs work travel!!) The weather was great! We met loads of people we hadn't met in some years. Ate loads of great food :). There was even time to actually relax and enjoy some quiet time with family.
Then we were back home for a week, and off again on a long awaited visit to mid-Norway, visiting friends! Rørvik is one of those places that when you mention to people you're going there (assuming they know of its existence) are likely to respond with why?! Of course, seeing good friends we hadn't seen in ages is probably a good enough reason to go anywhere, but the place was really nice too!
Norway is a very long country though, so driving halfway up it was a task best split in two. We stopped for a night in Trondheim on the way there for a preview. Even managing to meet up with some friends who were headed to Rørvik using other modes of transport! The next day we met yet other friends who were headed the same way on the ferry on route (although we promptly lost them as soon as we were off the ferry).
Finally, when we did make it there, it was to much excitement and joy :). I was particularly excited that the kids were as excited to see us as we were to see them. Three years is a long time when you're 12 :). The weather, while indulgent, wasn't exactly out and out glorious. But it still allowed us enough opportunities to explore a bit. Most of the time though was spent catching up!
So now we are back in Trondheim again. Norway's capital back in the Viking times, it's well known today for the largest technical university in Norway. Which means that a majority of Norwegians I know have spent some time up here :). We'd long heard about its awesome restaurants and great vibes, so it seemed like a good idea to spend two nights instead of one before heading back.
The weather, as I mentioned at the top of the post, has been exceptionally gorgeous. And we've spent it exploring, dozing on random bits of grass and trying out some of the famed food. So far, it has all been really great! (If only I'd remembered my hat.)
In between all the travelling, we finally managed to go out on the bikes. But then I promptly had a puncture courtesy of a particularly sharp piece of grit :(. Oh well, hopefully some more summer cycling will happen in June, July and beyond.
On the book front it feels like it's been a while since I've read anything. But that's probably because there hasn't been time to read lately :). Dune Messiah didn't really change my mind in the last few hundred pages. Although, I had this distinct feeling that had there not been the same sense of foreboding throughout the whole book, I may actually have enjoyed it a bit?! I guess we'll never know.
I figured it was time to take a brief break from sci-fi and read the book club book. Which this month was Olga. I enjoyed it quite a lot actually! There were many layers to the book, I felt. Once again, as a book translated into English, it's hard to say how much of the original feel to the story has carried over. Overall though, both the style and the story seemed really interesting.
Since then I've jumped back into the world of sci-fi. This time, in the form of the strange and wonderful world of Culture. As a series, it seems more Asimov than Malazan, in that, subsequent books don't happen immediately one after another, and often with a different cast of characters. I'm nearly done with the first book, and Consider Phlebas is an excellent advertisement for the late Iain M Banks. Courtesy of a friend, I do have the rest of the nine volumes sitting behind the sofa, just waiting to be read :D.
