It's definitely autumn now. I mean, it's not been summer here for probably more than a month, but now there's not even the faintest chance of pretending :). The colours are changing. Pretty slowly I have to say, for Norway. But the leaves are still mostly on the branches. Which is extra surprising given how wet and windy it's been lately.
Another birthday came and went. A reminder of time passing, life being lived. The world around us changing as it rotates and revolves and does all sorts of other things we don't notice, and us changing with it. Somehow I've ended up leaning towards the calendar year as a more natural way of keeping track, rather than my birthday. I suppose in many ways 1st January is more of a coincidence than my actual birthday right? Only insofar as it concerns my life that is. But there you have it.
The travelling has been ongoing in the mean time. This month it was Belgium! Yet another country I'd never actually been to before, and now I have! And it definitely did not disappoint!
We were in Mechelen for a long weekend, tagging along at a conference. Lots of interesting conversations, seminars, discussions. Even some spilt beer (not my fault!). But the town (city?) itself was really awesome too!
There was a certain amount of rain, but mostly not when we were out and about taking in the sights! Which was very convenient! Situated between Brussels and Antwerp it's squarely in Flanders, the Dutch (or Flemish) speaking part of Belgium. There's a river that flows through it, but does so in such a civilized sort of way that I kept thinking this has got to be a canal! There was even a floating walkway along a significant length of it which we very much enjoyed :).
The thing of particular interest was the imposing tower of St Rumbold's cathedral! At close to 100m tall, it's easily the tallest thing for a long way around. (It helps that Belgium is also spectacularly flat!) In keeping with our luck with the weather, the sun was out and the skies were clear the afternoon we decided to climb up to the top!
I suppose we weren't there in peak tourist season, but it was definitely nice to even have the skywalk all to ourselves for a bit of time. And the weather to be able to enjoy the vistas stretching out on all sides.
As for the rest of the city, it was full of amazingly beautiful buildings in various styles. Lots of cobbled streets, and roads. And lots and lots of places to eat and drink at! We didn't necessarily have the time to sample it all, but did at least manage to try some proper Belgian ales at the local brewery and a tub of fries with the famed variety of sauces :).
Belgian beer is a particular favourite of mine, and I was extremely happy to see that the original local stuff is genuinely awesome :D!!
Otherwise this has been a pretty crazy busy month. What with one thing and another I feel as though the upcoming holiday couldn't come fast enough! Everyone has their visas and flights and so on, and this time next week I'd be seeing some family for the first time in many years! Probably not too surprisingly, I find myself trying to keep my excitement contained mainly by not thinking about it too much :).
On to the now more or less permanent section of my posts, the books :)! Inversions did more or less turn out as I was expecting, to my great joy! And yes, as anticipated, you never really get told who's who, but it seemed pretty obvious in the end :).
Then it was time for another book club book! This time it was The Memory Wood. The blurb was not promising. Seemed altogether way too dark for my general taste. And guess what? The cover didn't lie! Barely a chapter or so into the book and I was about ready to give up thanks to the simply terrible turn the story seemed to be taking. So I decided to do something I almost never do, and just read the last page.
Satisfied (sort of) that there was at least something to look forward to that wasn't demented and twisted, I managed to get through relatively unscathed. Oh there were definitely good bits to it. The writing was pretty captivating. Some of the characters, very interesting, and if not then at least thought provoking. I guess my trouble is just that if I wanted to get depressed by the depths to which human nature can sink, I can get plenty of that just by reading the news!
So now it's back to the much nicer Mr. Banks. The thing is, it's not like people aren't devious and awful and what not, just that that's not all there is to it. Look to Windward is again, fascinating in its scope, structure and the general way in which it flows. Yes, I'll say it again, having now read seven of the ten books of the series, I still wouldn't be able to say that I've found any sort of common pattern or simple structure to the stories. They continue to be gloriously and awesomely different :).
Haven't managed to get to the end yet, but this seems like another one with interleaved stories running in different layers. Now that I'm getting to the business end of it though, things are beginning to come together! So I'm rather looking forward to how it all ends. In the mean time though, I'm also just enjoying the ride :)!
