Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream

Summer is finally upon us :). Well, seeing how this is the end of June, that's not surprising, but what is surprising is that we've actually seen a nice amount of rain as well. Makes for the first properly green summer for a few years!

Happily, there have been enough periods of nice weather, particularly on the weekends to allow the cycling to continue. In fact, it's been on the edge of too warm on occasion, but nothing like what the rest of Europe is going through.

We did experience a bit of the proper warm weather on a short trip to the UK. 38°C isn't anything to be scoffed at. But honestly, the air was still pretty cool, so as soon as you got out of the sun, things were pretty manageable. I guess depends a lot on what you're used to :).

It was great to see the newest nephew! Which was mainly why we were there. But there turned out to be an opportunity to also go watch a live cricket match! The Women's T20 World Cup match between South Africa and The Netherlands. (Yes, you probably didn't even know that there was another world cup on! :D).

Given the small ground it was great to catch the action from pretty close! Close enough to be able to easily tell if the batter had made good contact by the sound off the bat! :) It was quite warm, but a really fun afternoon.

Now the summer holidays are beginning to roll in, which means Norway sort of empties out a bit. As usual, we're staying put, and hoping that the weather will stay nice and we'll get to keep enjoying it :).

And keep reading :). It has actually been quite nice to just settle back into the Foundation series. The travels were a good opportunity to complete the re-read of the original trilogy and then I started on Foundation's Edge. 

Given the gap of fifteen or so years since I last read them, there was a lot that I didn't remember. The broad strokes were there, but the details were great fun to discover again. I've also read a lot of varying science/speculative fiction in the mean time, which gives a different perspective. Some of the writing, particularly the older books, definitely shows its age. But the underlying themes continue to be thought provoking as ever...

Then there's the other world cup. The one that's hardly possible to miss seeing how Norway has qualified for the first time in nearly three decades :). Well, we'll see how long the fun lasts!

Oh for the love of lilacs!

This month seems to have gone by quite fast in a way. Yet, looking back, April feels like a very long way away! Funny how time moves, fast yet slow, or the other way around... Sometimes it even hides! Like the trip to Bergen I'd almost forgotten actually happened in May!

It was a long weekend, and circumstances conspired to find me on the cross country train passing the higher reaches of central Norway still shrouded in snow. It was a little surreal seeing that much snow given how early it all disappeared from around us. But then again, this is the part of Norway where people go to ski in the summer, so :).

Bergen itself was a mix of sunshine and not, but counter to reputation, it didn't actually rain on us at any point :D. Much of the weekend was spent taking relaxed walks around the centre and sometimes a bit farther afield. Eventually though it was time to take another train back. 

Unlike the train over, and despite the lengthening days, a fair bit of the return trip was spent in the dark. With me pondering how much difference a few hours can make, turning spectacular valleys and hillsides into blurs in shades of grey and black.

May being what it is in Norway, it was pretty much weekend after weekend of happenings. After Bergen, it was time for this year's Holmenkollstafetten! More or less as expected a couple of people had to drop out somewhat late in the game, but we still had the most runners since we started participating with Kezzler, and not that it matters too much, also the best time! :D

It's always fun watching Oslo transform into a bustling, almost unrecognizable version of itself for this event every year :). It had a bit of extra help this year with the Norwegian equivalent of the FA Cup being held the same evening! There was a bit of rain in the air, but all in all, a fun day (and we didn't actually get wet, which is always a plus :D).

Then the weekend after was the Norwegian National Day! We did what we usually do these days, watching the local school band and parade. Then did what we don't usually have to do, hide from the rain at various friends. This didn't stop us from enjoying the obligatory 17th of May barbeque though :).

So yeah, there's been a fair bit going on. But through it all the regular running is ongoing, and now that the temperatures have taken an upward turn, cycling has started again! This time I'm trying to take it easy and ramp up slowly. Recovery seems to take longer and longer as the years go by, so overdoing it does have rather more significant consequences :/.

And that's more or less it actually. Weirdly enough, haven't really managed to get much reading done. Not necessarily because I've been oh so busy or whatever. It's just that I've had a really hard time getting myself to pick up the book club book.

Babel is not a bad read or anything. A little full of itself maybe. Some of the author's underlying messaging bleeding through a bit too overtly some times. But somehow after getting through about a quarter or so I just can't be bothered. All in all I think I'm just not in the mood for it to be honest :/. And a half read Asimov doesn't seem like the most exciting alternative either.

Mainly I'm waiting for Platform Decay to land. I've managed to get the library to order a copy, but I guess it'll take as long as it takes. Hopefully not too long. In the mean time, hopefully I'll keep myself occupied with more hours outdoors, smelling the lilacs that have come out just about everywhere around here :).

Crystalised

It feels like its been a month of two halves. It's possible some of this may have to do with the weather. Apparently it's rained a fair bit less than normal through the summer months this year. Well, that's definitely factually correct, seeing how the local weather station has pretty accurate records for the last few decades. But for the last week or so I think we've been making up for it. Which is not a bad thing of course.

Somewhat independently of that, I started off August feeling quite keen about cycling, but then overdid it a bit :/. Since then the outdoor activities have tailed off rather a lot, and not all of that can be blamed on the weather or even the physical state of my legs. Oh well. I have managed to not be too anti-social at least, which has been nice :).

So here's a tangent apropos of nothing.

There have been long periods of my life where listening to and exploring new music was a constant. But you know, life happens, and slowly I've found myself doing less and less of the exploring. I probably still listen to music, particularly during my commute, most days. Barring some stretches when life has felt like it was getting altogether too much, and a bit of time with no active inputs felt relaxing.

At various points I've wondered if this (the not exploring new music) is a question of prioritizing different things, or just a natural consequence of growing older. By a certain point in life one has landed on a set of preferences and while there may well be new music fitting those preferences, it's easier to just fall back on the known.

For somewhat unrelated reasons, I'd never been on Spotify until quite recently. Yes, to the massive shock of many of my colleagues. I used to actually quite enjoy the look on people's faces when I told them that :D. A bit like when I tell them I've never had Netflix :P. Anyway, I did get on to Spotify, partly because I found out in the spring that Linkin Park were in fact making music again! Which makes me happy, mainly for Mike Shinoda and co.

And while I was there, I came across The XX. Now, for the last decade or so, one of my favourite pieces of music has been one of their instrumental pieces that was used on the soundtrack of Person of Interest. Yeah, blast from the past, right? Indeed. But I somehow never really got around to finding more of their music. Cue Spotify, and now xx, Coexist and I See You are all I seem to be listening to when I actually want to pay attention to what I'm listening to :).

Ok, so what else has actually been happening? Well, like I said last time around, I've been home alone, so keeping the plants alive has been one thing I can count as a success :). And yes, the rain has helped no end!

Decided to go watch the Liverpool season opener with the local supporters' group. Played out a bit differently than last year, but fortunately with the same result. It felt comforting at some level to have paid my respects to the memory of DJ20 during the game. Sport is an odd thing. As some have said, the most important of the least important things.

On to some other important unimportant things then. I've already posted about Dark Matter. Since then I've been reading more sci-fi. First it was Service Model. I've seen books by Adrian Tchaikovsky at the local library for years, just never got around to picking on up. This one is a stand alone novel. One that I rather enjoyed :). I could honestly say that this is the happiest dystopian novel I've ever read :D.

It felt like a social commentary wrapped in a science fiction setting. Definitely some philosophical ideas to ponder. Reminded me of Asimov in some ways. Actually makes me think I should re-read the Robots and Foundation books. It's been fifteen years since I last read them, so I'm curious how they'd read now.

Despite the broader arcs in the background though, the story of the journey itself, one of self discovery, and the two central characters felt very well characterized. I particularly enjoyed the way that Uncharles remains (wilfully?) unaware of The Wonk's human/machine nature until the end :). The thing I didn't get at all were the chapter titles, until I saw some commentary online..

This didn't really feel like a book about plot though, more about ideas. And in the age of AI, particularly timely. Makes me think I should actually go and read some of his series :). Ah yes, more sci-fi series :D. Speaking of which, after finishing Service Model I decided to proceed with the first book of The Expanse, Leviathan Wakes.

On the one hand, launching into a nine book journey feels a bit daunting, on the other hand, it's felt like a pretty relaxed read so far. Which is not to say the action has been at all relaxing. Just that the pacing of the narrative doesn't feel like it's dragging me along willy-nilly, but at the same time is easy to read :).

I have to admit, a third of the way into the first book, this is no Culture, but hey, it wasn't until I got into the second book that I was really beginning to appreciate the genius of Iain M Banks. So I'm taking not only Leviathan... but also Caliban's War with me on holiday tomorrow :D.

Yup, it's finally holiday time. Heading back to the UK for a week and a half, and this time it's just chill time. Having not had a proper holiday since the beginning of June it feels like I really need the break :). I guess by the time we're back, autumn will be well and truly underway. Well, summer's felt like it's been on the way out for a while anyway.

So here we are again :). You, my (mostly) imaginary reader, and me, attempting yet again the exercise in futility that is trying to sum up the year that has been, in some sort of sensible way, within the confines of a single blog post :). But hey, that's never stopped me in the past, so why bother now :D.

Another end of year post from the UK, a bit of an extended Christmas break this time. Partly because I was left with extra days off because of bad planning (or serendipitous oversight, depending on how one looks at it), and partly because of the way the days of the week matched up with the days off. We've been here exactly two weeks now, and don't head home till the end of this week :).

Apart from the complete and much needed break from work that this has allowed, it's also been particularly good timing with respect to a partial hip replacement situation that came up :/. Fortunately that has meant maybe even more time spent with family that may otherwise have been possible.

As for the rest of December, it actually snowed!! Not huge amounts, but enough to make it feel like proper winter. It would appear that as I type this more snow has arrived back home, so who knows, maybe it'll be cross-country season when we get back!

Speaking of, last season wasn't really much of a cross-country skiing one for us. And for a change, this was not for lack of amazing conditions! It was just that this time last year we were trying really hard to get the new flat ready to move into! Feels like an absolute age ago now :). Not only did the move go like a dream (with a lot of help from some friends), we've had quite a lot of our close family visit since then, from India and the UK, which has felt really fun!

I guess travel was a bit more limited this time around, although the train trip to the west coast of Norway with my parents in the summer was a highlight. Do I wish for more travel in the coming year though? Not really. Maybe a bit more adventurous cycling might be fun, but if not, I'll be happy if we can just keep up the rhythm of cycling to and from work once or twice a week in the summer :).

When it comes to reading, it feels like an oddly off and on year. I think I've spent a lot of my spare time on NFS No Limits instead... which, I guess has been a lot of fun. But do I miss spending more time reading? Not sure. I mean, I did manage to get totally mesmerized by two completely different types of fantasy in The Murderbot Diaries and The Invisible Library. The book club books, as usual, were a bit of a mixed bag. Maybe a few too many non fiction choices this year, oh well.

Speaking of book club books, I'm currently sort of meandering my way through The Game. It's the first book of a trilogy originally written in Swedish. I was having a hard time locating a copy in English, so decided to go for the copy in Norwegian from our local library. Hmm. Possibly a mistake. I think when I do get into it, I really enjoy reading the book. But the language is definitely more complex and dialect-wise heavy. Definitely a step up from anything I've read in Norwegian before. So maybe I should have given myself some more time, really :/. I have been enjoying it so far, but there's a very real chance that I'll end up not being able to finish a book for the first time, not because I gave up, but because I'd run out of time!!

Before that though, I had no issues racing through The Library at Mount Char in no time! With the possible exception of the logic behind the title, there were absolutely no let downs! The plot twists, while sometimes almost literally outlandish, always kept me engaged. The characters were interesting enough, but mostly it was the world mechanics and the plot that kept me glued to it.

So there we have it. A year where the beginning feels so far away as to almost defy belief, yet one that has simultaneously run by way too fast for me to really catch my breath. I can hear the fireworks going now :). As we drove the rental car back from helping babysit our niece (yup, right-hand-drive for the first time in a while, was good to keep the habit alive I guess) we did notice some going off pretty early on in the evening, but feels like things are now properly picking up around here. The other thing I can hear is the wind howling :).

So, fireworks and storms. Interesting way to start a new year I guess? Who knows. I'll hope to keep a more even keel than maybe I've been able to this last year. Continue to be grateful for the amazing blessings I can count. Beyond that, I guess it's just a case of strapping in for the ride :).

Memories of memories, old and new

It's definitely autumn now. In fact, onto the distinctly wintry side of autumn even. There are still the occasional sunny days, but the sun has taken on that light-only-no-real-heat sort of persona :/. This is usually the time of the year where I begin to find life a bit difficult. The rapidly shortening hours of daylight has most to do with it I think. Vitamin D tablets can only do so much to be honest.

So it was nice to have more visitors! The parents-in-law stayed over for a week and a half and we had a pretty fun time together! It feels a bit surreal that it was just over a year ago that we found this place, and now both sets of parents and several siblings etc. have come and spent some time with us here :). Extra space has definite upsides.

We made the most of the sunnier days to go walking in the vicinity and also made a couple of forays into Oslo! We took the opportunity to have a look around some places we hadn't in the past, despite meaning to, and some we had! The new Munch museum and the National museum were, I think, the highlights!

When the new Much museum appeared on the Oslo waterfront some years ago, the way the eventual prize winning "lambda" design translated from renders on marketing material to the real thing left more or less everyone rather miffed :|. I definitely was on the miffed side of the general public opinion spectrum. But seeing how we had a compelling reason to explore the art within (namely my mother-in-law), it seemed a good time to ignore the outward appearance and venture in.

It's actually a pretty awesome experience! It's possible to gain a progressively elevated view of the city as one climbs up the twelve floors, providing a unique perspective. The buildings and roads very familiar from ground level take on a rather different, and grander, character. And then of course there are the many many galleries :).

I'm not exactly an art person. I mean, I like spending the occasional day or a few hours in galleries every now and then, but I'm not sure I have strong opinions beyond things I like more or less. Munch seemed to leave a particularly strong impression. Was it because I was accompanied by people who understood more of what was going on? 

Who knows, either way, I was struck by the particular way in which the artist's thoughts seemed to come through in the paintings. Particularly the way in which a completely still scene could convey so much movement, physical and otherwise! It was a fun evening.

Then there was the annual Oslo culture evening which we had been to this time last year. We decided to limit the walking, and focus on the Parliament - National theatre - town hall area. There were open air bands, brief forays into student photography exhibitions, a look around the Nobel Peace centre and finally a chunk of the evening at the National museum. The last being the only thing we repeated from last year :).

Otherwise, I feel like it's been a quiet month. Went cycling once, but this last week it's started getting properly cold in the mornings. Not quite freezing yet, but definitely frost territory, and it's still only September! Just about :).

This month's book club book was of my choosing, and instead of focusing on fantasy or sci-fi, I went with authors I have some personal connection to. Ended up reading Hema Sukumar's Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments again :). I feel like, having known the story (and remembered most of the significant plot points) let me enjoy the atmospherics of the writing even more :).

It was, as with the first time, a very nostalgic read for me to be honest! A sense of familiarity in different ways. But equally, an odd sense of looking in from the outside, which form me came across particularly in the characters of Jason and Laxmi. And I suppose Karthik to a limited extent. 

It's an interesting half-in half-out existence, that of growing up in a country in the midst of significant social and technological change, and then spending the rest of one's life figuring out how to fit into another culture, set of social norms and expectations. Also, weather. Weather's actually kind of a pretty big part of life, which isn't often obvious till one moves somewhere with very different weather :).

I also started reading one of my other suggestions that didn't get picked, Srinath's If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai. So, confession time, this book came out over a decade ago! And I actually was in touch with Srinath at the time, albeit sporadically. I distinctly remember creating the Goodreads page for the book :D. (Yes, they were simpler times, any logged in user could create or even in many cases update the details of a book. Now you have to go through a whole moderation process. Which is a good thing, I think :).)

But then I never read it. Until now. Is it the passage of time, and the greater distance? Not sure, but I'm really really enjoying reading this. Occasionally I find myself even reading it in Srinath's voice in my head, imagining his facial expressions at particularly hilarious or ironic moments :). I'm a bit over halfway through, and looking forward to the rest of it.

Looking out to the thin slice of the Oslofjord that we can see, I feel an odd sense of layered reality. This particular view, with it's treed hills folding into blue-grey water, punctuated by pointed evergreens in the foreground and with the hills in the distance fading to blue, is actually really new, but already feels so familiar. Beneath it though (or beyond, it's hard to find words to capture the feeling), I see the waving trees in the middle distance outside the living room windows of the flat in Asansol. Somewhere in-between there are the ever-changing expanses of water seen from the various decks of the various ships.

Maybe I'm working on assimilating all the different normals of the last fortyish years, and these books are bringing back oh so many memories. Or maybe I'm just feeling the end of summer blues :).