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, Coexsit 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.

Of memories, musk ox and an early start to summer

April has practically flown by, and there's a lot to write about! There was the highly anticipated Easter road trip, some interesting reading and number twenty! But through it all, the odd sense of displacement. On the one hand, I kept feeling like this must be May already, the weather being as warm as it is. On the other hand, it feels like there hardly was an April, so it can't possibly be May already!

I guess it's not a total surprise, this early start to summer, but while last year the snow at least lasted into April, this time around it's been gone almost mid March! I mean, is there actually anyone still left actually believing that anthropogenic climate change is not a thing? Oh well. 

But it did mean that the Easter trip to middle Norway with some visiting friends went a bit differently that it might have done! Given that one of said friends was a lot happier to not have to deal with too much snow, this actually worked out quite well in the end :).

So the plan had actually been theirs to start with, spend a week in Norway, focus on exploring the mountains and fjords, scenery over urban experiences. Which was perfect seeing how they'd also picked Easter week, when most of Norway pretty much shuts down :). 

The trip ended up being a visit and stay at Åndalsnes, a place we'd been to nearly eleven (eleven!!) years ago, and then a stop on the outskirts of the Dovrefjell national park on the way back. It ended up being a really nice relaxed holiday, just what we all needed :).

My memories of the last trip to Åndalsnes are rather heavily dominated by the Romsdalseggen hike, but also the beauty of the landscape. What we had not done last time was spend any sort of time in the town itself! Something we remedied thoroughly this time around :). It's a really pretty little town, nestled at the head of a fjord and surrounded by towering mountain peaks on all sides. Given the holiday week, it was quiet, but with enough going on to keep us entertained :).

We did do a bit of hiking, however there had never been any thought of repeating the whole hike to the top. We spent a bit of time exploring the paths near the bottom, and then decided to use the new installation since our last visit, the gondola to the edge of the ridge!! A lazy but quite spectacular way to enjoy the views! There was even a nice restaurant at the top! We did spend some time actually hiking the ridge, and yes, the views were just as dramatic as I remembered :).

One of the days we decided to head over to Ålesund, get a bit of the city experience, but also explore more of the fjord landscape that can be so breath taking in that part of the country! Having been there no a separate trip about seven years ago, it was fun to see how much of the navigation could be done without help of GPS :). The answer turned out to be mostly, but not quite entirely :D.

One big source of anticipation throughout the trip was our planned musk ox safari! Seeing how we were going to be passing Dovrefjell, and the only place in Norway (and indeed one of the few anywhere in the world) where one can see mux oxen in the wild, it seemed like an opportunity too good to pass on. There was, as I say, much anticipation, particularly from one of our visitors :).

I am happy to report, that not only did we get to see some of the magnificent beasts, it was a wonderful day to be out! We didn't even have to venture too far to get to the point where a heard of more than twenty were happily grazing, play-fighting and generally lounging about. Our guide proved to be quite the character as well, full of entertaining, and occasionally weird and wonderful anecdotes and pieces of information :).

All in all, the trip, as I said was a success. We even managed a quick pitstop at Lillehammer on the way down south to the much tamer landscape. To be honest, even the landscape in the area hear around the Oslofjord is pretty spectacular if one were to compare it to other parts of the world, but the majesty of the landscape is just on a completely different level once one ventures a bit further north :).

During the holiday and otherwise during this month, I also explored Abeth! Book of the Ancestor proved to be great fun! Partly because, I imagine, this being the second Mark Lawrence trilogy I read, I did go in a bit better prepared :). For one thing, once I'd noticed the sometimes disconcerting changes of pace and shifts in the passage of time, I decided to take my time, and not rush headlong through the three books :).

There are definitely some great lines in this series :). Here's one that lends itself very easily to being quoted:

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.

I mean, seriously?!! :D. Yes, totally badass. Having said that, it's not all about action, as usual. There's as I said, a lot of variety to the pace. Once you get used to it though, I feel it's easy enough to navigate. There's a very different tone to this series compared to The Red Queen's War. There's isn't the same level of grimness, although it still is pretty grim, and neither is there the layer of almost forced mirth.

The ending did feel a tad predictable, in that the hero/heroine unlocks power of ancient advanced sci-fi tech buried on planet stuck in a medieval fantasy social structure while battling personal evils and a society on the brink because aforementioned sci-fi tech is failing. Also, unlocking of power happens in a way unlike that anticipated by everyone... You get the idea. Still, very much worth the read :).

Now I'm finally trying to make my way through the book club book of the month, the appropriately named A Short History of the World According to Sheep! I have to say, after the entertaining and frankly wild ride of the short history of Nona Grey's life, this is a hard one to get properly into :P. I'm about halfway through (which is good, because book club is in less than a week, so maybe actually not so good, but anyway) and so far it mainly feels like a long string of entertaining but rather random facts about sheep. Or things related to sheep. Sometimes rather tangentially.

Anyhow, the other big one, number twenty!! At the start of the season, there was no other word to describe how I felt other than cautiously optimistic, meaning, top four finish and hopefully deep runs in the cups. Then in January, it was suddenly this surreal situation of being on top of everything! At which point the inevitable thing is to remember that LFC is the club with the record of number of seasons where they've topped the table at Christmas/New Year and not won.

Then of course we're in the middle of March and the cup losses meant that there was a proper sense of loss. I was speaking to a fellow Liverpool FC supporter the other week, how at the start of the season, being top of the league in April would have felt like the best thing ever! And yet there was a sense of what might have been. Last week though, and I think the game in particular, blew all that away, and it was just pure joy :).

Who knows what'll happen next season, but as a sports fan, you've got to enjoy these moments :). YNWA

Interlude

I should really post those photos that go with last month's post :D. I keep thinking about it, but for once, the sheer number of them seems to defeat me, and I keep putting it off... Oh well.

In the mean time, it's snowed some more! The snow from October did disappear after about a week, but since then the temperature's been below -10°C and now the snow seems to be back! Not quite enough to get into cross-country season though. 

Or, maybe it's just been a bit too hectic for that. It is that part of the year, where being active and lively takes that much more effort, everything feels dreary and somewhat miserable. Yup, not my favourite time of year in Norway. However, it's less than a month now till the days start getting longer!

It was nice to get away for a long weekend to the UK actually! Nicer weather, more autumn than the depressing part of winter :). Met family, ate amazing food. The usual :). Well, almost followed India losing the CWC finals... Can't have everything I suppose.

And then at the beginning of this week travelled to the Netherlands for a work trip and the colds and what not that seem to have been felling people all around us finally caught up with me :(. Amersfoort was nice though, what little of it I got to see in one short evening stroll. At least it wasn't raining then :|. So yeah, this week's kinda been miserable. But working from home does have it's perks, extra sleep, let stress, less talking. I guess I'm also in my not too happy to socialize phase just at this moment. Hmm.

I guess there's also the fact that I've basically not been reading at all for most of this month. And I partly blame Votan. It's one of those books I bought because Neil Gaiman wrote an amazing intro for it that I read. While it's not been 100% the case, but I'm beginning to get the feeling that while I absolutely love his own writing, and I do appreciate from time to time where he gets some of his ideas from, his actual taste and mine probably differ quite a bit :|.

So yes, Votan. Cheeky, annoying, and quite mean mostly. But also one of those characters that seems to be around at least partly to hold a mirror up to everyone and everything around them. Well written, no doubt. I guess just not a great read for the darkening miserable winter :).

Instead, I've been spending a bunch of the time I'd otherwise be reading, playing NFS No Limits! And loving it! It's been absolutely aaages since I've played anything Need for Speed :D. It also turns out I'm eight years late to the party, but who cares?!

It's really fun to get into something that does, by and large, let you get on at your own pace. Unless you get bored accumulating XPs (or whatever they're called in this one) to get to the next level in the campaign that is. But I'm just happy racing with as little drama as possible. Yes, swiping and tapping on the phone is not nearly as fun as mashing the arrow keys and slapping the spacebar, but hey, still a lot of fun :). I suppose I will get bored at some point, but not yet :D.

Right, that's enough screen time for now.

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!