Of lost marbles and perfect winter weather

It's taken a while, but I'm back in Kolkata. Now, though, it doesn't quite qualify as home, so in theory I'm not back, just visiting. The clearest proof is sleep :). Every night, just before I fall asleep, I miss my bed. Damn! Only took eight months!

The trip over went by in a rush. Connections that were just long enough to not be uncomfortable, but not long enough to relax. Flights where I couldn't find sleep. So it wasn't at all surprising that when I showed up here at eight in the morning, I was barely awake. Having spent eighteen of the next twenty eight hours shrugging off my lack of sleep, at least part of which had nothing to do with jet-lag, I was finally, properly in vacation land :).

True to recent form, I improved greatly on my recent reading record in transit. Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller had been last month's book, and having acquired a hard copy at the beginning of said month, I was quite thrilled to be reading one of those after a while. For all of about ten pages. Somehow reading just hadn't happened those last few weeks.

I ended up finishing the whole book over the course of the trip from Oslo to Kolkata. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, I mean, it's well written. I like the guy's style, mixing up introspective musings with fairly fast action. I sympathise with the characters. But then again, the central character, or at least one of the two, (definitely the only one that survives till the end) never actually speaks for the duration of the book!

I wish we at least found out Paul's real name. Well, I suppose he did smile, and laugh. Once. And cried hysterically. So you can't say he doesn't make a sound throughout the book. I was also sad that the thug least guilty got shot first. But I guess that's irony for you.

Now I'm back to Connie Willis and All-clear. Believe it or not, having read three books in between and despite the passage of a couple of months, I didn't really have to bother reading the end of Blackout to get into it. It's all exactly as muddy and confusing as the better part of the first book. I'm just hoping there's actually some sort of an ending to this one. 

In the mean time, it's going to be catching up with family and friends and getting comfortable driving Indian style :). I was a little worried about that on the way here. I needn't have bothered, half an hour or the right side of the car, and it was like I'd never left. I only hope this doesn't bode ill for when I get back to Norwegian roads :P.

Currently: on vacation! yay :D
Listening to: Poliça - So leave

At what cost freedom?

I have been looking forward to this more than I want to admit to myself. It will be all too short. Too little, hopefully not too late. It will be over before I know it and I will hate it when it's over. But. Right now, this vacation is the best thing in the world :).

Feeling: liberated, albeit temporarily :P
Listening to: Zendaya - Replay

St. Swithin's day

This last weekend was the first in a while when I made a conscious decision and stuck with it 100%. I did nothing even remotely active, spending almost every waking moment surveying my living room and backyard from my pillow fortress atop the couch :D. It was glorious!

It's been a long few weeks. And when frustration and more than a touch of overbearing stress join forces with illness, things begin to look quite a bit bleaker than they actually are :). Thankfully, it wasn't anything a couple of days of oversleeping couldn't cure!

And while I was at it, I ended up catching up on some movie watching I'd been meaning to do. There were quite a few of the recent action/sci-fi non-classics that I'd missed in the theatres. Oblivion, I have to admit, wasn't half bad, despite Cruise. I only half saw that twist coming, that too, pretty late :). But the one that really did capture my attention was One Day.

Thing is, I was actually planning on watching Once. But as fate would have it, the cursor passed over to the next one and by the time I'd noticed the switch, I was already hooked. As far as concepts go, it was nothing particularly out of this world. 

In fact, I would much rather like to read Ethan Hawke's book from Before Sunset. You know, the concept he talks about in the Paris bookshop, where the entire story happens within the span of a single pop song. Okay, so the soundtrack might turn out to be a bit boring but so what? Anyhow, I digress.

I've never particularly liked whatshisname, chap who plays Dex. Which was a pretty good thing, 'cos for the most part, I suppose he isn't really someone you'd like. I mean I get it, but I sort of kept wondering what Em saw in him. Things were going rather well, I barely noticed the time, the briefly sunny afternoon disappeared into dusk and then of course she had to go get hit by that truck.

The only thing I could think of was (oddly enough, another movie made from a book I haven't read) Pat's reaction to that Hemingway book from Nikki's school syllabus :). I mean, it's apt! Why?! Really, why? You know why I love Stranger Than Fiction? Because Emma Thompson gives up that phenomenally poignant ending of killing Harold, leaving things a little less superlative, and a whole lot happier. Hoffman's judgemental criticisms be damned.

I'm a sucker for happy endings, what can I say :).

Feeling: better :)
Listening to: Zedd ft. Hayley Williams - Stay the night

God tur

It's usually a good weekend when you get to go out a bit I guess. A hike is always a good thing. Last weekend, seeing how the weather promised to be particularly nice and sunny, we decided to brave the sub-zero temperatures, and go for it.

That's one thing that keeps me going, no matter what, there are always other people up for it. Cold frozen trails notwithstanding. :)

I do admit, I'd rather be snowboarding than hiking at this point of time in the year, but it's just the grass in my backyard that's showing any signs of freezing over, not any of the local slopes, so I guess the 'board will have to wait a while still.

Currently: weekend!!
Listening to: Lana del Rey - Summertime sadness

Destination unknown

It's almost tangible, this feeling of things slipping away. Slowly, and with a sickening sense of inevitability. That's a word right? Of course it is :(.

Why is that, exactly? I couldn't say. But in everything there's that sense of losing my grip.

Looking through over a year's worth of unsorted photographs brought the full weight of how little control I've had on my life lately. Floating along, buffeted by surprises and choices made in the moment.

Heading somewhere, but don't know where. Don't really know how or why either. Should I? I'm not entirely sure.

Currently: tired
Listening to: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - White walls