The times, they are a-changing...

How quickly things can change. For much of the world, March 2020 may long remain a stark reminder of this. Of course there's cause and effect. And in this case the effects may seem sudden, but the cause(s?) has been brewing for some time. Regardless, I am grateful to be living where I do and in general the state of my life is probably vastly more comfortable than a very large number around the world. 

This is a humbling realisation. Even for those that appreciate that the little things in life cannot be taken for granted, the current state of the world has probably uncovered a bunch of things taken for granted. Like being able to pop around to a friend for a chat. Catching up with some friends at a cafe or restaurant. Sports on TV.

Luckily for us here in Norway, walks in the woods are very much allowed. And where we live, there aren't so many people that the woods fail to afford a significant level of personal space. Given that fact we've been making use of the nice weather, generally on Saturdays, to make the most of it!

Spring is definitely in the air! Flowers are slowly making an appearance! And the last of the snow is disappearing. There was one final proper dump of snow right at the beginning of the month. Kindly coinciding with some "surprise" out of town visitors for a slightly belated birthday celebration :).

Since then of course, things have been a bit different. First off there's the working from home. Luckily, I can in fact work from home. So it was just a case of lugging my monitor and other sundry hardware from the office and setting up a temporary home office and trying to keep as much of a work routine as possible while also enjoying the greater flexibility.

What with all the schools and kindergartens shut, most of my colleagues and other friends are having a much more challenging time of it :). After almost three weeks of this, some are settling in, others are reaching the end of their patience :|. I guess it all kinda depends on expectations. It seems more and more obvious that a quick short term impact to life this is not.

I have found that sticking to my normal work alarm on weekdays has worked beautifully! I am probably not as prompt at getting out of bed as when I had to catch public transport, but reading a book for an hour or so in the morning is still a great start to the day. Just on my sofa, instead of on a train :).

Speaking of, I'm properly back in the book club! The first book back for me was Pyramids. A classic Pratchett! Highly enjoyable for one such as myself who hasn't been knee deep in the Discworld recently. I especially enjoyed the unique way in which Pratchett manages to slightly subvert the expected normals of the world :).

The second book was much further outside my normal orbit. The Blue Between Sky and Water. What can I say? I've never been particularly deeply engaged in the Israel Palestine conflict. Observing it from afar. In some ways maintaining my distance as the odd bit of sometimes fictionalised detail passed by too close for comfort on its fiery trajectory. Some bit of news on TV, bits of films, books, conversations. So this rather more intimate albeit in some ways fantastical story was a bit of an eye opener.

Putting aside the politics of it, I have to say I really enjoyed the narrative style. Bar the occasional horrifyingly detailed exploration of violence, the focus is maintained on living rather than dying. Finding rather than losing. Or maybe that was just what I chose to focus on. The ambiguous nature of some of the more supernatural elements lent a particular grace to the story that could otherwise have rapidly descended into nothing but hate.

And now I am back to familiar territory. The last time I tried reading Spook Street, it didn't go very well. Now, whether the intervening time spent reading the Malazan books, where favourite characters dying in spectacularly unfortunate (after the first ten or twenty the term unexpected can't really be applied any more) circumstances was pretty much par for the course, had any effect or not I don't know. But I decided to give it another go. I have to say, I'm glad I did! Can't really say much more without spoilers :).

So there we have it. Life has changed. But life goes on. The pub has turned into a virtual, trans-national, Zoom-ified gathering. Work no longer involves commuting. Catching up with friends involves WhatsApp (and no longer just to plan the gatherings :D) and online games. Maybe social media isn't such a bad thing after all! ;) But it does make one realise what personal physical contact is all about. Let's hope one day, in not too long, we can get back to it!

Malazend

That's it! At least for the time being anyway :). I'm done with the last of the Malazan Empire Novels and given that the Witness Trilogy seems like a long way away and all the other series are more or less in the past, I feel no urgent need to delve into that particular bit of (hi)story. I'm not sure how much, if anything that has to do with the fact that the complete one's been written by ICE rather than Erikson :).

Anyway, it would be remiss of me to not mention some sort of closing thoughts on this particular series I guess. I think the overall feeling is one of general enjoyment. I know I've moaned a bit about ICE's writing style, often comparing it negatively with Erikson's. But in the end, the stories are definitely ones I'm happy to have wound my way through. They didn't necessarily grip me quite the way the Book of the Fallen did. But in Kyle, Shimmer, Kiska and others there were plenty of characters to enjoy exploring. And finally, it was good the find what happened to Silverfox and those Imass!

Right, so enough of that! The other properly exciting thing this month was the short week in Hemsedal! Unlike by the coast where we are, this was a fair way up the mountains. Correspondingly, there was a load more snow! Four days ended up being just the right amount I feel, all things considered. But what a cool four days!

Okay, so the weather wasn't awesome all the time, but at least for about half the time the sun shone and the wind wasn't battering us blind :D. I even managed a few photos from all the three different hilltops! It was also nice to be able to kick back relax and enjoy good company at the end of the day in our apartment right at the bottom of the slopes :). To say nothing of the cat!

There was a proper storm raging on the Sunday as we made our way to Gardermoen to see off those that were flying back. But by the time we made it all the way back home it was all just rain. And so it has been the weeks since. Except for the last couple of days. Suddenly temperatures have plunged down to -7 C or so and has me thinking, really? Is there going to be a patch of proper winter this late into the year? Everyone's more or less expecting spring to be just around the corner.

I guess, as is always the case, we will see.

Of board games and a distinct lack of wintryness

It's been a rather weird January. And winter, by extension. There was, before Christmas, a reasonable amount of snow on the ground. But since the new year, nothing. Not only has there been no snow, it has been unseasonably warm, meaning whatever snow there was, slowly but surely disappeared.

And that of course means no cross-country skiing :(. Well, it all may still change! Out of nowhere there's now a bit of snow, but who knows how long that will last. Regardless, the snow activity duck should come to an end soon enough with a long weekend of downhill planned for Hemsedal next week! It's been quite a while since I've been to Hemsedal, preferring Trysil and Hafjell the last few winters. Hopefully it's fun. Well, hopefully, the cold that has been kinda killing my week would leave me alone before we head for the mountains :).

It's felt like a pretty busy start to the year in some ways. Catching up with friends who've decided to drop by. Others we'd just not met up with for a few months. As usual, rhythms of life, kids, schedules can often wreak havoc on the best laid plans of "keeping in touch". Heh, so what's new? :)

I'm beginning to finally grow into the Malazan Empire Novels. I mean, I'm already into the last quarter of book five of six, so it's pretty much now or never really :D. But yes, I've either finally forgotten the Erikson style enough to appreciate ICE. And there's now enough new characters in this series that were either absent from The Book of the Fallen or were only mentioned in passing, to have its distinctive series narrative.

In some ways though, I feel that these books are even less interconnected that Erikson's series. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily. One thing's for certain though, now that I'm almost done with this series (well, it'll be at least another month or so.. but compared to what I've already spent :P), it's time to get back to the book club! It's officially begun already in fact. Bigger than before. It'll be interesting reading a more random selection of genres and authors. Till I tire of that and crave a proper series again :D.

To the sounds of festive fireworks

This year, I am happy to say, we are enjoying the latter part of New Year's Eve chilling at home, typing up the obligatory end of year post in bed :D. A far cry then from last year, when, having posted the corresponding post from the flight back, we proceeded to spend a good five hours or so trying to get back home from the airport, thanks partly to a lack of foresight on our part but mainly due to an almost complete shut down of public transportation from Oslo airport! We duly booked a much earlier flight this time around :D.

The last ten days or so were spent in the UK, enjoying lovely food and company. Not doing very much beyond cooking, eating, singing, playing games, swapping stories and gifts by the roaring fire, (poking said fire and enjoying being mesmerised by flames thereof was also a big part of it all) and the occasional walk or visit. All in all a very chilled out end to the year.

And unlike last year, I felt like I really really needed this one! In a somewhat extreme case of barely making it to the finish line, my head was just so not into work for the last week before Christmas :). Luckily work was somewhat chilled out, including the awesome in-the-office Christmas party :) so it wasn't too bad!

This year has been one of learning and adjusting. New job, new colleagues, new pretty much everything really, where employment is concerned. A very different type of company working in a very different type of industry. (I will hereon avoid the phrase "very different" for the rest of this post if I can :D.) I have to admit that it hasn't all been plain sailing, but all in all, it has been a very rewarding experience!

There has also been some travelling! Although waiting for that travelling just to travel trip, rather than family visits or weddings etc. Awesome fun though those were :). Maybe that's something to think about for the new year :). For one thing, there won't be a wedding in the immediate family for the first time in three years! :D

Thanks mainly to the new and elongated commute, there has also been quite a lot of reading :). And what amazing stuff the Malazan Book of the Fallen turned out to be! Seriously, not recap of my 2019 could be considered complete without a few words about Erikson's masterpiece! What a series! Without doubt something I look forward to re-reading in the not too distant future.

In fact, I think one reason I'm having a hard time getting as much into the Novels of the Malazan Empire is that Esselmont suffers by comparison to Erikson. And this is of course unfair. But when reading about the same world, sometimes the same places and characters even, it is very difficult not to compare.

Having said that, I did rather enjoy Stonewielder. Possibly because it is further away from any of the Book of the Fallen both geographically and in terms of character and plot lines than the previous two. Unfortunately that doesn't work for Orb, Sceptre, Throne which I am now reading :). Being set in the very town that large parts of Gardens of the Moon and Toll the Hounds is set in! 

But yes, the more I read if him, the more familiar I get with Esselmont's style, and though I still miss Erikson, I can at least get into the stories a lot more :). In fact, I'm about halfway through the series already! I suppose it'll be good to get the book club started again, and read some different books for a change, eventually :D. One of the many things to look forward to in the new year.

A new decade too in fact! All those 2020 visions people had. I wonder how many of them are feeling the year has rather crept up on them! Is it really going to be that different than any other new year? I guess that's sort of in the same vein as saying how different is 1st of January from any other day. The significance is what we give it, in many ways. Regardless, I hope the coming year is one of joyful occasions and happy coincidences :). 

I wrote of optimism at the end of last year, personally this has been mostly true through 2019! So maybe that's what's best to wish for, optimism with which to meet the days that are before us. Happy New Year!

Reflections and precipitation

Having rather enjoyed the Sandman interlude, I have to say I am less that completely enamoured by Ian Esselmont's contributions to the Malazan universe :). I mean, yes, it's nice to be able to get more back-story on characters from the Book of the Fallen. It is also very cool to be able to learn more about the Crimson Guard and also get more of a feel for the continent of Quon Tali. But yes, having finished Night of Knives and now Return of the Crimson Guard, I'm pretty happy that I did not interrupt my reading of the Book of the Fallen for this :).

Anyhow, let's not make this blog a book review only space! I realise that I haven't mentioned anything of the awesome trip to the Fram museum last month, or the short but awesome trip to the Netherlands! It turns out that the CEO of the company I now work for is into Nordic explorers in a big way! The end result was that she took the whole company (which, unlike my previous employer, consists of a number of people small enough to fit comfortably on the top deck of an old Norwegian exploration vessel turned museum) out for a very special dinner!

The Fram Museum is arguably one of the most exciting in all of Norway, yet I had never been there! So it was doubly exciting to have the museum director come along to walk us through some of the history of two of Norway's most famous explorers, Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen! From that, to the most excellent three-course dinner on the deck of the Fram, to the guided tour of the lower decks of the vessel itself, it was truly an evening to remember!

The trip to the Netherlands was in a way the opposite, a bit of a getaway from Norway :). More precisely, the prevalent weather, which had been particularly dark, cold and wet. We were away for a long weekend and the weather was amazing! A proper autumn with sunshine and colours on the trees. Not to mention a significantly warmer ambient temperature :D.

We managed to explore a bit, enjoyed some good meals as well as the usual visits to the farmers' market to get cheese and caught up with family. There was also an added bonus when Vinod (who seems to have given up on his privately hosted blog :|) mentioned that he was flying in to Amsterdam a few hours before we were scheduled to fly out! A wholly unexpected and entertaining afternoon of catching up ensued :).

Since then the weather's been the main cause for excitement. First there was the huge dump of snow early in November, which seemed to have collectively caught out the whole of south-eastern Norway. Chaos on the roads, thousands of cars without winter tires causing hundreds of accidents and so on. A lot of people lost their driver's licenses apparently! Good thing I take the train to and from work :D.

Then, annoyingly, things warmed up, and all the white disappeared into slush. But now the snow's back again. The general consensus of the meteorologists seems to be that even this will not last. But hey, compared to the first couple of winters I saw when I moved full time, this is awesome! There's snow! Even if short-lived :). Any amount of respite from the unremitting darkness is more than welcome if you ask me!

In many ways this has been a very cool year! I think. New work, colleagues, technology, ideas, methods. Things I have learned, things I've realised I know and can share! Malazans and Formula 1. Public transport and thinking about carbon. There's still a whole month to go of course! Let's hope there's more light than dark :).