All the takers of my days

It's not even 9 pm and the sky is almost dark. Yup, the not so great time of year to be in Norway is just around the corner :). It'll start getting darker faster and then there's the long wait for some snow to reverse some of the effects of the pervasive darkness. In the mean time however, there's still autumn. Summer though, is well and truly over.

Good thing then, that we made the most of it while it lasted, including the amazing week away in France! This time we even got a car that actually worked! As in behaved like a real car, with a real engine that could do all the allowed speed limits without feeling like it might fall apart at any moment or devoured fuel at such a rate as to make the whole driving fast thing kinda pointless :D.

Unlike last year, this wasn't a week of almost record heat, but more of cool breezes and warm sunshine. Interrupted every now and then by some thundering showers :). All the good stuff basically, and we decided to use/brave the weather (as appropriate) and ended up at the lake all but a couple of the days we were there! Sunburn duly acquired :P. Yes, I do get sunburned, much to the bemusement of my British in-laws...

The other thing that the week in France achieved, other than utter and amazing relaxation that is, was to underscore the end of the summer break. Even though I'd worked through most of the Norwegian summer holiday month of July, there had been a feeling of being almost on holiday :). But all that is now a distant memory. Getting back into the scheme of things though, has been somewhat difficult.

Another thing that is slowly drawing to a close is The Malazan Book of the Fallen. It's been over a year since I first started reading the series, and I'm finally on book ten. Just over half way through in fact. And what a journey it has been. Yes, not every one of the 10,000 pages has been an unmitigated joy. In some ways far from it. But, for me, the sum has greatly exceeded the parts.

By now I'm more or less used to the scale of the adventure. I'm used to the dynamics of death in the Malazan world, mostly :). I've probably met most of the characters and have my definite favourites and so on. But the strength of emotion Erikson is capable of drawing from me still, is astonishing.

And yes, I'm definitely going to find out what's happened to all the other characters. Those not already dead or dying on the Glass Desert. And some of those who have already passed the gate that is no longer Hood's.

On yet other fronts, what quality of test match cricket! And now of course, the US Open is on, the Premier League is back and so is Formula 1!! Happy days :D.

Beginnings and endings that are yet more beginnings

As I wrote in the last post, this month began with a wedding. And what an amazingly happy occasion that was :-). It has, alas, ended with a funeral. But in no way should this be an excuse for me to indulge in melancholy thoughts! Anything but, in fact. It feels instead, like an appropriate time to reflect on life in its various seasons and flavours.

For a start, that cake turned out beautifully :). As did the weather and everything else in the week leading up to the wedding! There was some amount of trepidation as the 5 storey, two foot tall cake was being put together, then transported into the fridge at the venue, but it all went swimmingly. Unlike last year, there was enough left over for us to even bring some back to Norway with us :D.

Working in Norway in July is a weird sort of experience. Thanks to the school holidays, most of the country goes on holiday. This is also the time the national rail system chooses to do annual maintenance. For me this translated to finding alternative transportation to get to work. Ignoring the rail replacement busses, I managed to find a more or less okay route that didn't require me to make a zillion changes and still got me there in only twenty or so minutes longer than usual :|.

On the up side, sort of, there's hardly anyone left in the office! This means, a) you get to know the people that are sticking around a whole lot better, b) you can actually go ahead and do stuff you want to without being pulled into other things every few minutes :). All in all a good few weeks. But now people are slowly beginning to trickle back in. Somehow working for a large multi-national as I did before had definitely dampened this effect.

Somehow though, in between travel and what have you, didn't really get going on the active agenda. There were a few walks around, and I did manage to run three times while in the UK, (even started feeling pretty good by the end of the week) but no concerted effort at running or cycling once we got home :|. On the up side, it's beginning to cool off a bit now, after hitting 30 degrees, so maybe now would be the time....

No post about July 2019 could possibly be complete without at least some mention of the sport! I mean, seeing how I actually follow sport :). I try not to spend too much time watching sport, 'cos otherwise that's all I'd end up doing all day :D. Even just following tennis and cricket and F1 and football in many of its forms via online scores and what have you ends up taking quite a bit of my day. So this is just to explain why I didn't bother with a subscription to watch the Cricket world cup :).

Anyhow, that particular Sunday, you'll know which one soon enough, I'd watched four sets of the Wimbledon final and then thought, well, that's enough. (Had watched Nadal loose in somewhat lacklustre fashion to Fed earlier, but was still leaning towards supporting Fed as he seemed to be playing better.) Had prior plans to watch the Silverstone GP, so I headed off only to find the two Englishmen I was going to watch the F1 with, glued to the cricket final! I figured, well, why not, and thus followed the most singularly crazy hour or so of cricket I have ever watched :D.

I mean, you couldn't help but feel for the Kiwis! And Fed, seeing how he blew a couple of championship points. And all that followed by a superb race. Which has been overshadowed by Hockenheim since, so yeah! The sports is going well :). And soon the English football season starts in earnest and the Ashes...

In the mean time I'm two thirds of the way through Dust of Dreams. I'm out of superlatives, just hanging on for dear life. In sight of the end of this epic, epic story. What can I say, beyond that I'm really looking forward to the end. And even though I briefly regretted not reading the novels of the Malazan Empire series, especially given the gap between Toll the Hounds and Dust of Dreams, I'm definitely looking forward to finishing with the Books of the Fallen first. And then maybe on to the novels next :).

A much awaited interruption to the general scheme of things

It's properly summer now! One of the qualifying criteria for me to think that these days is being able to step outside in shorts and while in the shade, not feel even a little bit chilled :).

Back in Norway this is I understand a pretty warm weekend. But at least it's not supposed to last. Here in England, it was even warmer. But once again, the 'extreme' temperatures didn't last more than an afternoon. For the best really. It's one of those things, careful what you wish for. Let it be 'nice and hot' you wish, and the next thing you know half the forests in the country are disappearing in forest fires....

Anyhow. First break of longer than a long weekend in what feels like forever. Although it isn't actually. Just about three months. But it feels like a lot. The day job has the ability to steamroll the days and weeks into a seeming uniformity. Even when it definitely isn't. But yes. It's nice to be away for a week.

Especially with all the excitement of an upcoming wedding! Lots of baking, chatting, cooking, planning, re-adjusting plans, more baking... You get the idea :).

One thing I'm still missing a bit is getting out and about on a bike. The hour-long commute does reduce some options, but still. I think if I were to be entirely honest, I'm being at least a little bit lazy. My attempted solution to that is going running while on holiday! Managed it once already. Definitely been a while. I'm feeling it in the legs :). But it's a rather nice feeling. A feeling of having done something.

And I'm hoping that in a week or so I'd be feeling a bit more used to physical exercise, and then jumping on a bike for a ride on the weekend would feel like much less of a stretch. At least that's the theory. We shall see how it works out. In the meantime, there's a wedding cake to bake!

Of roads and lakes

It's been raining a lot lately. Well, to be entirely honest, not a lot. But a fair bit. Although that's probably a good thing, all things considered. A bit of rain now might help later on in the summer. Then again, it might never get nearly as hot as last year anyway, and then I'd be left thinking this has been a terrible summer :). Meh.

Been driving around a bit recently though! After being good residents in the land of brown cheese and attending 17th of May celebrations and barbecue parties for the last few years, we decided to escape to Sweden for the long weekend this time :). Actually it was more of a lack of concrete plans added to the realisation that this year one cannot just up and head off on a road trip whenever, because, you know, day job :).

We were initially thinking about Stockholm, 'cos, basically, why not. But that would have been too far to drive in an evening. Then we noticed Kristinehamn, neatly halfway between Oslo and Stockholm, on the coast of the largest lake in the EU. Pretty place by all accounts, and to top it all, there was a seemingly perfect little cottage available for the weekend! So that's where we spend a few days, enjoying the sunshine, lazing around.

One of the interesting things about Kristinehamn is the Picasso sculpture. On the perfect sunny day with an amazing breeze to keep things from getting too warm, the walk along the edge of the water as the river emptied out into the lake definitely added to the experience! The sculpture stands at the river mouth. And unless you read the blurb about how Picasso's wife served as inspiration for the sculpture, a woman is not the first thing that it brings to mind. The whole sculpted concrete thing is kinda cool though!

Since then it's been mostly the occasional walk when the sun's been out, but otherwise a quiet start to the summer. One proper big positive though was the 10 year visa for the UK! Don't need to worry if Brexit happens or not, or what that entails, for at least a decade! Of course, they might still not have figured that out the way this is going, but oh well. We'll keep politics out of this blog :). Definitely cause for celebration though! Although, as someone I was sharing my joy with wondered: what would the world even look like in 10 years?!

Probably not that different to be honest. In some ways. In other ways probably a bit different.

In the mean time, another month another Malazan book of the Fallen :). I'm pretty much out of superlatives at this point! The only thing is that now that we're properly in the thick of things, I'm beginning to wonder if I should persist in ignoring the Malazan Empire novels. Hmm. Bit of a moot point though, I have the book eight of the Fallen series, none of the Empire novels.

Things to look forward to then. Back to Darujhistan in Toll the Hounds. And finally hopefully some more direct involvement from Anomander Rake. The trouble with that of course is, if a character is involved, he or she might end up dead! But at the same time, if they're dead, they could always come back to life... Then there's the Champions' League final this weekend. The cricket world cup is under way and so's the French Open! Exciting times :).

Goodbye Avengerland

Yes, unusual as it is, I shall break the habit and actually post during the month rather than right at the very end :). And the reason for such upheaval? Well, Marvel, in short! For the last several years I've more or less stopped watching films very often. Oh, there's the occasional re-watch at home of something on regular TV (nope, I've yet to succumb to Netflix et al :D). But not a whole lot of new stuff at the cinema.

Except that is, the MCU films. Yes, the majority are more a case of: hmm, maybe this one will be fun! Which then leads to: weeell, it wasn't bad :). Of course, there have been exceptions, the first Guardians of the Galaxy for example. And more recently Thor: Ragnarok. But when Infinity War ended with the wholesale decimation of superheroes, yet, left more or less all the Avengers from the first one alive and well (sort of), I must admit to a greater than usual level of anticipation for Endgame :).

And boy, does it deliver!! I don't think I've been as immersed into a film in some time. But then again, I have watched the entire lead up over the years (bar Captain Marvel). Putting aside that this is an amazingly clever marketing strategy by Marvel and all that, it is definitely an awesome bit of storytelling!

The day before we went to watch Endgame, more or less on a whim, we decided to re-watch the first Avengers. I think that really underscored how this film ties up so many disparate threads, but at it's heart (for me anyway) remains a case of finding closure on the first Avengers :).

There's something to be said about endings. Beginnings bring such promise, but as in life so also in stories (whatever the form of the telling) in the course of its meandering through existence, things get complicated, entangled. And getting those complications and entanglements sorted out ends up taking up a whole lot of time and space.

As an aside, that for me is a pretty good summary of the plot of Endgame. :D

With stories, the teller has something of a choice in the end. Do all the threads get neatly sorted out, a happily ever after? Or is there some room for less than perfect? Redemption, or maybe only attempts at - perhaps not wholly achieved? The trick is I suppose to tug at the heart strings enough, but no further. Allow said hearts to then move on, so to speak :).

And I guess that's what I found the most satisfying with Avengers: Endgame. After a decade of following these characters and stories, I can finally move on. For me the story is finally done :). And much as I'll miss it, that's worth celebrating.