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aighaBack from our holiday trip to the doggie event and to my parents. Oh it's so good to be home again! Loved seeing my parents, but at the same time I was alarmed, because since I last saw them - it must have been a year ago - they had so clearly aged. Especially my father. He was ill this spring, my mother was rather worried for him, but the doctors found no reason for his illness, and then he gradually just got better. But oh dear, he has grown old. Well, we all do, of course, but he has aged more than just a year.
I also briefly met my sister. That, in turn, once more told me how little we have in common anymore. It's not that there'd be friction of any kind, it's just that we have so clearly drifted apart. We are almost the same age, she's a bit less than two years younger than me, but what we have in common is only our parents and our past, nothing really in our present. Her world with her kids is nothing I would wish for myself, and my world must be totally alien for her. And I actually prefer it that way. If we still lived in the same town, there would be friction and might be something worse. The physical distance between us keeps us suitably distant from letting that happen.
It was great to visit the art exhibition in Art Centre Retretti on our way back. The place itself, with its underground caves and associated buildings, is fascinating, and we have seen quite a few exhibitions there over the years. This year the main exhibition was works of the Swedish painter Anders Zorn. I quite liked his portraits, was not too keen on his numerous nudes in idyllic lakeside settings, his bronze statuettes made me giggle, but some of the watercolours were just lovely. We bought two prints, "Gateway in Alhambra" and "Garden in Algiers". I had a look whether any of my favourites could be found online, but of course not. But then, I'm happy I had the chance to see them.
Yesterday we were lazy - rather, I was lazy and Quatorze was buzy. (So what's new?) She kept writing all the day, while I just made myself comfortable and indulged in reading something quite silly. I read a Star Wars spin-off. We have four books and yesterday I got through book three. While I really do enjoy the story, some things in how the author writes just keep annoying me. Why is it that there have to be lengthy explanations about events covered by the books earlier in the series? There are references to the same things over and over again, and that just leaves me SO frustrated. I get annoyed! Really, I know that already, I'm not that stupid, you don't have to underline it. *sigh* A writer should not spell things out for the readers. Why can't he just assume that the reader, upon seeing this one is Book 3 in the series, will either read the other two before tackling this one or be happy at having some things unexplained? Why not refer to previous events in a more simple way - say, "his time in X" instead of spelling out "the time he spent in X where he got because of Z as a result of Y"... Arggh.
Today, paper work. Also arranged some matters concerning the course I've promised to give in - what, in a bit more than a week?! Must start doing some serious preparation for that as well.
I also briefly met my sister. That, in turn, once more told me how little we have in common anymore. It's not that there'd be friction of any kind, it's just that we have so clearly drifted apart. We are almost the same age, she's a bit less than two years younger than me, but what we have in common is only our parents and our past, nothing really in our present. Her world with her kids is nothing I would wish for myself, and my world must be totally alien for her. And I actually prefer it that way. If we still lived in the same town, there would be friction and might be something worse. The physical distance between us keeps us suitably distant from letting that happen.
It was great to visit the art exhibition in Art Centre Retretti on our way back. The place itself, with its underground caves and associated buildings, is fascinating, and we have seen quite a few exhibitions there over the years. This year the main exhibition was works of the Swedish painter Anders Zorn. I quite liked his portraits, was not too keen on his numerous nudes in idyllic lakeside settings, his bronze statuettes made me giggle, but some of the watercolours were just lovely. We bought two prints, "Gateway in Alhambra" and "Garden in Algiers". I had a look whether any of my favourites could be found online, but of course not. But then, I'm happy I had the chance to see them.
Yesterday we were lazy - rather, I was lazy and Quatorze was buzy. (So what's new?) She kept writing all the day, while I just made myself comfortable and indulged in reading something quite silly. I read a Star Wars spin-off. We have four books and yesterday I got through book three. While I really do enjoy the story, some things in how the author writes just keep annoying me. Why is it that there have to be lengthy explanations about events covered by the books earlier in the series? There are references to the same things over and over again, and that just leaves me SO frustrated. I get annoyed! Really, I know that already, I'm not that stupid, you don't have to underline it. *sigh* A writer should not spell things out for the readers. Why can't he just assume that the reader, upon seeing this one is Book 3 in the series, will either read the other two before tackling this one or be happy at having some things unexplained? Why not refer to previous events in a more simple way - say, "his time in X" instead of spelling out "the time he spent in X where he got because of Z as a result of Y"... Arggh.
Today, paper work. Also arranged some matters concerning the course I've promised to give in - what, in a bit more than a week?! Must start doing some serious preparation for that as well.
