Nathalie (Deern) reads on in 2016 - Part 3

Welcome to thread #3 - I'll carefully call it "New Beginnings" :)
There's an old German song for children "Alles neu macht der Mai" - roughly translated into "May remakes everything" or "in May everything is new".

On Saturday almost all my yoga friends are off to this year's retreat to Sicily. I had to cancel when the date was postponed because in the first 10 days of the month I have too many regular duties at work. In the end it was okay, because with the move in June, now I simply wouldn't have the money. And yet - it's Sicily, my dream destination. Well, another time, hopefully! :)

So instead I'm posting some pics of last year's retreat in Positano:

Last day - that tree wanted to be hugged, I swear:


View on Positano:


Taken during the flight back and posted to give faces to some of the names I often mention:

Starting from the right and then clockwise: my yoga teacher Marion, Katja (the one with the Hotel at Lake Resia I visited in September), Marion's mum and my close friend Astrid, me in the middle and then Andrea with the short black hair, another dear and close friend.

Books read and reviewed:

Not yet reviewed:
May:

Old thread https://www.librarything.com/topic/209936:
January:
1. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler - 3.8 stars
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill - 2.8 stars
3. Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes - 3.8 stars
4. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - 4.2 stars
5. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - 4 stars
6. Die Kraft liegt in mir by Tamara Dietl - 3 stars
7. Und trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen by Viktor Frankl - 5 stars
8. Stiller by Max Frisch - 5 stars
9. Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth - 4.1 stars

February:
10.L'amica geniale By Elenna Ferrante - 4.8 stars
11.Crooked House by Agatha Christie - 3 stars
12.Nate in Venice by Richard Russo - 3.7 stars

2nd thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/218692
13.Wonach wir wirklich hungern by Deepak Choprah - 3.8 stars
14.Storia del nuovo cognome by Elena Ferrante - 4/5 stars

March:
15. storia di chi resta e di chi fugge by Elena Ferrante - 4.2 stars
16. storia della bambina perduta by Elena Ferrante - 4 stars
17. Sunshine Sketches from a Little Town by Stephen Leackock - 3.5 stars
18. The Accidental by Ali Smith - 4 stars
19. Me Before you by JoJo Moyes - no Rating
20. The Vegetarian by Han Kang - 4 stars
21. The Trouble with Women by Jacky Fleming - 4 stars
22. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - 3.5 stars
23. Sovereign by C.J. Sansom - 3.5 stars
24. Du Miststück Meine Depression und ich by Alexander Wendt - 3.5 stars

April:
25.The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - 4.5 stars
26.Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi - 3.5 stars
27.Adam Bede by George Eliot - 3.8 stars
28.Die Klavierspielerin by Elfriede Jelinek - 4 stars
29.Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Panar - 4.5 stars
30. Ein ganzes Leben by Robert Seethaler - 4.5 stars
31. Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler

May:
32. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
33. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy - 3.5 stars
34. The Book of Ralph by Christopher Steinsvold
35. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
36. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
37. Letting Go by David R. Hawkins

June:
NIENTE ZERO NICHTS NOTHING

July:
38. The Drifters by James Michener - 4.2 stars
39. Letting Go by David R. Hawkins
40. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson - 4 stars
41. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet - 3 stars
42. Generosity by Richard Powers - 4 stars
43. Tales of a Female Monad by Rita Golden Gelman - 4 stars
44. Hystopia by David Means - 2.5 stars

Purchases:
January:
- The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke - Kindle - DE
- Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth - Kindle - EN read
- Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - Audio - EN read
- Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes - Audio - EN read
- Loop of Jade by Sarah Howe - Kindle -EN
- Die Kraft liegt in mir by Tamara Dietl - Kindle - DE read
- Und trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen by Viktor Frankl - Kindle - DE read
- The Age of Kali by William Dalrymple - Kindle - EN ==> TA Book 1/9

February:
- Storia del nuovo cognome by Elena Ferrante - Kindle - IT ==> TA book 2/9 read
- Nate in Venice by Richard Russo - Kindle - EN read
- Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta by Elena Ferrante ==> TA book 3/9 read
- Lettera a un Bambino mai nato by Oriana Fallacci
- Oriana una Donna by Christina De Stefano

March:
- Storia della bambina perduta by Elena Ferrante ==> TA book 4/9 read
- The Accidental by Ali Smith ==> TA book 5/9 read
- I giorni dell'abbandono by Elena Ferrante ==> TA book 6/9
- La figlia oscura by Elens Ferrante ==> TA book 7/9
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang read
- "Trouble with Women" by Jacky Fleming read
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers read
- Sovereign by C.J. Sansom read
- Du Miststück Meine Depression und ich by Alexander Wendt read

April:
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood read
- Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi read
- Die Klavierspielerin by Elfriede Jelinek read
- Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Parmar read

May:
- Trying Not To Try by Edward Slingerland
- Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson read
- Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson read
- Letting Go by David R. Hawkins read

Challenges:

1,001 GRs:
- January: Stiller by Max Frisch COMPLETED
- February: The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf - already read
- March: Harriet Hume - not partcipated
- April: Contact by Carl Sagan - book unavailable in IT

AAC 2016:
- January: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler - COMPLETED
- February: Nate in Venice by Richard Russo COMPLETED
- March: --
- April: Gary Snyder

BAC 2016:
- January: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill COMPLETED, Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth COMPLETED
- February: Crooked House by Agatha Christie COMPLETED, The Age of Kali by Willam Dalrymple
- March: The Accidental by Ali Smith COMPLETED, The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy COMPLETED
- April: Adam Bede by George Eliot COMPLETED, Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi COMPLETED

CAC 2016:
- January: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies COMPLETED, Kim Thúy
- February: Helen Humphreys, Sunshine Sketches by Stephen Leacock COMPLETED
- March: --
- April: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood COMPLETED

Booker books:
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (Winner 1992)
The Accidental by Ali Smith (SL 2005)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Winner 2000)
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (LL 2016)

Others
Series:
Elena Ferrante Neapolitan series - COMPLETED
Knausgaard????
At least 3 more Montalbanos

Planned reads of the month (active):

Currently reading:

Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee
Sämtliche Gedichte by Georg Trakl
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Trying not to Try by Edward Slingerland

Happy new thread, Nathalie! I love the photo toppers. I am going to keep up with you this time!

Happy New Thread, Nathalie! I also love the pics of Positano (*sigh* - a dream destination for me for sure!) and especially of your yoga friends. Lovely faces to put with names!

Happy new thread, Nathalie! So nice to see you and your friends enjoying life!

Lovely pictures of your travels. I love the image of the town clinging to the coast.

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Nathalie!

I loved your review of A Whole Life; you did a far better job of it than I could have.

>7 Crazymamie: Hi and thank you Mamie. Please no worries about my thread, I hardly manage keeping up with ayone this year.

>8 LizzieD: thank you Peggy! Yes, Positano is breathtakingly beautiful - and therefore breathtakingly crowded in summer and expensive, like most beautiful places. :)

>9 Carmenere: thank you Lynda! It was a great day, I imagine being on "good drugs" must be like it. We were all grinning like crazy all day and I remember getting an extra discount at the check-out in the Naples duty-free.

>10 charl08: Thank you Charlotte! Yes, it's fascinating that people decided to settle there and build their houses onto those rocks. The same in the Cinque Terre. No roads, almost no cars, but steps, steps, steps.

>11 kidzdoc: Thank you Darryl. And I loved your review - it made me (and others as I see from your thread) want to read the book.

*******

Yesterday I managed to read about 5% of the Virginia Woolf biography and I'm getting close to the period Vanessa and her Sister deals with. I fear I won't finish any more books this month. I thought I was better, but it's just 7 in April and 31 so far this year - must be a new all-LT-time-low. Quite decided not to worry about challenges next month and continue with the random reading.

Fasting and yoga update:
Ate a banana yesterday to get through the yoga which was extremely demanding. Marion quite increased the level in that class, but once a week it's okay. Wished everyone a good time in Sicily, they promised me to send lots of pictures.
I'm quite unhungry, but very thirsty all the time. And it's hard not being able to "escape" to a bit of bread.

The light headache which is a typical detox side effect seems to be gone after 2 days and the sugar and wheat craving is already disappearing.
Yesterday I was too busy, but on Monday when I confronted my loss and my fears, I also felt a touch of liberation and self-determination in all the usual anxiety - nice!

I feel like in order to function I always had to have something/ someone to lean on. My parents of course, then my partners, and between partners again my parents. Now with all the therapy work I'm doing to become more independent from them, of course I don't want to fall back on them again.

I remember how it all restarted after almost 10 years of quite normal eating. In October 2014 when they found that first lump, everyone was worried, but encouraging. "It will all be fine and if not we'll get through it without any problems" and I joined that game, despite being scared of so many things. Actually, I explicitly remember calling my parents from my cellphone after the first scary-looking ultrasound, speaking with a confident voice, even smiling - and the moment I had hung up heading straight into a pastry shop, thinking "this once you can do it for consolation after such bad news". I imagine it's similar with the one "deserved" cigarette after many smoke-free years. You don't really think about your body until a part of it is in danger and I was then a bit overwhelmed with everything breast cancer might mean for my life (and back then my relationship). So I fell back on food as a more and more frequent consoler and kept using it when the next big crisis came up just weeks after the surgery. Okay, I didn't get fat-fat and mainly ate small and healthy things, but grabbing a piece of food before doing anything else has become such an instinctive reaction to almost everything in the past 17 months. Now during these 3 days I'll be forced to do something else, like, maybe, confront my issue directly. Or use other calming techniques like breathing exercises or walk a few steps or have a cup of herbal tea.

I tried so many other ways, but in the end I still snacked, only more consciously. "I know I don't need this right now because I'm nervous and not hungry, but I still want to eat it".

I can now see how fasting is good for the mind as well, not just to clean the body from whatever "toxins" you believe you must get rid of, but also to rid your mind of toxic things. Coincidentally, yesterday's yoga had some very strong detox breathing, and while I was sweating like crazy, it really did me good.

I'm considering getting back to eating with exactly one planned and nice meal per day. I'll then have the "I really can't eat now" effect for a couple of more days and maybe will be able to introduce more fixed meal times and so slowly get over that snack reaction.

It's raining like crazy, stormy and terribly cold. Lots of snow up on the mountains. Fortunately I got an electric heater in my office, as normal heating in Italy is switched off in spring (I think 1st of April). I'm always sorry for the poor tourists who came here for a bit of sun and warmth.

I loved the book Vanessa and Her Sister - the writing was beautifully done. I wondered about that biography of Woolf, so I'll be interested in your thoughts when you finish it. And that's not a new all-time low - in October of 2012, I finished exactly zero books for the month. See how bad it was - I remember it! I am probably going to take a month off from the challenges next month, too, so you will have company - I love participating but then they start to wear me down a bit because I start to feel pressured even though I tell myself that I'm not going to. Ha!

Happy new thread, Nathalie.

We have had rain here too today and the steam was rising off the city streets. Sultry barely describes it!

>13 Crazymamie: I loved it too - 4.5 stars for historical fiction is extreme in my world! I just wish she'd left out that remark at the very beginning that she can't write well. :)
I also had worse months than this April (though I don't remember a zero book month), but usually my big reading crisis comes in summer and I always had a strong start into a new year.
I like the challenges because they often bring new authors to me. But as you say - I also try to read pressure-free, but it never works out.

*******
With all my Kindle reading in the last years and many old books in the basement or given away, I know I own just a small number compared to many others here. Yet, it felt good when the two guys from the moving company looked around yesterday and said "and you want to take ALL those books?!?" I assured them I'd pack and transport those myself, also because they are in a special order. Now I'm waiting for their cost estimate...
Did I tell you they are my new neighbors and have their office in the house where I'm moving in? That's so useful, I'll always be able to hire someone on short notice to hang up a lamp or put up a shelf or paint a wall if I fail in that. :)

>14 PaulCranswick: Hi and thank you Paul. Ew... steam bath weather! Still, anything war sounds good to me right now. Even the tea gets cold faster today.

New thread!

It snowed here most of the day yesterday - and some is still around today, although I hope the sun burns it off! Staying cool here today too.

So sorry you have to miss your yoga retreat this year.

Tackling RoN after all? I thought you'd had enough of Hardy!!! Ah, Trakl. A (poetry) person in my MFA program taught a brilliant graduation class on him. She does translating so part of the class was about the issues involved.

>17 sibylline: Hi Lucy, welcome! :)
I started RoN in February to surely finish it in March (Hardy month). Now it's the end of April and I'm somewhere nearing the 40% mark, I hope. It is a difficult listen for me, despite and because of AR's voice.

I'm reading the Complete Poems by Trakl, which sounds immense, but is in reality just a 198 page pocket book. It makes me see the development, and while I'm still in part 1 of 3 there are already so many changes in those quiet country scenes. From almost cheesy peaceful pieces to recurring motives of darkness and death. The language is beautiful.

I'd like the cold to go away, but not in exchange for last year's heat. It tends to fall from one extreme into the next here.

Happy new thread Nathalie!

Over here is it unusually cold too, and lots of rain...
I wouldn't mind some heat this year, as last month we had an airco installed in our house ;-)

>19 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita! :)
My parents just called and said it has been snowing the last two days... but someone told me last week she'd seen a summer forecast and we'll even get a bigger heatwave than last year. So I'm trying to enjoy the nice sides of cold weather (hot tea, warm blankets) while I can. If she's right, your aircon will get some work as well.
I remember that same week last year was very cold as well, and even in May we were still complaining during coffee break outside. In August then we fondly remembered the cool spring days. :)

*******
This morning my body showed me that fasting at 45 is different from fasting at 14 when I did it for a week. Got up as usual and after three steps had to sit down on the floor, totally dizzy. Well, it was only meant for three days anyway, but still I was surprised. I have been drinking even more than usual, so it can’t have been dehydration. Yesterday I had an apple after my lunchtime yoga, a cup of broth (for the salts) and a big spoon of (nice!) rice and a bit of bread at the refugee house. So it was only Monday without anything. I had a bit of rye bread this morning with my coffee and soy milk and will see how the day goes. Still feeling light-headed which is actually nice as long as I'm sitting. :) Was planning gnocchi with broccoli-avocado sauce for dinner, but also might have to take something for lunch, but then at a planned time to stay snack-free.

Very frustrating night at the camp. I had sent a guy’s curriculum to the organic farm we visited in December, it was his dream employer. On Tuesday they sent him an invitation to work with them through the season. However, as his application for asylum has been rejected and he has not yet received his permit for the time until the appeal (although his lawyer a month ago requested it), he cannot work, not even for free, for lack of insurance.

Of the 70 people there, only 30 so far have been at their asylum hearing, 12 of those had their first decision (2 positive, 10 negative who will go into appeal). I haven't got the impression that Italy is speeding up the process in any way or are really preparing for a higher number of people this year.

Saw that the next Rammadan starts early in June this year. Wonder how the camp is going to manage that with the long daylight - usually the night watch takes over at 10pm, dinner is 07:30-08:30pm. I asked them and they hadn't noticed yet. :)

Just booked a hotel in Padova! :) http://www.alfagiano.com/ (if I'm allowed to post that link)
Am leaving tomorrow morning very early to be at the IKEA when it opens at 9am. Won't buy, just want to look at the things I have on my WL. Then I'll drive to the hotel which is in the town centre and do some shopping and sightseeing. I'm planning to return early on Sunday after breakfast, as I've some things to do at home as well and all shops will be closed (not for Sunday, but for May 1st). Returning already tomorrow wasn't really an option with 260km one way. It's been a while since my last weekend out alone (Garda Lake last May), and with the others all going to Sicily, Chrystle being in Rome and Susi in Munich, I was facing another lonely weekend - better not! :)
I hope my new tires will be allright (you never know..) and that the navigation works. Quite scared of driving in Padova city centre, but I wanted to be in close walking distance from the sights.

Dizziness is gone. Had my gnocchi with broccoli sauce and pesto last night, there's a batch left for today, and I cooked some rice and carrots and bought some fresh soups and fruit. No food worries for the next two weeks I'd say and all healthy. It was surprisingly easy to walk past the bread section yesterday and until now, the fixed breakfast, lunch and dinner works well. After dinner I closed the kitchen door and that was it.
It's difficult to explain, but it feels liberating. The craving to turn to food is like the craving to run to some human "anchor" and had/has me in its claws, on some lower (child) level. Now I try to tell myself "I take the liberty not to eat when I'm not hungry"/ "not to desire that person", and I feel instantly better.
This works much faster and better than any of the methods I've been reading over the past months where you have to grade hunger from 1-10 or tell yourself that the snack will raise your blood sugar/ be on your hips forever, etc..

I'll try and think of other things I'm now "free (not) to do", just like 2 years ago I suddenly understood that not eating meat was a freedom for me as well. Not "I'm not allowed to", but "I'm free not to". The psyche is fascinating...

I'm free to live in a smaller place and be happy there - how about that? (Better than "no, you're not a failure. the other place cost way too much..."?)

Had a baby dream last night (babies mean changes, new ideas, projects in your life). Neglected my baby to the point where it almost died (in other dreams I neglected and killed my guinea pigs I had in Frankfurt, and then while dreaming felt terribly guilty), but then I suddenly fell quite in love with the baby and took it everywhere with me, so I guess it was a good dream.

#21 Wish I had your will power :/ Sounds like its working well for you though which is great.

I dreamt about puppies. But that was most likely because I get to see my parents new puppies tomorrow. Oh and there was a programme about puppies on TV before I went to bed ;)

>20 Deern: I am still, during Ramadhan, reasonably able to fast as my 40s are disappearing. The difference is that I don't lose the same amount of weight as when I was younger. In my first Ramadhan in 1996, I lost 11 kilos whilst nowadays I may lose 2 or 3 kilos.

Have a lovely weekend, Nathalie.

>23 PaulCranswick: When I did the juice fasting in 1985 for a week to lose weight, I remember I only lost 2 pounds, threw a tantrum and was force-fed a BBQ pork steak by my dad. Great idea! :)

The problem this week was that I had between 0 and 300 cal those 3 days and they were busy and long days with evening activities and high-energy yoga. My blood pressure got too low. With Ramadan I understand that as long as it's dark you can eat as you like, so your body at least gets some energy?
For me, that would be highly uncomfortable. I don't like eating late as it gives me bad sleep, but the not being allowed to drink during the day would really wear me down, so you have all my admiration!

How do you manage in that climate, or better how did you in your first years, when you weren't yet fully used to it? I'd faint three times a day.
At least you're less season-dependant and it gets dark quickly.

Stupid question as this year it hits June - what do they do in Skandinavia? They are allowed to eat eventually?

A happy weekend to you, too! :)

>24 Deern: Nathalie - Ramadhan requires fasting from sun-up to sun-down but you can eat and drink in-between. Some muslims 'abuse' slightly the point of the exercise by gorging themselves alarmingly during the periods of dark which is missing the point and undoubtedly unhealthy. My normal regimen would be an early breakfast of toast, coffee, cereal and two big glasses of water; evening a meal together with all the family (one of the biggest benefits of the time). We eat well but not overly so in terms of absolute in take. I will take a further coffee in the late evening.

It is certainly a weakness in the fasting stipulations that the European summer and the land of the Midnight Sun in particular don't appear to have been considered well. There is an allowance practiced by muslims who travel to those countries at that time that you can fast for the period that adherents would fast at Mecca.

My first year of fasting in 1995, I managed a respectable 17 days and I was based on site in Singapore doing the Changi Airport Terminal 2 Extension Project. Since that time I have not dropped a single day other than where permitted during excessive travelling. Office bound workers don't really have much hardship in fasting but if I was out resurfacing the roads or some such I don't believe I could manage it.

Hope you have a great weekend Nathalie. I wouldn't even consider the 5/2 diet: fasting is definitely not for me. Always glad to hear a good news dieting story though.

I'd love to read more European fiction but will have to see how much of Barbara's list is in translation!

Hi all, I'll answer to your posts later (maybe not today). Thank you for visiting, and Happy Weekend!

Just wanted to say "Foodies of the world (better omnivores of the world), come to Padua!"
Madonna - Torino has its bars with the incredible aperitivi, Naples its pastry shops, Bologna its sausages and cheeses, but this here is extreme. So many restaurants, snack bars, pastry shops and above all gelaterie - I have no idea how they all exist, but they're even all so crowded that you can't find a place. Almost all people clearly locals. Then there's the market with all the fixed stalls selling the most incredible meat, cheeses, poultry and sausages. And the vegetable market that was smelling of strawberries and where I saw stalls selling only fresh herbs. Italians are lucky people, they can be all relaxed with their food, because it won't run out any time soon. I was also surprised about the international choice, guess that's caused by the students of the famous university. Omnivore visitors eager to try as much as possible, here are in danger to either be killed by food in a day or to starve because they can't decide.

For vegetarians it's harder (they will drown in cheese) and vegans are as usual in Italy stuck with almost nothing. Found a vegan bar that was just closing and bought some take-away falafel. Not hungry - and not even tempted by anything in gorgonzola or cream, just tired from all the walking. Brought my yoga mat and just did some much needed stretching.

Oh, and just to put it into perspective: this is a university town and I saw just one big book shop and two small ones for kids. So ice cream clearly has the higher priority here.

My hotel is in the old town centre and was a nightmare to find. Even worse was the parking place. A nice Italian who had just parked the family car, parked my car as well. The wife had already helped me getting through the super small street. Tomorrow some roads will be closed for May 1st demonstrations, it will be interesting getting out here again.

My room is very okay for the price and category, I hear the bells of the San Antonio basilica, but otherwise it's quiet. No plans for the evening, I don't like being out in the dark alone in a city I don't know. I guess I'll just have an aperitivo in one of the bars here and then listen to some more RoN. Up since 2:30 (couldn't sleep), so really tired now.

>26 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul, this is so interesting. I was always thinking of it as mostly an ordeal, but the way you describe it (also earlier on your thread), it is also a very special period, both in daily life, but also for the families. It will be intesting to see how it is handled at the refugee home this year. Last year the home was opened during Ramadhan, but most of the guys ate during the normal dinner time (some left out lunch), because they were still so weak. I guess they were cleared for medical reason and because of the extreme "travelling" earlier. We had a big festa when it was finished with nice food and music, and all the helpers were invited.

>27 charl08: I don't even know what 5/2 is... :)
I was once well informed, but got out of all the diet book reading when Atkins returned. It's difficult to explain what I'm doing, but it's not a body diet. It is more for my mind to stop it from permanently sending my thoughts and actions into a certain very negative corner. Restricting the food is a means to get there, because eating is the action, for others it would maybe be smoking, biting their nails, or when it all really gets too much, cutting themselves or take a pill. So far - but it has been only 6 days - it feels better than expected. Hoping for some weeks free of real crisis to give it a chance to settle. 4 weeks is the magic period for new habits, I read somewhere?

>25 DianaNL: What a cute cat! :))))
Thank you, Diana!

Nathalie, I love the looks of your hotel! What color room are you enjoying?
Your eating makes me a bit wistful. At 71 I'm still simply trying to learn moderation in all things. Curiously enough, I've never been tempted to snack.
Hope your weekend is being wonderful! (*sigh* Padua!!!!!!)

I'm also curious to know which "colour" room you are in. Hope your visit is successful and fun.

>31 LizzieD:, 32 Hi Peggy and Lucy! :)
I'd say my room counted as blue although the motto hasn't been followed through for the single rooms. Nice small hotel in the centre of things, nice and helpful staff. For a ** cleaner and nicer than could be expected. I paid 57 Eur + 10 for the parking place.

The night would have been very quiet had it not started raining heavily. I left early as there was nothing to do with all the rain and shops closed for the holiday. Just returned home where it's raining as well.

Didn't do the breakfast (when it costs extra I avoid hotel breakfasts in Italy) and had a cappuccino and lovely Napolitan pastry in a bar around the corner.

Italian cities are amazing! Always a bit chaotic and not super-clean, but as a tourist it's like you're breathing extra culture as soon as you step outside. Those buildings, each one per se is exceptional, and they're just standing there in hundreds, being beautiful and often neglected, with a cute balcony here and a little tower there, maybe the paint falling off, with flower pots or ivy growing up the walls and it all looks romantic and every house could be used for filming Romeo and Juliet.

Pics are already uploaded, just need another computer for the posting - am unable to copy/ paste on a touchscreen. :/

*****
I know now what makes Padua so special food wise. Here additionally to all the restaurants and bars and extremely many gelaterie, there were lots of Italian street food vendors. Not a single one of the usual US chains, instead take-away pasta, toasts, Mexican, special fries and other things. Often with long queues outside of people of all ages and clearly many of them locals. It looked like everyone was eating in that town, and eating while walking usually identifies the tourists.

Before hitting town I spent some hours at IKEA and got a new Italian Family Card. It's quite a big store, and I found everything I wanted to see. Sadly couldn't try the loft bed "for security reasons", but found a table I really like that can be folded away to almost nothing and opened in two ways to seat 2-6 people.

I decided to move without any new furniture and then get used to the new rooms and measurements first. Then in July/ August I can plan another visit and buy what I really want and can place.

Congrats on your shiny new thread, Nathalie. I've never been to Padua. Next Sunday I'm going to Schluchsee until Friday. It's my annual spa holiday without family but lots of books.

Sounds like a great trip to me. The food stalls sound wonderful.

Re the 5/2 diet. It's some kind of diet based on the idea that you don't need to be healthy every day, instead be very minimal a certain number of days and then the other days you can eat more. I haven't looked into it, as anyone who's on it seems to just complain about how bad the fasting days are...

Nathalie, I am skipping leftovers for dinner in honor of your fast. Haha. I turn to the wrong types of food when I am stressed. I'll be glad when our Farmer's Markets are up and running so I can buy super fresh veggies and fruit to grab when I need a "pick-me-up". My husband is a dedicated runner and can eat anything. I blame him for the "bad" snacks in the house!

I'm sorry you missed out on the Sicily trip but your weekend away sounded like fun. I love how IKEA has furniture and storage items designed for small spaces. I think you are smart to plan your upcoming move the way you have. Can't wait to see the new place!

>34 Ameise1: Schluchsee - lovely! And will you treat us again with those delicious-looking dinner pics? Anyway - ENJOY!! :)))

>35 charl08: Ah, okay, thank you for the explanation! I imagine this to be really difficult to follow. My experience is that when I eat a lot for some days, I get more hungry (does my stomach extend?), and when I eat less for several days, the hunger feeling quickly gets weaker. I guess the idea behind it is that it has been like that for our ancestors and that they were slim, yay! -Guess their BMI was their smallest worry. It was born out of necessity and must have caused them much stress. And I guess our bodies today will just feel the same stress.
Maybe when it's the same two days every week, the mind will adapt better?

>36 Donna828: Isn't it lovely to buy from a farmer's market? I could have jumped right into those strawberries on the market in Padua, they smelled so good, I immediately forgot about all the restaurants around.

I love that too about IKEA! Seems it has always been a Swedish tradition - I remember those Michel (called Emil in some countries, by Astrid Lindgren) films. In that farmhouse, set in the early 1900s I'd say, they already have foldable tables and beds in benches.

******
Great, it's the 3rd and I read almost nothing. Nothing countable anyway. I might read some Shakespeare plays this month, they're short and there are so many I haven't read yet. Started with The Merchant of Venice which will be performed in the main piazza of the Venice Jewish ghetto in July in English language. I think that's a lovely project and gesture of reconciliation, as the play has become so unpopular nowadays. I only just finished act III and guess it'll end badly for Shylock, but still I think for something written in err... the late 1500s? Early 1600s? it was far less anti-semitic than what must have been the common opinion. I find Antonio as dubious and hateful as Shylock who comes off as bitter and disappointed by the people who take his money but don't want his friendship.

Loved the flowers:


Upside down again - sorry. A side street leading to one the 4 areas of the market place.


Part of big green area in the middle of town, my Hotel was 20m from that basilica di San Antonio:


Not like in Venice, but Padua has channels, too:


Backside of the town hall:


There are those lovely little restaurants in every little side street, and they all look inviting and the food looks delicious:

Beautiful photos, Nathalie! Thanks so much for sharing them!

Wonderful views. Glad you had a great visit. A performance of the MoV in Venice sounds memorable. Will you go or watch it remotely.

>39 Crazymamie: Thank you Mamie. I'm unable to make nice-looking selfies (how do others do it??), or I would have added one with my falafels.

>40 charl08: Considered it, but I'm sure tickets were sold out months ago and no-one here I know was interested in seeing it as it's in English. I also don't really like the idea of being in that piazza with very many people, the exits being just 2 or three narrow bridges. I have my claustrophobic moments, especially when I have no friend with me.

I'm almost done with act V now and seeing how it ends for Shylock I'm even more impressed that they're performing it there. Still - for those times I assume it was generous to offer him that "escape", but I can see how theatres are avoiding the play nowadays.
Why isn't Antonio punished for losing 4 or 5 ships and the lives of countless people and instead gets half of Shylock's fortune as consolation???

Saw two great movies on Sky on Sunday - "Pride" (which was presented in honor of Labour Day) and "Orlando". Loved both and rewatched "Pride" last night. I'd never heard of that great partnership between LGBT groups and miners during the strikes in 1984 and 1985 and was so moved when I learned that the miners later helped bringing LGBT interests forward.

"Orlando": especially loved the first part with the frozen Thames scenery. I don't remember if it was true to the book at all except for the gender change. What clearly was left out was the part where Orlando walks into a book shop and orders one of each.

the part where Orlando walks into a book shop and orders one of each. If only!

I loved Pride too. The links to the HIV/AIDS story I found very moving too. I read the autobiography of one of the characters in the film - he had such a busy life working with the miners barely got a mention!

Thanks for the trip to Padua, Nathalie!! It looks as if every turn provides another photo op!

>43 charl08: that was what I always wanted to do should I win a big lottery jackpot. And then reading just that in Orlando, I knew that Virginia Woolf had the same dream. :)

>44 Carmenere: thank you Lynda! You're right - once you start taking pics in those towns you'll take one of every corner. I threw away many that didn't come out as picturesque as the scenery really was.

>41 Deern: Ah! I can't take nice selfies, either, but my kids are brilliant at it.

Thanks so much for sharing these beautiful photos, Nathalie. I can't take selfies, too only my daughters can do so. Wishing you a lovely Auffahrt (Himmelfahrt). It's sunny here but with the Biswind rather chilly.

>46 Crazymamie: I tried and tried but I always look 10 years older, haggard (which I'm not) and very grim even when I smile. And I look into the wrong direction.

>47 Ameise1: Thank you, Happy Himmelfahrt to you, too! In Italy they cancelled the holiday some years ago as too many people took a bridge day on Friday. The same for Fronleichnam. But we get a salary compensation for "entgangener Feiertag". Is it also Father's Day in Switzerland?

>48 Deern: No, there isn't Father's Day in Switzerland. That's something typical German.

>49 Ameise1: We don't have the more traditional St. Josefstag in March. To be honest today is more men's "let's party and get drunk day", for whatever reason.
Why they called it "Father's Day" - no idea! :)
Well, my dad never went to party with any of those men groups, nor did any of my boyfriends, but it's still popular.

Still haven't finished my short Shakespeare... maybe May will become my "no books at all month". :/

Catching up - love your trip photos. I know one person who eats with great moderation monday through friday and then pretty much whatever he likes all weekend and it seems to work for him.

That might be a perfect plan - to live in the space for a bit before buying furniture, let it speak to you.

Padua looks nice!
Over here it is a day off because of Himmelfahrt too, but it is the rare occasion that it falls on May 5th, which is Liberation Day, a more important hollyday.

OH ---- PADUA!!!! I'm thrilled to see your pictures, and I thank you, Nathalie!
I have one more Shakespeare book that I'm starting, at least (it's another whopper) this month, Shakespeare's Lives. Then I'm going to read some plays too. It's been a long, long time! I'm sure that you'll get back into the reading mode and all will be well.

Thank you for such wonderful photos! I haven't visited threads as often as I would like.

All good wishes to you.

32. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

It took me 4 days to read act V of this short play, but only because by then all real action was over and what remained was the usual “comedy of errors” happy conclusion for all the couples involved. This play for me was a strange mix of deep human tragedy (Shylock) that in order not to disturb the audiences was wrapped into an oversized “standard” romantic comedy with gender play and fun and smart women and comparatively dumb men. All the costumes, gender play, the clown, the “prank” of stealing the daughter, Portia and the suitors, all those scenes distract from the anger or the sympathy people might feel for Shylock.

I saw a documentation in 2 parts recently (“Shakespeare in Italy”) claiming that Shakespeare must have spent some time in Italy during those “lost years” that are without evidence about his whereabouts. They said the Italian elements he put into his plays couldn’t have been learned from hearsay, he must have been there and experienced the different towns and the characteristics of their people.

Only then I realized how many of his plays are in fact set in Italy, and in places from the North to the far South. I now need to reread some of his plays with that idea in mind. For example, they said The Tempest is likely to have been influenced by Naples being Italy’s “most superstitious town” that gave him many ideas for Prospero and the island.
And he might have been in Venice where at his time both the Old and the New Ghetto already existed. There had been a big wave of Jews arriving in the early 1500s from the mainland, so the magistrate had decided to settle them all on one of the countless islands that form Venice. The one of the ex “new foundry” was chosen (which is said to have led to the name ghetto), but only a couple of years after, the old foundry island had to be added as more and more Jews from all over Europe moved to Venice. That’s also why the “New Jewish Ghetto” is older than the “Old Jewish Ghetto”.

While they had to live on those two small islands where the bridges were closed at night, they were comparatively free to perform their trades, and felt safe from attacks, so at those times the separation didn’t have the same 100% negative meaning that it later got. Wiki says that between 1290 and 1656 Jews had been expelled from England, so seeing them “free to live and trade” in Venice must have made an impression on Shakespeare. And he must have made some acquaintances there that gave him the idea to the “Hath not a Jew eyes” speech. Such a view on things must have seemed more than revolutionary at his time and for totally anti-Semitic England, and so most probably had to be counterbalanced with much distracting comedy stuff and of course the Christians “winning”.

Jews were traditionally excluded from many of the popular trades and businesses, so they concentrated on what remained (often areas then forbidden for Christians like money-lending) and were despised for it. I guess that must have been Shylock’s situation. Forced to live in a very cramped space, unable to enjoy his wealth in the same way as the rich Christian Venetians, sought (and used) when needed, but despised. Bitter and frustrated and hateful against a super-rich young man like Antonio who, by lending out money freely to his friends, took away his only source of income.

Of course the demand of a pound of flesh as forfeit sounds ridiculous, but I read on wiki that this element was taken from earlier Italian writings, so it wasn’t a new idea for contemporary viewers.
For me, it feels like Shakespeare was testing the limits with this play. And the ending, dubious as it is seen nowadays, was probably the most “happy” one Shakespeare was then able to give a Jewish protagonist in a play that was meant to be performed on stage.

Last not least it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is another play where a smart young woman single-handedly saves the situation that overwhelms all men involved. And has to pretend being a man of course. The “quality of mercy” speech is famous, yes, but I found the smart cold wit in that woman far more impressive.

I don't rate Shakespeare (how could I), but this play which certainly isn't among his best and most popular ones, makes me love him even more.

Thanks so much for this review, Nathalie. I saw once the play and liked it.
Happy Friday. We've got finally warm temperatures.

>51 sibylline: I don't think I'd be able to keep that up. Monday is frustrating enough already. :)

>52 FAMeulstee: Padua is a lovely and also very lively town. I'll go there more often, I decided. It's also great for day trips by train to Venice without the super high hotel cost there.
I hope you had a nice holiday yesterday! :)

>53 LizzieD: That reminds me that I have a very good book about all the plays that I used to read along and then I always also watched the BBC play (got the box set). Maybe this weekend. Or I'll just read the plays without all the background for once.
Which plays are you planning to read?

>54 Whisper1: This is such a lovely picture, thank you so much Linda for posting it here. Could be me in my childhood, but without the nice hair and dresss (70s short hair and flared corduroy trousers would be more like it). But the total concentration on a book - she's forgotten the world around her! :)

>56 Ameise1: Thank you and Happy Friday to you, Barbara! :)
The weather is nice here too and since yesterday the wind is gone, yay! :))

Yesterday, we still had the chilly wind but today it's gone. :-)

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Nathalie. xx

>57 Deern: Hi, Nathalie! I don't know which plays........ I ought to reread *Merchant* first since I spent some time this spring reading Shylock is My Name. I'd really like to get more familiar with the histories though or one of the last ones....... The Schoenbaum book is big though, so it will be some time.

>59 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, I hope then your weather is still as nice as ours (maybe not as hot, as at least for me once again the temperatur jump was a bit too much).

>60 PaulCranswick: A very happy weekend to you too, Paul!!

>61 LizzieD: I tried reading the histories years back during my long Shakespeare phase (2008?). That was also when I dropped out. I wanted to read them in order, though I forgot about King John. I believe I read Richard II, then the 2 Henry IVs and Henry V (really liked the Henrys). Even made it through Henry VI part 1, but then gave up. There are rumors the three Henry VIs are only co-written by Shakespeare and they are really quite different from the rest. I tried getting into them again, but no success.
This time around I might just skip them and continue with Henry VIII to Richard III.

Still have to read surprisingly many of the comedies and 4 tragedies.

Not having any Shakespeare background I had so many nice suprises encountering quotes used in popular culture now and earlier (Remembrance of Things Past, The Quality of Mercy, Band of Brothers...).

We have lovely weather this weekend, though maybe it got a bit too hot too quickly. The air is full of pollen and that white fluffy stuff from the poplar trees.

Yesterday I did my grocery shopping and prepared some food for the next 2 days or so. Then I cleaned all the place and a bit of the balcony and tried to clean the big sofa I'd like to sell. It's not dirty as I always use blankets, but not as light as it used to be. It looks better now (I tried two different things), but it will need another go.

Today I went to Bolzano to look at washing machines and dish washers. I hope to be able to install a small dish washer in the new kitchen, I got so used to them since my first post-university place in 1997.

Reading: very bad. I listened to some RoN yesterday, but had to rewind all the time. About 5 hrs left. Am only at 18% of the loooong Virginia Woolf biography and haven't started a new Shakespeare yet. Can't get into the Handke at all (though it's clearly good, just too dry right now), dropped the Trakl though I liked it, but you can only read so many poems about golden autumn lights and death things in the forest. Also didn't get into this month's 1001 GR Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, because I absolutely don't feel like reading Brazilian magic realism in Italian.

No yoga yesterday and today because of pain in wrist and knees. Okay, some breathing, meditation, and some minutes in the headstand chair. The pain started when the RL classes began again after my teacher's long absence. They're quite hard and seem not to go well with the daily routine. I'm planning to take a break from those classes when the next turnus starts end of May.

Mind Detox update after 2 weeks:

Successes:
- I spontaneously stopped craving white bread. Really! Today I bought the first (with chia seeds) and put what I didn't need into the freezer. I didn't even snack on it on my way back from Bolzano!!

- I'm not a breakfast person and now on most days get to lunch time without anything, maybe just with an apple. I know "you should have a big breakfast" - but bodies work as they like, and mine feels better this way. Italians eat almost nothing for breakfast (and what they eat is very sweet), but usually have big dinners and aren't unhealthier than other people, so those recommendations are just that - recommendations, not universal wisdoms.
Knowing I wouldn't eat until lunch also helped me concentrating on my work better.

- When I got stressed in the last two weeks I got off my chair /gym ball and walked around the office, doing breathing exercises. The usual cup of tea and sometimes a chewing gum also got me over the first moments.

- I moved my weekday yoga to my lunch break. Rolled out my mat, changed clothes and switched on the videos on my PC. It helps that all the others are away for 2 hours. That routine distracted me from possible food cravings and I could work off eventual remains of morning stress.

It has also the advantage that coming home I don't feel like I "have to do yoga now". When I feel like it I can still do something relaxing or some meditation, but the evening is free.

Not so great:
- Still not sleeping in my bed. :(

- Still snacking too much once I start eating. So when I eat nothing until 1 or 2pm, everything is fine. After that it gets difficult. I had one bad moment last Sunday after Padova when I ate 4 or 5 (delicious!) chocolate cookies, unable to stop after the first one, because I was feeling sad. Later I realized that only the first one had really tasted good and I managed to finish the pack over the week eating one cookie per day, telling myself "the next one will only be half as good, so better have many first ones". :)

- Still feeling sad and lost every day, but (in most cases) when I see the closed kitchen door I'm trying to breathe it away.

I usually have "something nice" for dinner - and it has to be eaten from a plate, not straight from the fridge. After dinner I make herbal tea for the evening, brush my teeth and close the kitchen door.
"Something nice" have been various soups, pasta with beans (lovely!), rice with veggies, gnocchi, etc.

This weekend for example I experimented again with some "Oh She Glows" recipes:

I made gazpacho:



I still had a very ripe avocado so I decided to turn the good fats into a healthy dessert: chocolate pudding with strawberries and pomgranate seeds



And from today's shopping I brought back the chia seed bread roll and chickpea burgers. Finally it's possible to get some nice plant-based burgers in normal supermarkets (until recently those things were stuffed with cheese and egg instead):

Handke is impossible, but then some of it haunts you later. He drove me crazy when I was first reading him then I have gone back now and then just to look at the writing -- how he puts sentences together. In many ways he is a writer's writer and I will say that I am almost more interested in how he writes than what.

Pouring rain here, needed, so that's good!

Last not least to show you more yoga friends and to make up for the selfie-free Padova pics:

Met Jennifer and Angelo, on Friday for an "aperitivo" (I had tea, daily yoga makes me dislike alcohol). Like me, they couldn't go to Sicily when the date was changed. So we took this selfie and sent it to Sicily:



I was lucky to sit in the middle, so just had to keep up the smile over the dozen or so tries we needed until we all three were visible. Easy selfie-taking really seems to be something for the young generation.

What a lovely photograph!

I have trouble taking a selfie that even has my whole face in it!

I meant to say too, that I eat very little breakfast and don't really understand the "big breakfast" thing. One (local chicken!) egg or a small dish of yogurt with "things" (like fruit) in it, alternating days. I was over on Mamie's thread and I do more or less what she does, I don't eat anything between certain hours of the day. Probably my worst time is between 5 and dinnertime when I often get really really hungry, although lately this is less of a problem because I have things going on three or four nights out of seven (mostly music) so I've been eating a small dinner earlier than I used to. I find I rarely need anything later, thank goodness, although sometimes I come home ragingly hungry. I try to be sensible then about what to eat to assuage it.

When I started baking bread in my teens I totally lost all interest in white bread, forever. I love complex breads. The one exception would be a fresh warm baguette from a good bakery!

>65 sibylline: D you remember what you read of him? I started "On Tiredness" or so (Über die Müdigkeit), and while it's really good, I can't read more than two pages before blending out.
I'll now go out on the balcony to enjoy the sun a bit and will take the Handke with me and see how he puts sentences together, thanks for that idea! :)

>67 sibylline:
I don't get along with the mirroring - I pose in a way that I believe it looks good, but then always get a pic of the other side of my face. And then I don't know where to look.

I've read: Across, The Left-Handed Woman, and A Moment of True Feeling. (The two last are together in an edition Two Novels by Peter Handke. The best was the the last one.

Ha just tried some new ideas and learned that a selfie of your face in an actual mirror image is easier to do than the real thing:

and thanks to the mirror I also got 2 bookshelves on the pic with me:


And here the Nathalie twins with their books:


Enough selfies and bookshelves (and these are the only half-good ones, I threw a horrible dozen or so away), off to Handke! :)

>70 sibylline: My library has none of those, seems I have to get through those 3 essays (On Tiredness and on two other things) for a beginning...

>67 sibylline: That's what I have to learn - not eating between certain hours of the day. Never learned that, we didn't have those super regular meals when I was a kid because my dad worked long, and later when my mum started working too, it was a day of many snacks instead of 3 meals. Didn't help that schools then had no mensa/cantine and you had to bring a sandwich (snack) or fruit (snack) from home - or went to a supermarket and got sth (snack). And always at irregular times.

>71 Deern: Lovely selfies Nathalie.

I of course hate mirrors and have to agree with Hani that one of me is already probably close to one too many.

Hi Nathalie. I am slowly working my way through threads trying to get caught up. I pretty much missed all of April until this morning. Making note of your review for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Fun and fluff in outer space is my kind of sci-fi read! I have yet to start reading the Matthew Shardlake books but I have to say your comment that you and Shardlake will never ever be friends intrigues me. Now I want to know what kind of personality he is!

Closing open borders.... very worrisome.

Congratulations on keeping up with the yoga and exercising daily. I have reached the point where if I take a day off from walking, I miss it and make up for it by taking a longer walk the next day.

We have a "Lush" store in town and the smell is overpowering, just walking past the open door. I know how anyone could work while being overpowered by the smells... and I don't have a sensitive nose!

What wonderful pictures of your trip!

Well done on the mind detox! I tend to be a snacker when I have to concentrate on a written project, so there are days when it seems like all I am doing is eating at my desk. At least I try to keep the snacks healthy, like fresh fruit or cheese and crackers but there are days when nothing but soft strawberry licorice will suffice.

>66 Deern: - what a lovely photograph!

Faced with the decision between reading Handke or listening to RoN, I decided for the latter and got through the remaining 5 hours while cleaning the balcony. As it's a long balcony that frames the complete appartment, is has much railing which I hadn't cleaned since last summer. :(
And the tiles are SO dirty even after extensive sweeping (I'm all dusty), but I can't clean them when the downstairs neighbors are home, as the water from my drain drips down on their lawn - with some luck on their heads (what an idiotic construction!).

Anyway - RoN, started in February, is finally finished!! :)))) And wow - all the tragedy, and so suddenly after hours and hours with almost no action. It wasn't my first Hardy, I had started with "Jude" which I guess can't be beaten in the tragedy class. But really, when for a moment it looked like everyone was dead and even "Thamsin" - no idea how she's written - might die of grief , I almost laughed and was a bit diappointed when the ending was the one you could see from the second chapter on. In the end I liked the landscape descriptions most, they got better and better, and Alan Rickman narrated it all beautifully. Just didn't need to hear him singing after "Sweeney Todd" (spelling?).

>73 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul. I posted it because I really look idiotic on most pics and this was a nice exception. On 80% of the others I had my eyes closed of course. And then this afternoon after the exchange with Lucy I experimented - and still can't do a selfie without a mirror.

You know that non-twin kids play twins with the mirror? I just remembered that this afternoon. But I forgot my childhood-imagined-twin's name. Might have been Linda or Alice from one of my Enid Blytons.

>74 lkernagh: Hi Lori, thank you for your post! :)
I also still haven't caught up on everyone's threads after a couple of shorter absences. Will visit you very soon!

Yes, "Angry Planet" was a fun quick read, but thanks to my non-experience in that genre I still don't know if it was "really good". I sure enjoyed it! :)
I can't really put my Shardlake issue into words... He's over-sensitive, easily offended and not a very fast thinker most of the time. I don't think he's fun to be around. For me (!) he doesn't fit into his time and I always wonder how he got to his job if he dislikes the criminal law of that time so much. The settings are good and the side characters as well. And you will most probably like him because everyone but me does. :))

Oh - I forgot: I saw a Lush in Padova and it smelled less than the one back in Frankfurt! Still couldn't go in.

Did only mind yoga today during all my cleaning, that wrist is still hurting, at least the knee is better. I'll go easy on those yoga push-ups the next couple of days.

Noticed that Sunday is a bad day for the mind detox. Too many snacks in the afternoon, at least healthy ones - there's nothing else in the house. Must be the approaching Monday. :/

Coming in late to the conversation, I assume you're talking about Return of the Native when you say RoN? That's a book that I've always meant to read - but never get to. With oh so many other books on that list I don't know when I'll ever get around to it. Good for you for getting some work done while listening. I'm going to clean house tomorrow and try to get a few hours of my audiobook knocked off. :)

>76 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, yes that's the book - posting the review next. This May might become audio month, I don't feel like eye-reading at all and am quite busy all the time. I can imagine when doing all the packing for the move audios will come in very handy. Thing is just that I have no idea what I'd like to listen to. None of the books on my WL tempt me, I guess I must look for some more easy stuff for the next couple of weeks.

33. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (BAC 2016, 1,001 #413 /365 )

Yay, I finally finished one of my still open February books (March BAC started in February)! Had it not been for Alan Rickman’s fantastic narration, I don’t know when or if I had picked it up again. Not that it was bad, it was just too long stretches without much action, and it took me very long to start enjoying and appreciating all the landscape descriptions. In the end they were the elements I liked most and found really masterfully done. I enjoyed similar pieces in German before, so in this case I guess it really was a bit of a language issue, too many unfamiliar words at first.

The plot however was predictable from the second chapter on. Second because the first one is an impression of “the heath” where the story is set. It took the plot very long to get to the point and when it did, it did almost ridiculously so. I don’t know if Hardy can still shock me after what happened in Jude the Obscure. Can there be more misery than that? Although even the drastic action taken there by one character was almost ridiculously exaggerated, if I look at it now. Now when drama and tragedy finally happened in this book, I almost wished he had consequently hit everyone, just to be done with it. But then I saw that there was far more than an hour left and realized it would end as I had thought, and maybe with some more complications. During that last hour when I was more than ready to leave the remaining characters for good, Hardy clearly wasn’t ready yet and drew out the ending forever.

I liked Eustacia and pitied her although I wasn’t meant to. I didn’t like Wildeve, but if I were in this plot I would have been in love with him too, which partly explains why I’m single. And he isn’t bad bad – Hardy explains his character very well. There isn’t much not to like about Diggory Venn, he’s the good reliable guy without being too boring. Still can’t imagine what a reddleman really looked like. Must have been bad enough not to be considered a marriage candidate in any case. I found Thomasin annoying in that “good girl” way typical for classics written by male authors.
Maybe I’m also not married because I never learned to “tenderly open the door” or “gently step forward”. Whenever “tenderly/ gently” were used early in a sentence, I knew Thomasin and not Eustacia would be entering the scene. I liked how Clym honestly cared for Eustacia and never stopped loving her although he remained a surprisingly pallid character, given that the title refers to him. His mother hoewever – who in their right mind would trust Christian with all that money and not wait a day or two and hand it over directly? Christian was a great side character btw. as was Charley.

The narration: At first I was quite overwhelmed by the voice and couldn’t listen to the words at all. I got into the story whenever I forgot about the owner of the voice. I was catapulted out again as soon as AR started singing. Can’t say why, but as much as I love his voice speaking, I really don’t enjoy him singing. Not here, not in “Sweeney Todd”, not in that rom-com (“Truly Madly Deeply” I believe?). Can’t explain it. Anyway, I really wish he had narrated more audio books.

Rating: 3.5 for the book (of which 3 for the heath), 5 for the narration.

I second that "5 for the narration." Rickman does it beautifully, doesn't he?

>79 scaifea: Yes, he does! Incredible and sad for us that he only did the one. :(
I searched years ago already and all I found then except for RoN was one(!) Shakespeare sonnet, "My Mistress' Eyes", he should have done more poetry. *sigh*

*****
My ER "The book of Ralph" arrived, or better the e-mail with the attachment which really is a pdf. I never read a book as pdf on the screen, but I'll try.
Started listening to Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson this morning in the office and it has already made me laugh several times. Glad I still have my single office, though I'll have to move soon and will then share with a colleague who works in the mornings. And if you wonder - it's statistics time of the month again, so basically the same excel sheet thing times 20-30, so listening to an AB is okay.

Just checking in, Nathalie. You're lovely! And your hair is longer than I remembered from earlier pics.
Your cleaning (inside and out) puts me to shame.......... and so I'm going to skulk away and do the necessary with the cat porches, the only cleaning I can be counted on to do in any given day.

LOVE the selfies, Nathalie! SO interesting about using a mirror.

Nice reviews of both Merchant of Venice and Return of the Native. I also loved Rickman's narration and wish he had done more. That voice! You got me with Merchant of Venice - I have not read that one before, so onto the list it goes. I got the Ark Angel narration of it to listen to while I follow along in print. Hoping to get to it soon.

Happy Tuesday to you!

>80 Deern: If you can, you should check out The Love Book app, which has all sorts of poems, including some of Shakespeare's sonnets, for you to read yourself or listen to others read. The readers are all excellent and include Gina Bellman, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hiddleston, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory and Emma Watson. I highly recommend it. (I let Mr. Hiddleston read some sonnets and a couple of John Donne's poems to me last night before falling asleep. Mmm, lovely.)

>81 LizzieD: *blushes* Thank you Peggy! Yes, hair is longer and I'll keep growing it until it falls out! All through my younger years parents and hairdressers told me I don't have the face for long hair, so now I have to grow it with 45. :)

>82 Crazymamie: Thank you Mamie! On all the other selfies I tried before the mirror idea I looked like... I don't find words. Old and haggard. Old I might be, but not haggard.
I might watch the MoV BBC play next weekend (if I stay at home), I hope they didn't exaggerate with Shylock too much.
Happy Wednesday to you! :)

>83 scaifea: Thank you Amber , must check it back at home, sounds wonderful!! Hasn't Tom Hiddleston played King Henry V ?
Edit: yes, he did. There was a series about Shakespeare plays on sky and he was on it. Now I wish they'd also show those plays!

******

I am having a very very stressful but so far also good week at work! Still listening to Jenny Lawson, but speed-reading "The Book of Ralph" in every free moment. LOVE it! I hope it stays as good until the last page. The first ER I really enjoy if I remember well.

Yesterday's RL yoga wasn't too bad on my wrists and knees, very grateful for it. Tonight there's an information meeting at the refugee home before my service starts, so I'll have to leave work a bit early. Will be interesting to see if the concept of creating illegals is mentioned.

Was planning to go to Mantova/Mantua and Cremona for the long Whitsunday weekend with my friend Silvia, but she cancelled to stay with her daughter (who doesn't want to come with us). I might go alone now, but don't know yet where and how long. The forecast for Veneto and Lombardy isn't so great and there'll be so many other tourists on the road.

Congratulations, Nathalie! Looks like you've mastered the selfie!! I really should practice and try out my selfie stick too before the summer picture season arrives. In the past, for group shots, I just hand my phone to my son and say "I give up! You take it!" I guess this is a skill I must learn.
I currently have the Hiddleston Hollow Crown series in my possession but I'm often too busy to view it. I think I'll be able to renew it for another 3 weeks.

Amused by all the Hiddleston chat. He was on the movie review podcast I listen to this week singing and playing guitar. He's pretty good I admit! There's stacks of Shakespeare stuff on TV and radio at the moment, and I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all.

Hope your joints improve Nathalie - sounds painful. And hope the rest of the week is less stressful.

>84 Deern: Hiddleston as Prince Hal? Oh, did he ever. Best Hal I've ever witnessed. The man is fairly incredible in the acting department, I have to say.

>85 Carmenere: Hi Lynda, just the mirror selfie I'm afraid!

>86 charl08: Knees are better, wrists still difficult. statistics week (much mouse work) isn't helpful.

>85 Carmenere:, >86 charl08:, >87 scaifea: I have to make a confession: before that Shakespeare series and the Henry episode, I think I've never seen him, just knew the name from threads here. :/
This is movie-theatre-quite-free Merano, and I stopped watching popular TV dramas about 10 years ago. But when I saw him in that Henry episode, it was like "wow - he's absolutely perfect - where can I get a copy!?!?!"

34. The Book of Ralph by Christopher Steinsvold

Wow. Sci-fi, pdf format (to be read on a computer screen), an ER available in Italy which in 99,9% of the cases means it won’t become a bestseller, and a very weird story set-up, so I didn’t expect anything at all. How wrong I was!

It still is a late proof version, and I found the odd typo that will sure be edited out. The layout is beautiful and despite the pdf format was a pleasure for my eyes.

As I said in my review of Small, Angry Planet, I know next to nothing about sci-fi. So from my POV it is well possible that the author collected what is popular and formed his plot from that. Thinking about it, it’s even very much probable. But that didn’t diminish my fun in the least.

Okay, can’t tell the plot without spoilers, but I’ll just cover the very early part of the book, maybe 3 chapters of err.. many (360p). It all starts in 2021 with a giant ad that suddenly is visible on the moon: “Drink Diet Coke”. Of course, everyone suspects Coca Cola to have taken advertisements a step too far. Their shares crash and their products are boycotted all over the world. Scientist Markus West is ordered to investigate the case and finds out that in fact the company has nothing to do with it. That makes him the most hated man in the world, because people want to see a culprit. When a short while later a giant Campbell’s noodle soup can is found hoovering over the White House, Markus is ordered to join the investigations and soon gets some classified information about a guest who’s planning to visit Earth.

This starts out as a total comedy with some bizarre moments, and had me laughing out loudly several times. Then it turns philosophical with remaining fun elements before taking a full turn into action sci-fi, think War of the Worlds and every sci-fi movie you have ever seen. It has some structural and certainly also logical flaws and I know it won’t become a classic at any point, but I can see it selling in good numbers, because it has the addictive element that keeps you reading, reading, reading. If my evenings hadn’t been busy this week I would have stayed until midnight in the office on Tuesday just to finish this book (my ipad doesn’t save pdfs, is that normal? Anyway, I hate reading books from it).

It was just the brain candy I needed, and it contained a message I needed as well. The second law of the universe, all hate is envy makes very much sense to me and I'm grateful for any advice I can get from a book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

>89 Deern: Fun review and I'll have to look out for Ralph!

>89 Deern: Sounds intriguing. I'm tempted after enjoying Small Angry planet a lot - although writing this has just reminded me that there is a sequel...

>71 Deern: I love your selfies, Nathalie. You're looking beautiful. Happy weekend.

The Book of Ralph sound like a hoot - firmly placed on the list, so I will keep checking to see when it comes out here - Amazon does not have a date for it yet.

Happy Saturday, Nathalie! I hope that it is filled with happy!

Hope you're enjoying Furiously Happy! I started it at the beginning of the month and set it aside for Just Mercy. I hope I can pick it up again this month - it being mental health awareness month and all.

>89 Deern: I am probably more in the dark than you when it comes to Sci-fi, Nathalie and was intrigued by your review.
I am not sure that I am capable of the science fiction you describe which is required just in order to get to read it though!

Have a lovely weekend.

Oh and by the way @ >75 Deern: I don't think I have seen you yet take a bad photo.

Lovely selfie pics, you don't appear to be a learner in that particular art :)
Shame about missing up out on the yoga retreat, but sounds like you made up for it with the others who also couldn't go. I have only been on one yoga retreat before, and it was heaven on earth. I think I need to put that only to do list again!

Dear friends, I am through 10 or so days that were not just busy, they were also „different“, with some strange but nice things happening.

After the first long Whitsunday weekend I started preparing a post, but never got the opportunity to write more than two sentences as then the work week just crashed over my head. Three days alone were all-day IT and cost analysis workshops, two of them in Italian, so by Friday all I wanted was sleep and cut out the outside world. Evenings and lunch breaks were busy as well. Didn’t read a line, didn’t even read a single thread on LT and am once again hopelessly behind.

That’s what I did when not working or volunteering or yogaing:

One of my bookshelves on Saturday 14th



The shelf yesterday:



Plus I packed up almost all of the kitchen things and much more stuff you can’t see here. Clothes will have to wait to the last moment because I don’t want them to smell of cardboard.

Yesterday my parents arrived. They will be looking for apartments to rent and of course, I’ll spend much time with them. They are not staying with me, they got a holiday apartment in Avelengo which is about 1,200m above sea level. Merano is totally booked out this week.

So what I want to do now is not “check out”, but announce a very irregular presence here for the next two months. I fear it will be a while once my phone and internet line are switched off to make them work again in the new place (isn’t it always like that?). Then I don’t really know yet how much time I’ll spend in which place in June. There might be quiet days when I post a lot, and then I might be away for another week or longer. Might also go to Germany for some days though now it’s more likely in July.

Work will take up more speed in June of all months, to the point where I’ll have to take documents and stuff home over the weekends or come in on Saturdays. I see myself already sitting in a chaos of boxes and furniture, reviewing IT specifications. 

So please accept my apologies for the last 10 days and in advance for the next 2 months. Should there be anything urgent (you never know), please send me a PN, I promise to at least log in every couple of days to check on those though I might not visit my thread.

>90 sibylline: Don't know when it will be published. I hope you'll like it then, never forget that I'm a sci-fi baby. :)

>91 charl08: There's a sequel? Hm... I liked it just the way it was and am not terribly curious about further adventures and new complications for those characters.

>92 Ameise1: thank you Barbara, those birds (are they ducklings?) are so cute!

>93 Crazymamie: Thank you Mamie! I hope Ralph will be published soon!

>94 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, thanks for reminding me - this means I even read two books for MAM, yay! I really liked FH, I'll post the Review next.

>95 PaulCranswick: Well, I don't post those, I delete them! :)

>96 LovingLit: I think in the end it was for the better that I couldn't do the retreat. The others said it was quite different, far less "magic". And the food wasn't very good. While I feel very drawn to Sicily, I felt that the YR wasn't my way to get there.
But I'll do other retreats and soon. Just booked a 3 day meditation retreat in August.

I listened to 3 audio books while packing:

35. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson and
36. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Okay, helpful books keep finding my way this year. Felt like listening to a fun audio and found Furiously Happy in my audible recommendations. Never heard of “the Bloggess” before, but I really enjoyed my listen (JL narrates her books herself and I quite liked her voice).
I got more out of the chapters where she deals honestly with her mental illnesses and listened twice through the one about medicals. I could do less with the dialogues with her husband Victor. It’s wonderful they found each other and it’s clear they are good for each other. But if only half of what she tells here is not exaggerated, I’d go myself a bit crazy around her, I fear. What shines through is that she is a loving, warm-hearted and generous woman. It’s just that I wouldn’t like to have my conference calls interrupted because my wife sneaked up behind me with a taxidermized squirrel which she lets look over my shoulder and wave - and then have a discussion why that makes total sense.
Anyway – I’d recommend this one. It made me think, sympathize and laugh a lot.

It was logical to listen to her earlier book next. That one had less quiet moments (the chapter about her miscarriages and the fear of never having a baby was a very touching one), and many more “nervous” chapters. The one point I really didn’t like was that she “sang” the chapter titles, in a very loud voice.
The episodes she describes are “the most embarrassing moments in her life” – but I thought they weren’t that bad. Coincidentally on the same day when I was listening, a friend told me her most embarrassing moment: while working as a waitress in the most prestigious bar in Bolzano, she lost her skirt. Since then she avoids press buttons. Now, that’s embarrassing. As was my worst moment when I was at my “Abschlußball” (a bit like a prom when you took dancing lessons) in the big and noble Kurhaus in Wiesbaden and realized after a very long time that at my last visit to the bathroom I had stuck the back of my long skirt into my tights. No, no-one told me! Well, you survive those things. 

Ratings:
FH: 4 stars
LPTNH: 3 stars (3.5 without the singing, so if it interests you, get the print copy/e-book)

37. Letting Go by David R. Hawkins

I had just been thinking that it was high time for another listen of the Singer book when this one crossed my path thanks to an audible sale (books finding your way bla... :) ). I really needed a reminder of why surrendering is good for us, and this book very quickly worked small wonders. I am in a MUCH better place now than I was a week ago when I was in a total panic (caused by overthinking) re. my move and other things. Maybe it worked that quickly because it was a reminder of techniques I’d already learned but neglected. It takes a different approach – a bit more scientific, and it has a different structure.

I don’t want to write too much here, but if “letting go” is your theme, I can fully recommend it. I’d still combine it with the Singer which is full of funny examples that will stay in your memory, like the constantly babbling inner voice pictured as your room mate, sitting next to you on the couch, yelling at the TV screen.

There was one small thing I didn’t like at all and that cost the book half a point. I realize it’s probably a culture thing though (writing a CV "the American way" is quite a painful task for us). The epilogue contains a wrap up of the author’s own experiences, something I was really interested in. Singer does the same (in his auto bio) but in a very humble and humorous way, never forgetting his many doubts and hesitations. Here it isn’t either, and it comes over to my European ears as totally pretentious and also – sorry – sounding a bit like a cult, especially the part about all the followers who wanted to be “healed”. Let’s say for me it was almost an anti-credential. While I don’t doubt the effectiveness of the techniques he describes in his book, the biographic part, though written in a distanced style (using “one” instead of “I” all the time) had the result that when I started re-listening to the first part, I felt much resistance, and it took me a while to get into the listening flow again.

I’ll keep working with this book but avoid that part of the epilogue in future.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Last not least some "experiences":

Since my last post there have been some days where I was so anxious about whatever that I couldn’t keep to my non-snack routine. There were times when I was walking endless rounds in my office, breathing deeply, and it didn’t help, because all I wanted was jump into my car and rush home. Lunch break yoga or lunch break sitting on a the floor for a while didn’t help much either, and to function I gave in to my “drug”, i.e. food several times, even during the weekends when the packing stress and the planning seemed overwhelming.

There have also been some developments I didn't write about before and won't in detail, but that influenced my mood, my thinking and my decision to really, really try and follow that Singer/Hawkins surrender path. Watching my parents and their inability to cope with their house project, an argument during my grandma's bday where despite my absence 3 people used me as an example to underline their viewpoints (sometimes I'm so sick of all that) and worst of all, the suicide of a relative - a 33year old woman I never met in my life, but who was clearly destroyed by the worst side of that evil family dynamic of "honor and shame". While I never met her, knowing that there was someone in my family so desperate that she saw no other way than ending her life a day after having a last talk with her father has been the final point (I hope) for me, and also for my aunt to whom I talked on the phone for hours last week one evening.

I have to leave all that behind me, to seperate myself from conflicts that aren't mine, family or not. Parts of that family are poisonous. There were attempts at suicide in the past, there were escapes to different countries or into alcohol/drugs, there's blaming and guilt in abundance - I don't want to be part of that anymore.
I can give those people my love and affection, but I don't ever want to get involved anymore into any of the quarrels and blame games. So if x doesn't speak to y because of whatever, leave me alone with it. :(

**********
Two things really helped in those last days: the Hawkins book and (so much about god/the universe helping out) a new yoga teacher (Lacey something with yellow hair) on doyouyoga.com with a totally different style und unconventional classes to remove inner blockades and raise creativity, mainly working with breathing, no athletic yoga at all. Did a 1hr class today and felt just happy, free and relaxed.

Just two episodes which I’m merely writing down here to reread on a bad day.

After not having seen him at all for a full year, my ex recently crossed my path several times, usually in the mornings, driving home from his woman. You can imagine how much that hurt me, and it usually set me off for hours. I twice sent him messages, asking him to please choose a different road until July when I’ll be living at the other end of town. I unfortunately can’t do that because of one-way roads, but he could, easily. When I saw him again maybe 12 days ago, I exploded and wrote a really angry long text in Italian (before I had always been polite). It added a new anxiety to my day - I was scared to get into my car in the morning and drive to work.
Last Tuesday I was so nervous that I thought the next time I see him he’ll get some “bad” gesture. Didn’t see him that morning, but started listening to the Hawkins while going through stressful but repetitive office tasks. Was extremely anxious all morning to the point where I thought I was unable to get through this life at all. Ate half a pack of grissini to “somwhow” function! :(

When I drove to the yoga that evening however, 2 hrs of Hawkins had calmed me down to the point that I felt a great inner peace and happiness. I saw a car like the one my ex is driving and thought “I’m SO glad I didn’t do the gesture thing. Next time I see him I’ll just smile and wish him happiness (yes!) in my mind”. Guess what? Walking from the parking lot to the yoga studio, I saw him driving down the main road. I stopped and smiled, and he drove past me very slowly, clearly wondering if that was really me, and then he smiled back. There was total peace between us. I was happy and had a wonderful yoga lesson and feel much better since. I might even be able to finally throw away all my souvenirs of those three years.

*******

On Thursday it was raining and my morning mood wasn’t too good. I was scared I might lose the technique again as soon as I stop listening to the book and I prayed for help in the process. Coming back from my therapy lesson at 2:30 pm I listened to a part where meditation praxis is recommended for better results, and I thought “but where can I learn good meditation here?”, walked into my office and opened my mail. My friend Andrea had forwarded me an invitation to a 3 day Zen meditation workshop in August to learn “acceptance and surrendering”. Of course I signed up at once. 

Sorry to hear you're so snowed under at work and not feeling like reading any fiction. Hope the Booker list will help, as you say. I'm sorry too to hear about the family loss. Such a young age.

Does LT have a new function where text you edit is automatically saved, even if you used cancel to undo the whole thing? Happened twice yesterday, and some stuff I wanted to remain unposted was in fact posted...

I'd like to add that I not only didn't know her, I also didn't know her personal circumstances, so I don't want to speculate too much. She moved to Berlin a while ago which is as big an escape as her aunt's in the 80s to a Greek island. Fact is that that particular branch of the family has always been most "respectable" and never forgave the smallest sidestep that could make the family "look bad" in the eyes of gossiping neighbors. There's so much false pride in my dad's family (what for?), and as a result arrogance coupled with the constant fear of a potential downfall. There's pressure to excel, but as the fear of failure is always looming above our heads, (financial) successes never last.

>102 charl08: Guess what? Yesterday I was snowed under literally! Yes, it snowed! :D
Last Thursday it was very cold and rainy, then we got a short heat wave with 30°C in Merano on Sunday. And yesterday it cooled down to 5 in the late afternoon, and where my parents have their holiday appt it snowed heavily. They bought an additional blanket and I brought some of mine. What a weather this year!

I'm looking at blue blue skies here. Really hope there's no snow here otherwise all the garden will be in trouble.

I'm hoping for some answers to questions about why we're all here in At the Existentialist Café. So far, I'm just getting the sense that there were a lot of philosophers arguing in the early 20c.

Snow! Well I can sympathize! We've warmed up reasonably well here, fingers crossed it will stay that way!

I'll keep you starred and will keep on checking in no matter what! You've got a lot on your plate, that much is certain.

Good luck with preparing your move, Nathalie, moving is a lot of work.
You did so well with your ex, I am proud of you!

I am sorry about the loss in your family, such a sad end after growing up in such a demanding (and dysfunctional) family... good plan to keep yourself away from it.

>104 charl08: Blue skies here as well today. And we might get far over >30 Deern:°C this weekend.
Why we are all here? Actually I believe for no reason at all. :) We just came to exist (and if we're unlucky some meteorit or similar might cancel us out any moment without much of a warning). I'm not an atheist (more an agnostic), but I don't believe we have been created by ? for a special reason. We're here, others are elsewhere.
I just wish that as long nature/ the universe gives us good living conditions as we'd learn more from the past instead of repeating everything as soon as the old generations has died out.

>105 sibylline: Thank you!!! :)

>106 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita!

Had dinner with my parents last night and managed to keep a neutral (and peaceful) distance during all their quarreling. Looking back at how personal especially my mum got, also towards me, I see this as a real progress.

Received the keys to my new place today. Well... it's okay, I guess. I'll miss the old place in many ways. It was just much nicer and really high quality in all areas. I'll miss the balconies and views, the lift, the garage (and the clean and warm car) and the storage room in the basement.
But I'm looking forward to filling that new place with books, colors and life and to making it mine! :)

Started the torturous road through Italian administration today. Went to the electricity company with my new landlady Karin. Nothing to do, because the old renter hasn't de-registered yet. I have to return tomorrow (I have to be there in person, can't delegate or do anything by phone/mail), hoping he'll be done by then. THEN it will take 5 days (great - isn't it? If I had to move out of the old place now as would be normal, I'd face up to 5 days without electricity, because that guy forgot to de-register!). The same goes for gas/heating. The same goes for the rubbish, just that THEY need a confirmation from the comune that I registered my new address. For that, I have to register my contract at the tax office which costs 150 EUR a year. So we went there, waited forever, were sent away again with a form I had to pay at the bank (don't ask why I couldn't pay it at the tax Office, "it has always been like that"). Then I brought the payment confirmation to my landlady who went back to the tax office and was sent away because the computers didn't work. I'm tired already. :(

My parents most probably won't take my place because they can't fit in a big washing machine. they didn't find anything else they liked and are now a bit unhappy and considering "Bavaria" or "North Sea Coast" again. I'm trying to stay detached from it all. I "surrendered" my wish that they'll find the perfect house and now wait for it to arrive. :))

Good news: my soon-ex-landlady might buy my furniture and let the appartment furnished. One worry less! :)

Otherwise it has been a nice week with my parents.
The weather is once again very bad and will stay so for a couple of more days. We have an appointment with the tax consultant tomorrow morning and after that my parents will return to Germany. I hope they won't have snow in the higher mountains.

Thursday is a holiday here and I'll be going to IKEA with Karin, this time to Brescia. I'll buy some basics and try to find out if I can install a small dishwasher in the kitchen. I also found a nice alternative for a normal bed, a day bed you can enhance from 80 cm to 1,60 m. It has only good reviews and I want to try it. After sleeping on my 60cm couch for over a year, 80cm will feel like luxury. I saw today that the fridge has no freezer, so I'll need to make another investment - washing machine, dish washer plus small freezer. *sigh*

Tomorrow I'll take measurements of everything. Unfortunately all the outlets are old Italian standard, so I'll have to buy about 25 adapters. I requested the move of my phone and internet line and hope it won't take a full month. Sky can move only when the Internet has moved, so I'm in for a long wait there as well.

Reading last week: NOTHING.
I re-listened to Hawkins and noticed it's full of strange wannabe-scientific stuff. It has no significance for me as I don't buy those "scientific proof for spiritual theories" anyway, but I thought I should mention it as there are people who can get really worked up about fake sience.
I liked his categories and examples and find the book helpful in other ways, but I guess someone with an all-rational mind will hate it. And no worries, I won't become a cult-follower. I might have my own spiritual moments, but I have always been a free spirit and don't like following others and their rules in that respect.

Missed about 3 days of yoga while my parents were here but spending time with them was way more important. I realized I'd really like to have them here/ closer and I hope they'll find the house that "has it all". :)

Off again - have all a lovely week and a great start into June!!!

Wow, Nathalie, you have a lot going on! Just the thought of it overwhelms me! But it is exciting non the less! Remember to breath! it's a busy spot you are in but it will all be tidied up soon. Hope your parents find something that is perfect for them. Oh I finished the Hollow Crown Series and it was fabulous in every way!

Just back to report that new-landlady Karin returned to the tax Office because they had promised to be open until 4pm after the computer chaos, just to find closed doors.

>109 Carmenere: Yes, I at least do some "head yoga" and breathing exercises every day. They help! :D
Didn't know what you meant with Hollow Crown, but just saw it's that series with the history plays. I'll try and get to it asa*! (as soon as my head is ready to process literature again)

List of negative things about old place:
- noisy garage gate opening and closing all day on Sundays
- never really HOT water and never really very warm bath water when you needed it (after a hike) - it was the first "climate A house" in the region and the newer ones are better
- hourse alarms going off in the neighborhood very often during the night when it was windy
- most passers-by stopped and stared at balconies (why??), so I never could have a relaxed sunbath in a bikini and always felt watched
- ever-wobbly internet
- that first climate A house wasn't all perfect and often instead of fresh air, the air diffusor sent kitchen smells from I don't know where into my bedroom
- cracks in the outer walls that will be repaired this summer no doubt in some very noisy and dusty process
- ex living around the corner and working around the other corner, so I haven't been to the shops there for over a year
- small washing machine
- very delicate floor which is full of scratches now :(

List of good things about the new place:
- just three parties, one of them my friend Karin and her husband
- I'll have a car mechanic in the house (the husband)
- who owns an old American jukebox from the 60s :D
- no garage, but gated courtyard
- my own dustbin, so no-one else can fill it to the brim and then forget to switch the signal to "please collect"
- HOT water (so I was told)
- when my TV doesn't work I can watch sports from my balcony (big soccer field when I look South)
- apple trees on the other side
- a new organic farmer's shop just opened in my road
- err... it costs far less and I'll pay just my use of gas and water and not partially that of the condo
- no basement and no attic which "in spiritual translation" means I'll live in the here and now :))
- I have less space so I can get rid of attachments to things I don't need anymore
- I am allowed to get all creative in there...

Okay, seriously - I'm looking forward to it. I just wish June was over yet. And maybe half July. Yes, definitely half July because we then get our 13th salary. In June I'll have to pay 2 rents, so that #13 is very much needed!

I'm SO glad that you'll have a balcony in the new place! For some reason, I thought you wouldn't. And I don't have any trouble imagining why people stared at your old balcony while you were sun-bathing!
The run-arounds for getting everything squared away sound nightmarish. I can only hope you're through the worst of them and fear that you aren't.
Happy Rest of the Weekend! Maybe you'll get to read something wonderful!

>112 LizzieD: It's almost - can I say it? - Kafkaesque. It was like that last time and I know it's much worse the farther South you go. Smiling and being friendly to the employees often helps a bit, but stupid rules are stupid rules, and many things you can do via internet or e-mail in other countries are extremely formalized here. All rental contracts have to be registered YEARLY for example to prevent "black market renting", as owners have to pay tax on that income.

But of course that is still done, just totally without contract. The renters are locals who keep their address with their family officially, but happily live elsewhere. They use the electricity, gas and water of the owners (it's usually appartments in the same house) and pay them directly. Post arrives at their parents' place or in the office and everything's fine. Was never an option for me because as a foreigner I need an official address here.

So Italian!

Good luck, Nathalie, with all the chores that come with your moving places.

Hi Lucy and Anita, thanks for visiting and sharing my "pains"! :))

Had a very exciting day... last night my parents and I had dinner with my soon-ex landlady Chrystle. It was a lovely evening, but this morning Chrystle called and told me she had caught food poisoning or the first hangover of her life. I was at the tax consultant then with my dad, but instead of returning to work went to her place then with pills and tea and took her dog Floh for a walk. It was Floh's first ever walk with someone not Chrystle and she almost went crazy, yelping and whining, but she's a smart dog, did her business quickly, so we could return home. I persuaded Chrystle to cancel her appointments for the day and to drink water and tea, then I left for work, just to take the whole day off as it was already lunch time. (She called and is much better already)

Went to the new place to do all the measuring where I met Karin and got the registered contract. Went back to the electricity company, where they asked me to come back tomorrow, because the ex-renter had cancelled his contract today and between old and new contract must be a day, unless we would have come to the agency together (which wasn't possible as I was at the consultant then). I very friendly asked for an exception as this already was my second visit, and yay- I got my contract. Of course they'd still have to cut electricity and gas and because of the holiday and long weekend it would take at least 8 days to reconnect. I didn't get angry at all, just said that I was lucky to have the old place for another month and hoping for better weather, so I could bring in some boxes also in the early evening without light. I complimented them on their new rooms they had moved into since yesterday and the perfect air condition and wished them all the best in the new offices. I meant all that, I was totally relaxed.

Two hours later the company called me and told me they'd make another exception for me and NOT cut off electricity and gas at all, but instead transfer everything directly to my account. :)))

So I guess I'm through the worst in just 2 days! Address and rubbish collection are less urgent now as are phone, internet and sky.

And another surprise: the rooms look much bigger now without furniture and are in fact so big that I should be able to place most things easily. I didn't believe it, but my future bedroom really is 3.50 x 3.95m. Somehow the ex-renter had managed ro fill 3/4 of the space with a black leather couch in u form. It looked so much smaller then. I took all measures and made plans, I now know what to buy and in which room to sleep, where to do yoga, etc.

The only bad thing: despite all the scrubbing Karin has done, the kitchen is still dirty. There has been some water damage and there's some bad fishy smell which we fear comes from the pipes. I hope we'll get that resolved soon.

You have really done so much in such a short time. Your experience with Italian bureaucracy - I just don't know what to say.

Hope the kitchen issue gets resolved without too much of a problem, and that you enjoy the fun stuff deciding on the art and so on. My last move I moved bags of books to a charity shop at the top of a hill from my flat at the bottom (looking back, why I didn't just go to one in the other direction, I have no idea!). I have tried to avoid amassing more since, but it hasn't really worked.

>117 charl08: Well, it helps being relaxed - and it's easier being relaxed with another month time. Just imagining how I would have felt had I moved out on the 31st and they'd told me to wait for electricity several days...

So what happened last week:
- Books finished, started or read at all: None :(( (but I still absolutely don't feel like reading)
- spent 500 EUR at IKEA in Brescia and ordered online the things that didn't fit in the car like the bed (another >500 EUR). Those things will arrive on the 28th
- moved app. 20 boxes with books and kitchen stuff
- scrubbed everything so bath and kitchen can be used
- assembled two small book cases, a table and a small wardrobe for the bathroom
- moved one bigger shelf from the old to the new place, assembled it and it's already half filled with books
- went through the old place with Chrystle, discussing damages/ things to do and prices for the furniture that stays in
- bought a washing machine (to be delivered in 2 weeks)
- arranged an appointment with Vodafone for the installation of the phone line and internet in the new place for Thursday 9th (yay!), which means I can now start the Sky procedures as well
- packed many more boxes and really don't know where to put my feet anymore ==> am now driving one carload of boxes from old to new place every day and bring them back empty to refill.

Open point: main moving date because I'll need 2 days away from the office and my colleague/ project leader hasn't told me the best dates yet when it will least disturb the project.

I slept in the new place from Saturday to Sunday (brought one mattress back from IKEA). The rooms have a great atmosphere already and I feel like I made the right choices for their use, i.e. sleeping in the former living room. The mattress was still too hard and I woke up several times, but that's normal. Yoga in the second room was lovely, looking towards the mountains. It's very quiet there on normal days. It was actually a bit boring - no internet, no TV yet, eyes still saying "no" to reading, the radio always playing the same set of songs... We get so dependent on those distracting activities. So of course I ate. *sigh*
At least I'm burning off quite some calories now.

Tomorrow I'll go to the comune for the change of residence and then I can get the rubbish stuff resolved (I want a new and clean bin with a lock, don't want to take over the old one which must stink of fish given the smell in the kitchen).

I'm so "off" reading right now... once I'm fully back here I hope it's okay when I just write about other stuff and visit threads again until that funk ends. If it ends at all this time.

Still making positive experiences with the surrendering thing and people's reactions when I'm really relaxed. Also seeing a big difference between being really at ease (as I was at the electricity place) or just trying to while being stressed (IKEA). Noticed that my Italian has become more fluent in the last couple of days, I'm thinking less. I hope it continues.
Whenever it gets difficult I now think of my unhappy relative and remember that I never want to be dragged down to that point of desperation, ever.

Enjoying reading about your move and sharing the excitement - even the travails of Italian bureaucracy seem quaint and enticing from this far remove.

Good idea to take a poke at the old place and list down the charms of the new - the time to get misty eyed about the place you left is when you are happily ensconced in the new one. xx

>116 Deern: and >118 Deern: --- WOW! WOW! WOW!!! You are making it work, and I'm gloating that you're doing the very stressful business with aplomb and calm! You GO, Nathalie! You can always make up the reading when you're in and settled.
Keep us posted!!!!!

Hey Nathalie! So much work going on here. Hope it continues to go well. I'm waiting for the Booker list - hope it's a good one.

Happy to see your move is progressing well, Nathalie, and very well done at the electricity company!

Hi Paul, Peggy, Charlotte and Anita - thank you for visiting this neglected thread and cheering me on! :D

Okay, this morning I got the address change done and from now on "must be at the new address" because some inspector is checking if I really live there. And then people are wondering why the black-market-renting is going on? I understood that last time when I moved in as a foreigner, but now moving within the same town it seems a bit ridiculous. Anyway - last time no-one came while I was at home, but I found a notification that "after a successful visit my residence was accepted". Once I get the acceptance letter, I can go to the comune again to have my identity card changed. Until then it still has the old address and I have to carry the confirmation "that I started address change procedures" with me. If they make this mega-effort with everyone (as they say) this is another reason why administration costs kill this country.
(Now people say that administration in Germany is exaggerated... A change of address there takes about 10 minutes once you've waited your turn and they change your documents directly). I think this is all part of a cloud of anti-mafia-laws which so far haven't prevented a single mafia crime I guess.

Anyway - after that I was able to order my new rubbish bin which will be delivered tomorrow. I could have gotten the washing machine tomorrow as well, but am too busy in the office to take yet another half day off - 3 hrs today and 2 hrs on Thursday for Vodafone are enough this week. The WM will arrive after the 13th. As I still had some time left this morning I also ordered the redirection of my mail.

In the meantime my soon-to-be-ex-landlady Chrystle talked to her tax advisor who told her NOT to rent the appartments for tourists, so I hope that she's not retreating from the furniture buying now or demanding the 2 months rent she'll lose thanks to the indecisiveness of my parents... I'll just hope for the best, that she finds new renters quickly and that they'll love my furniture.

Last night when I was unpacking boxes (more books of course), my new landlady Karin came with a bottle of wine and a bag of crisps and we had a glass (she some more as she didn't have to drive) in the evening sun. Very idyllic. :)

Adding a few cheers to the brigade! I'm in a bit of a reading slump too so I feel your pain - but just think how good it will be when you get settled, sit down in the new place with everything the way you want it... and can sink into a book again.

>124 BekkaJo: Thanks for the cheers Bekka - very much needed today! I hope you'll have a lovely weekend and that the reading slump won't last much longer.

****

Checking in before the weekend begins... the phone and internet move doesn't go well so far. Yesterday the Vodafone guy came, switched everything on and told me not to touch the box or anything for 48 hrs - seems they check that they receive a constant signal for two days before activating the line. Of course my new landlady came in just an hour or so later (I was at work) to change a light switch and switched off the electricity and so interrupted the signal. :)

I switched it on again during lunch break and called the technician. He called back in the evening, again no signal. Well, I had tried cooking something, using two burners on the old electric stove - and that was already too much for my new Italian standard electricity level. Seems I need to buy more electricity again, though it costs a fortune.

I really need to get internet before Thuesday or I have to cancel the appointment with the Sky technician again.

The furniture will be moved on the 15th and 16th. Yes, two days, but people here don't work long hours and have 3 hrs of lunch break... basically it's some wardrobes and book shelves, nothing complicated.

****
This is the most emotionally stressing move so far. It's hard to say why. I feel kind of overwhelmed, and while I feel okay in the new place, returning to the old place is really painful every time. It's a lovely appartment and I hope the next renter will be happier there than I was. I feel like I never really did it justice because I was unhappy there so often during those 7 years - okay, 6 of them.
I've now been living in the new place for 3 days and I hardly miss anything of the many many things that haven't moved yet. Not even the books. I returned there during lunch break today to get the e-piano and the big TV, and I hated every minute of being there - and at the same time I didn't want to leave and wanted to hide in my old bed. I'm just glad it's over soon.

If anyone remembers my train dream of some months ago: the "good solid grown-up" appartment is part of that shiny train I didn't catch... it's something where people (my parents and others) want to see me, "safe" and settled, but where I myself don't feel at home.

****
My overall mood is still okay, even more on the positive side, also during work. I take most of the little setbacks with good humor and try to "detach" from the ever-present panic feelings. I still got 20 days, I moved a good 25 boxes and I'm "through administration". Maybe I'm just a bit tired.

I tried to read something, but couldn't. I'm sure it'll come back eventually.

Happy weekend to you all!

It's a lovely appartment and I hope the next renter will be happier there than I was. I feel like I never really did it justice because I was unhappy there so often during those 7 years - okay, 6 of them

My heart lurched a bit for you reading that wistfully poignant line, Nathalie.

Look at it as a new start - I liked your listing of the positives about the new place earlier - it is not really the bricks and mortar - you need to be in the right place in every other way too. xxx

I'm glad you remain hopeful for the next resident of your apartment Nathalie! Good job keeping your mood up to "okay," sometimes it's hard to get that high. Here's to hoping that you'll feel even better than okay soon. :) Hugs!

Wishing you a good week Nathalie. You've done so much with the move, hopefully there will be relaxing times in the near future. The glass of wine with the landlady sounds encouraging for that.

So impressed with your calm at the electric utility office!

Americans are so impatient and demanding that all of these moving changes happen much more easily here. Since 9/11 a few are more laborious, like opening a new bank account, but most things can be done with a phone call. Selling a house, no, that is hard with inspections and last minute problems and lots of headaches.

And glad that you are feeling comfortable in your new home.

When I am very much in my "efficient" brain I find reading difficult too - luckily I spend as little time as possible in that mode. You'll get back to reading once you are settled.

Nathalie, you're a champ! I'm sorry that everything has to be such a BIG DEAL, but that apparently is how the Italians do it. I will rejoice with you when you're finally settled in the new place and beginning to find yourself at home. In the meantime, continue to be easy on yourself.

Just checked in for the first time in a week and quickly skipped over the hundreds and hundreds of unread thread posts. I feel really bad about it, and I hope Vodafone will SOMEHOW get my ADSL/phone line to work before month end. I could theoretically use the internet on the smartphone, but I try not to as I fear it'll cost me a fortune this month.
And work... (right now) - there has been some news which I hope to write to you next week. Right now I can only say it means even more long hours and no chance for a real holiday. :(
But I try to see it positively, it's definitely a challenge!

So I was off work for 2.5 days. On Tuesday the Sky technician implemented Sky and was done in 10 minutes without internet connection. So at least I can watch my Italian and US shows again. Unfortunately I can't watch any soccer - on Sky I'd have to pay extra, and the house has no antenna for the normal Italian programs yet. But I don't care much for this year's Euro 2016 anyway.

The move went quite well, all the furniture has changed house - but now I'm in that stupid situation where the shelves and wardrobes are full, but there are about 30 boxes left. Got no basement or attic space, so I'll have to throw out even more. The question is just where. 1000 things can't be thrown into the normal rubbish and the big bins are just for bottles and paper (no cardboard, no plastic). I'll go to the waste deposit tomorrow with some stuff and might have to go again next week.

I also threw out another 2 boxes of good(!) books. I'll slowly drop them at the various book crossing places. I love having books around me, but I really have to learn to live with less stuff.

The washing machine arrived on Wednesday. It runs well, but the whole packaging (plastic, cardboard, styrofoam) is blocking the hallway now. In Germany, companies are obliged to take that stuff away. In Italy, the owner is obliged to keep it for a week for warranty reasons.

I cooked the first little meal in my kitchen that wasn't just reheating - Angela Liddon's super-easy pasta with avocado sauce. I needed just one pot and a mixer, and so far I successfully avoided another problem with the fuses.

My parents have put a small ad in the local paper for Saturday, looking for a place to rent. I guess I'll get many calls next week.

That's my update. Oh - and no books yet. But sorting through them last night I found many unread ones that are candidates for later throwing out. So that might be my new challenge - read off my shelf to get rid of the books! :)

*********

I am of course shocked and saddened by what happened in Orlando (which I fear is the most terrible example of "you hate what you envy") and also by the killing of the British politician yesterday. In Italy we had some horrible cases lately of men killing their (ex) wives/girlfriends (no migrants) and there is a movement coming up now for stricter laws. All the killers seem to feel justified in their hatred, "hurt" by those they killed. I try not to get these things too close to me, because when you start thinking them through you get a clear idea where all that leads/ might lead.

I don't "get" hate and extremism. And I don't "get" politicians (no matter what side) who use strong emotions for their business, heating them up even more. Don't they know where that leads? Do they really want that?

The world has become so emotionalized imo by politics and the media in the past years. There are too many themes that have been edited in a way to create fronts instead of simply informing. I feel extremely manipulated every time I watch the news and try to balance it out by watching/ reading sources from different countries. Often some "international crisis" that's boiling hot on the German media isn't even mentioned in Italy, the UK or the US and vice versa. Imagine people in countries where they are fully dependant on just one (gouvernment) source of information.

We're now at the point where the negative emotions are breaking through more and more often not just in forums, but in form of real violence. I guess it's no coincidence that that happens right when the generation who witnessed the horrors of WWII is dying out.

>126 PaulCranswick: Thank you for the sympathy, Paul!!! Sometimes it's just exciting and great to start something new, sometimes we still feel attached to the old situation, for nostalgic and not actual reasons... I had some great months there, but I don't think I shed as many tears (for various reasons) in any other place, and it finally feels good to leave it all behind. :)

>127 The_Hibernator: Right now I feel quite weak and tired thanks to a total lack of sleep. 11 more days until the new bed arrives. :) But still at least "okay", if not more so.

>128 charl08: I guess that landlady (and her husband) and I will have many more glasses of wine together - it was a good start for sure! :)

>129 sibylline: Well, selling/buying a house in Italy must be the ultimate nightmare as far as I learned. My (ex)landlady lost almost 100K when she tried to buy a house 2 years ago and then retreated from the contract because the other side had delivered incorrect cadaster data and her property was suddenly without an access drive.

I also miss doing things just with a phone call and without written and wherever registered proof of my situation. :)

Another funny detail about Italian administration: In my first year my landlady gave me a proxy for the yearly condominium meeting as she would be in Rome then. I looked at the invitation and asked why the *** I'd have to be there at 05:15 am!?! That date was printed very small. The second date (in case there wouldn't be a majority for decisions) was printed in extra-bold and was to take place a couple of days later at 6pm. She then explained to me that in Italian law, at the first meeting you need more than 50% of the votes of all owners, but at the second meeting only 51% of the votes present. So the first meeting is always set during the late night or early morning, so no-one attends, and then in the second meeting even if there's just one vote, decisions can be taken.
Of course I, the German, would have turned up at 05:15 am for the first meeting if she hadn't explained! :D

>130 LizzieD: Once I got rid of all the cardboard (did I write that my weekly quantity of cardboard I can get rid of is limited?) in my living room, it will look quite nice. Last time I left all the boxes in the basement, but this time I don't have that option. Well..

****
The Vodafone guy informed me that it's "something bigger". I had to call VF now to have them open a ticket to authorize him to do repairs. *sigh*

****
Found another reason for the reading funk. As Lucy said, in efficient brain mode there aren't that many free resources left - and only when I unpacked my books I noticed that all the unread ones are either in English or Italian. Maybe I should read something super-easy in German for a change? :)

I certainly vote for super-easy, Nathalie, and look forward to the day when you look around and notice that you're through! The move is done! You can devote yourself to living!!!!

Typing an update on my phone... The adsl line didn't work plus the box has a problem. The line has been repaired and they're sending me a new box early next week. There's hope for a return to LT before June ends, yay! :)
Happy weekend!!!

Fingers crossed all the tech works out soon Nathalie. Great admiration re the book clearout. It has occurred to me I should do something similar now, and follow your good example. Maybe after this book...

Hi there, Nathalie! Oh, I too need a book clearout! There are some books I look at on my shelf and wonder Why? So those need to go.
I just returned from Spain, tell me are all European old towns full of winding and hilly roads? Toledo and Segovia told me "Girl, you are out of shape and we're going to work your abs, glutes and whatever else has not been used for years"

Happy weekend tou you, Nathalie!
I hope that soon all is settled and working in your new place.

Wow, I'm just through reading about your move experiences. I hope they fix your ADSL problem soon. Wishing you a hapoy weekend.

>134 Deern: That sucks, Nathalie.

Hope in the absence of much internet you get loads of reading done.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Hope you had a great weekend! I've typed updates on my phone, too, but I try not to. It makes LT really tiny. :)

>135 charl08: I never wanted to do that, but now I'm determined. No-one of my friends and family will read any of my books anyway. If something happened to me, the books would be thrown away unceremoniously. I'm a keeper as well, but it doesn't help. For the next move I need lighter luggage.

>136 Carmenere: Aw, you were in Europe and I missed it! I could at least have waved to you, sorry for not following you!
Well, in Southern Europe where there are lots of mountain areas, yes - the old towns are usually full of windy roads and endless stairs. Honestly, picturesque as they are, I wouldn't really want to live (=grow old) in any of them. I love visiting them though.

>137 FAMeulstee: Happy Week and thank you Anita!

>138 Ameise1: Hi and thank you Barbara, a happy week to you! They are sending me updates every couple of hours to inform me that they're "making progress". We'll see.. :)

>139 PaulCranswick: Yes, but those issues could almost be expected, and I'm glad that all the rest so far went quite smoothly. Have a good week!

>140 The_Hibernator: I hate both reading and typing on the phone, also Whatsapp and messages. Way too many typos and I don't like using the autocorrects. And yes, you're right - LT Needs a bigger screen! :)

I had quite a nice weekend and was grateful for the cool rainy weather. The big heat wave is approaching, and then the move will be done.
On Saturday I decided to take a day off and to enjoy lunch in town at my friend Sarah’s new café/ bistrot “Kunsthaus”. Of course it had started raining like crazy again by noon, so I was shivering under the big parasol and wished I’d ordered tea instead of white wine to go with my (delicious) veggie quiche. Walked back to my new home between two downpours where I slept through much of the afternoon and then watched reruns of “Face off” (which I love) and “Marriage on First Sight Italy” (the horror!).

Yesterday was a hard day – I moved all the remaining stuff (don’t ask how much, just thinking of it brings me to total despair) into the basement of the old home, so I can pick things up without having to go upstairs again – the garage being on the same level. There was a big and heavy and really rotten old rug that has been under the bed collecting dust for several years which I wanted thrown out, but that was too heavy for the last transport on Wednesday. I cut it into 3 manageable pieces with a tiny carpet cutter (yes, it was fun!) and put it into the garage to all the other “throw-out” stuff I’ll have to transport to the recycling center next Saturday. It lost threads all through the house, so I had much work getting it all clean again. Then I swept and cleaned the bathrooms and all floors in the old place and arranged the remaining furniture in a way Chrystle can present it better to potential renters. Moved the remaining plates and cups and some more bedding and clothes. Can’t wait for Wednesday when I can get rid of my empty boxes at the weekly cardboard collection. Next weekend I’ll have to clean the windows and the terrace, and the question of a repaint hasn’t been cleared yet either, not that I have money to pay a painter anyway.

Back in the new home I cooked pasta with eggplant, zucchini and tomato and after that late afternoon lunch started unpacking boxes. If you’re wondering: yes, I had several friends asking if they could help, but when it comes to moving I’m always behaving like a solitary masochist. I tried moving with the help of friends years ago, but except for driving things from one place to the other, they can’t really help you with the packing/unpacking, can they? I know they’d make me nervous with all the asking “where do I put this/ wouldn’t it make more sense here than there/ do you really need all those books?”.

The other solitary masochist occasion is the assembling of IKEA furniture. I already know I’ll be sitting on the floor crying, surrounded by bed parts, by the middle of next week as I’ve been sitting in half-done wardrobes, a table and a bed sofa before, usually when I noticed that the successfully assembled piece was way too heavy to be lifted. I hope I’ll at least be able to save it for the weekend (02/07) and not start on the evening of the 28th when it is delivered. And yes, in the manual it always says that 2 people are needed, but sth in me thinks “yay, challenge!”and of course I don’t even use an electric screwdriver. *sigh*

Other updates:

Internet: waiting for the new box… I should add that office internet is wobbly as well. On Friday when I had a bit of time in the afternoon it failed completely when I tried to post on Bekka’s thread. I got at least to some threads earlier, but again apologies that I haven’t visited all of you yet again. I write those looong updates in word and then wait for a stabile internet moment to post. 

Yoga: very much neglected lately except for some sun salutations, stretching and breathing exercises. I can’t wait to take up my DYY classes again when the internet is back. Of course my muscles got some exercise lately, but not necessarily of the good (balanced) type.

Food: very bad, but on the mend. Thanks to my lack of sleep and all the stress at home and work I fell back into the sugar bed and now got all the usual issues – even less sleep, digestion problems, constant light nausea and skin problems. Well, I learned how to switch it off and now that I’m able to cook again I know healthy eating will come back automatically. The pasta yesterday and the apple oatmeal for breakfast were a good start. I’ll have to get used to cooking smaller portions as I only have a mini freezer and a smaller fridge now. Not a single frozen pizza would find space which is a good thing. 

Work: it’s official: the colleague I’d swapped responsibilities with has given notice and will leave by July 15th. Which means I got some of my old tasks back and will inherit some new ones additionally to the existing workload. First priority now is sitting with him, watching him and documenting everything he does. Someone new has been hired already, but of course she’ll have to grow into themes slowly, so it’s going to be a holiday-free long-hours summer for me. Yay.

Reading: I (re)started for obvious sad reasons We Need To Talk About Kevin, a book on my new “potential throw-out when finished” stack. I’d started it many years ago, but then found the language too difficult to follow. I was reading many classics then and absolutely wasn’t used to contemporary fiction in English. While I liked it better now, I still find the writing not easy to follow. And then when it started to feel really lengthy and strange (why all those endless letters to an estranged husband??) by page 75, I decided to skip ahead and read the events of “that day”. Well, now I’m spoiled with something I absolutely didn’t expect and that makes the continuation quite impossible for me because I’m so shocked and also disappointed. I had not expected that turn of events and somehow it destroys the whole premise for me by making the situation so unbelievable and over-the-top that I don’t know why I should read on. Did anyone of you read it and have anything redeeming to say? I reacted similarly to the extreme brutality in the Yann Martell books I read (yes, also Life of Pi). The basic idea of the Kevin book is fascinating, but by making him such a merciless evil monster, the whole “how would I react” opportunity is lost. I would have given him into child care probably much earlier as soon as his behavior started endangering my second child and after the events I’d leave him in prison, move away and change my name. Probably kill myself. This is just WAY too big. I feel very much tempted to throw it out right away, and into the garbage bin to prevent others to feel the same disappointment. Is The Post-Birthday World which I also have on my shelf worth a glance at all?

Edit: just looked at some reviews and was a bit relieved to see that several native speakers complain about Shriver's use of "difficult words". It's quite a popular book, but that was Life of Pi. I don't deal well with sudden extremely brutal turns of events that come out of the blue. I believe that to make this a credible book when it comes to Eva's behavior "post-event" and also to the reactions of her environment, that last "surprise" was counter-productive.
I might read on however, because contrary to many readers I can relate to Eva's character and her fear of not being a good mother/ end up not liking her child. And knowing the worst, at least the letters now make sense.

Such difficult moving times. I hope this week goes better, Nathalie. As for We Need to Talk About Kevin , I decided to skip that one - I felt it might be too disturbing for my tastes.

>144 vancouverdeb: And thinking that this is a small move within the same town.. My parents are really scared by now. :)

Somehow making the child an unlikeable "monster" sounds a bit like the easy way out.. I'm wondering if the "what could I have done to prevent it" wouldn't have been more credible with a child character that's perfectly charming, not with one where you constantly have to expect the worst. But maybe the author's intention was a different one and it was never about why a kid kills and much more about our expectations in a solid relationship and overall in life.
I read Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child a while ago where it's the 5th child of a loving family that seems to be a born psychopath. It'll be interesting to compare.

Just checking in - am alive, promise ;) Hope the internet and new digs are going okay. I seriously need to de-clutter - we'd piled all our stuff into my sisters massive loft space when we were trying to sell our old house. Gradually those boxes have made their way back. And now my house is as rammed with stuff as ever... sigh...

I'm not sure you can currently see the floor in my sons bedroom - but I figure that's more about him being 5 than about clutter. Or at the least it's about both!

>146 DianaNL: Thank you, just what I needed - a very Happy Summer to you, too, Diana!!

>147 BekkaJo: Similar situation here... I moved to Merano and rented a space for the books back in Germany. About 2 years ago we emptied that, threw out about half the books and the others moved to Merano and into the basement. I'm SO glad I got a Kindle years ago, I don't want to imagine what it would be like if I had all those in print as well!

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Seems my Vodafone box arrived today (the carrier called and left something at my new neighbors'). Could also be my smaller IKEA order, we'll see...
On Monday night that mysterious "inspector" came to control if I really live there and alone and if I am who I claim to be (had to say birthday, place of birth, old address, etc.). A friendly woman, yet still afterwards I was wondering if I had done anything wrong so she might reject my request for new residence. When I told her where I work she asked me if I knew any of her cousins and I didn't and felt bad about it and wondered if she'll now call here to ask if I'm really an employee. I'm paranoid. After 5 years you have permanent residence, no matter where (or if) you work. And I've been here for almost 7 years now. It's just so weird that they control everyone (also all Italians) who move. I apologized for the chaos with the boxes, but she said she liked it as it shows the move is real.

Boxes.... My new place is full to bursting. There are still 20 or so boxes left. I'm scared! Next week I get the bigger IKEA delivery - I'm trying not to work myself into a panic.
I'll throw stuff out... I'll throw stuff out... I'll throw stuff out...

Parents: they are disappointed with the response to their ad - many offers, but ridiculous prices and nothing great among them - and are now AGAIN considering moving to the North Sea coast. I told them to do what makes them happy, just to be aware that even by plane they'll then be very many hours away (Hamburg/ Bremen flights from Milan or Munich only + app. 2 extra hours of driving in Germany). I still bet they'll stay in their house. :)

>141 Deern: >136 Carmenere: HA! That's what I was thinking too! I saw a few daughter-like women either holding tightly to wheelchairs as they rolled their parent downhill or huffed and puffed transporting them up the hilly streets. The fast drivers coming from blind corners are frightful too. Perfect place though for the 20 something without children or elderly parents.

Don't be scared! Remember your yoga breathing techniques. All will be fine and take it one moment at a time without looking to far ahead.

Oh my! You have been working so hard. And the change at work sounds as if it will be trying, at least until the new person is "up to speed."

I'm thinking positive thoughts about furniture assembly. I'm a little bit the same way. I am, at the end, very pleased with myself, even if I've had to disassemble the thing several times to get it right.

A fun novel in German sounds exactly like what you need.

In the US we call what your parents are doing vis a vis house hunting "tire-kicking" - that is going around to the automobile dealerships and looking at cars only tepidly committed to actually buying one. Good salesmen can spot a tire-kicker from the real thing at a glance.

>149 Carmenere: Yes, you're right about the fast drivers. But you know - I've become one as well here and often have to remind myself that at any moment someone might step out on one of the tight steep streets leading up to the quarter where my old place is and I might see them too late. The houses are a bit away from the streets there but surrounded by high walls and hedges, so you don't see people before they're actually ON the street already. Yet everyone drives fast to get through those streets before encountering a car in the opposite direction (or a bus for some extra fun) which would mean wild reverse maneuvers.

I'm doing my yoga breathing and also the surrendering of my unfounded fears (because worrying makes no sense). In the end I'll be able to move everything, and if it means stacking the boxes high on the last free wall parts or in the middle of the room. Then I'll have all the time of the world to clear up. There are just those panicky moments, usually when something goes wrong in another area (work).

>150 sibylline: Doing the surrendering thing with some success also with the parents issue. If they find sth here - fine. If not, it's their decision.
"Tire-kicking" is great!! Yes, they're doing that a lot. They're even spending the next weekend somewhere near the coast to see houses.
And I try not to be over-eager with the assembly of the bed. I'll have a demanding workshop on the two following days and I'll try to find a friend to assist me (at least emotionally) when I start the work on Saturday.

Good news: put up the new internet box last night and after several fails it's now working. The connection is slower that in the old place, maybe because the box is in the hallway and the walls are thick. Hm...
Anyway, I hope at least it will be more stabile than the old one. The new box is one of those modern ones that send you direct messages on your devices - sth I hate. No, I don't want to give you my e-mail-address, box!

My old appartment is now visible on the internet with the nice furniture I couldn't take (*sniff*). If you're interested: http://www.soloaffitti.it/annuncio/604666/Appartamento-Merano-Maia-Alta--Obermai...

It's not 5 rooms or 115m² as the ad says - they counted the bathrooms and the kitchen and added the m² of the balcony, the basement room and the garage - and the first person to see the place is definitely going to complain. I paid 1,200€ - others in my house pay less for the same size, but my landlady always thought it was worth way more. Adding 100 for the furniture should be okay, still it's a lot. But seeing the offers my parents got, landlords in that part of town are a bit.... don't want to say greedy. They rather keep the places empty than lowering their prices.

Brexit.... Well, I'm worried and try not to be as there's really nothing I can do. Italy's not likely to leave any time soon (they aren't big Europeans, but they aren't nationalists, more regional patriots and while claiming a wish for Independence, the North won't want to pay for the South alone), Germany neither.
Oh, I guess we can now cancel the yearly BRC certifications in out company as it's now even less likely we'll ever export to the UK.

Hooray for the internet box. I hope it will work fine. I saw the photos of your 'old' flat. Lots of light.
Wishing you a relaxed weekend.

Nathalie, your move sounds incredibly difficult. Hang in there, Friend. You will soon be settled and the cardboard boxes will be taken away. Can you have a furniture assembly party? A little wine might make it easier. I loved the pictures of the old place. Such a beautiful view from the balcony and all those lovely wood floors. I can't wait to see the new apartment when you have it all sorted out.

Your comments about the internet box reminded me of setting up the printer. Overly technical, but still seems to need someone to stand over it and 'wake it up', despite claim it can print something you send from outside the house. Hmm.

Hope you've had a good weekend and that the boxes are not causing too much stress. I usually find one I never unpacked from my last move each time I move!

Hi all, internet works well, but this weekend was still so busy, that Saturday and also yesterday I just dropped on the mattress (bed to arrive tomorrow) and fell asleep. I was wakened by the clacson of a car outside and thought "what are they thinking in the middle of the night" - and it was 08:30pm. Fell back asleep instantly and feel better today.
Well I can declare that as of this lunch break when I packed the last ones that ALL BOXES HAVE MOVED!! YAY!! *dancing around in the office*

The whole big ex-place is sparkling clean (windows, floors, kitchen inside out, bathroom, doors, light switches, balcony + railings, all the icky sieves in shower/tub/ basins/dishwasher and washing machine, even the outside of the roller shutters). Scrubbed the couch with a foam - it wasn't dirty, just to be sure. The new place is full, but it's half manageable and my friend Silvia will visit me on Saturday to assist me (mostly emotionally) when I'm assembling the bed. She's prepared to hand me tissues when I cry, a glass of wine when I run out of will to continue and to force me outside on a walk when she feels it's time. She knows I'm quite determined to do the main work alone. Can I say I love her? One of the people I met in Positano last year and who became a real close friend.

You're probably all thinking "how can she make such a drama of a small move that's even in the same town?". Well... I underestimated the emotional impact, all the luggage that really was connected with the old place. And I underestimated my own determination to get through it alone despite friends offering help. And last not least I couldn't really know it would also become the busiest month at work since I'm here. I've been working from 7 to 7 on most days in the past 2-3 weeks. I just finished a 30 page documentation just for one process I'm inheriting from my colleague. I'll have another 2 day IT/ cost control workshop im Italian on Wednesday and Thursday which I fear will be very hard. I have to keep documenting until July 15th, and then the processes have to run as smoothly as if my colleague had never given notice. And the new warehouse project is ongoing and I'm responsible for the planning of the schooling which was a big theme last week and we had to agree on a first postponement of the live-date in January. I'll work most weekends in Nov/Dec/Jan, so I must make sure to take a week or 2 off before that.

I'm still quite relaxed and my therapist seems happy with me. :)

I never continued the Kevin book - I thought June has deserved to be "Absolutely-Zero-Not-Even-An-Audio-Book-Month". When my life has space for fiction again, it will return - no doubts.

>153 Ameise1: I was surprised that the agent didn't even move the rubbish bag or the water bottle, but the pics are still nice. I hope someone will be happy there!

>154 Donna828: Those wood floors will be sadly missed. Got the usual beech laminated floors now which aren't half as pretty, but on the other hand are easier to clean and don't show every speck of dust. All the new tiles are very ugly though. The view is VERY different. :D
As you can see in >156 Deern: I didn't plan an assembly Party (where would I seat people? Well, on boxes maybe..:) ), but at least won't be alone. :)
thank you so much for your words of support!!!

>155 charl08: The last boxes are always the worst, aren't they? Until then they're clearly labelled and the contents quickly find their place. But the last ones contain everything - and at a moment when there's no space left. My last box has empty flower pots (for future balcony herbs), wellingtons and a tin with kitchen utensils. And a heavy bag with coins from all the countries I've ever visitied + many Deutschmarks and now I don't know what to do with them. That's what basements/attics are for!

*******
I haven't yet seen a single match of the Euro, but today I'm planning to visit the refugees (they'll get my exercise weights) and watch with them. Should be fun, they're so crazy for football and especially the Spanish and Italian team. I'll bring an Italian flag as well. And no-one there will start drunken arguments! :)

Yay- we got the dream quarter-finals!! :D
I'll watch Saturday's match again with the guys and some other volunteers. I just fear my Italian flag won't survive until then, it was almost ripped to pieces in joy. We were almost all cheering for the Italian team, except for the poor Spanish shift manager Edoardo whose main words were "please wake up", "start running", "what are you doing??".

A VERY HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO THE US-LTers!!! :)

*****
Yay - I got a bed! It was a wise move to invite my friend. When she arrived in the afternoon I was 2/3 done, but then came a real critical and potential breakdown point, when some screws got totally stuck and she encouraged me to ask Giuliano (landlord) if he could give us his electric screwdriver. It didn't save the already broken screws, but at least we finished and the drawers "almost" close - if I throw a blanket over the bed at daytime to make it look like a couch, no-one would notice. We'll have to cut them off eventually, the drawers should be stabile enough without them. The bed is very high, as expected. Still don't sleep well, but better.

On Friday night I assembled a small bathroom wardrobe and 2 shelves and then I spent half of yesterday clearing up and decorating a bit, and it finally, finally looks like a place you can live in! :)))
There's still way too much stuff, but at least I feel at home now and can go through things without all the stress.

Went to watch the soccer on Saturday despite a big headache coming up, but had to leave after 20 minutes and walked back home. Fell asleep during the second half, woke up during extra time, fell asleep again and woke around three, thinking that Italy must have lost, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep at all. Wouldn't have watched the penalties anyway, never got the nerves for that.

I'll be at the refugee house three nights this week: tomorrow to celebrate the end of Ramadhan, on Wednesday for normal service (and the soccer) and on Thursday for a meeting of the volunteers (and the soccer).

Was unable to read and process anything yesterday thanks to the headache despite putting on my glasses I bought last year. I always have a bad reading time in June/July when the heat sets in. Crime and self-help seem to be all I read in the past years until the Booker list was out. This year it feels like nothing at all will get through, and I'll try and accept it. Interestingly my eyes have no problems when I'm working at the office computer, unless I have to stare at an excel for several hours as last week, or when I'm driving. It's when I pick up a book or my ipad that my eyes and/or my brain block and I don't see.

******
It got really hot now, but too often during the weekends the sky is covered in clouds and it's humid. Today is Monday, so of course not a cloud in sight and a nice breeze. Forced myself out of the cool house and into town yesterday to buy one scoop of pistacchio ice cream (way too sweet), just to do something summery most people enjoy, but I walked back immediately as I was sweating and totally uncomfortable. Now that the move is done I must return to a healthier life style. My body never copes well with summer. Others eat less and get thin. I eat less, but collect water like a tank, have to wear flip-flops because no shoes fit all day and have only a limited number of dresses I can wear that don't get super-tight over the day. So today it's green tea and fruit, and I'll try to stay off the added sugar that my body demands non-stop every summer. I also sleep badly, get very tired in the afternoon. My perfect summer would consist of working very early in the morning until 1pm, then a light lunch, then sleep with the shutters closed and then maybe in the evening meet friends when it's cooler. Right now I start earlier around 7am, but work through or with an hour break until 6 or 7pm. So when there are evening activities I feel like a zombie for the rest of the week.

*******
Went shopping in my new neighborhood on Saturday. There's a small CONAD market with a surprisingly nice range of fresh cheeses, (meats), fruits and veggies. It's all "real" Italian there, but I had a good chat with the staff and also some clients, of course mainly about the soccer. Then went to the organic farm that's even closer to my place (where I had been with the refugees in December). They have a shop where they sell their own produce, I got strawberries (delicious!), blueberries and pomodorini and also some flowers.
Made a big fruit salad yesterday, a big pot of pasta with two different sauces (half for tonight) and my favorite chickpea salad, so I'm set for 2 days and the fridge can't take more.
The tap water in Merano is really really good (quite famous actually) and in summer I love to put some in the fridge with mint leaves and some slices of lime, sometimes ginger. Added some strawberries yesterday and in the evening when I was sitting on the balcony I topped it with a bit of white wine. Refreshing and a good alternative to pure wine with that heat.

Hi Nathalie
Wishing you a good week. 12 hours sitting at a computer and n - I don't think I'd want to read either when I got home.

I heard Jessie Burton talking about her follow up to The Miniaturist this am. I quite like the sound of it, half based in Spain. Sounds sufficiently summery to appeal to me (without actually having to deal with the temperatures).

I am glad your new appartment feels like home now :-)
The penalties at the end of Germany-Italy were nervewrecking, so it was better you missed it...

>160 charl08: Hi Charlotte, thank you and the same to you! :)
Hm, I didn't read that one. My brain still feels like it never wants to read fiction again. Some easy mystery maybe. I still hope I just fell from the moving into the usual summer funk.

>161 FAMeulstee: When I watched football with friends in previous years and it came to penalties, I always hid in the bathroom until it was over. My mum is the same. We can't watch - and that although Germany usually wins those. France-Germany has often ended in penalties as well, I hope not this time. Most of all I hope "fans" will behave and not go crazy again in French towns as happened in the past.

*****
My head is incredibly tired, maybe because I get up at least three times every night. Quite glad by now that I didn't get the loft bed. :)

My parents are now "tire-kicking" in the Lake Constance region. After giving up on the North again - this time East Friesland (where they had only been once before their test visit) - they're now at least in a place where my dad lived once. For a couple of months in the late 60s. :)

Tonight's end-of-Ramadhan feast has been cancelled, as it seems for some (not all) people today is the last day. It has been postponed to tomorrow which means no regular dinner service for me, but a party with nice spicy food and a soccer match instead.

I am so glad you are moved in and beginning to settle down. Like you I am very restless in the summer. This year I've gotten into knitting and listening to a mystery series . . . Having trouble getting through the physical books I have started.

So glad to see you using your new idiom! Your parents, I think, are amusing themselves, but they may, unexpectedly find something that works for them!

I hope the party went well! Eid Mubarak!

Hope you had fun at the party. I was watching Federer in the tennis and got quite tense (as it looked like he might lose). I can't be doing with the football!

I hope you enjoyed the end of Ramadhan celebrations, Nathalie. It is always a feeling of release, relief and achievement for me when I crawl over the finish line!

Germany played one of it's best games before losing to Griezeman.

Fed-Ex just came up short against McEnroe mentored Raonic. I hope Murray strikes a blow against the booming servers on Sunday. I know he is not universally popular outside the UK but he stands up to the pressure of being our only half-decent player so admirably and has been the world's second best player for a long time now. Without Djokovic he should have a little too much for Milos.

Have a great Sunday. xx

BTW You haven't updated your reading list for a while?

justa quick update before I have to leave for a paella dinner with my friends/ new landlords Karin and Giuliano. Didn't think work could get busier, but it did, and next week will be similar once more. On Friday my eyes were so bad, I couldn't text on my cell phone any more. But when I put on glasses (the weakest ones available), there's no relief, just dizziness. Guess I need to see an eye doctor, but when?

weeekend was busier than I had hoped, but nice. and i got an audio book - but it's 35 hrs, so it's not likely I'll finish it in July. The Drifters by Michener which I read in German as a teenager. With my eyes being totally overstrained I fear it's going to be audios for a while if any books at all.

Paul there are no updates because I didn't read. :(

Sorry I can't comment on tennis, my interest in that quite died when the era of Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Sampras and Agassi ended.

I'm glad the French won (better for my nerves) and I hope they'll win tonight as well.

Aaaargh... hailstorm starting just when I have to leave the house!

Nathalie, I don't know where I've been, but I'm very happy to read that you are finally settled enough to feel like you're home. I do wish the move and the worst work load ever hadn't coincided. You are a trooper!!!
I do so sympathize about the heat and water retention. As soon as temps rise above about 85°, my feet and ankles blow up like balloons. Compression hose help a very little, but how great is it to wear heavy hose when the temps are 95+??? At least they go down at night - and in the fall, voila! I have AAAA feet again with ankles to match.
(Your old apartment, btw, was wonderful - all that space and the views! I mourn for you a little. I'm glad that the new landlords are welcoming.)
Take care of yourself!

Audios sound like a great idea while your eyes are causing you problems. Hope it's a good one - and that you get a new hire who is super speedy at learning the ropes.

It's Monday morning and my eyes are a bit better. Let's see how long it lasts! :)

House updates:
Started painting one of my bookcases yesterday in "Ilana's pink", i.e. a pinkish dark red. As I have no experience in furniture painting I was surprised that the first two coats had so little effect and I guess like it was with Ilana's bookcase, adding coats to this one will keep me busy several evenings. It's all totally uneven, but I hope once it has enough coats it will look better. Using brushes and a roll. Right now I don't know yet if I'll also tackle the bigger shelf after this one.

Karin my landlady brought me herbs for the balcony from her garden. So my 4 empty pots are now filled with lemon balm, mint, origano and rocket. I still want to get thyme, sage and rosemary. Basil always dies in the heat and can be bought fresh anywhere. I really hope to find some coriander for once when I go to the garden centre.

There's still way too much disorder everywhere and I'm still determined to throw more things out, but as there are just the weekends and I need some rest as well, it will be a slow process.

Good news: I finally got used to my bed and now sleep quite well. Still not long enough, but no more back and neck pain in the mornings.

Old house: my ex-landlady upped the price to 1,500 + 200 (water and heating) a month which is ridiculous when you know that my ex-upstairs neighbor whose appt. has the same layout and also had a fitted kitchen + extra electric sunshades for the terrace pays 1,000 + 200 and has a better view. Okay, hers was unfurnished, but my stuff is 7 years old and doesn't justify that extra money. And it doesn't even have a wardrobe. She might find someone, but not someone who'll stay very long after having talked to neighbors and compared prices. The nextdoor neighbors pay 1,100, so my old place is way above the already high enough level.

Food:
I'm probably the last vegetarian on earth to discover how great chickpea flour works for "egg" dishes... I just love it. Had a farinata that went a bit wrong because I didn't use enough oil and a frittata (omelette) with zucchini flowers this weekend and made a mango-chili-avocado-bellpepper salsa to go with it. Ate lots of fruit (melons, red currants, blackberries) with and without yogurt and was quite good with bread and sugar. Last night's veggie paella was fantastic, they made it in an iron pan on the open fire barbecue grill and it also had zucchini flowers.

Work:
I need all my energies to get through the week. I try enjoying it, but it doesn't work all the time, on Friday it felt like my brain was shutting down.

Parents:
Started talking about the paradisical beauty of their garden (which they use maybe 5 days per year), so for me that means the house sale is off.

Other:
Wanted to write this earlier, but it was still too unsure. Well, I might get a cat in the not so far future. Karin and Giuliano have this lovely but shy big tomcat "Büsi" they rescued 7 or so years ago. As they're planning to go on several long trips with their camper once they finish the works with and the move into their new appartment (in my house), someone will have to look after the cat. Büsi and Giuliano aren't great friends anyway, so getting him used to me slowly after the move in a way that he has two places and a smooth transition seems a good idea.
He's always out all night and then usually sleeps all day, seems like a great beginner cat. We'll see... We made some progress yesterday, he can already be in a room with me which they say is a good sign. :)

My one (ridiculous) issue is that cats really really need meat and that I fear all brands mix in shredded chicks, even if it says "beef", "lamb", "tuna" or whatever. I remember that from dog food where already many years ago I tried to buy chicken-free, but everything seemed to have a chicken base. I know you can't feed cats vegetarian and I wouldn't think of trying (it's possible with some dogs, depends much on the dog - I knew one that refused meat), but I'd really like to avoid shredded chicks after having given up on eggs for that reason. If at least they'd be killed before shredded... :(
On the other hand I don't want to experiment much with his food at all because that cat looks SO healthy now. Well, I'll wait till he moves in, then feed him as he's used to and then try the odd "fish only" food I hope to find in the organic store. If he hates it, there isn't much I can do.

>163 sibylline: Knitting in summer is impossible for me, I'm sweating too much and then the needles get sweaty and the wool doesn't move anymore ... :(
I have been watching a complete series of "Criminal Minds" over the week in the evenings/nights, but now feel that's making me paranoid and I'm seeing crime danger everywhere. :)
Maybe I should get back to the Montalbanos, though on audio they might be difficult.

>164 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel! The party was great and the food was delicious. Okay, mostly meats, but the also had pakoras with a spicy potato filling - my favorites from that caterer.

>165 charl08: Somehow I lost all interest in tennis when the serve and volley players disappeared. The times when it was all covered by public TV are over as well, I guess I'd have to buy a Sky sports bundle to see Wimbledon now.
:(

>166 PaulCranswick: The atmosphere during that game at the refugee home was so crazy that I was really happy when the French won. Some of the guys were on the tables constantly, screaming and singing and dancing.

You must be happy that Murray won yet again (if the papers here are right)! Those times when "a Brit an Englishman would never win Wimbledon" are so over! :D

>168 LizzieD: After the bookshelf painting I spent all afternoon with my feet up yesterday, not that it helped much. I'd die in a compression hose in summer. So it's sack-like dresses and flip-flop shoes and many cool showers and herbal teas.

>169 charl08: the new colleague is here already, but she's quite overwhelmed with everything. So we're learning the processes together and I document, and hopefully in September/ October she'll be able to do the milk invoicing process (that takes about a week every month) on her own.

Okay, so I added the first book in weeks, and I'm even listening to it: The Drifters by James Michener. I felt like re-reading this massive tome my parents once had on their shelves. It's about a group of young people from all over the world in the late 60s who meet in the town of Torremolinos in Spain and continue their road together for a while, travelling to Pamplona and North Africa, trying drugs and dreaming of a better future. Torremolinos is the place where their complicated lives comes to a halt for a while and they let themselves drift, and I remember that by the ending each of them had taken a decision and returned from that bubble into some form of adult RL. It's quite a different reading experience already very early in. I'm much older now, and the world hasn't changed for the better. In the first long chapter Joe, a university student who once voluntarily signed up for the Vietnam war, realizes that he lives in a country where war is glorified to keep things going. He sends in his draft card, leaves university, and leaves the country as well via Canada.

I might very slowly get through the 2016 Bookers, if possible on audio as well. I can't wait to see the list!
What I want to try, with so much stuff going on in my life, is not to let myself be swallowed again too soon by fiction. Looking back through my list there were so many books this year that somehow contained advice for me ("books find you") and were emotionally intense reads, so maybe now it's the time to not take in too much new stuff and instead acting more on what I've learned.

>170 Deern: Orijen (from Canada) makes dog and catfood without chicken.
My dogs eat their 6-fish dog food and love it, so maybe the cat can get used to that, if it is available near you (it is rather expensive...).

>173 FAMeulstee: I'll have to see how much this (very big) cat eats. I'd also order online and pay some more, but he must like it of course. Not that he starts eating more little singing birds instead to compensate for a sudden lack of poultry in his diet. *sigh*
Think I can get him used to tuna lasagna (ew) Garfield like? :)
He's beautiful - black and white with yellow eyes. He comunicates a lot with "his" people, and he can do high fives with Karin!

>172 Deern: So glad the audio is working for you! :-)

>175 charl08: Yes, it does, it's a fantastic book for a reread 45 years after its publication. I'm through the first third and it's at least as relevant as in 1971. Interesting coincidence also that I chose a book that's exactly my age. :)

And it gets better - I just visited the Guardian book page and blind-bought a Kindle book: Hunters & Collectors, it will be my third sci-fi-humor read this year. Am I on the mend?

I bought a pair of simple glasses with a pink frame yesterday in the supermarket, maybe they will get me back to real reading! :)

Is there also a saying in english about seeing the world through pink glasses (i.e. seeing a happier version of reality)?

Anita has a great idea about feeding a cat with Orijen 6 fish cat food. We feed our dog Orijen " Original Dogfood, which does contain chicken - sorry about that, but my cousin feeds her dog the 6 fish Orijen Dog Food and she says her dog loves it. Here is a link - I'm not sure how available it is where you live.

http://www.orijen.ca/foods/cat-food/dry-cat-food/six-fish-cat/?lang=us There is a pull down menu that tells you where you will find the Orijen products on various countries. Hope that helps just a bit.

"Rose tinted glasses" Natalie. Hopefully your other kind of glass is also half full :-) I liked Hunters & Collectors - hope it's a good read for you.

Bought a second book that should be another easy one, Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling.

Btw. I discussed The Drifters with my therapist today who also read it some time in the 70s and said it's among her memorable books. As far as I can say by now (am through the long character introductions, now the part about Torremolinos begins) this is a timeless and important book that should be republished. I could only find the audio and used print versions, no Kindle, no new prints, and on audible it costs a fortune if you don't have credits. The narrator is a bit monotone, but it somehow fits the story that takes ist time without (so far) being boring.

My bookcase now has 5 thin coats of color and I guess I have to face the fact it will never look half even. So now I'm aiming for that type of "distressed" look I saw in an interior design show. Well, once it's full of books and has the big TV on top, not too much of the pinkish read will be visible anyway. Now I'm wondering what I should do with the high shelf.

>177 vancouverdeb: I found an German producer offering pure lamb and veggies cat food which it seems is without allergenes (some cats are allergic against chicken) and which costs less than the Orijen. But I'll try the Orijen as well if I can source it here and already visited their website.
If the cat wants to live with me, that is. Not that he has alternatives, but I guess he'll hate being confined to two small rooms where he had two floors. Though Karin says he doesn't move much during the day as he's out hunting and doing whatever else all night. Maybe we can add those cat doors to both places, so he can switch also when they're travelling. I'll get the keys anyway.

>178 charl08: Thank you, we say rose-red (rosarot) as well, "pink" as a word came up in the 80s I believe. Right now all my glasses are half-full, I hope I can keep it up. :)

Wrote another post yesterday, but it disappeared (or I posted it on a wrong thread). Bought a third book yesterday, Night by Elie Wiesel.
And another one today, Peter Esterházy's Thomas Mann mampft Kebab am Fusse des Holstentors. Haven't read any of his works, the obituaries speak of an extremely poetic and creative way with words, words "that liberate you and give wings".

Haven't read a single line of any of my new books, but am getting used to the supermarket glasses, so there's hope.

Happy weekend, Nathalie. I loved Elie Wiesel's Night.

Happy Weekend from me too, Nathalie. I also loved Night and had my 10th graders read it back when I was teaching that age. It was so hard to find "world literature" (as opposed to American and British) that was suitable for 15 year-olds.

Checking in and waving and wanting rose-tinted specs :)

Though mine that this anti-glare blue coating thingy that freaked me out when I first got them - the sun would catch it and I'd have blue shadows dancing all over my vision. V weird.

I hope you will enjoy Night, Nathalie. Wonderful book if you ask me.

Nice to see a Bekka sighting.

>171 Deern: I hope no Scots see your post Nathalie. Those Scottish Nationalist types are pretty fearsome.

Have a lovely weekend.

>184 PaulCranswick: Ooops... thanks for the correction. I got that from some headline on a German newspaper when he won for the first time. I didn't bother reading the article (as I said, my years of watching Wimbledon are over) that certainly said something like "okay, he isn't really English, but...". :)

>183 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka, lovely to see you! You're right, that sounds very weird! I'm surprised at how quickly my eyes are getting used to those cheap glasses and how it takes even longer now to refocus when I take them off. I'll do more eye-yoga again and eat less sugar to give them all the non-glasses support they can get!

Glad to see that you are settling in and beginning to feel comfortable at home!

>182 LizzieD:, >183 BekkaJo: thank you an happy Sunday to you, Barbara and Peggy! thanks for the Wiesel comments, I'll try and read it asap. I decided to restart my eye-reading with the more easy Bryson which also goes well with the thought-provoking audio The Drifters. I don't want the Wiesel and the Michener to compete with each other.

Bryson is mostly fun, but sometimes, sadly, he feels very old and bitter. Interestngly bitter in the same way as when he was writing about the Germans in his very early Europe travelogue. Unforgiving and harsh. I read and loved so many of his later books, even climbed an airplane to Australia which I never would have done if his book wouldn't have convinced me it's worth 2x24 hrs of flight panic... I thought he was over the self-justified reactionary stuff. He's aware of it most of the time and makes fun of it sometimes, still... when he complains so much about all the good things that have disappeared, maybe there were valid reasons. Or did he do anything to preserve them?

*****

Spent much time on news sites today, or I should better say in the forums that show the same opinion in Germany and the Uk. No comments yet from me here, just saying I read up on the fire of the Reichstag and fear sad times might be coming.

Theme change: put another 2 coats of color on my bookcase and then gave up on it. It's back in its place, filled with books and TV on top and doesn't look too bad.

Shelf painting sounds like it's good. I'm hoping to do lots of painting this week: in the process of tidying up for a party, became very aware that there are lots of places around the house that are in dire need of a touch up. White paint, nothing interesting. But at least at this time of year I can open all the windows without freezing.

>187 Deern: I think Bryson did some to preserve, Nathalie, I still rather like him when he gets all grumpy. But of course I prefer the funny side of him ;-)

>188 charl08: I really like the look now, but I'm undecided what to do with the second higher shelf that's standing next to the smaller bookcase. Same color = danger that it comes out differently. Different color = place might look too juvenile. Guess I'll wait a bit and maybe ask visitors for their advice. Not really in the mood to spend another week in a room with a floor full of books and a half-painted shelf on newspaper pages in the middle. Plus the daily fun of washing out brushes...

>189 FAMeulstee: Yesterday I went through a nice bit where he happily walks into one of the few remaining independent shops in a coastal town and is totally disappointed with the attitude and service which he sees as an explanation for the locals preferring Tescos. I like him grumpy as well, but he really gets over-grumpy too often in that book, in a strange way. He writes about a dialogue that somehow goes wrong and then imagines either insulting the other person badly or even beating them to death with a walking stick and hiding them in the woods, throwing in a bomb, etc.. Meant to be funny, but if you have that every 10 pages, it wears off a bit.

I thought about the shop issue yesterday. Where my parents live, there aren't any shops left, but it isn't really a loss. The baker was closed because of hygienic issues (I vividly remember mould in a pastry and a disgusting tissue (hanky??) in a bread roll), the butcher closed when he was too old to continue and no-one wanted to take over after slaughtering had been centralized, and the mini-market closed when the owners retired, and by then they didn't have many customers left, as you got everything much fresher in the next supermarkets 2/4 kms from the village. Basically, you went there more for the gossip than for your groceries.
It's really often a question of quality. There's a fantastic old-fashioned baker left in a neighbor village and two great butchers in another one. They all concentrated on the traditional fare and are doing very good business with a limited selection of foods. But often the small shops were of questionable hygiene standards and you had to search to find a yogurt with a best before date in the future. Fresh cheeses came with supermarkets, and finally in summer you could get edible peaches and apricots.Local people were hired, so the gossipping just wandered from mini- to supermarket, you can get a cup of coffee and some also offer home delivery. Okay, we don't have any of the "giants" there, you find those only near the big cities and Walmart tried and failed miserably, so it's still a different situation.

****
Edit: I read a bit in the Guardian, La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, but didn't find any mention of the 8 Turkish officers requesting political protection in Greece - an extremely critical case given the greek-Turkish relationship. The news has also disappeared from the main Spiegel online Headlines and another big German newspaper also didn't report on it (or better: I didn't see it). they weren't mentioned on Italian TV news either, though that means nothing. Anyone read or heard about it?

>190 Deern: I only have read that the Greek government promished to return the helicopter they used. But indeed nothing about the officers.

Deern,

I hope all is well with you.

Earlier you had reviewed my novel, The Book of Ralph, and I'm hoping you could repost your review to Amazon (here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Ralph-Christopher-Steinsvold/dp/1942546343)

As a debut novelist with no reputation, I need all the favorable reviews I can get.

Thank you for your time.

Best,

Chris Steinsvold

>191 FAMeulstee: Found an update today, but again on spiegel.online only. They're already being heard and will very likely be sent back. Don't really know what to think.

>192 stz1: Hi, I just replied to your earlier PN. Thank you very much for visiting!! :)

*****

So my colleague left on Friday, and in the 1.5 work days since I'm totally busy with things that would have been his. He really did a great handover, but it is like all the small things you do every couple of years and therefore forget waited until he had closed the door behind him. 12 hrs yesterday, today already 9.
I need a vacation! So far the "stress surrendering" still works okay though, maybe I'm really making progress?

After a strong weekend reading has slowed down again. Half through the Bryson, 3/4 through my 5th or so listen of the Hawkins surrender-manual and also 3/4 through The Drifters. Am now in that fascinating chapter where the group is in Africa and Cato is drawn to the Islam that prepares for rising again and the big holy war (again: written in 1971). I can only repeat that despite slow bits and some painfully old-fashioned opinions of the two older men in the group and some painfully naive ones of the younger members, this is one of the books that totally passed the test of time. Probably a much better reread now that 10 years ago.

TV: after almost 2 series (Sky jumped from 5 into 11) I'm getting weary of "Criminal Minds". Maybe my yearly level of crime TV or fiction has been reached. Watching a daily registration of "The Great Interior Design Challenge" and what I enjoy most is the part about English (or British?) architecture. And they don't shy away from extremes like brutalism or beach huts. A new favorite!

Although the result isn't great, an impression of the bookcase:



My new (day)bed, I sleep with my head almost in the science and poetry sections:


Relaxed Sunday evening on the entrance balcony, this is the North-West side with the nice view:

Yay! I've been eagerly awaiting those pictures. So happy you have a lovely view from your new place. I would love sleeping with my head next to those books! You must have pleasant dreams while nestled in the poetry section.

>195 Donna828: Hi Donna, in fact I sleep much better now than all of last year in the old place. I can switch off the TV, that means a lot. From the bed I can look out of the window into the night sky which is especially nice on clear nights.

Nathalie, I think that the shelves have turned out very well. I am also very happy that you have a balcony with a view at the new place. All in all, very nice! Very NICE!

>197 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, thank you! Now, what would you suggest for the higher shelf next to it? A sunny yellow, a dark green or the same pink, or do I leave it white for now? :))
While I like the idea of the yellow, it might turn out a bit "too hippy/yoga". The green might get even blotchier than the pink and the pink might turn out differently. Maybe I'll just paint the outside yellow and leave the boards and inside white. Or vice versa?
(no hurry with that decision, I'll first get to my wooden table in the other room and see where I get with painting it in a happy light blue.)

This isn't really my balcony (that's a shaky little thing on the other side of the house facing Sout-East), it's an extension of the outside stairwell, so a place everyone who gets in or out the housing part of the house has to pass. On the ground level there's a company with an extra entrance and some storerooms. That extension has a wooden bench and I claimed it mine for now as the other appartment has a large terrace facing 3 directions, so the couple living there have a better alternative. And the upstairs appt. is still being renovated. It's a nice place, not really adapted to sunbathing in a bikini, but fine for a relaxed evening with a glass of wine and an Audio book.

I finished a book, I finished a book!! :) And a big one that could count as three.
And as I haven't written a review in MONTHS, this is an annoyingly extra long one. I divided it into normal review and a character and storyline list in the next post. Why? Because both my therapist and I found we remembered those characters extremely well from our 1st reads in the 80s. And you know my memory when it comes to characters and storylines. I thought some of you might have read it as well 30 or so years ago and might be interested in revisiting it. Btw. why isn't this one a 1,001?

38. The Drifters by James Michener

It must have been the early 80s and it was one of my first experiences with adult books. I had nothing new to read and found a thick book with the promising (translated) title “The Children from Torremolinos”. It seemed to be about children, so I started reading it and was soon sucked into a very strange world of teenagers and young adults from different countries meeting for various reasons in the Spanish town of Torremolinos in 1969. Each of the six young characters had been lead there by a chain of coincidences, and the greatest coincidence was not only that they all met in the same bar and became friends, but also that 4 of them had a history with the narrator, a “Mr Fairbanks”, a clearly much older businessman with what seemed endless time on his hands. Time that conservative and wealthy man obviously liked to spend with a group of much younger “unwashed hippies” whose ideas and music he couldn’t understand and whose use of drugs he detested, but whose company he craved nevertheless.

Can I admit that in the very conservative 80s with their yuppie values Mr Fairbanks voice sounded like the voice of reason for me?

I didn’t then fully read the book. I got bored when the group started travelling to the Algarve, Pamplona, Mozambique and finally Marocco, I was skipping not pages, but chapters.
I have no idea why, maybe because now aged 45 I’m finally at a similar point in my life where those characters were at 20, I felt a real urge to reread this book. Unfortunately my copy had disappeared, it was never published on Kindle and seemed out of print, but then I found it on audible, as if it had been waiting for me during a period when my eyes and brain couldn’t process eye-reading well.
The narration has been much criticized as soulless and robotic, but imo it fits this book quite well. This isn’t a classical novel with a storyline, it’s much more like a study and reads like non-fiction. It felt totally out of time in the yuppie-80s of the late Cold War and (sadly) very, very actual now in 2016.

I could relate much better to the conflicted young people now than when I was close to their age, but when all I wanted was my high school exam, a job in a bank and as much money as possible.

I found Mr Fairbanks exactly as creepy with his following the group wherever they went, and Harvey Holt as unbearably reactionary as I did then. But this time when I listened to every sentence of those long 36 hours, I felt what a wise and well-researched book it is. Well written? Not so much I'd say. It isn't meant to be.

Should you own it, I can really recommend it for a reread now. Of course all the popular culture mentioned is at best remembered nostalgically now, but the events and conflicts are timeless and relevant as they were in 1971 when the book was published. Shockingly so.

Rating: 4.2 stars

Characters and storylines - MANY SPOILERS

The characters don’t get equally much space in the book, but all of them are equally relevant.

I’ll start with Cato. The young African-American from Philadelphia, the son of a preacher, joins an armed black rights group. His girlfriend is killed, not by white people, but by a black girl gang she refused to join because she wanted an education and a future instead. Cato’s group storms a church, carrying rifles - not to hurt anyone, just to be able to hold a speech. Of course Cato has to flee the state after that and via Canada arrives in Torremolinos, where he falls in love with Monica, the 17year old daughter of a British “Sir” who until recently held a high position in a (fictional) African state, but was forced into exile by the new government that insisted that all positions had to be filled with “negroes”, qualified or not. Monica is a character torn apart between total liberation and class-system superiority. She carries a deep hidden disdain for the Africans who humiliated her father, and her love affair with Cato is as much an expression of self-hatred as her eagerness to try all drugs she can lay hands on. Monica is a fascinating character – the youngest at only 17, innocently sweet at times, then again seductive and extremely cruel with herself and others. Clearly neglected emotionally while spoiled blind financially, too early too old for her years, extremely well educated, destructive.

Later in the book when the group travels to Mozambique, Cato is shaken by his realization of what slave trade really meant and blames it on the Christian belief his father follows and which he now claims subdues the black peole. He quickly gets seduced by another religion that promises the solution – Islam – and ignores all information about the role that religion played in the history of slavery that started much earlier and ended much later than the slave trade with the American colonies.

Interestingly, while not falling at all for the spiritual part, he at once recognizes its potential as a means to collect frustrated and enraged young men, ready for violent revenge. He throws himself into that victim-and-revenge idea. By the end of the book he is quite radicalized and anti-semitic to the point where he physically attacks his Jewish-American friend Jigal and sees his sufferings as superior and deeper compared to those of his white friends.

I should add that - written in 1970 and unchanged - this book might be hard to read for some people. A black man in Torremolinos was a sensation then and Cato experiences much "nice racism", people invite him, want to be seen with him, basically decorate themselves with him. Also in the later chapters white people meeting him keep mentioning "what a fine young man" he is, as if that was a surprise. There's also much expression of personal disappointment and sorrow among British colonialists, watching "their blacks" making "unnecessary mistakes". These are parts where Michener reports without adding value to either side. In the main story it's Cato himself who draws the line later on and answers all the friendly racism with his own way of taking a distance to white people.

Jigal is an Israeli with 3 passports (US, UK and Israel), extremely smart and a war hero. He travels to Torremolinos to escape from the pressure of having to decide which nationality to chose on his 21st birthday. I would have wished to see a bit more of him, but was very satisfied with the decision he takes in the last chapter.

There’s Britta – a sweet young girl from the North of Norway, escaping the “tunnel” (the long and dark winter months) and the boredom of her life. She’s scared to end up like her father, a WWII hero who gave up on his dreams and has fallen into depression. She’s a warm-hearted but quite simple and surprisingly traditional character. She wants to enjoy her life before getting married and having a family. She turns into a bit of a side character, but she’s the embodiment of the countless girls among the real drifters, the ones that keep a group together and stay loyal and optimistic through all hardships. You’d want a Britta as a friend!

The last of the girls is Gretchen – a smart and sensitive girl from Boston who helps “draft dodgers” getting over the Canadian border. At some point she undergoes an abusive police “questioning” from which she doesn’t recover and that destroys her trust into the establishment. When she loses the moral backup of her family, she leaves the US as soon as she’s 21 and is in funds. She travels to France to study where she buys a yellow pop-top bus and takes a trip to Torremolinos.

The book starts with Joe, a young student who voluntarily signed up for the Vietnam war before going to college. Slowly he recognizes this isn’t WWII but an unjustified war he cannot morally defend. He’s disgusted by the various methods his fellow students are using to get around being drafted and by the obvious disadvantages for young African-Americans. He grows his hair and beard and sends in his draft card and escapes to Canada. Another student tells him about Torremolinos, and when he passes through Gretchen’s town, he mentions the place to her. Joe is the real drifter among the six, the one who by the end of the book is still without a clear objective and just moves to the next place.

tbc

Mr George Fairbanks… I’d say in his early 60s or late 50s, working in corporate finance, very rich, divorced, with a bit of a wild past (he puffed opium once - but didn't inhale). WWII veteran and proud of it, but willing to understand Joe’s motives. From his worldwide business he knows Jigal’s family, Monica’s and Cato’s fathers, Gretchen’s parents and (except for Cato) the 4 kids from a young age. He’s a like an uncle for them, but still I found it all a bit weird. That’s where the book is clearly a study – Michener reportedly spent much time at Torremolinos talking to the young people and Fairbanks partly is his alter ego, created for the (older) readers as an identification character, an anchor in the crazy world. Michener gives paper-thin reasons/excuses for his continuous presence with the gang, but maybe he’d better just made him a younger pensioner. So your company sends you for 2 months or even longer to Torremolinos for a “deal with the Greeks” where you work one hour a day and spend the rest of the time in a run-down Texan bar while staying in the best hotel on company expenses? And shortly afterwards they let you take a longer holiday in Pamplona? To then let you travel again on business expense to Mozambique and Marocco where all your life experience doesn’t make you notice for weeks that your “daughter” Monica who’s turned to heroin is terribly ill?.

I would have found him more believable had he taken sides more often. He took a stand about music and against drugs, but that was all. Why never conciliate between the often aggressive Holt and the young people? Why just sit and passively watch as conflicts arose and were often never resolved, just interrupted? Introducing him as I said as a reader's anchor was a good idea, but it wasn’t convincingly done. At times I thought he needed all his energy to travel in style after his friends, just to sit and watch again for weeks once he reached them.
It was that constantly creepy feeling re. Fairbanks - and as the narrator he's always there - that kept the book below the 4.5 rating.

As much as I disliked Harvey Holt, he at least was alive. He's a bit younger than Fairbanks and a tech-rep for airport systems. Away from his home country for many years but its greatest defender. Ex-marine carrying so much pride and honor, it’s a miracle he can walk under its weight. He loathes draft dodgers, unkempt hippies, Israelis who don’t want to become American given the chance, generally all young people who leave the States, black guys sleeping with white girls. He has a hard time with the group and is accepted only as an old friend of Fairbanks initially. He’s also a terrible macho and the only accepted American among the veteran bull runners in Pamplona. He tries to understand the young people better, I’ll admit that, but neither in the 80s nor now would I have voluntarily spent an hour in the same room. He reminded me a bit of Trump I'm sorry to say...

I didn't feel enchanted by Torremolinos - party towns have long stopped being a new concept. I don't think it's described realistically, it's more like a haven for those with confused ideas, where they can take a break and maybe come to a conclusion. Algarve and Mozambique however sounded quite lovely. Pamplona didn't, didn't either when I read Hemingway and doesn't (for me) nowadays. I just don't get the macho-bull thing.

Marocco / Marrakesh then is the hellish place where everyone has to take some kind of decision. I wondered if that part ever sounded seductive when the book was freshly out. It's the place where the group joins the international trail of the other nameless drifters again they left months earlier in Torremolinos. But this isn't a happy world anymore, except for a Swedish couple (but they're social workers). Here the partying crowds have turned into a mass of drug-zombies, living in the dirt, selling their bodies and souls to corrupt drug dealers and pimps. But yet, Fairbanks muses, some of them might end up as the spiritual leaders of the coming years - given they get up from those dirty matresses at some point and turn their experiences into something good.

Btw. when I was at my hairdresser's last Saturday the young guy who's been dyeing and cutting my hair for the last 4 years asked me if I wouldn't like to spontaneously join him, his girlfriend and two other friends (all 15 or more years younger than me) on their camper trip to Spain for 2 weeks. I was tempted, seriously, and that was the fault of this *** book!
Then I remembered the workload, another 2 day workshop this week, and I realized I'd be old Mrs Fairbanks to those 4. :)
But still, I felt quite elated.

Nice review of The Drifters, Nathalie! I only read the first part of it, since I may want to read it in the future. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read anything by Michener, as he was born in the same county where my parents have lived for 40 years, about 15 miles away. Based on Erik's glowing recommendation I'll probably read Iberia first, but I'll add The Drifters to my wish list.

I hope that you'll get to visit Spain soon!

Good for you, Nathalie! Ah, Michener and Spain! (And congratulations on breaking your reading block!) I also read Michener, but not *Drifters*, in the 70s and 80s. They gallop right along, and I loved Centennial and The Source, but the one that meant the most to me was his non-fiction, Iberia. Now, if you had read that, no doubt you would have jumped right into those two weeks in Spain.
You have me free-associating - Kate O'Brien and that Maggie Smith movie, Love, and Pain, and the Whole Damn Thing. I Loved that one!
Oh! The tall bookshelf............ The palest of pale yellows, creamy or lemony either one? The deepest of deep forest greens? I'd love either......... or maybe what I mean is, I love both anywhere I see them.

I read Centennial and really enjoyed it too. I think I have his book Texas on the shelves somewhere too.

Have a lovely weekend, Nathalie.

I read a lot of Michener back in the 1970s, I think it was. I remember enjoying several of them. Centennial was one I definitely recall being good.

Wow, so much Michener love and recommendations, thank you Darryl. Peggy, Paul and Lori.! Feel very tempted to read Iberia, but first I'll wait what the Booker list will look like.

Made a bit of progress on the Bryson (86%, I can see the finishing line). It's nicer again now that he's more in the North and wants to beat fewer people to death whose behaviour he finds either stupid or offensive or both. Though I was disappointed he didn't take a day ticket in Skegness to that forgot-the-name-already holiday camp. I learned about them in the Adrian Mole books, and after Bryson writes a good deal about their history I couldn't wait to read his own experiences. And then he turns away because a day ticket costs 20 GBP? I well understand if a normal curious tourist turns away at that price, but a far from poor author who makes a good living on travelogues and who just spent several pages on the place's history? Including the wish how much he always(!) wanted to see it?? Couldn't he have written "normally I wouldn't have spent so much, but for the purpose of research..."? And if the result had just been a "don't bother, not worth the price", but it would have been information! That was real let-down!

Then again he made me laugh out loudly on my balcony several times when he gave examples of human stupidity and even made a list of "how to detect your own level of stupidity?" where I found myself in more than one of the examples.

>203 kidzdoc: Tbh Spain never attracted me very much... similar to your non-relationship with Italy I guess. Maybe because so many people traveled there in the 70s and 80s already and I always got those postcards showing boring beaches and more boring 70s brutalist hotel towers. I spent one week in Ampuria Brava in the early 90s where relatives then had a house and a boat. I mostly remember to be constantly dizzy thanks to the shaky boat. It was an extremely crowded place, way too hot for my liking, too loud, too many tourists. Guess Torremolinos would never have been the place for me either.

I admit that your travels - and Lynda's and wasn't Kerry there as well - make the place more interesting for me and I'm getting curious. I still plan to see more of Italy first though, the real South. Puglia, Sicily, maybe Calabria as well.

>204 LizzieD: I was really, really tempted. :)
I found a turquoise blue for the table and tested it on the inside of a drawer, but it might be too dark. I got a ligthter Scandinavian blue as well which might go for the table or the shelf... TG I'm not in a hurry.

>205 PaulCranswick: A lovely week to you, Paul! :)

>206 thornton37814: Hi Lori, okay - 3 votes for Centennial, 2 for Iberia, I cought BBs for both! Michener wrote SO MUCH, I'm very grateful for recommendations!

Spent most of the weekend inside, guess I really needed a rest. On Saturday we had lots of rain, so I did some house cleaning, some more de-cluttering (there are lots of boxes left I want to get rid of), cleaned the windows and tested sanding and painting the old wooden table. Sanding and filling in the cracks will be quite easy, but I remain undecided about the color. The happy turquoise I bought might be too dark, so I'm leaning towards a less happy but more fitting Scandinavian light blue. I might leave the top in its natural pinewood though, just sand, polish and wax it.

I went to the organic farmer's shop in my street and bought all this for just 11 EUR (many carrots and 5 or 6 potatoes, not just the one):



Everything but the carrots was delicious. I had almost forgotten how different and tasty a salad is when fresh from a garden. We have sandy ground which Karin told me is great for salad and potatoes, less so for carrots. She brought me a bag of small peaches from her garden which I yesterday turned into a ginger-peach tarte tatin. With mixed success. I already halved the sugar quantity, but it was still so sweet I had to take off most of the sirup on the top again. Karin joined me on my balcony for a glass of wine yesterday, tried the cake and liked it. It was okay, but not good enough for me to post a recipe. The ginger didn't come out at all.

Karin also brought me old newspaper clippings with the story of my might-be future cat Büsi. He was only 5 months old when the pics were taken 8 years ago, but you get a good idea of his looks (sorry, upside down again...), just imagine him being HUGE now:



What the newspaper does and doesn't say: Büsi had hidden in the underfloor of a tourist car, probably to get away from the farm where he wasn't treated well. Understandably he went crazy when the car got moving and meowed so loudly that the driver could hear him on the motorway despite the motor noise. He exited at Merano and went to the fire fighters who had no idea how to free the cat. They then went to Giuliano (mechanic) who had the grandiose idea to pump him out with the help of compressed air. It half worked - the kitten flew out of the hole, but unfortunately not into the hands of any ot the waiting firemen, but straight into a bush where it stayed for the next three days until Karin returned from a trip to Switzerland. She succeeded to lure him out with milk and food and coddled him up for a couple of weeks. They didn't want to keep him, but no-one reacted to the newspaper ads, so he's still with them, and he still doesn't really like Giuliano.

The veg looks lovely and your peach dish also sounds good. I'm impressed at the reduction in sugar.

The cat rescue story - that definitely counts as one if the nine lives, surely? Cats on my road love to sit under cars, it worries me but they clearly know when to move our the way, as they continue to do it (along with marching through our garden).

I just got a book out from the library about living in different languages, a memoir by a writer who started in Russian, then Czech, German, Hebrew then English. I do like these kind of reflections on languages (despite limited actual language learning here).

Hi Nathalie! Your apartment is looking good! I imagine sleeping with a head board of science and poetry! Oh, if only knowledge and beauty could be obtained through osmosis!
Chalk me up as another Michener fan! I've read and loved, Centennial, Caribbean: A novel and Alaska. I'm also reading, at a slower pace, Iberia . All are excellent!
However, an author came along named Edward Rutherford and his Michener-like tomes Sarum and Russka pulled me away from Michener.

Catching up with everyone, very slowly! Your photographs of your new home look great. Especially like the view from the balcony and the deep pink of the bookcase.

How wonderful to be invited spontaneously on a trip like that!

39. Letting Go by David R. Hawkins

Just like the Singer book, this is one where I find some new ideas on every re-listen. Unlike the Singer, here I leave out chapters where I highly doubt the "scientific" base or the chapter that glorifies the author. I've been listening to this book at least 4 times now, to some chapters like those on fear and grief many more times, so I think I should count it a second time now. Also to conclude this month with 3 books again. :)



40.The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

I already wrote about the bits I didn’t like (exaggerated grumpiness that leaves the area of funny and preparing us for the Skegness resorts and then not going). Apart from that this is a solid Bryson, not his best, but far from his worst. It’s many years since I read Notes from a Small Island, and if I remember well, I liked it in parts only. I had more fun with this one.

But….. As I already mentioned numerous times his In a Sun-Burned Country made me travel to Australia, a place where I’d sworn I’d never go because of the spiders and the long flight, not once but twice and I still have a list of things to do there that’s mainly based on that book. And on my first visit I left out the typical places like Sydney in favor of less well-known places in Western Australia, I just say stromatolites! His A Walk in the Woods made me at least consider for a moment to take a long hike, though not on the Appalachian trail, and A Short History of Nearly Everything started a long period of science book reading in 2008.

Now this book still won’t put me into a plane to the UK.

I’d like to see some of it of course, but none of his Small Island books ever pushed me forward to book that ticket. Maybe the slightly elitist “the best country of the world” plays a role here. I feel that, if I travelled the UK with this Bryson book as a guide as I did in Australia, my view would be not a loving but a very critical one. Critical, not hateful as his view on Germany was many years ago, probably before it became one of his strongest markets (despite the at least initially very weak translations).

Anyway… of course he sees the changes that have taken place in those past 20 years and mourns the loss of many good things. He is very attached to the country and his feelings are typical for someone who chose his country of residence (as I did) and feels the pain of watching it losing some of the elements he fell in love with. But has the world around him really changed that much or has he gained a clearer view on things, or both? I understand him and feel with him, often torn between my love for Italy and the total lack of understanding why certain things are the way they are. Maybe, from expat to expat, it’s the “but my chosen country is nicer than yours” that’s reacting in me.
Anyway – a nice, easy, informative and entertaining read! More laughs than in most of his other books.
And I'll travel to the UK eventually, but I'll use a different guide book, or none at all.

Recommended, 4 stars!

>209 charl08: I'm not scared of changing baking recipes. It can lead to ugly cakes, but often when I see the amounts of sugar and fat in a recipe I have to change it or not bake it.
Yes, Karin says the same - at least 3 of those 9 lives must have been used that day. She says it happened because there was no woman present. Men looking at a car and coming to a practical conclusion, not even trying a tin of tuna or a bowl of milk first.

I just got the sample of an Eco book about translation. Will I read it? 400p in difficult Italian, so probably not. But it's so interesting!

>210 Carmenere: I once hoped that would happen. Like those super-learning techniques or the advice to put a textbook under your pillow before a test... :)
Aaargh - more BBS! :)) Trying to ignore Rutherford for now until my head is really able to process books again as before.

>211 sibylline: Yes, I wish I could have just said "yes", packed a bag of dresses and bikinis and jumped into that camper! :)

******
Had my mammogram yesterday and they scared the hell out of me! After the classical mammogram you have to wait because they might also make a sonogram (in my case: always). But then they called me back into the first room to take another picture of one side. Then they did a long sonogram and then said they needed another mamogram. In the end they concluded it must be a harmless cyst which I guess is the one they had already detected last year on the day of surgery via sonogram but had decided to leave in not to make another cut/scar. They'll now check my records and I have to come back on Monday when they'll either give me an all-clear or let me have another MRI just to be on the safe side. I quite hated the MRI last year, but thanks to it they found the lump on the left side which before had been undetected, so I'd rather do another one than remain scared.

Getting to the hospital was a bit of an adventure as well. It's in walking distance from my new home - luckily - because when I looked out of the window around 9am I saw that the buidling company that's implementing teleheating in my street had removed the metal boards we have been using for the cars in the past 2 weeks and there was just that gaping hole. Why they hadn't informed the residents or the house owners? No-one knows. They were quite surprised that there was someone who wanted out, and not just me, my two neighbors needed the car to get to their dentist. After a while they lead me through the dirt in my flip-flops and I fear the other two had to call a cab in the end. I called the office to inform them I'd stay away all day, not just the morning, and after the hospital first went into town (incredible crowds of tourists) and then to Karin and Giuliano until by 4pm that hole was filled up again. I spent some time exchanging glances with Büsi who seems to get used to my voice and my presence. If he knew... :)

Glad to hear you are getting regularly scanned. As you say the vigilance is important. Your roadwork story is crazy. Hope that things are back to normal soon.

Did you see the Booker list is out today? Some speculation here too https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jul/26/man-booker-prize-2016-wh...

>214 charl08: Can't wait (this is a good sign I guess?) and keep checking the Guardian. Haven't read any of those possible candidates, so whatever they chose, it will be 12/13 tbrs for me. I didn't like so many books mentioned that will be released in September or "autumn". I wish they selected from a list of books available to the readers (at least in the UK) the day the LL is out.
Anyway, this year I'm planning to get through them all, but slowly. I'd just like to chose for myself which ones to read first and not be limited by publishing dates.

Today's my name day (one of the 3, the others are December 1st and December 25th) and it's the first time I remember one of them. None of the 3 St. Nathalies/ Natalias was important enough to be the Saint of the Day that is mentioned in the short news show I watch every morning, so it's easy to miss the dates. I didn't even know I had a name day for most of my life, where I grew up they have no meaning at all (because we don't have saints), but in Italy they're often more important than the birthdays.
Anyway, I thought I might use the occasion as an excuse to treat myself to a new book and I chose the one that gave me my 1st BB on Peggy's thread during the big reading funk of June, Richard Powers' Generosity: An Enhancement. The sample read easy, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it.
I still can't do very complex structures, can't read Italian with joy (at least English seems to crawl back) and doubt I'll touch a classic in the next couple of months. But it's getting better. Maybe I can get to 50 this year. Or 75?

Okay, Booker LL is out and I got samples of everything except the Reeves which I didn't find on amazon.it for Kindle and the Coetzee that isn't out yet. Here we go:

- The Sellout by Paul Beatty (US)
- the Schooldays of Jesus by JM Coetzee (SA/Australia) ==> out in September
- Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy (UK)
- Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (UK)
- His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) ==> bought on Kindle for just 2,90 EUR
- The North Water by Ian McGuire (UK)
- Hystopia by David Means (US) ==> bought on Kindle for just 4,40 EUR
- The Many by Wyl Menmuir (UK) ==> bought on Kindle for 5,09 EUR
- Eileen by Ottessah Moshfegh (US)
- Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves (US) ==> not found
- My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (US)
- All That Man is by David Szalay (Canada/UK)
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (Canada)

The 3 I bought were so unusually cheap that I better bought them now. They also seem to be among the easier to read ones. Haven't looked at page numbers or much else yet, but it seems a mixed yet not too hard to read list. Okay, the Coetzee will be a hurdle for me. After just a glance, there are some that seem entertaining enough that I'm actually looking forward to reading them. All are published except for the Coetzee and non is above 15 EUR - so far I'm quite content. In any other year I'd be disappointed by the lack of Asian or African writers, but I expected this to be an US year anyway.

I liked Work Like Any Other - hope you are able to find it. Reminded me of Patrick Gale.

I found it now by selecting the paper copy on amazon, then clicking on the empty Kindle option. The Kindle version then shows a price of 12,23 EUR but can't be bought, nor can I order a sample. The paper copy is available, but still costs too much. Well, it will turn up at some point. I also found it on audible.

Started His Bloody Project. I like mysteries/ thrillers in the summer months.

>219 Deern: >217 Deern: I picked up His Bloody Project and The Many on Kindle too since they were reasonably priced and not yet available in the U.S. otherwise. I'll be ordering some of the others for our library when they come out. I won't make it through the entire list soon (and probably never) anyway. Coetzee isn't out in the U.S. until February 21. However, since it is a sequel, I probably should read the earlier book first. It sounds like an extremely unusual plot, and I'm not sure if I'll like it or not.

Well, poo. I enjoyed the Guardian article and looked up several interesting prospects from it, and the ones I liked didn't make the cut. Thanks for printing the list, Nathalie. I've favorited it and will be checking back.
I do hope you enjoy Generosity!
ETA: His Bloody Project is cheap for Kindle here too, but I don't feel it calling me.

>220 thornton37814: Hi Lori, I also read in some forum that the Coetzee is a sequel and am considering reading the first book now. However Coetzee's books are always real challenges for me, they totally exhaust my mind (some authors do that), so maybe I'll save that one for last. It will be out in Europe by the end of September, so there's plenty of time left.

>221 LizzieD: Actually I might need your help with Generosity. The samples always have the first 5-6% which were a joy to read. And then when I had bought the book, at once around 7% a section started that made me feel helpless because I have no idea what I'm reading. Am I too stupid or should I just pursue and will understand it eventually?

I'm almost through the first half of HBP which reads like total standard mystery, but if the reviews are right it's going to get really crazy in a good way once I'm through that long first chapter.

41. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Booker 2016 LL 1/13)

Hm… Okay, I’m ready to consider that my reading faculties are still somewhat disturbed. I saw a great review for this book (linked in a guardian forum), but it didn’t move me at all. I don’t want to know if this is all fictional or if there has been some real case. I don’t have the wish to google it, and that shows I wasn’t attached to the story at all.
The plot: in 1869 17 year old Rodney Macrae from a tiny Scottish village close to the Western coast takes some tools of which I already forgot the name, walks over to his neighbor’s house where he kills the neighbor and “others” (the identity of the other victims is given later in the book). It looks like a cold-blooded revenge act as the neighbor who also had the function to watch over the tenants, had been bullying and suppressing the boy’s family to the point of financial destruction.

The book starts with a (fictional?) preface of the author who claims to be a remote descendant of the Macrae family. Then comes a short chapter of voices of neighbors and the local priest. In a very long chapter then Rodney (who is described as extremely smart) gives us his own version in writing, beginning with his mother’s death to the final act of the killings. He’s writing this story on request of his lawyer Mr Sinclair who wants to achieve a verdict of insanity. The next part is a bit of a book of the famous psychologist who examined Rodney, and then follows the trial.

While I really enjoyed Rodney’s story, mostly for his descriptions of the dreary dull life in such a remote and poor community he had no chance to escape, I never really cared about the verdict. Rodney is obviously a highly unreliable narrator and people’s impressions of him range from “stupid” to “very smart”, from “harmless” to “wicked and violent”, from “totally normal” to “out of his mind”. This could and should have been gripping, but for me it wasn’t. It wasn’t bad either, I’m just not sure if it’s Booker material, especially in a year where it seems everyone expected different books on the list.

It was quite an easy read and a pleasant entry into this year’s LL, and one that will certainly not let me lose sleep.

Rating: 3.5 stars

>223 Deern: I started this and was similarly confused as to just how fictional everything was - I feel like this mock genuine approach has been done enough and isn't particularly interesting. I've put it down but might pick it up again.

Hystopia was at the library so I've picked that up too.

That's the thing - nothing in this book felt fresh, exciting or "different". I bought Hystopia as well yesterday and it sounds interesting. Now reading the sample of The Sellout.

I took tomorrow off - the next 2 weeks will be very bad again. Planning to buy as many melons now as I can carry, then go home and sweat and read (and eat melon).

>223 Deern: Sounds like you think that one doesn't belong on the short list.

Ah, Nathalie, I see, I think. What you're reading is the visual description of a TV show created by a character you haven't met yet. It will all come together pretty much. Also, a thing I criticized, Powers is trying to get a bit meta as he talks about watching his characters come to life. I didn't think that this worked. BUT.... Read into 8%, and I think you'll be happy again. Powers is never super-easy, but I always find that he's worth patience.
And thank you for your review of *HBP*; I'll be saving my $.

I am also looking to buy up the longlist Nathalie although it is more difficult from here. I want to participate this year in the annual drive to read all of 'em before the winner is announced.

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy Sunday, Nathalie. I love the photos.

>208 Deern: What a fascinating rescue story. I'm glad Büsi survived!

Ha! I finished TWO books yesterday and started another one.

Very much enjoyed both Generosity (thank you Peggy both for the BB and the support, it was needed) and Tales of a Female Nomad (audio). Both are 4 stars, I'll write the reviews tomorrow on a different device, still don't like typing on the ipad.

Started Hystopia from the LL and by 20% (it's short) I downloaded Winnie-the-Pooh from the archives. I can't cope with pointless violence this year I fear. It's not bad, at least the idea behind it, but so far it's a very bloody road trip movie in text and a very unconvincing love story in the second story thread. I'm glad it's short.

We had a very bad storm last night. I'm used to almost daily thunderstorms in the evenings in summer, but yesterday's one started without thunder/ lightning, it was "just storm" for a good hour, totally scary for me. I couldn't even open the kitchen window. At some point electricity was gone, that almost never happens here with the lines all down in the earth, so no trees can fall on them. I was alone in the house, so I was far from happy when I walked outside to check the fuses. I'm usually one who takes a seat by the window to watch the lightnings, so you can imagine it was really more than the usual thing last night. It will be cool, cloudy, rainy all day, so I can forget about the Naturbad I was considering going to today. I don't much like the usual pools, that one is more like an artificial swimming lake without chemicals. Maybe next weekend...

>226 thornton37814: Oh dear... I hope the others aren't so bad that this one will be among my top 6. Or 5?
It's possible though. They might think a mystery among the other books might be original. After the dentist novel in 2014 everything is possible...

>227 LizzieD: Thank you, this was SO helpful! Not fully convinced by the meta experiment, but the writing was exquisite and Tassa was inspiring.

>228 PaulCranswick: This year I'm lucky, I can get all books except for the Coetzee on Kindle or audio and they are cheaper than in previous years. I hope there will be some better books though than the two I read/ am reading.
Have a lovely Sunday and week!

>229 Ameise1: Thank you and erholsamen Urlaub! I'll visit your thread now and check for pucs, though my internet is a bit weak today and didn't show me any of Darryl's food pics.

>230 The_Hibernator: Whoever they tell the story reacts like "they used WHAT to het him out?!?!" followed by swear words. Guess that was when he decided to become big and strong. :)

Oh no re Hystopia. You're not making me want to pick that one up! I sympathise re the violence. I have been struggling to finish a Granta issue (mostly) because of a chapter on violence in the Central African Republic. The author almost seemed to revel in it (a subtext of 'how brave am I?!'), which was just horrid. Not least because in wanting to go to the front lines of civil war he made other people risk their lives too.

It gets much more complex, meaningful and interconnected after the first confusing 25% (although I had a "Buffy" moment about losing one's soul, getting it again with a gypsy curse and losing it again in a moment of "true happiness"... I wonder if the author got some of his inspiration from there. The whole thing is like a patchwork of strange inspiration sources).
I am at 65% now and taking a break to do some yoga. I have the feeling it will be judged as a good book, but one I won't ever like. The jury might put it on the SL.

Finished it now and in the end didn't like it at all. Will certainly be SLed and, who knows, might be the first surprise US winner. Guess the jury likes it as a new way to process a national trauma. Or two of them, Vietnam and Kennedy assassination. Didn't get the Kennedy part at all, and while I see the intention behind the Vietnam motive, I absolutely couldn't connect. Worst of all, I was bored most of the time. But that's me. I guess it will be a widely beloved book.

Not a good start into the 2016 season for me. :(

>235 Deern: Oh no! I've only just started this one and was surprised by the tricksy opening. I think I might be a traditionalist when it comes to this sort of thing...

So far the Booker list isn't sounding good..... I'm a bit attracted by Serious Sweet, but it's not available on Kindle until October here. The price is good right now, but I hate to pre-order when I want so much that is available now.
You have me preening that I helped you enjoy Generosity. Thank you for kind words!

>236 charl08: Don't worry. a) It's short b) the violence gets far less graphic after the first 20% c) it might be one of the cases where I'm the only one who dislikes a book that becomes totally popular, as happened with The Narrow Road to the Deep North or The Song of Achilles who both even won the prizes they were listed.

>237 LizzieD: I might like #3 "The Many". The setting is good and I want to know what happens next which is a good sign.
Generosity was once again this year a book coming to me when I needed it. :)

Just remembered that 2014 started out unconvincing and ended as my favorite Booker year so far, so there's hope. Still don't get why Powers and especially Hustvedt weren't shortlisted that year, but the dentist and the chimpanzee novels were . And there were The Wake and How to be Both!

42. Generosity by Richard Powers

Orfeo wasn’t my favorite on the 2014 Booker list, but ever since I wanted to read some more RP, and now Peggy gave me this BB on her thread.
I really enjoyed this book although it had some elements (all the meta stuff, especially the ending) I disliked. Another thing: in both RP books I read now, the “modern” news and social media play a very big role. So does science, but the science doesn’t get old so quickly. I noticed that a story that describes some form of social media hype feels a bit outdated just 5/6 years after its publishing date to a point where I sometimes thought “what did you all expect??”, just to remind myself that “back in 2010” the unquenchable hunger of the public to be fed news on a subject that interests them was maybe still a bit more surprising than it is now.

Story: we have Russell Stone, an ex-writer, now editor, early thirties. He’s agreed to teach an evening college writing class. He’s over-prepared and nervous. The class is the usual mix of more or less bored students, with one exception: Thassa, a refugee from Algeria, who lives with her aunt in Montreal and is here with a student visa. She’s quickly nicknamed “Miss Generosity” because of her indestructible happiness and her supportiveness towards everyone and everything – despite her terrible history. She’s also a great writer and quickly has the whole class under her spell. Russell however can’t relax in her presence, he is worried her confidingness might become her downfall. He suspects an illness behind her constant positive view on life and seeks advice from college therapist Candace (forgot last name). When Thassa thanks to her sympathy for her attacker escapes a rape attempt unscathed, things get public and the spiral of social media interest starts to draw her in. Around that inside plot there’s a story about a reality science show presenter and a genetics scientist and slowly those characters also get woven into the main story while keeping up their own story threads that are partly happening in a different timeline.

This was actually quite an inspiring book. Thassa is what authors like Louise Hay, David Singer, David Hawkins promise us might be possible for all of us, if we just learn to let go of worries and attachments and live in the here and now. I have been through a week of a really heightened level of consciousness (not that super-high Thassa state though) early this year. It ended eventually, but I can tell you it was indeed wonderful. Your own stuff matters far less, you’re more concerned about people – and all people that is, even the ones you didn’t like a day before. And you don’t lose “depth”, on the contrary. The book reminded me that this is where I’m striving to be more often, and that it isn’t that difficult.

Okay, the science part played a minor role for me, and that is where the book is a bit predictable. The part about writing was more interesting, but I could well have done without the meta bits.

Rating: 4 stars

43. Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman

When I read or listen to non-fiction, usually the writing style is of no importance for me – unless it’s so overblown (as happened with a spiritual self-help book once) or so bad that it becomes unreadable. Non-fiction has to teach me something important or inspire me or both. This book did a bit of both.

RGG is a free spirit with a wish to see the world, already during her marriage where she feels a bit confined. She enjoys her life, but misses something. So when her husband wants to separate and eventually divorce, she decides to process the pain by finally following her desire to travel. During the separation phase, she starts in Mexico, presumably to learn Spanish. However, she gets quickly into personal contact with locals families and spends a month in a remote mountain village. She is not a total beginner when it comes to foreign cultures – she has studied anthropology to compensate for her lack of adventure during her marriage and at least theoretically knows what to expect. She also isn’t shy and openly seeks contact and friendship with the natives, especially the women and children.

After her divorce she sells all her belongings and travels seriously, also to some then risky countries like Nicaragua. She spends many years in Indonesia, mainly Bali where she finds her spirituality. She returns home when needed to look after her aging parents and make new book deals. The book covers a period of maybe 20 years starting in the late 1980s I think, so it shouldn’t be used as a practical guide book, except for the way to approach to new people and cultures.

No, it didn’t inspire me to pack my bags and leave – like most of us I’m not a childrens’ book author who can work from everywhere. I’m single and therefore “free to go”, but not having children or significantly younger close friends (yet), there wouldn’t be a place to fall back onto at old age when I might be to weak and ill to travel. The inspiration was more in the approach towards people and generally being less fearful and more trusting. I’ve always been a very closed person, and whenever I tried opening up there came new friends, but also always some people who scared the hell out of me, all of them men. The reaction always has been closing down again and hiding from the world.

I’m in a similar situation again now, that's why I'm so grateful for this book and the Powers coming to me when I needed them.
Opening up to new things brought new and loving friends whom I trust, but also always the odd guy who doesn’t want to get that a no is a no. Because I’m friendly and they’re not used to that and it “must mean something”, or recently several times because I’m a woman and single and clearly have been waiting all my life to get involved with an African refugee 20 years younger, etc.
I admit that at times I’m annoyed, at times I’m scared. I could give you a long list of events starting when I was 20, that involve what would now be called stalking and many “strange encounters” (I talked to other women to compare, and those things happened to no-one but me), and they were always triggered during times when I was in a new environment, trying to find friends. Subsequently I always closed down again (or hid behind boyfriends if existing). I’m now trying to find a way to remain friendly and open but very clear about the limits. I don't want to be driven by fear to close down again, I want to stay centered within myself and do only things that feel right from that place. Wish me luck! :))

Rating: 4 stars (because as I said, I rate NF differently)

44. Hystopia by David Means (Booker 2016 LL 2/13) – many spoilers!

If I hadn’t known from the blurb that this book is set in a world where Kennedy wasn’t killed and enters his third term as president with the Vietnam War going on, I would have had no idea what I was reading for the first 20%.

The first part consists of two story threads. There’s Rake the killer, clearly out of his mind. He’s kidnapped a girl, Meg, from some rehabilitation centre (or so we think at first). He’s feeding her drugs and makes her witness his killings. This thread is a super-violent road movie. The second thread is about Singleton, a young guy working for an organization that seemed to be something between FBI and NSA. Something has been done to his brain, he has no memories of the past couple of years and much of his childhood. He starts a forbidden affair with another agent, Wendy.

SPOILER:
In the second part it becomes apparent that in this world traumatized Vietnam veterans (who are not too badly damaged physically) receive a new kind of treatment called “enfolding”. With the help of a drug all their war memories are suppressed, but not only those. Everything that relates to the war gets enfolded as well, so if you saw a childhood friend die in Vietnam most of your early memories will be suppressed as well. Suppressed, not destroyed, because it is possible to become “unfolded” again, by almost drowning in very cold water, some drugs and by intensive orgasms. An unfolded enfolded subject is seen as double-traumatized and is likely to become totally violent.

The enfolding clearly has been created to free people from trauma (not just war) to turn them into functioning members of society. However, there’s a constant conscience of something missing and enfolded people try to get their memories back. Seriously, would a president who allows for that be elected 3 times?!? With veterans on killing sprees all over the country and violence waiting everywhere?

Honestly, I thought this was all a bit “unoriginal”. I even had a “Buffy” moment. The vampires in Buffy are soulless bodies possessed by a demon (here trauma). A gypsy curse can give them their soul back and turn them into “good guys” (enfolding process). But a “moment of true happiness” (very intensive love-making in book and TV show) will bring the demon/trauma back and the good guy turns into a monster.

Anyway, I liked the book best between 25 and maybe 60% when it gives some explanations. The ending and the second ending didn’t make it any better for me.
SPOILER END

I feel a bit bad for not liking it. Someone probably tried to process his own trauma this way, and who am I to say it isn’t good? So I don’t say it. I just say I didn’t like it, and I don’t have to. It wasn't the violence, and I liked the general idea. I was looking forward to reading it. And then, surprisingly, I found myself bored during about half of the text and all of the last part. I'm sorry.

Rating: 2.5 stars