My Idea of Fun

I think Jazz and Folk will always be my favourite genres of music to play as well as to listen to - but one of the great benefits of being a recorder and flute player is the sheer breadth and depth and timespan of the performance repertoire. These guys are absolutely amazing. Listen and be awestruck.

Is it just me?

So, this was the first volume in a series, right? Maybe a four or five novel series? If the answer to those questions is 'bien sur' or similar (languages - few. I'm a late c20 Brit, what do you expect?) then Good. I'm pleased. If the answer is 'No' then not only will I be disappointed at the destruction of my hopes for future purchases, but also at the realisation that 'Transition', desite being entertaining and moderately inventive, was actually an ultimately shallow and meaningless diversion.

I really want a series. I want to explore the universe Banks has setbup, here. I want to find out if Mrs Mulverhill was right - is l'expedience a force for good or a force for evil? And what is it with her eyes? And how did Tem end up in the hospital? And how did he develop his extra special powers?

This book should have been three times as long. Minimum. The only excuse for cutting it off so abrubptly (frankly, in such a 'and with one bound' manner) would be if it's just the first volume in a long running series. I can't be the only person who feels this way, surely?


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Chichen Itza

Mayan. Not Aztec, not Inca. Pyramids!
























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It's An Ill Wind

Today, my flight from NY to Cancun was delayed by more than 6 hours. This was Not Good for all the obvious reasons. However, there was a definite silver lining - together with my colleague I took the opportunity to head back into Manhattan, to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It was utterly magnificent. I wondered around in a state of dazed awe - I was practically in tears in the Monet rooms, the paintings were so gorgeous. I didn't want to leave (and I shouldn't have bothered since the flight was delayed further after we got back to JFK). The whole MMA interlude was absolutely perfect - an oasis of loveliness in an otherwise frustrating and depressing day.

And now for some pictures......

































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So good they named it twice

I love New York. I loved it when I worked here. I miss travelling here every month. It's lovely to be back if only overnight. The view from my hotel is spectacular - this crappy iPhone photo through glass doesn't do it justice, really......




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Fear of Flying

I don't enjoy flying. I don't enjoy being thousands of feet above the earth in sn aluminium death tube. I also don't enjoy the whole interminable process - it's such a faff. Packing is always a nightmare; travelling with a suitcase is difficult for a handy person let alone someone with dyspraxia. Hanging around at airports is like a preview of one of the seven circles of hell. Immigration, customs and security- three words to strike fear into even the stoutest of hearts.

I really wish they would hurry up and invent the teleport. You know it makes sense.




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The Unsympathetic and the Dead

Her Fearful Symmetry presents the reader with a pantheon of prisoners. Two sets of twins, all of them imprisoned by their relationships to and with each other. Imprisoned by secrets, lies, and mistakes from the past. Ghosts, imprisoned by the artificial limits placed on their ghostly forms- trapped inside the flat in which they lived as humans. A man, imprisoned by grief and later, guilt. Another man imprisoned by OCD and agrophobia in his flat - and further imprisoned by the OCD in a complex web of ritual and abasement. A wife, imprisoned emotionally by her husband's illness, even though she has escaped physically. And all the corpses rotting away in Highgate Cemetery, imprisoned in their graves, tombs and coffins.

And me. Imprisoned by a poor purchasing decision prompted by the wonderfulness of Niffenegger's previous book, and forced to read this shallow, nasty, poorly paced tale.

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