What I've been reading

Magician
by Raymond E. Feist

narrated by Peter Joyce

"War is coming to the Kingdom of the Isles from another world, bringing with it chaos and destruction. Pug yearns to train as a warrior and fight for his kingdom alongside his foster-brother, Tomas, but instead he is forced to follow a different path: a path that will lead him right into the heart of the enemy."

An epic read in more ways than one - 36 hours listening to a fantasy saga containing humans, elves, goblins, dwarves etc. which calls to mind Lord of the Rings but is immensely inferior. It didn't help that it also reminded me of sections of the Iliad that just described fighting, and not only am I not interested in combat tactics but there's also too much killing in the real world to allow for any tolerance of fictional killing. It was good enough, but no more.

Bright Lights Big City
by Jay McInerney

narrated by Daniel Passer

"A young man with nothing but goodwill, controlled substances, and wit to sustain him in his quest, runs until he reaches his reckoning point, where he is forced to acknowledge loss and, possibly, to rediscover his better instincts."

The whole book is written in the second person (e.g. "you run until you reach your reckoning point") which is a really strange idea that took quite a bit of getting used to. Aside from that quirk, it's a fairly readable account which had me rooting for the protagonist even though he is behaving pretty badly, but mostly harming only himself, for which the likely reason is revealed towards the end. I can see why this was on the Classics list (probably also because of the second person thing), and I wondered if the title came from something well known or whether this is the origin of the phrase? So, no need to wonder, I turned to the Interwebs and it was the title of a song written in 1961.

Justine
by Lawrence Durrell

narrated by Nicholas Boulton

"Set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy businessman Nessim."

What a huge disappointment this was. For some reason I thought this would be a book that I'd really enjoy, but I came within a hair's breadth of actually giving up without finishing it. There was lots of lovely prose, delicious adjectives and atmospheric evocation of the location, but by two-thirds of the way through hardly anything had actually happened. I made it to the end, and can summarise the plot as 'several people have affairs with one another in Alexandria, three of them die, then they all go their separate ways'. Avoid.

The Art of Reflection
by Ratnaguna

"Ratnaguna offers practical and specific advice on reflection as a spiritual practice. He also demonstrates its great value—not just as a part of life, but as a way of reminding oneself of life's true meaning."

We were studying this book in my Monday Buddhism group, and for a change it contains material that I actually understand and can relate to my own practice. Unlike meditation, reflection allows structured thinking, but towards the end we are introduced to contemplation, which takes me back into the more difficult zone of non-thinking. I have learned not to try to apply everything I encounter within Buddhism, and to appreciate the particular qualities of my own mind and how that differs from the descriptions I read of how minds might operate, without letting myself off the hook with 'I can't do that'. But a lot of this Buddhist mind work (and body work) is beyond me, and I suspect it will remain that way for a long time, if not always.

I watch many films

Kew Gardens, October 2022

I paid the price for my increased level of social contact by coming down with a horrible cough, sore throat and runny nose - I'll give it a couple of days and then see if it's Covid. That will teach me to go out socialising with people. [Update - it wasn't Covid.]

As well as the concert, badminton, comedy, meetings etc. last week I joined Lola II, Mr M (and other friends including Mr MXF and BL2) for the celebration of Diwali in Southall, home of a large concentration of Diwali-celebrating maniacs. We mingled with the crowds, admired the Indian produce and then Mr M achieved a significant win by finding a restaurant able to accommodate all of us in its basement. A vegetarian restaurant, so I was extra happy, and the food he chose for us was tremendous too. The only blot on the landscape was the unfortunate incident with the thermos of chai that leaked all over the floor (and the matches, and the sparklers, and the rucksack) in quite a spectacular way.

After our dinner the plan was to make our way back to the bridge by the station to watch the fireworks. On the way through the crowded streets, young men (mostly) were setting off fireworks in the street, one of them holding a display box above his head as it fired rockets upwards, and others being equally careless about the safety of themselves and others. Back at the station we lit some sparklers and watched the seemingly never-ending displays in surrounding locations. Back at the house I fell asleep while the bangs and pops continued into the night.

Back home, and my dental hygienist is very pleased with how my teeth are progressing, the garage is very pleased with how my car is going, and mum seems very pleased with the 'heavy duty' plastic carpet protector that should help her and the carers move the hoist about more easily (although with the passing of time we'll find out how heavy duty it really is). We have now received the proposals from the Community OT Team for a ramp in the front garden which is out of all proportion in terms of construction and cost, and for the changes to the downstairs shower room which look good but there are details that need to be ironed out. We plan to turn down the ramp but accept the shower adaptation, at which point we move from the OT department to the Home Improvement Team and the story continues.

I have a bank account that offers an annual benefit to its account holders, and last year I chose to accept six free cinema tickets. With less than a month left I had only used two of them, so in the last three weeks I've felt some pressure to go to see films at the cinema that I might not otherwise have chosen, as well as making use of my usual DVDs by post, the Royal Spa Centre's loyalty scheme and hosting a Buddhist Social film night. Here are my reviews:

• The Great Escaper (based on a true story about a WW2 veteran going to France for the commemoration celebrations with great final performance by Glenda Jackson, 4*)
• Broker (fantastic Korean drama about an unofficial baby adoption 'service', 5*)
• Dumb Money (a bit like The Big Short, a story about financial markets, 4*)
• Clerks (nostalgic viewing of a film I loved when it came out in 1994, 5*)
• The Creator (spectacular special effects, too long and much too much death but includes Buddhist robots, 3*)
• One Fine Morning (French drama about a single mother with a sick father, wasn't that bad but only 3*)
• Dream Scenario (fine performance from Nicholas Cage but not very enjoyable on the whole, 3*)
• Dream Horse (another based-on-a-true-story drama about a Welsh syndicate who buy a race horse, predictable and sentimental but features Toni Collette doing Welsh, 3*)
• Return to Seoul (another Korean film about adoptions, had lots of potential but in the end I didn't care about any of the characters, 3*)
• Saltburn (dark thriller in the style of Brideshead Revisited or The Go Between - lower class misfit spends summer in upper class pile, would have got more stars for the plot but many of the characters were horrible so only 3*)
• Marvellous (traditional annual viewing with the Buddhists of this heart-warming film, 5*)
• The Miracle Club (about a trip to Lourdes for a miracle, also predicable and sentimental but features Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates both doing Irish, 4*)

Going out

Kew Gardens, October 2022

Mum celebrated her 91st birthday without incident. There was no cake! and no presents! but we were there and she enjoyed it, except for the bit when dad outlined his demands of the hoist manufacturer. To be fair, I didn't enjoy that bit either so mum and I retired to the kitchen while Lola II and Sister D had a good time with him and the hoist.

I've been going out locally a bit more than usual, with two local comedy nights and Mozart's Requiem (plus three settings of the Miserere) in the Parish Church. I even went with other people on two of the three outings (badminton/Buddhist friends). Unusually, I didn't enjoy the comedy all that much. Reginald D. Hunter didn't seem to have his heart in it and Bridget Christie did a lot of material about older women (work, representation on screen, menopause), but I didn't altogether agree with her point of view.

My Monday Buddhism class has had a short break for our teacher's holiday to Cornwall, which allowed me to go to Monday badminton as well as Thursday, and I've had two matches as well, and fallen over twice (clumsily tripping over my own feet). I conclude that I'm quite good at landing because I've escaped with mild bruising, but it's only a matter of time before my post-menopausal bones crumble away and I end up with something worse. It's worth it though.

In the headlines for my teeth there was a visit to the orthodontist where I was scheduled for 'slenderising', which means shaving bits off the tooth enamel to make everything more perfect. After quite a long conversation with the orthodontist we agreed that since my aims for the treatment do not include the perfect smile, tooth enamel is far too valuable to shave bits off just so that I don't have gaps at the gum line. At the dentist this week my hygienist was very pleased with progress and thinks that the aligners have made a big difference.

And I went to a meeting held by the committee of the Warwick Folk Festival. The Team Leader for Communications (where I was a volunteer) is hoping to step away from the role, and they are trying to interest a few of us volunteers in taking it on. Two of us were there and neither of us wants the role, although we don't mind doing a bit more next year. We'll see where that goes. The venue was terrible for the meeting (background noise, poor projection of Zoom and inadequate microphone and speakers) but lunch was excellent, so hooray for priorities.

As I write it is Remembrance Sunday. I'm having a difficult time with the news, and I really need to start avoiding it more completely. UJ is still in Kyiv - I read today that the conflict there has pretty much reached a stalemate, but Zelensky won't negotiate and will certainly run out of resources before Putin does. Politicians in the UK continue to be contemptible, the situation in Gaza is more than I can bear, many African states are enduring civil war, and the thought of Trump winning the election based on current polling feels very much like the beginning of the end of the world.

Pie

Tiratanaloka, September 2022

There's a distinct lack of interesting and/or blogworthy things going on in my life, which is very pleasant for my life but a challenge to my blogging mojo. Writing about a new vacuum cleaner was quite a low point, but the bar may have to drop further this time.

I made a vegan lemon meringue pie. Easy to replace fat with coconut oil/non-dairy spread, lemon curd thickened with cornflour, and I tried aqua faba - the liquid surrounding tinned chickpeas - as a replacement for egg white meringue. It was certified as delicious by Lola II and mum, although mum found the lemon curd a bit sharp. 

Sister D and Lola II visited Lola Towers to provide valuable assistance in carrying out some of my projects. I am gradually emptying the loft of its non-essential contents, which includes a shelf of folders from my university course in the 1980's. Sister D kindly separated out the sheets that could be re-used for printing so the rest could be recycled, which allowed me to detach myself from the process rather than getting caught up in unhelpful thoughts relating to that time of my life. Meanwhile, Lola II photographed the spotlights that have been replaced in the kitchen and listed them on local marketplace websites. I was contacted very quickly by a man who, very unusually in my experience, not only didn't try to renegotiate the price but actually turned up and collected them when he said he would.

There was also a visit to mum and dad, where useful work was done (mostly relating to money and finances) but we completely missed the clinic appointment that I was supposed to take mum to. Unusual for both of us to be so forgetful! Anyway, it was rebooked and took place without me, so that's a good result.

I've completed my tax return, and made inroads into the job that Mr MXF wants done (all about availability and types of HDR [High Dynamic Range] in UK media). And that's about it.