omissions
Thursday, 23. August 2007, 22:10:13
Sat we went to the farmer's market. It turned out to be all about organic cheese and honey with an opportunity for chocolate banana ice cream in a proper waffle cone, made from waffles made there. It was a beautiful day so we walked down to where the local shops were having an outdoor day on a plaza to show off what's available in the area. Really a lovely day to be outside and all of Oslo seemed to be spilling out of cafes with cold drinks or grilling in the parks or jus strolling among the tents trying the cheeses and browsing the clothes.
Sunday the rains swept in but we are dedicated culture goers and weren't going to miss Mela, a festival of Indian/Pakistani/Afro-pop/Reggae music with South Asian and East African food. So we stood in the rain eating tandoori wraps and listening to drummers, a bored-seeming Punjabi singer with a Ricky Martin style keyboardist, and a Euro-pop young lady who lipsynched to a recording of a voice that we can only assume is her own studio session. But the damp overwhelmed us and we went home before the traditional dancers and without trying the many desserts on offer. H was, however, quite pleased with the jugglers and her mango lassi.
Yesterday I missed most of H's cardiology appointment (see more details over at Fjordward) because we had another off-site management day. This time it was all about presenting us with important data, some leadership/culture training, and teambuilding. Because of the importance of the first part, a lot of the country managers and travelling sales leaders were there and it was nice to get to talk with more folks in person. The venue was a farm with sheep, chickens, goats, horses (including a Clydesdale), a very social small black pig, as well as the requisite old dog and young cat. Mostly I dread these things ... anything resembling camp just sort of scares me, but the competitiveness was light hearted, there was no speachifying about what each exercise was teaching us for our work life, and honestly it was just a beautiful place to be with rolling hills of well mown grass, sheep grazing picturesquely in the foreground, and a large lake catching the afternoon light. Ending with a BBQ and buffet outside, I got home well after 10pm anxious to hear what the sonograms showed of our wee girl's heart.
Switching over to media for a moment, I'd like to follow up on an earlier post expressing anxiety about whether season 2 of Sensitive Skin would be as good as the first. It wasn't. Not even close. It is still filmed and scored nicely and the cast are all dead on but my god did the writer not have a story in mind when Series 2 was commissioned. The character driven film quality is replaced by a series of discreet situations usually involving a meet-cute set up and then each episode's situation pops up in the final reel in a clumsy and unnecessarily thorough job of wrapping everything up. I'll stop there. Buy Season 1.
Currently about to finish reading Interpreter of Maladies, a really nice short story collection mostly about Indian ex-pats in the US and England and their first generation children. Lahiri writes beautifully about heartbreak and insecurity and the quiet, subtle, markers of difference and (non)acceptance. With this being such a big anniversary of India's independence and of Partition, we have seen quite a few documentary programs on TV about everything from the experiences of a Diana Rigg as a child at the end of the colonial period to how the Mumbai railway functions. But I learned maybe as much from the things people don't say in Interpreter of Maladies. Many of the stories are terribly sad but they also feel real and very well crafted.
It's actually a nice follow up to Afer Dark (by Murakami) which was a very quick read and felt like a short story in structure, simplicity, and scope of the story. Compared to Kafka on the Shore, After Dark is a very slight thing, it seems to lack weight and ambition and complexities layered upon complexities. But the characters are young, likable; I enjoyed spending their evening and into the next morning with them.
Sunday the rains swept in but we are dedicated culture goers and weren't going to miss Mela, a festival of Indian/Pakistani/Afro-pop/Reggae music with South Asian and East African food. So we stood in the rain eating tandoori wraps and listening to drummers, a bored-seeming Punjabi singer with a Ricky Martin style keyboardist, and a Euro-pop young lady who lipsynched to a recording of a voice that we can only assume is her own studio session. But the damp overwhelmed us and we went home before the traditional dancers and without trying the many desserts on offer. H was, however, quite pleased with the jugglers and her mango lassi.
Yesterday I missed most of H's cardiology appointment (see more details over at Fjordward) because we had another off-site management day. This time it was all about presenting us with important data, some leadership/culture training, and teambuilding. Because of the importance of the first part, a lot of the country managers and travelling sales leaders were there and it was nice to get to talk with more folks in person. The venue was a farm with sheep, chickens, goats, horses (including a Clydesdale), a very social small black pig, as well as the requisite old dog and young cat. Mostly I dread these things ... anything resembling camp just sort of scares me, but the competitiveness was light hearted, there was no speachifying about what each exercise was teaching us for our work life, and honestly it was just a beautiful place to be with rolling hills of well mown grass, sheep grazing picturesquely in the foreground, and a large lake catching the afternoon light. Ending with a BBQ and buffet outside, I got home well after 10pm anxious to hear what the sonograms showed of our wee girl's heart.
Switching over to media for a moment, I'd like to follow up on an earlier post expressing anxiety about whether season 2 of Sensitive Skin would be as good as the first. It wasn't. Not even close. It is still filmed and scored nicely and the cast are all dead on but my god did the writer not have a story in mind when Series 2 was commissioned. The character driven film quality is replaced by a series of discreet situations usually involving a meet-cute set up and then each episode's situation pops up in the final reel in a clumsy and unnecessarily thorough job of wrapping everything up. I'll stop there. Buy Season 1.
Currently about to finish reading Interpreter of Maladies, a really nice short story collection mostly about Indian ex-pats in the US and England and their first generation children. Lahiri writes beautifully about heartbreak and insecurity and the quiet, subtle, markers of difference and (non)acceptance. With this being such a big anniversary of India's independence and of Partition, we have seen quite a few documentary programs on TV about everything from the experiences of a Diana Rigg as a child at the end of the colonial period to how the Mumbai railway functions. But I learned maybe as much from the things people don't say in Interpreter of Maladies. Many of the stories are terribly sad but they also feel real and very well crafted.
It's actually a nice follow up to Afer Dark (by Murakami) which was a very quick read and felt like a short story in structure, simplicity, and scope of the story. Compared to Kafka on the Shore, After Dark is a very slight thing, it seems to lack weight and ambition and complexities layered upon complexities. But the characters are young, likable; I enjoyed spending their evening and into the next morning with them.
I knew you'd like Lahiri! I love it when you post about what you're reading--it's inspiring. I need to read more.
By anonymous user, # 24. August 2007, 18:48:31