zappo

Oh dear, it's far too long since I last updated this. I mean, I haven't even been out travelling for almost a month so I can't blame being busy for being non-updatey. Bianca is still MIA. There were reports of a cat like her down in the village, or even down by the beach, but it hasn't been possible to intercept it. Ever tried catching a cat that doesn't want to be found? Cannot be done! Although, the county exterminator was hired a year or two ago to cull the large population of feral cats down in the village. They used some sort of trap and caught 64 cats... Sixty-four! And these are the ultra-wary cats that you never see. Well anyway. When I say I haven't travelled much that was after we had been in Fagersta, that oh-so-boring place between Frövi and Avesta. My colleague almost got stuck in a beaver pond but nothing exciting happened to me. Well, we did pass through old mining communities around Norberg, which [info]nazgman knows all about. There's mu h to see and explore in Sweden! Until last Thursday there wasn't much happening in my calendar but then suddenly bam! I went to Kristinehamn on Tuesday and spent two days looking at the railroad going to Filipstad and Persberg. Hardly any trains on it at all but they're electrifying the first part of it anyway. Brand new posts for electic current ("kontaktledningsstolpar"). The new ones are best, they're labelled "kilometre-sequential", eg "147-12". That would be a post near kilometre 147.5, since they're spaced about 60m apart. Older posts are just labelled with a sequential number, so ypu really have no idea where you are. Especially as the sequences start over at some stations. Pretty geology there, though. Mostly granites with big, rectangular feldspar augen, and then near Persberg and its mines there were vulcanites and weird stuff I'm not sure what it was. But it had big magnetite crystals in it. Right now I'm on the train to Stockholm, about to attend the annualmeeting of SAAM, the foundation that among other things awards the Alvar to deserving members of Swedish science fiction fandom. It will be fun to meet tje others again, haven't seen them since Eurocon in June. Oh and next year's Swecon will be on 5-7 October, don't miss is. It's in Uppsala. I'll be going back to Stockholm on Monday, at oh-too-early o'clock, for a two-hour meeting with a colleague... Why not stay the weekend in that city? - Because there is a tolkienist event near Götevorg on Sunday I want to attend. We'll discuss East European genre literature and ingest food and drinks inspired by that subject. I bought some tins of herring and a bottle of vodka yesterday. That's all you need, right? Also, in this period I've indulged in the Fine Arts: no less than two live broadcast performances from the Met in New York. First Wagner's "Siegfried" which was awesome, and then Philip Glass's "Satyagraha" which was... well awesome too. Glass himself was there too, wow. OK, I'm writing this on my iPad so before I accidentally delete everything I'll post it, typos and all, and go back to reading my "Independence Day" novel. Seeyas!

What a lovely day! Instead of spending the weekend indoors, watching TV or reading "Sherlock Holmes" or just doing nothing, like I usually do, I did like a big part of Gbg and went to the Botanical Garden.

Aaah, pretty spring flowers, tiny tender new leaves on the trees, and birdsong. I spent ten minutes on a log just listening to a blackbird doing impossible warbles and imitating, among other things, a Nokia ringtone. Then for some ice cream and ambling back downtown before going home to... watch TV, read "Sherlock Holmes" and do nothing much.

Which includes wondering what last night's "Doctor Who" was about, really. A bit of a puzzler! Also been rewatching some "due South", fr'instance the episode "Eclipse". You know, the one where Ray lurks in a crypt, the one with a statue, of an angel, a weeping angel... Yeah you get it, slight Who OD. Which isn't helped by Matt Smith also being in "Party Animals" on Fridays. How adorable he is!

*glimpse at TV* wtf?! The White House interior designer, it says in Kobra, with some hideous bird sculputer with Kermit the Frog on top. And she lifts a wing on the bird, saying "And the stomach is full of booze" -- it's a liquor cabinet! Oy, if the White House contains such things, it's no wonder American politics goes insane.