The long black gap
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Now that has been a long gap. What's been happening?
First off, I've finally set up a separate site and domain and everything ready to start doing some podcasting. I'm away for the first week in April but shortly after that I'm going to start doing some books casts.
Secondly, over the Easter week-end we had our friends Harald and Mirjiam come stay. They're German and we knew them first in Singapore a long time ago. Since we all left Singapore we've only seen them the once - and briefly. Once in eight years. You can imagine that there was a certain trepidation on all sides about how we'd get on spending four days together in our house after so long. Not a problem. It took about five minutes before it felt like we'd been in constant touch for the last eight years. They have a boy - Nils, 13 - and a girl - Lucca, 11 - who were great kids and they got along fine with our three. A pleasure all round. We're already planning a return trip to the south of Germany and arranging for the kids to spend alternate summers away for language lessons. One in the eye for old Mr. Unsociable, here.
Thridly, I've been immersing myself in a few "middle period" Travis McGee books this week. He's a character you want to measure yourself by. One of my great fears is that if Travis McGee met me he wouldn't like me. You may think that's sad but I reckon that means you haven't read John D. MacDonald. The McGee books are a bit like 'Lucky Jim' insofar as I like to re-read them from time to time. Obviously 21 Travis McGee adventures are harder to get through on a regular basis than a solitary Kingsley Amis novel but 21 books still doesn't seem enough.
First off, I've finally set up a separate site and domain and everything ready to start doing some podcasting. I'm away for the first week in April but shortly after that I'm going to start doing some books casts.
Secondly, over the Easter week-end we had our friends Harald and Mirjiam come stay. They're German and we knew them first in Singapore a long time ago. Since we all left Singapore we've only seen them the once - and briefly. Once in eight years. You can imagine that there was a certain trepidation on all sides about how we'd get on spending four days together in our house after so long. Not a problem. It took about five minutes before it felt like we'd been in constant touch for the last eight years. They have a boy - Nils, 13 - and a girl - Lucca, 11 - who were great kids and they got along fine with our three. A pleasure all round. We're already planning a return trip to the south of Germany and arranging for the kids to spend alternate summers away for language lessons. One in the eye for old Mr. Unsociable, here.
Thridly, I've been immersing myself in a few "middle period" Travis McGee books this week. He's a character you want to measure yourself by. One of my great fears is that if Travis McGee met me he wouldn't like me. You may think that's sad but I reckon that means you haven't read John D. MacDonald. The McGee books are a bit like 'Lucky Jim' insofar as I like to re-read them from time to time. Obviously 21 Travis McGee adventures are harder to get through on a regular basis than a solitary Kingsley Amis novel but 21 books still doesn't seem enough.
