One After Another

Flower shots, one after another, but much, oh so much, better than the buildings and bridges of Rotterdam.  This was shot during the short walk AW and I did today.

Started on Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans.  I am convinced that the best way to study a writer is by reading more than one book written by him or her.  This is how I (self-)analyzed Gabriel Garcia Marquez way back in 2014 and Patrick Modiano last year, but also Amy Tan way back in 2000.  Ishiguro deserves his Nobel, but that is only what I think.  Others may not agree and that's okay.

Also quite an amount of housekeeping -- dishes, laundry, ironing, dusting, putting stuff away..

What took most of my time today, though, was ... marking!  Caught up with all the presentation exams last week.  Took me quite a while to be in the right mood for it.  I think it was the walk that did the trick.  I told AW I thought I should take a walk because my head was groggy with the heat but it was at the same time way too warm to actually take a nap.  When we got back into the cool house, I had to change my T-shirt as it was drenched, and that is what cooled me down and helped me concentrate.

Funny thing, though ... just as I was preparing to focus, three friends wanted to chat -- M in Manila, the Countess in St. Raphael, and ex-uni friend GP, also in Manila.  It was only to the Countess that I said I had to mark work but somehow the 'five minutes' she and I agreed on stretched quickly to half an hour ... haha!  She might need to go to Paris with her partner for medical reasons (lord knows she needs all the help she can get) ... and could I come to Paris, too, and spend some time with her?  Very tempting proposition and I told her about my busy schedule, but since next week will be the last week of formal lectures, she should message me when exactly she'll be there and I just might have the time before the 2nd-year portfolios are due. The talk with GP was about her coming to Europe, specifically Milan, Paris and London, in connection with her work for a gallery ... and could we maybe meet up somewhere?  This won't be till sometime in September, though.  The chat with M was about Jay, and no matter how busy I am, I will always take time out for M because she has been so supportive these past years.

This rose was growing in a neighbour's front yard.  A beauty, no?

THANK YOU ALWAYS for dropping by.  It's a mad, mad world sometimes.