This has been yet another interesting week, with lots happening on both the good and bad sides. In fact, I think the good things sort of dominated this week, with the only really bad thing being the weather. With the door on the big stove bust, we decommissioned it and had to rely on the central heating only. Unfortunately, that is quite an old boiler, and now we are worried that it will buckle under the pressure of this cold spell, which doesn't seem to be wanting to go away. On the good side I had an interesting online winter school, lots of good TV and Roy's apple crumble.
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| Apple crumble with yoghurt and a cup of coffee |
Last Friday I did a bit of Netflix binge watching and it was delightful. Young Wallander is an interesting concept. When you take an old series, like Wallander and the title is Young Wallander, you think that's a prequel. But it wasn't, because while the character was similar, just younger and it was all happening in Sweden, like in the original series, the actual date was now. Fascinating insight into the life of Sweden today, so I'm glad they did it this way.
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On the reading front, I am still on Dalziel and Pascoe, but I'm sorry to say, that I'm approaching the end. I have only 2 more books, and then I'll have to find a new author. I do have many books that were written by one writer and sort of form a series, so it'll be fun to choose.
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Adam Pålsson as Young Wallander |
UKTVPlay is also an interesting channel, with many old series, or parts of series available to watch. As I have been reading Reginald Hill for months now, I started watching some old Dalziel and Pascoe episodes. They were quite enjoyable, but, as usual, you're always disappointed when you compare them with the novels.
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During the weekend I was highly entertained and well educated by a brilliant set of online meetings, all combined into three days of the Montreal Marxist Winter School, organised by my Canadian comrades. Unfortunately, because of the time difference, I could only take part in the first half of the program each day, but even so, it was fascinating at all levels.
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| Alex giving his presentation on the Canadian CP |
The three presentation topics that I have listened to were:
1. Louis Riel and the rebellions of the Metis
2. 100 years since the founding of the Canadian Communist Party - lessons for today
3. The oppression of the Jews through the ages: Who actually fights anti-Semitism?
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| Julien translating me into French |
The first two topics I knew next to nothing about. So, not only was the presentation brilliant, but extremely educational as well. The Metis were the beaver and buffalo hunters, who went West into the Canadian wilderness and after a while got into conflict with the Canadian state, as they were not exactly pleased when they wanted to take their land and their towns away from them. In one of the interventions in the discussion afterwards, a young woman of Metis descent described the discrimination they still suffer from after all this time.
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The presentation on the 100 year story of the Canadian Communist Party was given by Alex, but believe me, I am not biased when I say that it was excellent. As I really knew very little about this topic again, my attention did not wane for nearly 3 hours, which proves how fascinating it was.
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In the oppression of the Jews topic I even managed to intervene, outlining a mini-history of the Jews of Hungary. As I only had 10 minutes and that included the translation into French, I think I have done very well to only go over my time by 2 minutes.
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There were other sessions, some in the second half of the day, when I was already asleep, as well as those that ran at the same time as the ones above. The topics included Chile, The American Civil War, Economics, the Haitian Revolution, the socialist planned economy, the Irish struggle for freedom and the final plenary session on "How to organise Revolution?" Fortunately, they are all up on the website, so over the next few weeks I will listen to all those as well.
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Then this week started with hectic activity. Strange how sometimes nothing happens for ages, and then all of a sudden, everything happens all at once. I was asked by e-mail if I would do some translation for an orienteering club that I don't know, but they are really desperate, so I said yes. They are planning a 5-day international orienteering event in August and they need an English version of th invitation. The text hasn't arrived yet, but presumably when it does, it'll be urgent.
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| The cache page in progress |
Then there was another request, this time from a geocaching friend, who asked me to write, or part-write, if I haven't got the time to do the whole thing, a planned geocache page for him. This request followed on from a foolish act, when about a year or so ago, I offered to do something for him, which was less work than this, but I volunteered then. I also said yes to this as well, as I like doing cache pages, and it cheers me up when I can do anything to do with geocaching, as I miss it terribly.
I am glad to report that I have done it this morning and I think it looks OK. Poor fellow works a 100km from home, commuting by car every day, so he leaves really early and gets hom in the evening. I hope he'll like it, I enjoyed doing it.
Now I think I am off for a nap, as my head is hitting the keyboard. All the best to you all out there, and the next post is due sometime next week. :)
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