Violent Reads

So I have finished Sputnik Sweetheart and as a chaser I am doing Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden. I may enter 2012 warped or agnostic. I am already myopic.
I just realized that I had answered CVL's email question "How's the chilli?"with "a thick dressing gown does the trick" thinking she wanted to know how I was adjusting to the chill on coming home from Malaysia.                           
The handy man is going to increase his repertoire to include making poached eggs for brunch; no resolution here just ad hoc fumbling. I am in charge of chips and peas. Mushy please, he was English. 

Re reading Sputnik Sweetheart

A slight case of withdrawal has driven me to do this. My mother's TV channels are in at least a dozen languages but the contents did not grab me except the ROK's soap opera. The actors are lovely and talented and the English subtitles are very sophisticated. It was very easy to be drawn into  the " Jane Austen" type of drama with Korean architecture and countryside. No nudity and no physical violence. Also very sparse furnishing in the rooms. There is no Korean flavour in Fraser's Mills but I remembered that in Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart there is a character who is Korean, born and raised in Japan, but does not speak Korean. Murakami's style is also rather sparse. So in quiet desperation I am enjoying myself.

Jet to normal

Since December 29, I have been working to get back to routine and so, when I saw the bedside clock showing 6.05 am, I was pleased. Rather eagerly, I got up and was confronted by the kitchen clock showing 5.06am. This is not April 1 but January 1, still I got fooled. Somebody, and that would be me, did not change the time to daylight saving in the bedroom.
However, the 3 cats were delighted to get early service and I seized the opportunity to look for Mercury in the predawn sky. Cloudy and raining but very mild. While in the kitchen, I washed a cup and a half of kidney beans and brought them to boil, switched off for soaking. Later, I shall make chilli sans carne.
So this is 2012. 

Reading on November 25

As part of Soulpepper Academy, Courtney read at the The Young Centre for the performing Arts.

The plowing season begins and so do other tasks.

November 23 saw our first snow storm and the steady fall left a foot of snow on the ground. The drifts are higher in places. In the morning the three cats refrained from going out and want extra litter boxes. The blocked wood need to be split and some have been done. Chain like gadgets have been installed on the 2 front wheels which did allow us to drive up with the groceries today. Now for a bit of supper.

November 19 and November 20

Updated. Last night my brother was able to connect with me through Skype at the hospital. This allowed me to see my parents and vice versa. My mother took to the new experience in her stride. This was at my 9pm Atlantic Time and their 9am Malaysian time.
This morning, my morning, we connect again in her home through an additional gadget:the DG Internet stick.  Meanwhile, I received an email from my niece on her wedding day. Events that make our lives.

Sweet Silence

There is a gale outside on this Remembrance day. Quite a blow,wild and wet, but there is one sound I am not hearing and that is good. About 3 weeks ago we surmised that there is a hole around the bathroom vent on the roof. So we bought a tin of roof cement. This rain storm was expected and so 2 days ago the cement was applied. The absence of a steady drip is what I am hearing. Sweet.