Lectures and haircut
Table Hill
Here’s an update about what I’ve been doing lately. First of all, what I haven’t been doing lately is writing, I’m afraid. 🙁 I’m stuck in the middle of my latest children’s book and so far I haven’t been able to get unstuck. I’m looking forward to getting some help from my sister but at the moment she’s too busy with work and her studies to be of any help.
So what I have been up to lately is mainly going to lectures. Usually, I try to go with either my mother or my sister, but so far, they haven’t had time or felt up to it so I’ve been going alone.
The first one was about this town and surrounding area during a time or rather times of unrest (ie war), back in the 17th, 18th and early 19th century. It was interesting, except for the fact that the lecturer (the head of the museum) kept referring to sources for genealogists. which my family and I are, but at the times the lecture referred to no one in our family lived around here, so I always feel a little bored when that comes up. Anyway, I’d already heard a little about this in an earlier lecture by the same man.
At the end of the lecture I went up to ask the man about something I’d heard of before. Some of you may remember that my sister and went on a guided tour of the cellars underneath the ‘Residence’ of the ‘governor’ (not sure of the exact translation of the Swedish term). Anyway, that’s about the oldest parts left of this town. Except for the rumoured baking ovens beneath the old prison, now converted into an exclusive apartment building. As it turned out, there are no ancient ovens left, but apparently there are some vaults or a vault anyway, where the ovens used to be. The man quite decently offered to show it or them to me, since he lives in the building. Unfortunately, I lost his card, but my sister works in the same building and knows him, even though her archive doesn’t have anything directly to do with the museum’s archives so she can get in touch with him. I hope we can both go and take a quick look at the vault. It may not sound very exciting, and the man himself didn’t seem to think so but again, we’re talking about some of the oldest parts of this town, so I’d still like to have a look. I’ll post about it later if I do get to go.
The second lecture was about the Swedish language and it was quite interesting, despite the fact that the woman who held it, a professor of Swedish at the University of Gothenburg, and the Dean (I think that’s the word) of the local college, was really proud of herself and her ancestry and never let a moment go by without pointing out what an illustrious ancestry she had or how brilliant she is to have been appointed to many prestigious councils and other exclusive academic groups. Apparently she didn’t like my questions so she tried to silence me by being condescending, while flattering an older man in the audience (entirely made up of retired people, except for a guy who seemed to be there as the driver of his grandfather or someone) for his questions that chimed in well with her narrative. Oh, well, like I said, it was interesting, but I didn’t like that woman.
Finally, I went to listen to someone give a talk about the ancient mythology of the Table ‘mountains’/hills around here. Some people are of the opinion that all our ancient mythology can be traced to them, or rather one of them in particular, one that is right nearby (see image above). The whole thing was entertaining, and since the subject refers to ancient times (more or less – in the Mediterranean, they’d refer to this time period as ‘Late Ancient Times or Early Mediaeval) anything might be true. However, this recently retired man, not sure about his actual qualifications, who used to be the head of another museum nearby, was so completely convinced of his own ideas, it was a little scary. He made little half-hearted jokes about how he ‘might’ be wrong about a few little things in his research, but his facial expression and tone hinted that he didn’t think so, at all. Despite that, it was all quite fun to listen to and made sense up to a point. Our Nordic mythology might have originated here, it’s a guess as good as any and like I said, some of his arguments made a bit of sense.
Other than these lectures, all I’ve done is have a much needed haircut. I might post a photo later on. Anyway, any readers I might have, will surely have tired of my ramblings long ago. 🙂
Greek Mythology: “The Nereids, Fifty Sea Nymphs”
The Nereids were fifty goddesses of the sea, daughters of Nereus (eldest son of Pontus, the Sea and Gaia, the Earth) and Doris (an Oceanid and Sea Nymph). They were sisters of Nerites (a young minor sea god).
They Nereids were the patrons of sailors and fishermen, who came to the aid of men in distress.
Read more here.
Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter
A few weeks ago, I finished YA mystery, Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter. I read it on Wattpad, but it’s also available on Amazon. Compared to the other books on Wattpad, it was a pleasant surprise. Some of the books on Wattpad are quite entertaining, but most of them are works in progress, subject to editing and revising and – hopefully improving. This book was more finished than that, more polished. It was also really good. Not just exciting, fascinating but also very well written. I give it four out of five stars.
The story is about fourteen-year-old Leilani “Lani”, who lives in Kaua’i (one of the Hawaiian islands). She lives with her ‘grandmother’ Tutu, ‘aunt’ Rita, who is an anti-GMO organic farmer, her 13-year-old foster brother, Pano, and four ‘cousins’ who are two sets of fraternal twins, Fred and Frank, 11 and Franny and Faye, 15.
Apart from wondering about her parents, who left her as a baby with Tutu and her family, Lani’s worst concerns is starting high school. That is until she finds a secret field with some strange unknown fruits and begins to have visions about the island’s ancient gods and legends.
The descriptions about Hawaiian mythology is one reason I found this book so fascinating. I knew practically nothing about this pantheon and the beliefs connected to it.
I also enjoyed reading the story from Lani’s perspective. We may not have that much in common, but Lani’s an interesting main character. It’s easy to relate to at least part of her situation. After all, I’ve been a teenage girl too. The other characters are nice too, especially Tutu and aunt Rita, though I really hate the fact that Pano sometimes hunts and kills animals. That’s one thing I do have in common with Lani.
The twin girls, Franny and Faye, use a sort of private language ‘twin speak’ that Lani has begun to understand and eventually, she lets the twins know that she does.
It’s been difficult for Lani and Pano to get along with the Fabulous Four, as the two sets of twins refer to themselves (the Frightening Four, according to Lani), but during the course of this story, eventually the kids come to understand each other better.
