The summer is almost over, though it’s still hot. So, what happened during this summer? Good stuff, bad stuff, watching and reading interesting stuff…
For one thing, I’ve tried taiyaki ice cream at a place called Taiyaki Belgrade. It’s fun, it’s tasty, and they change available flavors every week, so there’s always something new to try. Yum!
Unfortunately, after that I got bronchopneumonia (not because of the ice cream!), and spent about a month trying to recover. Which I did, though it was tedious at times. It was also interesting at times, I’ve learned some stuff about my lungs, I got to try out various meds and various medical equipment, I’ve experienced…err…interesting nights split between awful headaches caused by the fever and weird dreams caused by the fever and the meds… It’s not an experience I’d care to repeat, but not all of it was boring.
And after that? I finally went to Croatia, to visit my family! The sea was lovely, of course.
There were cats, here’s one that didn’t want to get close, probably because of the dog:
And here’s the said dog, too: Šaki. He does want to get close and to be petted and to run around all the time. When it gets too hot, sleeping is a welcome option, too.
It’s good to be back home, but I’ll miss the sea (and my family).
Was there something between the bronchopneumonia and the sea? Yes! A period while I wasn’t good enough to work, but was able to read. That’s when I’ve read 12 books in less than a month (some were very short, some pretty long). Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky was the one I loved best (it was the longest, as well): a science fiction novel with giant intelligent spiders (the spiders in the book are awesome!), and a beautiful homage to City by Clifford Simak. Read both books if you get a chance!
During the summer, I’ve also binge-watched some TV series. Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale was sometimes ridiculous, sometimes satisfying, and ended in a way where the only logical beginning of the Season 4 would be the public execution of the main character and many others (not going to happen, of course). Doom Patrol and Happy! brought a lot of fun, though Happy! requires a very specific sense of humor, and both are very much over the top. A Young Doctor’s Notebook (both seasons) was surprisingly good (it’s not an easy task to adapt stories by Mikhail Bulgakov), and the actors were great. Daniel Radcliffe turned out to be an excellent comedian, and Jon Hamm was brilliant in seamlessly switching between different moods.
And now? I’m back to work, I’m back to fencing (yay!), I’ve just finished reading The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen (a bunch of interesting stories, plus some that are so-so), the autumn is coming, and I hope it will bring some good times. I’ve had way too much of the bad ones this year.
Oh, and the photo at the top? Young seagulls in Rijeka, Croatia. They’re so young they didn’t get their white feathers yet.
A Kitty Dreaming About Wings 