Reading

I just don't get cocktails

According to last night's news, on his visit to the Palace, President Macron was served a cocktail of English gin and French pastis. This was reported to demonstrate the entente cordiale, but it sounds medicinal to me.

Also, gin? Isn't that traditionally from Holland?

Entry tags:

Tolkien (2019) Promo Post

Summary: This 2019 biopic explores the early life of J. R. R. Tolkien – the friendships he forged at school in Birmingham and later at Oxford, his romance with Edith Bratt, his experiences in the First World War, and of course the blossoming of his lifelong fascination with linguistics and mythology.

Why should I check out this canon? Let’s get this out of the way up front – opinions on the film were decidedly mixed when it came out. Yes, I admit, it does take a few liberties with the facts as we might know them from Humphrey Carpenter’s biography, the Letters, or John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War – but in terms of situating the man and his passions within the generation of doomed young men who went to war and came back irrevocably changed, if they came back at all? It nails it. The cast are wonderful, the score gorgeous, and there are some lovely nods to book-readers: the scene with Edith dancing in the woods, which famously inspired the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, is beautifully done. What makes this film for me, though, is Tolkien’s relationship with his school friends – especially with Geoffrey Bache Smith. (The queer subtext is very, very deliberate.)

Where can I get this? In the UK it’s available on Disney+, or to rent on Amazon Prime for £3.49. Availability in other geographies may vary. A quick Google suggests it’s not too tricky to get hold of on DVD or Blu-Ray so your local public library might be an option too.

What fanworks already exist? According to the AO3 tags there are 36 hosted there, although in reality it's fewer than that - Tolkien (2019) seems to have been adopted as an umbrella tag, which makes it harder to filter! If you scroll through, though, there are at least a dozen fics based on the film, ranging from tiny ficlets to novellas. Many involve Tolkien interacting with characters from his own legendarium.

Hello

Name: Regis

Age: 46

I mostly post about: I am Bipolar. So, it varies. My mood, life and fandoms seem to be the main topics of conversation. Plus, my homosexuality is on topic so my post can get to be adults only. Since it's FRIENDS ONLY there are no warnings.

My hobbies are: making icons, video games, my movie collection. (PHYSICAL MEDIA RULES!)

My fandoms are: Doctor Who, various yaoi anime, Friday the 13th and other horror movies, mystery TV shows like Perry Mason and Columbo. I am also big on the MCU AND DCU.

I'm looking to meet people who: Other gay men and allies. I do not have much a support system at home. So being bipolar I tend to need someone to listen. Even if they do not comment. Also, if I get to be too much, just skip the post. LOL!

My posting schedule tends to be: daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic/etc I try to get at least 3 posts a week in unless we didn't pay the internet bill.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Homophobes, racists, MAGA and other Trump supporters.

Before adding me, you should know: I can be a whiner from time to time. It's my way of getting my feeling out. If that isn't for you, I understand.

Nice to Meet You ♥

Name: Jasmine ♥

Age: 30s

I mostly post about: my life, thoughts, my wins & lessons. I like to think deeply and analyze situations or people, and take time to reflect. I'm very much into self-growth, and focusing on a healthier lifestyle may include recipes, as well as currently watching and reading. Overall, it's a special place to connect with others.

My hobbies are: reading, dancing/listening to music, binge watching random shows, meditating, yoga, knitting, buying notebooks and not using them fully, researching vitamins, online shopping, baking, cooking and juicing.

My fandoms are:not really into fandoms too much anymore, however, if you enjoy it, I don't judge since I have moments.

I'm looking to meet people who: I'd love to make some new friends on here, as a LJ vet. I'm looking for anyone who wants to connect, enjoys commenting, and is active. I'm open-minded and pretty down-to-earth.

My posting schedule tends to be: Most likely weekly, and I'll be a pretty active commentor =)

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: not into the haters, homophobic, racists, politics-focused types - I spread love and that's what I appreciate in return.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm Canadian & pretty new to DW but definitely not new to journaling since I used to be on LJ for years. I comment and I am not shy. I'm looking to interact with anyone 21+. I spread love, I enjoy uplifting others, helping ppl through healing, and just being a genuine person. Feel free to add me ♥

Some of my posts may be nsfw, I'm raw & explicit sometimes, we're adults going through adult things lol.

Current Mood: chipper

Reading day

Last night Stone and Sky, the new Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London became available, so I downloaded it to my Nook.

Then I had very broken sleep (especially considering I got to bed at 3:30ish). I got up at 10:00 and put in my first dose of the eye drops I need before my surgery Friday, then went back to bed. But I finally got up, around 12:30, had breakfast and coffee, and meant to get my laundry together and take it down.

But it was over 90 degrees out, and felt like 102, so I decided no, stay in and read.

So that's what I did, I read Stone and Sky, in the bedroom with the ac on. I had gotten a call from the movers who are bringing Oldest Brother's stuff to the unit that they would bring it between 2:00 and 4:00 tomorrow, so later I called

mashfanficchick and told her and we made plans.

At 6:00 I got off and puttered online, and emailed Ricky since I never heard back from him about picking me up from the train station, and asked him straight out. Waiting for an answer.

At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB, We talked til it was time for my meeting at 8:00. The meeting was just me and M. So we ended early, and I had dinner, then went to read again until pet feeding time. Then I fed the pets, and did today's third drop in my eye.

And now it's time for more reading.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Good books.

3. The delivery tomorrow isn't in the early morning.

4. Air conditioning.

5. Surgery Friday.

6. Able to stay in.

(no subject)

Name: B or Bee (either is fine)

Age: 36

I mostly post about: Anything and everything, really. Questionnaires, creations (see hobbies :)), mind contents, articles,

My hobbies are: Sewing, jewelry making, self-care, fitness (beginner), cozy video games, photography (also very beginner), macrame, collecting stickers (I'm starting a sticker album!), restaurant/brewery adventures, Hello Kitty/Sanrio collecting (very minor hobby as I don't have money to go hard on it lol....or the space to) and finally researching/learning different topics is fun too.

My fandoms are: While I'm not super into fandom, I do like to make icons from games. A couple that I'm playing are Animal Crossing: New Horizons/Pocket Camp and Stardew, but I wouldn't say I'm into shipping or anything like that. I guess light fandom? I dunno lol.

I'm looking to meet people who:Hobby/creative friends who want a friendship and won't just quit on me when I go through a rough time. While I'm getting better, I do still deal with low mood, but having friends I can turn to when it get's heavy is wonderful. I will do the same for you.

My posting schedule tends to be: Coming back from a bit of a hiatus, I'll probably start posting weekly, until I get back in the swing of things, but I want to post every other day or every third day.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Mean people, those who are vicious with friend cuts, Trump supporters/the whole make America great movement,

Before adding me, you should know: See my "Looking to Meet People" please. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else.

Current Music: Kaleo, "Way Down We Go"

'Cause they will run you down, down to the dark

Probably because it has been weeks since I slept more than a couple of hours a night and months since I had what would be medically termed a good night's sleep, I spent at least ten hours last night unconscious enough to dream and it was amazing. Under ideal circumstances I would devote my afternoon to reading on the front steps until the thunderstorms arrive. Under the resentful circumstances of realism I have already devoted considerable of my afternoon to phone calls with doctors and will need to enact capitalism while I have the concentration for it. I may still try to take a walk. I have a sort of pressure headache of movies I managed to watch before I ran completely out of time and would like to talk about even in shallow and unsatisfactory ways. I heard Kaleo's "Way Down We Go" (2015) on WERS and am delighted that the video was shot in the dormant volcano Þríhnúkagígur. I will associate it with earthquake-bound Loki. My brain thought it should dream about nonexistent Alan Garner and what I very much doubt will be the second season of Murderbot (2025–).

[edit] Taking a walk informed me that the sidewalk of the street at the bottom of our street has been spray-painted with a swastika, visible efforts to scrub it out notwithstanding. The sentiment is far from shocking, but the placement is rather literally close to home.

Entry tags:

i might get a manned moon flyby for my birthday!

I have indeed played lots of ME:A (up to 34% completion, apparently). Also done many other things but all while lacking any desire to put any effort into documenting them! However, I have visited the Stourbridge Glass Museum with Miss H last Thursday, which felt more art-gallery-ish than really museum-y to me, but did have some lovely glass things. There's a big historic gallery, which has lots of... glasses and vases and things, mostly in categories by technique and with plaques that talk about the local connections and the like, and a big 20th century and contemporary gallery with lots of cool and fun modern art glass, with some glasses and vases and the like as well. They also have a "hot shop" with actual glassmakers working, which was my favourite part. I bought a ladybird suncatcher which is hanging on my window and looking very cheerful even behind the slatted blind.

Then on the Saturday we went to Thinktank, the science museum, to see the Space Vault exhibition and also TWO shows in the planetarium because we are suckers for a planetarium. Unlike the Leicester Space Centre we did not get to vote on any trivia questions, but we did learn about summer stars and also the Artemis project. The exhibition itself was full of space-and-astronaut objects that mostly weren't actually very exciting (a piece of broken insulation! a manual! some gloves!) but they did a good job of contextualising the artefacts and adding audio and visual components (although the audio was frankly not loud enough to actually listen to, given the volume in the rest of the floor) and I enjoyed myself. Although, as with last time I went to Thinktank, it was obscenely hot and humid, so I started dragging fairly quickly; possibly I am cursed.

Otherwise I have mostly been preparing for GRADUATIONS, mostly the part where I have to be on campus every day. I made what eventually turned out to be twelve portions of pasta bake, now largely filling my freezer, to be eaten for lunches etc, and attempted to mentally adjust to the prospect. Today was the first day, and so far I have done one ceremony (the first of the season!); I'm signed up for a second already, so we'll see how it goes...

Entry tags:

Costume Bracket: Round 4, Post 5

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.

( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

Entry tags:

bookses precious

What We Are Seeking, by Cameron Reed

Review copy provided by the publisher. Also the author is a friend.

I love planetary settlement novels, and I love alien communication novels, and Cam has given us both. When John Maraintha arrives on the planet Scythia, he has no particular intentions toward its inhabitants. It was never his intention to be there, and now that he is, he expects to serve as a doctor for the colonists. But he's simultaneously shut out of some parts of Scythian society and drawn into the puzzle of its sentient species and their communications. Their life cycles are so different from humans', but surely this gap can be bridged with goodwill and hard work, even in the scrubby high desert that serves as home for human and alien alike?

Science fiction famously touts itself as the literature of alienation; Cameron actually delivers on that here in ways that a lot of the genre is not even trying to do. The layers of alienation--and the layers of connection that can be found between them--are varied and complicated. This book is gentle and subtle, even though there are scenes were John's medical training is put to its bloodiest use. If you're tired of mid-air punching battles as the climax of far too many things, the very personal and very cultural staged climax of What We Are Seeking will be a canteen of water for you in this arid time. Gender, relationship, reproduction, and love mix and mingle in their various forms, some familiar and some new. I expect to be talking about this one for a long time after, and I can't wait for you to be able to join me in that.

Entry tags:

games

Finished Refunct over the weekend and genuinely cannot rec too highly

Especially while it's at 75% off in the sale, making it 62p:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/406150/Refunct/

For anyone who might want to sample some easy platforming with a very very low entry threshold.

Chill and rather lovely environment (okay, probably depends on you liking brutalist architecture, but still -- there's a day-night cycle! there's sunshine! the water is gorgeous! the music is gentle!) with no time pressure and no penalties for failing a jump hundreds of times (except that, at worst, you fall in the water and have to swim about and haul yourself out again).

N.B. Most reviews describe this as a half-hour game, and there are achievements for speedrunning it in under 8 minutes or under 4 minutes.

It took me over five hours of playtime to beat it, which should be indicative of the co-ordination and skill levels I'm working with here. And yet it did not at any point feel stressful or humiliating for me. It felt like a pleasant, relaxing environment in which to fail repeatedly and experiment.

It started at a level low enough that I could manage it, and then had a really satisfying difficulty curve. If I was stalling on the next objective, I could still run and parkour round the environment purely for fun (and sometimes ended up working out how to pick off the optional achievements in the process).

Towards the very end, I started to think that the last jumps might just flat-out exceed the limits of what I am currently capable of, and it felt like if that did happen, I would still be able to walk away pretty happily having already got way more than 62p's worth of enjoyment out of it.

Will absolutely be playing it again.

Entry tags:

bookses precious

A Mouthful of Dust, by Nghi Vo

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is another of the novellas featuring Cleric Chih and their astonishing memory bird Almost Brilliant, although Almost Brilliant does not get a lot of page time this go-round. This is mainly the story of hunger, desperation, shame, and unquiet ghosts. It's about what depths people might sink to when famine comes--in this story, a famine demon, personified, but the shape of the story won't be unfamiliar if you've read about more mundane famines.

The lines between horror and dark fantasy are as always unclear, but wherever you place A Mouthful of Dust, I recommend only reading it when you're fully prepared for something unrelentingly bleak.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: Kampen

Entry tags:

book review

R.F. Kuang: Yellowface (Book Review)

Very entertaining satiric novel set in and about the publishing industry. Our first person narrator, June (white), is a writer with a debut novel which didn't make a splash and won't even, so her agent tells her, get a paperback edition, in stark contrast to her college friend Athena Liu's (American Chinese) work: Athena has three novels already published, just secured a Netflix deal and celebrates that and finishing the first draft of her newest work with June when she dies an accidental death by pancake. June doesn't just dial 911. She also makes off with Athena's manuscript, about which only she knows, edits, rewrites and publishes it. Presto, success, at last! ! But wait! There's no lack of sharp-eyed foes waiting, social media is truly a jungle, and June might be her own worst enemy....
( Very vague spoilers ensue )

The novel has the right kind of length for this story - which is to say, less than 400 pages - so the various buildings up of suspense - will June get away with it being the big, but not the only one - are not drawn out too long, and there's not a gigantic cast of characters. Said characters reminded me of comedy of manners types - very stylized, often types for certain ways of behaviour - fittng the satire format. The only other thing of R. F. Kuang's I'd read before was Poppy War, a fantasy novel of a very different type, so I'm impressed by her range. Otoh, if Poppy War was so grim that I emerged emotionally exhausted and sure I would go through the experience again (while being glad I had done so in the first place), Yellowface felt like a slick writty automaton which you observe once and marvel at its cleverness but don't feel the need to do it again. But I will certainly continue to keep out an eye for this author.

Entry tags:

bookses precious

Queen Demon, by Martha Wells

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is not a stand-alone book. It's a close sequel to Witch King, and the characters and their situation are more thoroughly introduced in that volume. Unless you're a forgetful reader or specifically like to reread whole series when new installments come out, I think Wells gives you enough grounding to just pick this one up, but not enough for this to stand alone--it's not intended to.

If I had had to pick the title of this book, the word "alliances" would have figured heavily in it. I get that the two titles pair well this way, but this is a book substantially about dealing with one's allies--the ones who are definitely, definitely not friends as well as the ones Kai loves dearly who are not actually as reliable as he might have hoped. The other enemies of Hierarchy are not all immediately eager to team up with an actual demon; some of them require convincing that the enemy of their enemy really is their friend (VALID, because that is not a universally true thing). And of course Kai's own nearest and dearest are growing as people and have the growing pains associated with that. If you enjoyed Witch King, you're in for a treat as this is very much a continuation of all the things it was doing.

Entry tags:

The Notion Club Papers Promo Post

A rainy day seen through a window. The camera focused on the raindrops on the window, rendering the cityscape beyond blurry.

(written by

Perching )

Summary: In 1980s Oxford, professor Michael Ramer discovers a method for the mind to travel in time and space while the body is asleep. He presents his discoveries to the Notion Club, a social group strikingly similar to the Inklings of the 30s and 40s, and while some are skeptical, others take off with the idea. Then one night, a great storm rises up out of the west, and Arundel Lowdham cries to the others, “The Eagles of the Lords of the West are at hand!” A time travel story connecting the mythological fall of Númenor to the (then) near future of the 1980s, The Notion Club Papers went forever unfinished, and by the end of it the main characters have experienced only one major dream/vision: that of Ælfwine, an Englishman from the Middle Ages. In an outline, Tolkien gestures towards the tale of Ælfwine meeting Elves on Tol Eressëa, a “Beleriand tale”, and the fall of Númenor as told through the eyes of Elendil and his friend Voronwë. Why should I check out this canon? The Notion Club Papers draws on many more famous aspects of the Legendarium and will appeal to fans of:

Númenor and its fall
Ælfwine and his meeting with the Elves
portal fantasy and contemporary fantasy
crossovers between Middle-earth and the modern day
and, of course, the Inklings.

Where can I get this? The entire text of The Notion Club Papers, including commentary by Tolkien’s son Christopher, can be found in volume nine of The History of Middle-earth, which is titled Sauron Defeated. Check your library and any local bookstores, or buy it online.

What fanworks exist already? Fanworks of The Notion Club Papers are, not surprisingly, hard to come by. fanfiction.net hosts at least one work by shakespeareanfish, which you can read here. AO3 has a recently posted piece of meta in Russian. JD-Kloosterman on DeviantArt has contributed fanart. Between these works, there’s lots of space for fans to take up a pen (or keyboard, paintbrush, stylus, etc.) and bring something new to The Notion Club Papers universe.

Current Mood: rushed

Over to Jamaica

Jamaica, Queens that is. I got up at a bit after 10:00 and had breakfast and coffee, and showered and dressed. Then I headed off to Jamaica to the check-in for the storage unit I rented for Oldest Brother's stuff.

The trip was a bit scary as I didn't know the route from experience, but I made it, and accomplished everything.

Then I took the bus and subway over to

mashfanficchick's place, stopping first at Key Food for a package of frozen broccoli to add to dinner.

Then I hung out with zer and Trish. We talked, and watched The Lincoln Lawyer. We had a small lunch and then had garlic chicken with rice and the broccoli for dinner.

I successfully, but with some initial difficulty, Teamed the FWiB from my phone, so I saw him for a bit.

I heard from the Niagara County clerk's office about the deed, I hadn't sent enough money so they allowed me to pay by card over the phone, and are sending it, or rather, them, to me. There's five, apparently.

The Kid texted, her interview went well and she has another Wednesday.

The eye surgeon called to remind me to start my eye drops tomorrow.

I Ubered home after we finshed the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer.

Bed now.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Friends.

3. Good TV,

4. The Kid doing good.

5. Heard about the deeds.

6. Bed soon.

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

got arrested for inciting a peaceful riot

I am so tired of working on this house.

Upper half the back yard is approximately - well it's definitely not level, but it's not a hill any more so I'm calling it good enough. The Big Pit of Rocks is functioning perfectly in that the yard no longer floods whenever we get a rainstorm. At some point I will clean it up and make it look pretty, but that day is not today. Probably won't be tomorrow either.

This past weekend we picked one of the basement rooms as our starting point and spent about an hour clearing out the contractor trash and then scrubbing the shit out of the walls and floors. We also went to the hardware store and picked up paint and supplies and that was enough for my foot to say fuck you, you are done for the day. It's been hard to get a lot of work done just because it is so hot and humid, even in the basement.

***

Foot is still a problem. I hate this so much. I am spending a fortune on cabs and delivery because walking hurts. It's been a month, c'mon man, chop-chop, ándale, let's get healthy already. For fuck sake. Although I guess it could be argued that hauling around heavy buckets full of clay, rocks, and now paint probably isn't helping matters much.

I also have gotten a bunch of reminders this week that all my other doctors want to have a crack at me because I guess it's been a year since the last round. Sorry folks, cat takes priority. Once he has his checkup out of the way I'll find time for the rest of you.

The problem is that I can't take time off work for any of this stuff right now, because there are THREE, yes THREE major projects going on right now. At the height of vacation season so half the people who need to do things are off work. Who the fuck makes these decisions?

***

A couple of days ago I opened the back door and startled a wild rabbit. It took off into the treeline. This morning I looked out the back window and the biggest coyote I have ever seen was sniffing around the yard.

These incidents may be related.

Guess I'll see how well the vegetable plot survives the attentions of the locals. Daughter brought over all her seeds and just slapped them all into the ground and I have no idea what's even down there. Here's to Salad Surprise in a month or two.

Current Music: Frank Turner, "Recovery"

Cider and some kind of smelling salts

In the appendices of Alzina Stone Dale's 1984 edition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Muriel St. Clare Byrne's Busman's Honeymoon (1936), reproduced for the first time from a handwritten sheet by Sayers with an additional scribble from Byrne, I have found perhaps the greatest production note I have read in a playscript in my life:

Warning

The murder contrivance in Act III Scene 2 will not work properly unless it is sufficiently weighted. It is therefore GENUINELY DEADLY.

Producers are earnestly requested to see that the beam, chain & attachments & the clearance above the head of the actor playing CRUTCHLEY are thoroughly tested at every performance immediately before the beginning of the Scene, in order to avoid a POSSIBLY FATAL ACCIDENT.

How is it that in this our era of infinite meta when See How They Run (2022) was a real film that came out in theaters and not someone's especially clever Yuletide treat no Sayers fan has ever worked this note into a fictional production of Busman's Honeymoon where the blasphemed aspidistra exacted a worse revenge than corroded soot? I don't want to write it, I'm just amazed no one's taken advantage of it. I wouldn't mind knowing either if the 1988 revival with Edward Petherbridge and Emily Richards found a way of reproducing the effect without risking their Crutchley, since Byrne's "Note to Producers" describes the stage trick in technical detail down to the supplier of the globes for the lamp and she still agreed with Sayers—she wanted the warning inserted before the relevant scene in the acting edition—that it could wreck an actor if not set up with belt-and-braces care. Otherwise I am most entertained so far that according to Dale, while the collaboration between the two women was much more mutual than an author and her beta-reader, Byrne characteristically put in the stage business and directions which it seems Sayers was less inclined to write than dialogue. This same edition includes Sayers' solo-penned and previously unpublished Love All (1941) and testifies to the further treasury of the Malden Public Library, whose poetry section when we were directed to it turned out to be a miscellany of anthologies, plays, and biographies shading into what used to be shelved as world literature. I have three more Christies for my mother, another unfamiliar Elizabeth Goudge, another unfamiliar Elleston Trevor, some nonfiction on an angle of women's war work and the Battle of the Atlantic that I actually know nothing about, and the summer play of Christopher Fry's seasonal quartet. I am running on about a fifth of a neuron at this point, but

rushthatspeaks bought me ice cream.

Entry tags:

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings.

I have been struggling to concentrate today. It was hard not to spiral back to that day. I had been living in London (and therefore the UK) for less than a year. I spent much of the day unable to contact family and friends to reassure them I was OK because the mobile networks were overwhelmed. I remember walking the crowded streets to meet friends and my then-partner. The faces of the shuffling Londoners. The relentless wail of sirens.

I'm coping by watching the BBC documentary series on the bombings. For some reason I need some kind of external validation for feeling the way I do today and this is providing it.

(Access locked) Posts from that date: DW, LJ

Here is what I wrote on the 8th of July, 2005. I don't think I agree with myself here, not entirely. I was rationalising my own fear. The body count is also the point.

Terrorism isn't about the reality of statistics. Of the several million people living in or visiting the greater London area, a tiny percentage were physically hurt or killed by the bombings. A slightly larger percentage witnessed them firsthand, and a huge number of them were temporarily inconvenienced by the shutdown of the London Transport system. The chances that the next bus or tube journey that the average Londoner makes will have a bomb on it are not much greater than they were yesterday or will be tomorrow. But, as I said, this is not about statistics. It's about the perception of statistics. However miniscule your chances were and are of being blown to bits by a terrorist attack, they are now at the forefront of your mind, whether you want them to be or not.

Terrorism isn't about the frequency of occurrence of terrorist acts, or of similar kinds of attacks made during open war. Londoners of different generations experienced the Blitz and the IRA bombings of the 1980s. Many of them have been through this before. However, it is the very unpredictability of terrorism that makes it so frightening, that makes a return to normalcy as difficult as it was the last time, because the ordinary citizen has no way of knowing when, where or if another attack will happen.

People deal with this in a myriad of ways. Some become defiant, others resigned. Some find themselves swallowing down fear for weeks, months or years after the events, every time they board a bus or enter an Underground station. This is the real point of terrorist attacks, not the body count. All emotional responses are fully permissible, but it is the way that we act upon them that will determine whether or not we build a world in which the slight probability of terrorist attack on the average citizen will continue to be a weapon that can wield so much power.

Entry tags:

Polccoyo Mountains

Because of all the mix-ups with permits and so on, we were offered an additional "free" activity. We picked a trip to the Polccoyo rainbow mountain area. It turned out that there are two rainbow mountains in Peru of which Vinicunca is the more spectacular, touristy, and better known. Different mineral compositions in the soil - particularly copper - cause the geological layers exposed in rainbow mountains to reveal stripes of bright colours. Our guide for the day, Olmer, was obviously from the Polccoyo area and felt very passionately about it. He explained that it was being opened up to tourists in a bid to stave off a proposed investment from a Canadian mining company who wanted to establish a copper mine in the area.

It was beautiful and remote and while there were two or three parties of tourists, it was easy to feel alone in the landscape. B. and I were a bit dubious that it could both retain its character and generate enough income to hold off the allure of mining company big bucks.

( Photos )

The road up to Palccoyo went along multiple switch-backs from tarmac to dirt track, and past alfalfa farmers on the lower slopes (the alfalfa feeds the guinea pigs which are a local speciality - if you are interested they taste a bit like duck) to alpaca farmers on the higher slopes (alpaca is genuinely nice meat, quite lamby but more restrained). On the way back down I tried to photograph alpaca from the taxi resulting in a lot of blurry photos of alpaca of which these are the best.

( Photos from the taxi )