I’ll not be posting much on the blog this week. Amanda and I are off tomorrow for a few days in Cambridge. This is her first time e there, and the last time I went there was nearly 40 years ago so I don’t really remember a lot. I love to watch YouTube videos of places I go, so I have a slight sense of the town itself. We are staying on the outskirts in a Premier Inn, but it is on a bus route, so I may spend the time there, not driving, which would be a nice break. I’m excited as we haven’t had a break since September, and this is the first week I’ve had off since then. I used a lot of annual leave finishing early when I was struggling with Depression, which helped at the time, but also ate up a lot of my annual leave, meaning I had only the odd day here and there after Christmas. But that has passed, I’ve sat and planned my leave a bit better for the first half of my leave this time to leave some over for later in the year. So I’m looking forward to going to the Fitzwilliam Museum, as they have two exhibitions that have caught my eye, one on Durer prints tthat he museum owns. The other cruise up combines historic art and modern artists around the abolition of slavery. I know there is several Bookshops(always one of the first things I look for when going away) . But if anyone has any suggestions, bearing in mind Amanda struggles with her mobility, we think the punting might be too hard for her to get in and out of. But any great coffee shops, stationary shops or things to check out are welcome. I am taking three books with me. I am in the middle of an Eastern European run of books, recently starting with Solenoid and celebration. I will be packing these.
I’m currently reading Sons, Daughters, a book of the EBRD literature prize, about a woman in a hospital with locked-in syndrome, thinking back on her life. Then also of that list is Too great a sky. It is set in World War II in Siberia and follows exiled Romanians sent there. Then from the new press Linden editens follows a young woman looking after her dying grandmother in the small village where they live with her grandfather working on a room for her and the nearby abattoir noise in the background. This sounds like a book right up my street, I love books set in small villages and around families. Whether I will read them all , I’m not sure, but they are there and I am sure. I will find lots of gems when I am away. Have you been to Cambridge? I will show you in a week or two what I brought, etc.
