Munching with Marja
Another wound day with Betsy. Up to London listening to Dune Messiah again, although it is nowhere near as interesting as Dune. Looked at some poems I'd been fiddling with lately on the train, and had a stern-minded cull, a curiously enjoyable process. Work fine, and had another Plum lunch with Betsy and Betina, a likeable German woman who is married to a Brit and has lived in the States.
In the evening met Marja in the Salisbury pub. I'd not seen her for almost two years I think. She was looking great and it was good to catch up with her, and hear about her kids and so on. We went for a bite to eat in Browns, which wasn't too bad. Unusually I opted for a burger based meal, which was rather good. Marja of course had some species of delicate salad.
Among other gossip, I always enjoy asking Marja about Finnish things. As she is Finnish and teaches the language and culture in the Finnish School. I learned about Kalevala Day on the 28th February, which is a day of celebrating Finnish culture and their national epic poem, The Kalevala, or Old Poems from Karelia telling the Ancient History of the Finnish People, which is a distillation and collection of folk stories and so on made in the middle of the nineteenth century. I must investigate.
Marja also mentioned that she had enjoyed Beer and Trembling, the unpublished novel I wrote about ten years ago. I had forgotten she had read it. Always good to hear.
Home late, and straight to bed, noting only a large envelope sent by my glamorous accountant with a surviving the recession document in it. Curious.
Another wound day with Betsy. Up to London listening to Dune Messiah again, although it is nowhere near as interesting as Dune. Looked at some poems I'd been fiddling with lately on the train, and had a stern-minded cull, a curiously enjoyable process. Work fine, and had another Plum lunch with Betsy and Betina, a likeable German woman who is married to a Brit and has lived in the States.
In the evening met Marja in the Salisbury pub. I'd not seen her for almost two years I think. She was looking great and it was good to catch up with her, and hear about her kids and so on. We went for a bite to eat in Browns, which wasn't too bad. Unusually I opted for a burger based meal, which was rather good. Marja of course had some species of delicate salad.
Among other gossip, I always enjoy asking Marja about Finnish things. As she is Finnish and teaches the language and culture in the Finnish School. I learned about Kalevala Day on the 28th February, which is a day of celebrating Finnish culture and their national epic poem, The Kalevala, or Old Poems from Karelia telling the Ancient History of the Finnish People, which is a distillation and collection of folk stories and so on made in the middle of the nineteenth century. I must investigate.
Marja also mentioned that she had enjoyed Beer and Trembling, the unpublished novel I wrote about ten years ago. I had forgotten she had read it. Always good to hear.
Home late, and straight to bed, noting only a large envelope sent by my glamorous accountant with a surviving the recession document in it. Curious.
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