Oh my, don't ask me why I haven't posted anything in -oh no- in almost exactly four, that is 4 as in F-O-U-R months!!! I don't know! I mean I had every intention of posting regularly during the summer. I thought that then, more than ever, I would have plenty of time for writing. I was wrong. I did lots of sports and read a bit less than usual and somehow did not feel like writing about the books I read. And, you know how it is.The more time passes the more difficult it is to start posting again. But now I'm here. I don't make any promises of posting regularly as I don't know how much time I will have for this blog this autumn, but I do want to continue blogging. To get me going, let this be a kind of recap of the past four months. :)
Travelling
Soon after my last post in May I travelled to England and France, to England for a dance competition and then to France for the French Open Tennis Championships in Paris. The French Open has been my yearly destination for some years now. I love watching tennis. :)
Only a few weeks later I was again in England. This time in the south, in Eastbourne, but again watching tennis (and freezing doing so, so that I came home with a nasty flu).
In July I did a fun day trip to Tallinn, Estonia with two of my galpals. Taking the boat to Tallinn is becoming our yearly girls' day out!
Just last weekend I was in Prag for a dance comp. It was the second time I and Mr. Dancepartner participated in the Prag Open & it was a fun trip. Everything was well organised and we were pleased with our result.
Dancing and other sports
In May I and Mr. Dancepartner decided to practise more this summer. I spent my summer holidays having dance practise 5 times a week, plus either playing tennis or running most days -and it was great! :) It was fun! I have never actually enjoyed running before, but this summer I did. And I found the perfect way to listen to audiobooks -while I was running! Dancing is a hobby, but a rather serious hobby, and we are hoping to improve as much as possible and hopefully will also start getting even better results soon.
IFLA
In August Finland had the honour of hosting the annual IFLA World Library and Information Conference. The conference was held here in Helsinki in a convention centre just across the street from the main library where I work. During the week I had the pleasure of giving tours of our library for colleagues from all over the world. It was great fun! I also worked as a volunteer at the conference. Among other things I spent one evening at the airport greeting arriving delegates and helping them find the way to their hotel and a morning at the central railway station helping the delegates find the right trains in order to get to the convention centre in time for the opening ceremony. It was a very big thing for us to have the IFLA Conference here in Helsinki and I'm happy to say that everything went well.
Reading
Last but not least. :) Even though I was slumping badly when it came to blogging I did read some nice books this summer. Among the most enjoyable was no doubt Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. I just love the 1991 movie and hade kind of a crush on Idgie played by Mary Stuart Masterson after I first saw the film, probably sometime in 1992. :) The book was lovely. I must rewatch the film now, but have not had the opportunity yet.
Another great read was Jeanette Winterson's latest novel The Daylight Gate. She is such a brilliant writer. I could read her novels for the beaty of her sentences alone, but The Daylight Gate is also a captivating story, a historical novel set in early 17th century Britain. I think, I sould actually write a whole post about this one later.
The Helsinki Metropolitan Libraries finally launched a proper e-library this summer. We already had Ellibs e-books, but now we also got Overdrive e- & audiobooks. Only a small number of the e-books available through the library are in Finnish. In the Overdrive e-library the books are mostly in English, though there are also some in Swedish and French. As most of the books I read are in English anyway, that is not a problem for me, but hopefully there will be also lots of Finnish e-books available through the library in the future. As I don't own an e-reader I was initially more interested in the audiobooks available in the e-library. I started with a reread of Watership Down by Richard Adams and with the great story (it was just as good as I remembered it being, though quite a bit more violent!) and read with a very pleasent male voice I was converted! I never cared much for cd-audio books, but now I can download the book into my iPod Touch and go for a run or listen to the book while on my way to work. After Watership Down I've already listened to four more audio books and the fifth is waiting for its turn. Thanks to the e-library I also have now finally read my first e-book. It was the first Maisie Dobbs novel by Jacqueline Winspear and I read it with my iPod. I already borrowed the second part of the series and started with it tonight.
Sofi Oksanen's new novel Kun kyyhkyset katosivat (When the doves dissapeared) was published in the end of August in a big party in Tallinn. About 1000 Finnish Oksanen fans travelled to Tallinn to attend the party. The same evening the movie version of Purge had its world premier also in Tallinn. I'm torn between the urge to read the novel immediately (I already bought a copy) and savouring the anticipation and waiting a bit longer. I know it will be a great read. :)
Well, that brings us to today. I'm back and hope to post more this autumn -and with the help of all your wonderful book blogs start making my TBR list longer and longer and longer... Have a great weekend everyone!
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