into August

I've been meaning to update for a while, but just haven't got round to it. We went on holiday to Perranporth in Cornwall, which was great - excellent weather, and it was a really nice spot. The beach was great, the sea was incredibly dramatic, and there were great cliffs and places to run and walk. Only the flat was a bit of a disappointment - it was spacious and well-fitted out, but there was a real smell of damp in the bedrooms. Not much we can do about it in retrospect, but if anyone's reading this I'd be cautious about booking anything in Droskyn Castle with Duchy Holidays.

What else? I went to Lizzie's end of term production of the Tempest at Ridgefield (there are some good pics up on the school website). The end of term marked the retirement of the current head, Ray Doe, so there was a presentation for him (although I was disappointed he didn't decide to ceremonially cast the symbols of his office into the waves as well). Our new head, Anne Morten, starts in September.

I read the new John Crowley novel, Four Freedoms. Not sure what to make of it really. It's beautifully written, and it illuminates a time and a set of experiences that I hadn't thought about before (women and disabled workers at an aeroplane plant in the mid-west during WW2) but I wasn't sure what it added up to at the end. Then on recommendation from people in a MeFi thread, I thought I'd have a go at Caleb Carr's The Alienist. I actually couldn't get through more than a few chapters before giving up on reading a sentence where the protagonist's hair is described as "moist" after he has been out in the rain. "Moist"? Who has moist hair? It should be damp, or wet even. This will seem like excessive pedantry, but it was just the straw that broke the camel's back - the whole book is full of sloppy writing. If anyone wants my copy, they're welcome to it.

After that I seemed to go into a bit of a decline again, leading to feeling pretty awful last weekend. This week I seem to be back to normal again, so it's just one more up and down on the roller-coaster I guess. Next week I have to go up to Lincoln to do a few more things, so that may be a bit tough too.