Ulysses

The day, as recounted by Mr Bloom and other protagonists and narrative devices, is over. There is no simple way to describe what transpires over the course of that day and over 700 pages. On some levels, very little - a burial, the conversations of people at work and in various less salubrious establishments or walking down the street. But just as it does for most of us, so much more is triggered by each of these interactions, and the book becomes a cacophony of interweaved memories and thoughts, some more coherent than others. Some barely coherent at all. I feel like you could read Ulysses many, many times and something new would always reveal itself. Indeed, on more than one occasion I experienced that when just re-reading a page. I’d recommend it, if you like that sort of thing. 

I had plans this week for some bike maintenance, but I never quite had the time to get the parts I needed; and we decided to do a bit more work on the house - putting some new flooring down in another bedroom, putting up some shelves and starting to tackle all of the things that had been thrown in the furnace room over the years. It’s a lot. We’re definitely going to have to hire a dumpster. Also, we discovered what looks like a small leak in the roof - so that will be fun to get sorted out. The two re-floored rooms look good though. 

I did find a handy video to show how to fix a grip shift cable though: https://youtu.be/v-6Yw0vY0xk?si=X-rRH0XszUDw8WCF

And then I found another YouTube channel with lots of very useful bike maintenance info: https://youtube.com/@davidarthur?si=NsZbNkbyU95x_GQB

More archery this week too. Only Chrissy and I were available, so Lily was able to focus on our form quite a lot. I switched to using finger guards, which made a difference; and my posture was corrected a little (when I remembered). By the end we were firing off arrows to the end of the range and I only had to climb up to fetch an arrow from near the roof once. That's on hold now though as Lily is off to support Eric Peters in Paris while he competes in the Olympics. We had a short chat with him while we were there - he was showing us some of his equipment. I hope he does well - we'll be supporting him from afar.

Chrissy and I also managed to pop back to the Indian restaurant again this week. The waiter was a little surprised we were return customers given they'd only been open just over a week or so. We have plans to be back again this week, so perhaps it will become a place where everyone knows our name.

The other habits were just completed on time. Sunday involved French listening, piano practice and some chess study, but I managed to get it all done. I've started working on some piano scales to try to improve my basic left and right hand coordination, which remains poor. 

I played through a fascinating Karpov game. He was a master at keeping tension in a position. 

Taimanov-Karpov, Moscow 1973, Nimzo-Indian Defence
(p.76 for those of you following along in Simple Chess by John Emms)

I felt my French listening was a little better this week. Although it may have been the topic. This week's French phrases:

• Mais je voulais que ça change.
  But I wanted it to change. 
• Je me suis sentie à ma place.
  I felt I’d found my place. 
• Tout le monde partage.
  Everyone shares. 

And so to this week, when I will be travelling back to the U.K.!  I’m hoping to visit Stonehenge and the Tower of London. Details to follow.