For years I’ve had two mystery series, both of which I love. But recently I’ve been feeling the itch to start something unconnected with either of them.
We're also settling in our beloved new dog, Sophia (who would like to make it clear the itching doesn't have anything to do with her!)
Maybe it's because so many people in my generation are moving into retirement, while it can feel like I've not ever started working at a 'real' job... meaning one that I would look forward to retiring from. Anyway, the itch for the 'new' is translating into a German Course at the Goethe Institut and the new book I'm drafting.
And exploring Singapore looking for dog friendly locations...
Anyway, the dog influence first. One side effect of having Sophia around is we’ve begun exploring dog-friendly cafés all over Singapore.
Sophia at Boomarang.
And what I look for when eating out has changed--these days it's a case of looking for a place with outdoor seating (where Sophia's allowed to join us) and preferably a nice grass patch nearby.
Given Singapore's 'garden city' concept that's not been too difficult to find. And the first bar bistro we tried, along the Singapore River, was lovely.
And that was lovely, though neither Sophia nor I were keen on walking along the riverside in the heat.
Which led to the next quest: for someplace with air-conditioning where we could all sit together... and we found that in Menage...
Which was pretty much perfect.
Sophia loved her salmon dish so much she tried to eat mine as well, which made me think about a case where a dog steals someone's poisoned salmon--but I don’t want my not-yet-fictional dog to die, so most of the salmon will be retrieved... though just having had her jaws around it and swallowing a bit is enough to made the poor pup sick and that murder attempt is foiled/ exposed...
Which just goes to show (again) how ideas tend to come when you're not sitting at a desk. A newly retired friend asked 'where do your ideas come from?' and I had to say 'everywhere'. If anything, the struggle is to find enough time to sit down and work through all the ideas I want to wrestle with!
To make it worse/ better, my husband and I are starting to learn German; partly to stretch our minds, partly because with all the German neighbours we have, it's a shame that the only German words I know are 'marten aller arten' (loads of terrible tortures) and 'Meine tochter nimmermehr' (no more my daughter) both phrases useful for threatening a dog who's stubbornly trying to kill one's reading glasses or refusing to walk. (Don't worry, Sophia doesn't take threats or opera seriously).
Anyway, we've signed up for four hours a week of German classes, starting next Monday. And we thought we'd get started by reading (with the help of Google Translate) Erich Kastner's Emil Und Die Detektive in German.
I love the daily down to earth details about life in Berlin about a hundred years ago, the trams and trains, the cafes, the neighbours and the observant child. And I realised I want to try to capture my time and space with the same care, respect and lightness. And I'm realising that reading in a language other than English is making more aware of how I sometimes use language on autopilot.
Also, my sis-in-law strongly recommended Uketsu's wonderfully strange puzzle with pictures books, Strange Houses and Strange Pictures and now I strongly recommend them too!
I borrowed these e-copies from the library--
But I am going to need to be getting my own copies because I love them so much. They are somehow simple and complex at the same time and I'm trying to figure out why while figuring out the puzzles!
So life is very good here even as we're aware of disruptions in the outside world.
My Pilates teacher was stranded in Dubai but the second repatriation flight from the UAE back to Singapore just landed and I'm hoping she was on it!
But in situations like this, when there's nothing practical to do other than 'hope' we might as well put all our energy into hoping and for me that means thinking about what we get to read and write next!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment