Recent reading.

April
So it seems to have taken quite some time but I have finally finished Birds Without Wings .
I didn't really know very much of the historical context and got confused about the place names...Not saying much for my general knowlegde. This hindered my enthusiasm on those particular chapters. I didn't skip the chapters charting Mustafa Kemal's rise to power and military campaigns, although the thought crossed my mind more than once, however my concentration usually wandered and I was more focused on how long it was before I got on to the next bit of real narative.
Again, I liked reading about the small country culture of the village in which the focus of the novel was set. I particularly warmed to the character of Rustem Bey. He was the honourable gentleman figure in this little naieve rural village. It was charming at times to see the relations between the Christians and Muslims, with the casual exchange of rituals and icons. The expulsion of the Christians from their homes in Turkey was made all the more poignant by the trust and unquestioning way in which they submitted to the forces in charge. The way in which the two communities lived in harmony and were subjected to change which took the soul out from their homes was tragic...
As I say, I don't think I got as much as I could from this novel because I didn't really understand what was going on in the political.historical side of things... I did really like the little anecdote about King Alexander. Its amazing that the course of history was changed by a monkey biting a man as he tried to save his pet dog!
It took me so long to finish that was almost waiting for it to finish. I don't feel like anything exceptional happened at the end... Not sure I have very much else to say about this book. 6.5/10

I want to vote

I feel I should really contribute to society and vote in the upcoming election.

So I have a month to find out what politics is all about. And stuff.

Any hints or tips are welcome...

Spring Cleaning

I've not really been doing any spring cleaning. Same amount as usual really.
But I wanted to say something about Spring, and how nice it is that it has finally arrived.
The weather (I am talking about weather!) has been a mixture of nice and nasty...hopefully the former will prevail as we go along. Perhaps I can go on some more bike rides to Tentsmuir. A few weeks ago we cycled over. And I saw a really good looking Heron trying to catch fish in a pond in the woods.

Yesterday my Mother and Father came to see me and took me out in the car. We had a nice walk and ate nice food. Namely steak. While we were crossing the Tay Bridge I took this picture. I like it when you can see the suns rays coming through the clouds. This one shows it on the Tay. I thought it looked kinda neat.
I like going on little walks, known amongst my family as Plodges. Perhaps an onomatopoeia of the noise our feet would make in the mud and rain on family expeditions...
The other picture is of a nice country lane which we walked along. I also like trees, as noted in the pervious blog.


All in all it was a rather nice day. And it was nice to get cake and chocolate eggs too. And its turns out parents aren't always so lame.