The days
- they are flying by now, faster and faster. I have been looking forward to seeing people and places again when I go back, but now... time is just going too quick.
At the same time there is a growing fear about whether things in the Netherlands will still be as splendid as I left them...
Meanwhile in Exeter, it is the Time (there you have her again) of Last Times: last walks, last seminars, last essays, last goodbyes, last dinners, last working-days... On my last (?) visit to Waterstone's, Patria was already creeping up around me: Rituals by Nooteboom, Mulisch's The Assault and Inevitable by our beloved Couperus ("nou waar zou dat nou een vertaling van zijn, kinders? Nee, dat moet men toch maar heel gewoon in het Netherlands blijven lezen!").
Also yesterday, my very-much-alive Klokhuis-instincts were treated on a visit to Exeter's Materials Recycling Facility: you know: where they collect our rubbish. Fascinating. Even though they separate a lot we don't in the Nl, they're still at 20%, while 'we' seem to be at 70%... A lot of the work was done by hand. Many Central and Eastern Europeans. Hard labour, low wages (which our chauvinist supervisor did not understand: if they would have wanted something more rewarding, he found, they should have made the effort to go to university, like he did).
One last thing: at the Blackwell Rare books, they sell not only a ChHarlotte Bronte first edition for £3,000; they sell two orginal prints of self portraits (photographs) by Lewis Carroll from 1875! (nou vooruit: nog een extra "!")
Who could lend me £12,00.00?
At the same time there is a growing fear about whether things in the Netherlands will still be as splendid as I left them...
Meanwhile in Exeter, it is the Time (there you have her again) of Last Times: last walks, last seminars, last essays, last goodbyes, last dinners, last working-days... On my last (?) visit to Waterstone's, Patria was already creeping up around me: Rituals by Nooteboom, Mulisch's The Assault and Inevitable by our beloved Couperus ("nou waar zou dat nou een vertaling van zijn, kinders? Nee, dat moet men toch maar heel gewoon in het Netherlands blijven lezen!").
Also yesterday, my very-much-alive Klokhuis-instincts were treated on a visit to Exeter's Materials Recycling Facility: you know: where they collect our rubbish. Fascinating. Even though they separate a lot we don't in the Nl, they're still at 20%, while 'we' seem to be at 70%... A lot of the work was done by hand. Many Central and Eastern Europeans. Hard labour, low wages (which our chauvinist supervisor did not understand: if they would have wanted something more rewarding, he found, they should have made the effort to go to university, like he did).
One last thing: at the Blackwell Rare books, they sell not only a ChHarlotte Bronte first edition for £3,000; they sell two orginal prints of self portraits (photographs) by Lewis Carroll from 1875! (nou vooruit: nog een extra "!")
Who could lend me £12,00.00?
posted by Anna P.H. Geurts | 4:56 pm
