Ar(c)tic Afternoon

As I thought, no matter how well I plan, nothing ever works like it. I didn't go to the Nobel Museum, I didn't get to Skansen, instead I went to the National Art Museum, had lunch, went shopping, was terrified of the thousands of other people who were shopping too, almost was trapped in a toy store and couldn't get out, went into another store and the same thing almost happened again, and after the third one, I stopped shopping, took the underground (the Tunnel Banana as it is called here) back to my hotel and was relieved.

The weather is still terribly cold, I've no idea of the temperature and there is no snow. I'm tired and happy, because it seems I managed to avoid a flu, which was making my throat sore on Wednesday. With a bit of garlic, warm clothing, no exercise and a little bit overmedication, the flu seems to have been defeated.

I am currently reading "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", which I think my motorcycle driver friends Marko (both Mänttis and Marko-Marko), Sascha and Katrin, (didn't Björn have motorcycle, too?) should read too, if they haven't already. I'm not finished with it yet and it is going deeper and deeper into the meaning of Quality. Which is interesting for me. I can already now see why this book became such a classic. It is clearly written and makes sense.

Another book I have with me (I bought it in Helsinki along with the "Zen...", as I ran out of books to read) is Richard P. Feynman's "Don't You Have Time to Think?", which is collection of his correspondence over the years. It sheds light on the character of the world-famous physicist and bongo-drummer.

The comic-on-the-road is the nineth tradepaperback in the Swamp Thing series titled "Infernal Triangles". It contains stories by Rick Veitch and an issue written by Jamie Delano and one scripted by Stephen Bissette. No Alan Moore anymore, but the character of Swamp Thing had by this time a solid foundation for other great writers to build on. It is still good fun and relaxing to read, even though there aren't necessarily as many groundbreaking (pun unintended) things as with Moore's run. But the plant-centric point-of-view certainly makes for interesting reading at its best.