Cav's Place

My back was still causing some problems on October 16, but I again did the day’s squats after getting up, and then I went out at 3:30 PM, taking the recyclables, which I dropped off in bin. I had planned a route that included up to three Auchan locations, but it wasn’t necessary, since I found everything in the first one. The discounted products on my list were gone from their normal place on the shelf, but quite a number of jars of one of them were still available at the end of that area, on the top shelf, so I had to reach up and take them down carefully. I needed to search more thoroughly for the other two products, but I eventually found them in the area for promoted products that’s at one of the entrances, in one case a box with what I was looking for being under two boxes of another product from that brand, the label from that spot only listing that other product, while in the other case the last handful of bags were actually in a box of another product from that brand. Then I added some more things, including what ended up being too much cabbage for myself, and went to the checkout. The total that showed up after the cashier scanned everything was higher than what I had calculated, but she explained that the discounts that required the store card will be applied by the machine, when I’ll go to pay, so I carefully checked that everything was correct at that point. Then I took quite a long time to arrange the purchases and finally walked away at 6:15 PM.
I went to Carrefour on the way back, peeing and washing my hands after putting my things in a cabinet, but I was mainly there for beans and couldn’t find them. I even asked an employee and she said that if they’re not in the vegetables area, they don’t have them, and in fact I never recall seeing beans in that location, which is strange. But I bought some more bread, then I retrieved what I had in the cabinet and got back here at 7:55 PM, having carried about 13 kg, only about one being from Carrefour. But I was only here to drop off those purchases, leaving again ten minutes later, though dad also happened to get back during that time.
Half an hour later I entered Kaufland, after washing my hands, and got some pretzels for my mother, after scanning the label to check that they did actually have an evening discount, since the employee was just coming to place the discount labels when I got back there. There was an evening discount for beets as well, so I also got some of those, after searching through the crates. A man joined me as I was doing so and seemed to feel like chatting, which obviously made me uncomfortable. Either way, the announcement that the store had closed came just as I was grabbing some more of those treats for Liza, so I then went to the self-checkout, having no problems with it. Then I washed my hands again, after digging through those beets, and continued to Carrefour, putting my things in a cabinet and getting beans, which were readily available in that location, and two more breads for dad, entering one at the self-checkout in order to get the evening discount without calling an employee. I had a voucher, but after not wanting to use it at the other location, since I had to use a regular checkout and the receipt would have likely been taken away, I forgot to do so when I paid for those purchases.
After retrieving what I had in the cabinet, I just reached the building’s door right at 10 PM, then I had a small apple and the sweet thing and snacks which I had bought from Auchan, and wrote a little more, in order to post at least a part of that day’s post before midnight. Then I went to the toilet and to wash, and while I finished just after 1 AM, I had the purchases to put in their place and also decided to slice dad’s breads and deal with one of mine, so I only started eating a combined lunch and dinner at 3:50 AM, finishing a few minutes before 5 AM. It was 5:25 AM when I got in bed, despite not even flossing for the second day in a row, but I did that when I woke up to pee, a little after 8:50 AM. And then I actually slept well… But, to add a little annoyance, the following evening I lost another 0.01 RON coin down the drain.

Moving on to October 20, I finally put half of the bio (organic) cereals bought back in March in one bag and mixed them, and while that went well, when I tried to pour the remaining halves of two of the cereals into the bags of the other two I spilled a fair bit. But I gathered most of what I had spilled from the counter, rinsed them a little and then added them in the mamaliga that I made at night. Before that, however, I finally cleaned my room again, two months and a week since the previous time, also changing the sheets and taking the blanket.

On the morning of October 22, I went to bed at 5:20 AM. Then, after getting up, I did 200 squats, since I had put them off the previous day until ended up not doing them at all, and also had lunch before leaving, a little before 6:15 PM. Since Tei closes at 6:45 PM on Saturday, I rushed, but I didn’t jog, so it took me 15 minutes to get there. But I found the four kinds of tea that I was looking for, for dad, checked the prices… And saw that one had a higher one than what I had seen on the site. However, there was no price label on the shelf and I was uncertain that I had grabbed the right brand, so I asked an employee who was at a computer, she asked another one to help me… And he took me back to the tea that I had grabbed. But after I said that it was just that tea that had that slightly higher price and I was uncertain whether I had picked the correct brand, he checked on another computer, found the correct one, since I had actually picked the wrong brand, and handed it to me. And I still got to the checkout just when it was announced that the store had closed, after which I took some time to put the teas in a bag.
I entered Supeco with that bag and the guard asked to look in it when I left, without buying anything, but I did put it in a cabinet when I got to Carrefour. Then I looked through the cabbage, but what was left was bad, though I found a better one which had been left by someone among the pumpkins and got it for dad, along with a pumpkin for myself and the other things that were on my list. Then I took quite a long time to arrange everything in the backpack and two bags and it was 8:30 PM when I was finally done and could walk away.
It was too late for the entire route which I had initially planned, so I decided to go straight to Auchan, to get the remaining teas, but on the way I stopped at a Mega Image that was open, unlike others from this area, put the bags in a cabinet, walking in with the backpack, and found the tea that was on sale there. And I also spotted one of those apple pastries, with the evening discount of 50%, and an expiring bread that I could get for dad, with the same discount, so I bought those as well. Then I retrieved my things from the cabinet and took some time to arrange the new purchases in the bags… And it wasn’t until a couple of days later when I noticed that, since they must scan those discounted products separately, I received the receipt for them, but instead of the one for the tea I received another customer’s receipt for drinks and cigarettes… Which I entered into their raffle, since it had the required value, unlike mine. Not that I won anything.
To return to the evening of October 22, I continued to Auchan, and when I entered the guard called after me, saying that I have too many things for him to seal them, but he’d ask me to leave my bags there, so I did leave the two bags that I had been holding in my hands, even though they don’t have cabinets, but walked in with the one hanging from my neck and the backpack. Then I got the teas that I wanted from there and a bucket of yogurt that had a surprisingly good price, wasting some time to search for a working price checker before giving up and going to the self-checkout… Which initially refused to scan that yogurt and then scanned it twice when I tried again, so I just grabbed the coins which had been left in that machine and moved to another, also using what had been added on the store card on October 16. Then I retrieved my bags, took some time to arrange the new purchases and it was past 9:40 PM when I was done and could walk away.
It was too late to also go to that newer Kaufland, but I could just reach the other one, so I rushed as much as I could while carrying everything and it was 9:55 PM when I walked in, once again with the backpack and the bag hanging from my neck, after putting the others in a cabinet and washing my hands. I went straight to the bakery area and just spotted some buns that I could get, but they had a regular discount those days and no other label had been placed over it, so after meaning to check at a self-checkout but finding all the machines in use I grabbed that label and scanned it, seeing that the actual price at that hour was half of the listed one. So I grabbed two, just managing to do so before the employee who was cleaning that area reached them, since it had just been announced that the store had closed. And that employee said that everything was discounted by 75% when she saw me, but that obviously wasn’t the case. Either way, I also very quickly checked the expiring products and looked for the ketchup that was on sale, but I ended up looking at the wrong one and when I obviously didn’t see the discounted price on the label I took it to a price checker and then just left it there when it was confirmed that it wasn’t discounted. And when I selected those buns at the self-checkout, the price was higher than what the price checker had shown, but I didn’t call an employee and try to argue, just entering them as the plain kind instead, which had a lower price.
After retrieving my things from the cabinet, I took some time to arrange everything better and then went back to the parking lot, since I had entered through it and spotted a cart with a coin in it, so I meant to see whether it was still there. And it was, so I threw some of the bags in it and took it to others, to connect it to them and retrieve the coin… But then I forgot those bags in it, realizing it as I was about to leave the parking lot and rushing back to retrieve them. And after walking out I stopped one more time to check that I had everything, only finally walking away when it was past 10:20 PM.
I was back a little after 10:50 PM, having carried 13 kg. Then I ate a small apple and that pastry and got back at the computer just after 11:25 PM, to continue to write that day’s post. But I had written the first two paragraphs before leaving and those were scheduled to be posted at 11:59 PM, so I allowed that to happen and then immediately edited it in order to add what I had written until then, after which I continued writing until I finished the post. Then, after also replying to an e-mail from dad, I finally went to wash at 12:25 AM, being done around 1:10 AM. And, even if I had the purchases to put away and also had to wash what dad had left in the kitchen, so it was a few minutes past 2 AM when I started making the salad, I still stuck to the dinner schedule, and after eating I added that last part to that post and ordered the remaining two teas from another pharmacy.

Full disclosure: I received Kindred Straits for free, in a giveaway, but this hasn’t in any way influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

Since this is the first book in a series that’s a prequel for another, those who have read The Sum of Ages will have background information that I didn’t, and definitely a much better grasp of the terms used. Yes, some are explained to various extents as they appear and the author makes pretty good use of Olenka’s sheltered life to keep those sections from being jarring information dumps, but when you couple all of those terms and concepts with my lack of familiarity with both merfolk and the “real” cultures used as inspiration for that of the Bantay Tubig, I’d have quite clearly been stumbling around if I wouldn’t have read the included Glossary before anything else… Which makes me wonder why’s it placed at the end instead of the beginning. And also why’s it written as if by a character, which seems to only be an unnecessary complication and even stranger when that character doesn’t otherwise appear in the book and the story isn’t otherwise presented by a narrator.
Still, that choice can’t be why I continued to feel lost, especially during the first part of the story. I’m not saying that the writing is entirely to blame, some of it may be my problem as well, but much more could have been done to ease readers who are unfamiliar with such a world and society into it… And choosing a different name for Daisay or Diwala, or both, would have also helped a fair bit, since I kept confusing them, the moments when they were called Dai and Di only making it worse. It was much better after their paths split, but I sometimes found myself needing a moment to remember which was which even then.
Otherwise, the writing style could do with some more cleaning up. The handful of obvious mistakes are pretty easy to fix, but what may pose more of a problem is that many times I felt that the author was struggling to just squeeze his way past style errors in a very strict sense, such as a short sentence inserted to break up what would be a repetition, which doesn’t really change the impression, or all of the moments of uncertainty created by the different style used in the sections focusing on Daisay, which kept making me wonder whether various potential issues that I was noticing were intentional or mistakes. And there are a few things that don’t add up as well, such as the Bantay Tubig being able to hold their breath for 15 minutes but apparently blacking out after being choked for mere seconds during combat, or the number of guards on the ship, possibly also the skill level of the two sides, and quite clearly the number of things that the characters get away with, especially when it comes to the sisters… And to Olenka’s very presence.
That said, this is not a bad book. The choice of setting and culture is quite bold, a lot happens in a very short amount of time, the action can pull you along from one moment to the next, the bond between Olenka and Marikit can be quite endearing and some of the character development may also be worth mentioning… Even if it may be too sudden. What I’m uncertain about is how seriously the author intends this book to be taken, because it may work better if you take a cue from the behavior of the secondary characters, mainly the sisters and to some extent also Daisay, and assume it to be more lighthearted, but on the other hand it also tackles dark and potentially painful topics, most notably sex trafficking, but also mental health or discrimination, and presents protagonists that are obviously flawed, and in fact broken in one way or another.
To conclude, I definitely didn’t dislike Kindred Straits, and I’m sure that other readers will find it much more enjoyable, especially considering my lack of familiarity with this sort of setting and culture. But more care should have been taken to ease the readers into this world, to make various matters clearer and more fleshed out, and it’d probably be better if one path, whether darker or more lighthearted, would be chosen and adhered to… And I also found myself wishing for more commentary against the caste system and the discrimination based strictly on the kudori. Of course, Daughters of the Storm will inevitably steer in the direction of The Sum of Ages, so the answers to these questions are likely known to those who have read that series, but I’ll again state that I haven’t and, since this series takes place before that one, there should be no need or expectation to do so first.

Rating: 3/5

Despite meaning to go to bed earlier, in particular because of the back pain, on the morning of October 15 it was again 5:20 AM when I did, and it was hard to find a comfortable position. And that continued to be the case after waking up to pee, just after 10:45 AM, and after two naps that likely lasted mere seconds I had probably just fallen asleep more properly when the alarm rang, at noon, and I got up. And then I even did the day’s squats, after putting them off the day before until I no longer did them at all, considering the back, which continued to be a real problem.
But the plan was to go out, and I did so at 1:35 PM, taking some trash, which I threw in a bin. I had dad’s metro card, which had somehow even started to work again, so I used the metro to get to Obor. Then I had a quick look at apples in the farmers’ market, keeping one place in mind, briefly checked that bookstore as well, and then went to Carrefour, grabbing some expiring or spoiling products and the juice for my mother and grandmother. Soft drinks were one of the categories of products that they were giving those vouchers for those days, but I wasn’t sure whether those particular juices were also included, so I asked an employee who was stocking that area… Only for him to say that he didn’t know. So I went to the one functional self-checkout that accepts cash, an employee again working on the other one, and entered the juice separately. I accidentally entered it as two of the same kind before remembering that they had different flavors, but since it was the same brand and the same price, I left it like that, checked that the voucher was indeed listed on the receipt, and then scanned the other products.
When I passed through the farmers’ market again, I bought some apples from that place which I had kept in mind, then took some time to arrange the purchases in the backpack and bag, got some pastries from a place that’s outside of that shopping center and then entered, to also go to Auchan. I initially intended to get some more things from there, but when I saw a sign announcing that 5% of the value will be returned on the store card for all purchases the following day, in addition to any other deals, I decided to just get some cabbage for dad that day, putting the other purchases in a cabinet. The cashier rounded the change as far down as she possibly could, by 0.09 RON, but I didn’t say anything, just moving on to also have a quick look at used pants, since dad had mentioned that he wanted some pants as well. Then I retrieved my things from the cabinet, had a quick look at the press shop from there, not seeing the newspaper from the previous day that has that TV schedule supplement that my grandmother wants and which dad had forgotten to buy and not managing to get myself to ask, and then I returned to the metro station.
I got off at Romana Square, wanting to get one of those carrot and orange cakes, but that place was closed, and continuing to that other one was another waste of time, since I didn’t see anything left that I’d have wanted. So, after also having a look at the sweets from a Turkish place, I returned to the metro station and went to Unirii, using the exit that I recalled had newspaper stands around it. But they weren’t there anymore, so I just had a quick look at another place selling Turkish sweets and one selling pastries, then went to that Carrefour, putting my things in a cabinet but not buying anything from there either. However, I left my things in that cabinet while having a look at that place that’s selling sweets which had reappeared, on the opposite side of that area, and at the newspaper stand that’s close to it, though I still didn’t get anything else. And then I entered that shopping center to pee and wash my hands before finally returning to retrieve my things from that cabinet, getting back to the metro station… And seeing a foreign guy who was struggling with the pass, at which point I just found myself telling him in English that he was putting it into the machine the wrong way and putting it in correctly for him even if he hadn’t actually asked me to do so.
I then went to Carrefour Orhideea, and the cabinets from there are locked with keys given by the guards, but I couldn’t even open any of the doors because there were no handles! So I asked the guard what to do and he told me to just put my things on top of the cabinets, and plenty of other bags were there, so I had no choice but to add mine next to them, leaving them in the open. Then I got one of those breads that I get from Carrefour, since it was on sale, but it was much smaller than what I find at other locations, so I checked the weight, seeing that it was just about right after all, so it was denser, not lighter, and that seems to be how it’s made in that location. Either way, I also grabbed some mustard and chocolate eggs with good ingredients from the expiring products area, both being very deeply discounted even though the chocolate eggs weren’t going to expire for several more months. Then, since the machines from that location only accepted cards at that point, I had to use a regular checkout, after which I retrieved my things, checked to make sure that everything was still there, added the new purchases and rearranged. However, after finally finding that newspaper as well, after asking at that press shop from there, I took quite a long time to rearrange what I had in my backpack yet again, to make it easier to carry and stop digging into my back. And then, after counting what I had left, I ended up being convinced that I had lost 2 RON, so I went back to search for them and eventually considered them lost… Before remembering that I had spent them on those apples from the farmers’ market.
I needed to use a large cabinet when I got to that Kaufland, and the first one that I tried didn’t lock, so I had to move everything to another one. Then I had a look at that confectionery, seeing that the price of that meringue cake had increased, after which I washed my hands, grabbed two expiring products for dad from Kaufland, had no problems with the self-checkout, bought one of those cakes from that confectionery after all, retrieved everything from the cabinet, took my time to rearrange yet again and went to the metro station.
I got off at this station, but I didn’t come straight back here, instead making a detour to the larger Mega Image, using two cabinets for the other bags and entering with the backpack and the bag hanging from my neck, and getting a bunch of snacks, all but one of them for dad. And at least that cashier rounded down the amount she asked for, by 0.05 RON. Then I retrieved what I had in the cabinet and once again took some time to rearrange, needing to somehow make room for those snacks.
I got back a couple of minutes before 9:30 PM, having carried a total of 18 kg. Then I put some of the purchases in their place, ate an apple and the cake, and went to the toilet and to shower when it was almost 11:15 PM, being done at 12:05 AM. But I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I started doing so at 12:45 AM, having a can of sprats and that bag of snacks, and it took me half an hour because I also calculated what I had spent and wrote some notes while eating. And then I had quite a lot to clean after dad, and also picked the parts that were actually good from the lettuce leaves that he meant to throw away, also needing to wash them thoroughly before making my salad from them, since he had placed them on the other side of the sink, with a few other things mixed among them. And I also dealt with my bread and had a part of it for dinner, but the first impression was that it looked strange, which made me microwave it for a longer time… Before realizing that it’s actually noticeably better than what I used to get, from other Carrefour locations, so I now strongly prefer to buy it from there when I want that kind of bread, usually to eat on the night before a run. Either way, all of that meant that it was 3:35 AM when I finally started eating dinner, but I rushed and finished at 4 AM. However, it was 5:20 AM when I got in bed, and that was despite not even flossing.

Using a post for a single day is clearly a waste of a “personal slot”, and makes me fall even further behind, but after having to transcribe an interview for dad instead of writing the previous post Friday night, I had to do that yesterday instead of going out, so this evening I went out, albeit without going where I meant to go and without getting many of the things that I meant to get, and this is all I could manage to write before and after. The plan would have been to cover the following week as well in this post, which would have meant covering all the odds and ends until December, since I already covered all of November without needing any separate posts for odds and ends. Admittedly, the period between October 29 and November 2 would have been left, but that’s when I went to Carrefour Vulcan each day in order to take part in that campaign offering fruits and vegetables in exchange for recyclables, so it’s a separate matter. But, either way, I really couldn’t just post one day now and then add all the others later… And I guess that having just the day when I turned 38 in a post, on its own, can be justified in some way… If you try hard enough…

After adding four posts to this series in the first three months of 2022, and no less than 14 in 2021, including one with what used to be the normal five bands, this is the first one in just under ten months, and it’ll once again be rushed and only include this “new normal” of three bands. But, after pretty much making a point of not looking for any new bands in quite some time, I recently happened to click on a few recommendations on YouTube, which resulted in one actual new find and realizing that I had wrongly discarded a band which I had stumbled into before. And then I started looking for a third band that I could add and found that a Romanian one which I had followed for a while but couldn’t include in such a post because they usually released only covers started adding more original songs over the past couple of years, so I had enough for a post.

The actual new find is LYRRE, and while I’m not particularly fond of the hurdy-gurdy that they seem to want to use as their “signature”, it can have its place and it does introduce a different element into their sound, so the songs that they released so far are interesting enough. And there are just three of them, which made it easy to select my two picks, which are North Star and Call in the Wind.

The second band is Ad Infinitum, and I clearly remember discarding them before because what I had stumbled into were songs ruined by growls, but now that I listened to several where all the vocals are clear I definitely couldn’t skip over them anymore. And those songs existed on their earlier albums, and since I can select my two picks from different ones even so, I actually won’t include any of the songs that were already released from their upcoming album and go with Inferno and Fire and Ice. When they can sound so well, it’s just such a pity that they choose to ruin quite a number of their songs, some of them badly, with those growls…

As for the Romanian band, that’s Anahata and, as I already mentioned, they usually release covers, and have been doing so very regularly for years, but they now also have a number of original songs and I can therefore finally include them in such a post. However, because it’s different from their other ones, my first pick will be their first original song, Masquerade. And then I wanted to make it easy for myself and select one released less than a year ago as my second pick, going with Tarnished Speck of Grace, but the fact that I didn’t pick any recent song for Ad Infinitum made me question that decision… And I wanted to include their cover of Tallulah anyway, since I was quite hooked on that one after stumbling into it, so I’ll just go ahead and break my rule of picking two songs per band even more and add Midsummer Cairn and Let the Solstice Reign here as well, just because I like them.

Just under three years since his last participation in the World Cup, Noriaki Kasai tried again now that international ski jumping competitions returned to Japan. However, unlike that previous time, he had to go through the qualification round, and he failed to do so both times, the first attempt being particularly frustrating, since he was the 51st, the first to fail to qualify, by a mere 0.4 points. There was a third competition as well, today, but the Japanese “national group” no longer took part in the qualification, and his lack of recent results obviously means that he doesn’t have the right to participate otherwise.
Then again, even three years ago he failed when he had to go through qualification, but the lower number of entrants for the second competition meant that qualification was no longer necessary. And the few other competitions that he took part in since then also had no qualification rounds, and they were all of a lower level, in fact his return to the Continental Cup last week being the first time he participated in an international competition since the end of 2020. But, despite being 50 and a half and obviously no longer capable of important results, he clearly has no intention to give up completely, so unless he’ll be stopped by a serious injury or illness, which I definitely hope won’t happen, he’ll probably keep trying each year, at least when the competitions will return to Sapporo.