Cav's Place

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.

On December 8, I got up when the alarm rang, at 1 PM, but it took me half an hour to clean up what dad had left in the kitchen, and the smell left from what he had fixed himself to eat in the morning was making me nauseous. Then I had all of the usual stuff, again with two of those nicer biscuits, with added honey, as the sweet thing, and I went out at 3:25 PM, wearing the full running gear and an undershirt underneath, plus the jacket on the way to the park, tied around my waist while I ran. The reported temperature was 6-7°C, holding steady.
The time was 47:31.51, with sector times of 4:17.79, 5:06.19, 5:54 (5:53.75), 4:30.06, 5:05 (5:04.51), 5:51.00, 4:23 (4:22.71), 4:54.16, 5:42.78 and 1:49 (1:48.56), making for lap times of 15:17.73, 15:26 (15:25.57) and 14:59.65. I aimed to stay under 48 minutes and the first two sectors didn’t exactly look good, and the first lap was barely on target if I was going to pretty much maintain that pace, which seemed unlikely. But I tried, and after lap two I still had a chance, so I really pushed from the start of lap three, and even more after the first sector, since I was thinking that if I’ll make it, it’ll be by the slimmest margin. That resulted in a sector two that was much better than expected, and while on sector three I was running out of breath and the fact that my nostrils were constricting because of the cold only made it worse, I kept it up and even managed to just squeeze under 15 minutes on that lap. That even gave me a small chance to stay under 47:30, but I was too tired to take advantage of it, which was frustrating, though in the end it was still much better than I thought.
Despite wearing the jacket, I was shivering on the way to the park, but it was fine while running, the lack of wind obviously helping. The humidity didn’t, on the other hand, and it was also pretty wet, though much of the lane was just moist, only some areas being soggy, and even those weren’t really bad, with the exception of one where there were puddles as well. But I avoided what I could, and since there were few people, I probably ended up going the long way around in order to avoid the wetter parts of the lane more than because of them. As for physical issues, I felt the need to snap my back almost right away, but I eventually managed to do so and it was fine after that.

After having lunch, changing and even doing the day’s squats, I went back out at 7:20 PM, taking some trash, which I dropped off in a bin, and the paper and cardboard, for which I made a little detour, in order to get to a recycling bin. Then I went to the metro station, since I had dad’s pass, got off at Basarab… And wasted time by walking straight to Carrefour Orhideea and not finding any of that cheap bread for dad, nor any expiring products that I’d have cared to buy. So I went back, washed my hands when I got to Kaufland and entered the store before 9 PM, so the discount labels weren’t yet placed in the bakery area. But the employee started doing so just as I was about to walk away from there, so I ended up standing around while she did that and getting a few products, including two of those breads for myself. Then I added a number of other things, finishing with a banana that I grabbed just when it was announced that the store had closed. At the self-checkout, however, I accidentally placed my bread on the scales after selecting the other bakery products, which were in another bag, and while the machine accepted that even though the bread weighed at least twice as much as those other products should have weighed, it strangely did not accept the other, much lighter, products when I selected the bread. So I had to call an employee, but in order to avoid explaining the entire situation, I just told her that the machine wasn’t accepting the bread, and she logged on to override that error. Then I arranged the purchases in the bags and went back to the metro.
I got back here a little before 10:50 PM, washed what was in the kitchen, put the purchases in their place, ate the banana and the sweet pastry which I had grabbed, and went to the bathroom when it was almost 12:10 AM, after waiting for dad to shave. After using the toilet and washing, I was out at 1:15 AM, and dealing with my bread and also slicing one of dad’s meant that I couldn’t recover that time, so I started eating dinner at 3:15 AM and finished at 3:50 AM. I got in bed at 5:20 AM.

On December 10, I got up when the alarm rang, at 1 PM, had all of the usual stuff, but pretty much only wasted time on the toilet, feeling that I really had to go only for the feeling to completely go away moments later. Not that it was surprising that there wasn’t actually much left, after going twice on each of the previous two days, and once again clogging the toilet on the previous day. That happened the first time I went on that day… And instead of just reaching in and dealing with it right away, when the water was still draining, I hoped that it’ll soften if I’ll leave it there for a while, then I decided to try to use a stick when I saw that the water was draining more slowly, and when that only clogged it completely I ended up having to reach into what at that point was plenty of very shitty water and struggle to deal with it, though I at least wore a glove on that hand. But, again, that happened on the previous day, so I’ll now return to December 10 and add that I also had two more of those nicer biscuits, with added honey, and left at 3:25 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was about 14°C, dropping by 1-2°C by the time I finished.
The time was 47:46.10, with sector times of 4:20.38, 5:08.00, 5:58 (5:57.69), 4:32 (4:31.94), 5:01.68, 5:51 (5:50.97), 4:24.16, 4:58 (4:57.66), 5:46.00 and 1:48 (1:47.62), making for lap times of 15:26.07, 15:24.59 and 15:08 (15:07.82). The initial target of staying under 48 minutes seemed to drift increasingly out of reach as time passed, so I was thinking that I’ll have to settle for just staying under 49 minutes, and that even that won’t be easy, but sector two of lap two got my attention and made me aim to stay under 48:30. However, after the end of the lap I wondered whether I might just somehow manage to squeeze under 48 minutes after all, and while it seemed very unlikely, I pushed hard, each sector looked good and, while I never thought that it could be possible, I was actually already safe after the end of the lap, so the final sector only added to the margin.
I had no real physical problems, even a certain pressing need that appeared at the start of lap three lessening after that first sector, but it was crowded, as expected, being Saturday. So there was a notable problem caused by people on each of the first four sectors, and while sector two of lap two and sectors one and two of lap three were better, sector three of laps two and three “featured” two such problems each, and those were also the worst, clearly causing me to briefly stop, usually because of kids that were riding something and swerving in front of me, a girl who was on a bicycle that was too big for her being particularly annoying. She had actually also just managed to stop herself from falling right in front of or even into me at the start of sector two of lap one, but that didn’t cost me any time because I had no time to react, in fact only realizing what had almost happened after passing her, but on sector three of laps two and three she was riding, still very unsteadily, towards me and seemed to have fixed me while she was still a short distance away, so you could see that she was getting increasingly confused and scared as she meant to avoid me but instead found herself coming straight towards me, and she ended up cutting me off both times. Otherwise, I had to wait for an opening in order to squeeze through some roadblocks, including on the long straight of sector two of lap one, a kid on a scooter also cut me off, and a cyclist who was on the lane and going in the same direction checked her phone and ended up swerving towards me just as I was passing her.

I had a quick look in the nearby Mega Image on the way back and spotted some expiring cheese that I was interested in, so I hid it behind the pile of expiring products, rushed to grab some money and went back, still without a mask, to buy it, along with some tea. Then I ate some walnuts and a bag of snacks, did the day’s squats, wasted even more time on the toilet despite once again feeling that I had to go until I actually got there, washed, also ate a couple of biscuits of another kind, cut my toenails, and in the evening I cooked something, eating a late lunch just before getting back to the kitchen. However, I couldn’t recover the time spent washing a part of the glass baking tray, and when I realized that I decided to also move and mix that cheese with what I already had, licking what was left, so I ended up actually starting to eat dinner at 3:20 AM, finishing at 4 AM.

On December 16, I woke up just before 12:30 PM and thought that I’ll just lie in bed a little longer, but I’m quite sure that I managed to fall asleep again just before the alarm rang, at 1 PM. Either way, I got up at that point, but after helping to make packages two days earlier and wandering around on the previous day, I was really tired, sleepy, pretty much every joint in my body was hurting, as were plenty of muscles, and my legs and back were the worst. But the plan was to run, so I had all of the usual stuff, the yogurt being a bio (organic) “Greek” one with 10% fat and the sweet thing once again two of those nicer biscuits, with added honey. And I again wasted time on the toilet, which was on the one hand once again not surprising, considering how much I had left there the previous evening, but on the other a concern, since it really felt like there was more to come. Either way, I left at 3:25 PM, when the reported temperature was about 6°C, holding steady, so I wore the tights and that old training shirt which I had also worn on November 28, without a t-shirt, plus the jacket on the way, tied around my waist while I ran. I stopped on the way to the park to sit on a bench and get something out of my left shoe.
The time was 48:10.98, with sector times of 4:20.17, 5:10 (5:09.90), 6:00.38, 4:29.31, 5:03 (5:02.56), 5:55 (5:54.69), 4:31.25, 5:00 (4:59.87), 5:51.63 and 1:51.22, making for lap times of 15:30.45, 15:27 (15:26.56) and 15:22.75. Considering how I felt, I started by thinking that I’ll try to avoid getting significantly more depressed if I’ll just stay under 50 minutes, but the first sector wasn’t as bad as I feared and after the second I was aiming to stay under 49 minutes. However, going over six minutes on sector three of lap one made me worry about that target, and it still seemed hard to make it after sector one of lap two. But I was pleasantly surprised to find myself faster on sectors two and three, and on lap two as a whole, than I had been on lap one, so after the end of the lap I was wondering about 48:30 and even gave a passing thought to staying under 48 minutes after all. That seemed really far fetched, and it was, but I gave everything on lap three and after two sectors, that second one once again being a pleasant surprise and the fastest sector two of the day, it seemed that I won’t have problems to stay under 48:30. And sector three was also faster than I thought it’d be, and also the fastest of the day, and that applied to the lap as well, so the target became to stay under 48:15, which was no problem. It’s still the first time I went over 48 minutes in two months, and the slowest run over this distance in three and a half, but it was better than expected, so I’ll take it, this once.
I tried to arrange that sleeve of that training shirt and the stopwatch, worn over it, before starting, but I failed on both counts, realizing after a few steps that the sleeve was pulled too far down and held in place by the stopwatch, so I was exposed almost to my shoulder on that side, and when I tried to pull that sleeve back up, the stopwatch was sliding. In addition, since it wasn’t tucked into the tights and the jacket was tied over it, the shirt was sticking forward at the front and allowing cold air on my abdomen. So I initially kept pulling the stopwatch up and was wondering what to do about the shirt, but around the end of the first sector the shirt seemed to have settled into an acceptable position and about halfway through the second sector I just stopped worrying about the stopwatch, since it didn’t seem like it could slide off, and while it kept moving around a little, it also pretty much found a position for itself and I left it like that.
Otherwise, there were relatively few people and they caused no notable problems, the lane was soaked in some areas and I avoided them whenever I could… But the main problem was how tired I was. I felt my leg and butt muscles contracting as soon as I started running, it seemed like my joints weren’t exactly listening to me, and from the start of lap two I was starting to overheat and sweat a little as well. But I just pushed through it and the problems seemed much less noticeable as time passed, though as I was pushing on lap three I did notice that my vision was cloudy when I was checking the time.

On the way back, there was a moment when I seemed about to get dizzy, but it passed, and while my chest was stinging, that was most likely radiating from my back, where something seemed to be stuck in a wrong position. Either way, after getting back I ate the small part of an apple from my mother that was still edible, even did the day’s squats, and then had lunch, with an entire bag of bagels instead of bread. Then I went to the toilet and washed, and in the evening I finished The Blacktongue Thief, though I only posted the quick review the next day.