David's Tea shops are popping up all over town - I think there are four or five now, including one not too far from where I work. It's so easy to get flavoured out with tea, and after going on a peppermint binge, I just wasn't finding inspiration in the cupboard. Orange? Licorice? Lemon? Boring. My yearning for a new taste sensation eventually filed itself away, and I actually walked by a David's Tea, only to backtrack moments later. Oh right!
I remembered a sample that I instantly had to have more of. The Oh Canada blend is a smooth red rooibos with maple syrup, toffee and caramel. It smells a-m-a-z-i-n-g, plus I love the sugar maple leaves that add a bit of colour. I bet it would make a great latte.
Now here's some bonus Canadiana - the featured saucer is one of several pieces that Mom gave me a few years ago, from one china cabinet to another. The saucer is made in Japan and branded with Woodward's on the back. Woodward's was a great Western Canadian department store that is proof that good things don't last forever. After 100 years in operation, the chain was sold in 1993. It's just a bit of nostalgia that makes it precious - and just watch me dash across the kitchen every time my husband tries to put in the dishwasher!
As we've seen before, science fiction isn't just all about hardcore technology, new worlds or current events carefully couched as the future. I can only imagine that there was so much change going on in the 1960s that Edmund Cooper may have wistfully sighed and wished for escape to a place where he could see...
A Far Sunset
The year: 2032 A.D. The Gloria Mundi, a starship built and manned by the new United States of Europe, touches down on the planet, Alatair Five. Disaster strikes, leaving only one apparent survivor - Paul Marlow, whose adventures in the lair of a strange primeval race known as the Bayani leads him first to their God, the omnipotent and omniscient Oruri, and eventually to an unlimited power that is so great that is must include a built-in death sentence. The forces that have remained static for centuries overcome both the forces of the future and the quest for unlimited knowledge.
If you don't want to hop on over to Google, Gloria Mundi comes from the saying "Sic transit gloria mundi", which translates to "Thus passes the glory of the world". My literary insides tell me that the 1977 cover of this book by David Bergen (original printing 1967), has little to do with the story inside. Paul Marlow, who is rechristened Poul Mer Lo, is a psychiatrist who finds himself accepted by the "primitive" society as a sort of god. The chapters are short and after six of them I get the impression that it's a pulpy men's adventure book - naturally Paul ends up with an exotic alien female who seems more concerned for him than herself. My gut is also telling me that Paul saves the Bayani, marries Mylai Tui and lives happily ever after. I'll keep reading and update this post later!
If A Far Sunset piques your interest, Edmund Cooper's books are now available as eBooks. He's one of the seemingly rare older authors whose works have made the digital leap, and thank goodness, because some of these old paperbacks get pretty fragile.
2014 has been the weirdest year ever! Instead of riding the horse, I feel like it's dragging me around in circles. I hope March is better, because most of February was sleepless, literally. It started with too much going on in my head:
Then it continued with randomly waking up at 4am every morning. By the time Friday rolled around I looked like the living dead:
And just when I started waking up at 6am again...my father in law started calling between 10 and 10:30pm every night. I guess seniors have no reason to go to bed early, unlike us poor young folk:
Why! Why? Why did my body and my FIL hate sleep so much? And my brain! During the last week of February, my brain had a hankering for belting out Tom Jones for a solid hour and a half:
Let me tell you, What's New Pussycat? is a really, really, really long, long song! Fortunately my before bedtime habits, body clock, father in law and brain have all shaped up, because March is so far, so good in the sleep department. Sweet dreams!
PS, if you like the font, you can download it for free from Blambot.
