The Fatal Attraction of The Abbey Bookshop

The Abbey Bookshop was a serendipitous discovery. We had been looking for a place to eat after wandering around Notre Dame Cathedral and headed to the Latin Quarter. It was the Canadian flag, flapping in the damp, chilly breeze (Paris in July!?), that we noticed first.

     

We approached the near-toppling towers of books hesitantly, but with more interest when I saw the English names on the book spines, and the narrow stone steps which seemed to lead underground. Signs indicating different genres hung from the ceiling or were pasted onto the front of bookshelves which formed a narrow maze of aisles. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we had to sidle sideways down the aisle if a new customer came in.

This was dangerous territory ... and I don’t mean the books threatening to fall down and bury us if we made a wrong move. I’m notorious for returning from trips, suitcase laden with books that I simply had to buy because I wouldn’t be able to get them at home. I spied a hardcover, which looked like a children’s picture book, but, on closer inspection, revealed the words of a Leonard Cohen song, illustrated with paintings by Henri Matisse. “This will be a good memento of our visit,” I said to my daughter, determined to stay strong.

She, however, had been lured down another aisle after crime fiction titles. So, what could I do, but ask the assistant where the travel books were? “Down the next aisle, behind the ladder,” she pointed.  And there they were…Colin Thubron, Pico Iyer, Jan Morris, Paul Theroux…Egypt, China, Japan, Turkey and Venice. Above that, names that had been thrown about in our writing class – Raymond Carver, Italo Calvinho…I felt like I had died and gone to literature heaven!

My daughter meanwhile was being instructed to move shelves to find what she wanted…shelves that slid along tracks to reveal more shelves behind them. We didn’t stand a chance.* We finally made it to the till, me trying to keep my eyes averted from the book on Cuba I couldn’t possibly have found at home.

“Time to find lunch and pore over our purchases,” I said to my daughter. The assistant, with a deft sideways manoeuvre, pulled out a leaflet from under her desk (probably the only place she could keep them) and asked, “Would you like some recommendations for something French?” So, we did find what we were looking for after all. 

*we really didn’t stand a chance; the bookshop was celebrating 25 years and 40 000 books!

Same-same, but different

So you may have noticed that I've been absent from the blog-o-sphere for a while. I've been on scholarly pursuits at the university on the hill, as mentioned in previous blogs before academia swallowed me up. 

I managed to churn out almost 80 000 words of a thesis, with a little help from family and friends and a dollop of motivation from Idris Elba, who made me feel guilty every time I opened the fridge, where my daughter had stuck the following picture: 

image courtesy of Pinterest

Normally, yoga would have kept me sane, but I developed a "tennis elbow" as a result of sitting at a computer for hours on end – first world problems, my daughter called it. So, instead of downward-facing dog and sun salutes, I put on my walking shoes and walked.

Now that my life is taking on a semblance of normality again, I've decided to revive the blog. I have held on to the lavender, travel stamps and potjie but it’s been given a fresh look (perhaps more grown-up?) by my friend and fellow-student, Stephen Symons … same-same, but different, as we heard everywhere we went in Thailand when we visited years ago.  I'm sure I even saw T-shirts with that saying.

When I emerged from behind my desk, the real world had been carrying on without me: 
My nephew, born at 34 weeks, had turned into a robust toddler after his shaky start to life. (See blog)

The little preemie soon
after birth 

A year later presumably
on a diet of gravel

The Delft Big Band has played at Starlight Classics, released a CD and made a turn at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. 

international delegates at WEF 2015

I gave the World Economic Forum a miss this year to complete and hand in the thesis but did manage to balance the last year with a trip to Paris with my daughter.

 

Attending the 2014 WCPRC awards ceremony provided the perfect excuse to take some time out to wrap up the thesis. 

Gripsholm Castle, Mariefred

And I was in False Bay Harbour to see my son and his team mates get rescued by the National Sea Rescue Institute during the Lipton Challenge Cup.

Hard to believe the storm 3 days later

In between, my daughter graduated and is on a gap year while my son is writing matric ... more news and snippets of writing in upcoming blogs!