Will it get here before Padma leaves?

 

 

They say that if you can't sleep at night it's because you're awake in someone else's dream. I've just got up after another long and sleepless night, so if everyone could just please stop dreaming about me, that would be great.

The bright sunshine on the river makes up for the sleepless night, and I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go. I'm still sniffling and slightly lightheaded but otherwise on the mend, which is more than I can say about Padma who's now got the lurgy as well. She's still under the electric blanket switched to HIGH, and I'm serving her breakfast in bed.

Will she get better in time for her flight to Indonesia? And more to the point, will my new washing-up gadget get here before she leaves?

 

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Das Boot

 

 

Today is "my day off" as Padma has gone into the Bay to help a lady-friend run a charity fundraising stall in the mall. It gives me plenty of time to watch once again the 150-minute-long German movie "Das Boot" which follows the crew of a German U-Boat during WWII at a time when there is already a sense that the Germans are on the losing side of the Battle in the Atlantic.

 

To read a preview, click here. To read the German original, click here.

 

Like Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front", Lothar-Günther Buchheim's book "Das Boot" was meant to be an anti-war novel. Though impressed by the technological accuracy of the film, the author was disappointed with the 1981 film adaptation which, according to him, converted his clearly anti-war semi-autobiographical novel into a blend of "cheap, shallow American action flick" and "contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World War II".

A sequel of the same name, in the form of a 280-minute-long television series, was released in 2018, with different actors. It was set nine months after the end of the original film, and is split into two narratives, one based on land, the other set around another U-boat and its crew. Like the original film, the series is based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 book "Das Boot", but with additions from Buchheim's 1995 follow-up sequel "Die Festung". However, the original 1981 film is today regarded as one of the greatest German films ever made.

A full-length version of the film is not (yet) available on YouTube, but I have found an hour-long documentary about the making of it here:

 

 

If Padma stays away long enough, I might even start on the book again.

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P.S. Okay, I've tracked down four parts of the six-part TV series here:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 

Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way.

 

Søren Kierkegaard

 

The dreaded lurgy is still rampaging at "Riverbend", but worse still, Padma is showing signs of early dementia. Only this morning she told me she can't remember what it was she saw in me when she married me, which allows me to smoothly segue to Søren Kierkegaard and my next topic.

"Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy." [Kierkegaard's 1843 masterwork "Either/Or: A Fragment of Life"]

Søren Kierkegaard's writing is not easy to penetrate but most men can probably relate to the first line of the above quote, although with the simpler words "damned if you do and damned if you don't". I stick with Socrates who said, "By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; you you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher".

With just a week to go to Padma's departure, which will leave me stranded for the next five weeks with a pantry full of 2-Minute noodles, I am also in two minds about it. Of course, I shall enjoy the peace and quiet in the house, and being able to do what I want to do on the spur of the moment, and sleeping in all morning or staying up all night, and leaving the toilet seat up and the sink full of unwashed dishes, but the fun may have worn out by the time my last pair of clean underpants has done the same --- don't even suggest I should turn them inside out!

Anyway, Kierkegaard broke off his engagement to Regine Olsen and never married, so he shouldn't have the last word on the subject.

As you were saying, Padma ...

 

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The Art of the Deal

 

 

The genius who had the smart idea to have this bestseller ghost-written for him, also just now gave a masterclass in how to navigate international relations. Delivering as promised to stop the war in the Middle East, he expertly de-escalated the situation from a conflict in Gaza to an all-out regional war with a potential nuclear power.

"One minute the situation is teetering on the edge of a ceasefire, and then he comes in, takes control, and before you know it the entire region is at war. This is real Art of the Deal stuff", commented one international relations specialist. "Having a guy with an unsuccessful background in running casinos at the negotiating table certainly helps".

 

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The end is nigh!

 

 

They - whoever "they" are - say that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. It certainly seemed that way over the weekend when I came down with a debilitating flu which laid me flat for two days.

It's still lingering on, but at least I'm my former upright and standing again, and Padma has put a new roll of toilet paper on the holder.

(And I'm able to blog again!)

 

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