Graveside Picnic

The month is nearly over so I finally find 5 minutes to slink by.


Still not turned on the Big Mac to do a proper post


I finally got to visit my mother's grave on Good Friday
Last time I visited was Christmas which with a max temperature of 24 Celsius was the mildest in 40 years.
And probably the next 40 too

Sadly, her anniversary in March was closer to 42 than 24. So it's been a long long time between visits.

As well as visiting my mother, I also like to start a new book when I visit the graveyard.

One of the workers at the shop asked me last month to keep an eye out for the book "Roadside Picnic" because he's getting nostalgic to have a physical copy of his all time favourite book.

(I'd asked if it was connected to the Andrei Tarkovsky movie "Stalker"
That went on forever and nothing much seemed to happen)

I said, well of course I want to read it first.

Ask and you shall receive. The very same book turned up last week on one of my days off

He asked if au wanted to read it over Easter so that's the book I took to the graveyard


It was definitely very Uncanny Valley.
A pre internet Soviet science fiction novel set in mid west small town USA was most weird indeed
But even weirder was the Chernobyl vibe from a book written in the 1970s


It turned out, just like in the movie, not much happens, but the whole idea of aliens visiting earth then just moving on completely oblivious to the existence of puny humans just made this serpent smile


I definitely suspect that this book was inspiration for The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.
It also reminds me of the movie District 9 with the difference that the aliens run out of fuel so they can't leave

Like Panem, the Zones are a world that I just love to visit over and over again.

And Petunia can come along too. In spirit.