Back to Yoga

So, I finally made it back to Yoga last night ... and it was dreadful. I think mostly because of a month-long break but also because I'm not fully over my cold yet and breathing thru my nose isn't always the easiest thing. That and they seem to have upped the heat in the room to 4000 degrees! I nearly died. Well, I'll be trying again today so let's hope I manage to get back into the swing of things :)

So other than that I had a fairly quiet evening at home. Read my book a little, had a lovely hot bath, Woolies yummy soup for dinner and a little Scrubs Season 6 to keep me entertained.

Varen did pop in for a little visit - he was supposed to be working an all-nighter last night and tonight. But he managed to finish earlier than expected last night and popped round on his way home :) A nice surprise.

And that was the grand total of my evening. But I must say it was nice to have one of those lazy nights at home with nothing specific to do :)

Oh, and this weekend I finished reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire (finally!).

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not directed at children. It contains language and content which catches some readers by surprise. Wicked, the hit Broadway musical based upon the novel, is also very different in tone from Maguire's book.

Alright, I'll start by saying that this book took me an inordinately long time to read ... and I'm not convinced it was purely because I took it on holiday with me and was saving it for my flight. Even once home, I've struggled thru it.

Maybe I didn't remember the basic story of The Wizard of Oz well enough, but even on it's own this book is draining. It is a complex (and not terribly interesting) book with many very odd characters that I just couldn't bond with. Apparently it's supposed to be "a political, social, and ethical commentary on what good and evil really are" - obviously I just didn't get it at all. And for the life of me I cannot imagine what the musical must be like!

It's a pity really because I had quite high hopes for it based on the back-cover blurb (above). But I just honestly wouldn't recommend this to anyone.