Pilgrimage

Tomorrow, we will be between Liverpool and Manchester in my friend's house, for her birthday party. Well, you know that already. In that blog entry, I compared it to an odyssey, but it might be more akin to a pilgrimage. I don't think I will visit this place, as my wife might want to do something else than seeing what we already saw the only time we went to Manchester. We will however go through Manchester, which might give me goosebumps, if I am not too tired. Last time (well, the only time I went there), I felt like a pilgrim going to a sanctuary. I was, in a way, although I was accompanied by an unbeliever. So this time, even though I might not see the sanctuary, being on Burgess's birthplace will be enough for me. I will also read M/F on the journey, as it is appropriate for such circumstances. I hadn't read Burgess's novels since 2007 and I thought it had been way too long. I started it yesterday and it is already a great read. Oh the lines, the great lines! I burst out laughing reading this:

"-But I understood you were to study Business Management.
-It didn't work. I was advised to transfer to something useless. I was appalled by the lack of oceanic mysteries in Business Management. But, when you come to think of it, Elizabethan drama can teach you a lot about business. Intrigues, stabs in the dark, fraternal treachery, poisoned banquets-"

Those few lines sum up my understanding of business and my intellectual attitude towards it. This is what I love about Anthony Burgess: he does not only write about real life, he writes real life. So between meeting again old friends, I will think of oceanic mysteries (I am trying to figure out what it means) and useless but fascinating things. Does that make sense?

On a more trivial note, I will probably drink gin and tonic at that party. It is my friend's specialty, and it was also Burgess's favourite drink.