A Viking's funeral for Odin

Since the recent and tragic death of my beloved feline friend Odin, I have been organizing his funerals with his owners. I cannot really get over it yet and I discovered that grieving is a long and rather demanding process. The saga of Odin as I called it, which I started without knowing back in May, took a lot of my time and thoughts, and even though its hero is now gone, I cannot bring myself to finish it. I guess sagas end in tragedies and funerals, Norse ones do anyway, with warriors going to Valhalla. They are pleasant reads, but this one came to an end too early, while there was still so much to write about. I will blog more about my friend, although now it will be painful.

So anyway, we have decided that Odin (or Homer as his owners call him) will be cremated by himself. Because we didn't want him to be mixed with other cats, as he always wanted exclusive attention in his life. This is partially why he left his owners' home for this garden, because everybody around here was ready to give him plenty of attention, cuddles, food and well love. Odin didn't have to share. So he will be cremated, then his ashes will be scattered over the bush he loved so much. In a way, it is a funeral for a Viking. Somehow, preparing his funerals reminded me of the movie The Vikings, this particular scene (spoiler alert: don't watch or read further if you haven't seen the film), when Erik played by Tony Curtis tells the other Vikings to prepare a funeral for his half-brother Einar, played by Kirk Douglas. "Prepare a funeral for a Viking." Erik said, after Einar died holding his sword, crying "Odin!" as his last fierce cry. I find Einar to be the true hero of the movie, even though he is evil. And like my Odin, he had a wounded left eye, all white. But Odin was not evil. He was the sweetest, most loving feline. I will write a eulogy here. It may sound silly, but he deserved nothing less. And he also deserve a Viking's funeral.

High sea adventures (and a song)

This photo is the sign of a local pub, aptly called The Ship. When I drink there, I usually have a Smuggler or a Mutiny, depending of what's available. Strange name for a pub, as this town is close to a river, but far from the sea.

I was thinking about my childhood games around the family swimming pool, and many of them were high sea adventures. In a way, I didn't really grow up: instead of playing make belief games about high sea adventures, I daydream about them, drinking a beer with an evocative name, in a pub with an evocative name. The ship image reminds me of a movie I particularly love: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . it was showing on TV recently. I watched a bit of it, distractly. I said back in 2008 that I needed to buy the DVD. I still haven't done it. It is the kind of movie that needs to be watched during summertime. I better hurry up, as it will not be summer for much longer. I know I uploaded this song before, but since this blog needs music from time to time and since it is still summertime and I had this in mind, I thought I would upload it again, this time with Kirk Douglas's movie performance. It is quite funny, if you think about it, a genuine musical number in an adventure, high budget blockbuster movie. And it works beautifully.

A Whale Of A Tale

In order to shamelessly use the pictures we took at the London aquarium (since they go so well with they go so well with the background of this blog), I have decided to put here a song from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I already blogged about the movie. As a child, I used to love the song. I always liked Kirk Douglas, he was maybe more a charismatic actor than a great actor, but what a presence he had (and I guess has still). He was perfect to play the action man and he also had a perfect voice for this kind of song, raspy like one could believe a sailor man would get after spending months breathing the salty air above the ocean. I am in need of a holiday. My job is getting boring and one of the colleagues I mentioned recently is getting increasingly difficult. Until then, I have this song.