The autumn has arrived and this time it's here to stay.

I don't mind at all.

I've never enjoyed autumns as in this part of the world they mean endless darkness and rain. But this year it's different and I can't quite figure out why. It might have to do with the fact that this spring was so terribly bad that every season which takes me further away from the spring is a gift and a relief. I don't know. But I really enjoy watching the leaves turn yellow, the rain, and the shortening of days. There is something soothing and calming about it.

The work rhythm is back to normal now which means endless meetings and piling obligations. There are executive board meetings and administrative committee meetings and departmental leaders meetings and meetings and meetings. Seminars to organise, materials to translate, lectures to prepare, sermons to preach, videos to shoot. Everyone's back to the office and everything's moving at top speed. If I manage to come out of this madness next spring without another burnout, I deserve a gold medal. Phew.

I had a thourough chech-up at the eye clinic this morning and the news wasn't good. It's a month now since the surgery and something in my eyes is not recovering as it should. I didn't understand everything they told me but I think it has to do with the lense in my eye not wanting to change its shape. Which, apparently, it should want to do. So the process which for some people takes literally four days has taken me four weeks and I'm still not there yet. They still smile and tell me to be patient but I was quite shaken when I left the clinic today. But as I have a day off today (because I've just been to Riga again and a day that starts at 5.30 a.m. and finishes at 11 p.m. does require a day of catching one's breath afterward) I decided the best I could do was to go to my favourite Indian restaurant and drown my worry into - or rather bury it under - a mountain of Indian food. It worked. And the fact that this restaurant has the coolest and best looking waiter in town also helped. I had a little chat with him and left, feeling much more optimistic. I also finished a book, sitting in the restaurant (being single and going out means usually a company of a good book) and when I thought that I have been able to finish two books and have had four gym evenings this past 1,5 weeks, then things could be much worse. Things are getting better, not just as fast and smoothly as I expected.

As to these two books, I've come back to Europe. I've read one by Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad and another by French historian Jean-Pierre Minaudier. The latter author has a strange hobby of collecting grammar books of different languages so the whole book - I'd translate the title as The Glory of Grammar - talks about how brilliant and weird different languages are. One might think it's a dusty and boring book but it actually is wonderfully witty and engaging. It reminded me again why I fell in love with linguistics in the first place. I have a feeling this one goes straight to my Top 5 list of books this year.

It looks like my neighbors have also settled into the autumn/winter life rhythm. Because I didn't see them much over the summer but now they're definitely back - the school year started last week. There's a lady and her teenage son - around 17 I would guess - living upstairs. Now, there isn't much of a sound isolation between two storeys so in the evenings, when I'm really quiet and pay attention, I can hear the music that the guy is listening to upstairs. He seems to have his room right above my bedroom. Poor isolation plus a teenager upstairs could be receipt of a disaster. But in this case it isn't and it still makes me wonder. I mean, he listens to Norah Jones and Sting, of all people! When we meet in the hallway, which barely ever happens, he always greets me most politely ("Be sure to be nice to elderly people," I'm sure that what's his mother has taught him) and when we happen to bump into each other at the front door, he always tells me he will lock the door himself and that I don't have to bother. I didn't know teenagers like this existed any more! So here's to autumn and to my lovely neighbors: Norah Jones, Carry On.

I have only one problem with this autumn. I don't have an umbrella big enough.