"Watership Down" by Richard Adams (1972)

 

This is the book I wanted to read and somehow got "The Wind in the Willows" instead - I don't regret it because "The Wind in the Willows" was beautiful and I loved it with all my heart - but they are completely different and its good that I read them both. In fact, even though it didn't look promising, it turned out that 2023 was good year for reading - I managed to read 14 books (out of 12 that I gave to myself as a task) and some of them were unforgettable indeed. 

Where "The Wind in the Willows" was delightful and magical, this one was more like adventure story similar to "Lord of the Rings" in a way - the main characters were rabbits and the antagonists were all the predators that kill them, including dogs, foxes, cats and humans. There is a tiny rabbit with prophetic powers (Fiver) who warns his friends about upcoming danger so they escape their rabbit-town and finally reach their new destination after many dangerous adventures. This could have been the end of the book but it continues into another adventure when rabbits get in conflict with another rabit-town lead by tyrannical rabbit General Woundwort who is eventually outmanoeuvred and everything ends well, in fact the ending was just perfect, with a little bit of mysticism and animal religion thrown in as a nice touch. 

"One chilly, blustery morning in March, I cannot tell exactly how many springs later, Hazel was dozing and waking in his burrow. He had spent a good deal of time there lately, for he felt the cold and could not seem to smell or run so well as in days gone by. He had been dreaming in a confused way--something about rain and elder bloom--when he woke to realize that there was a rabbit lying quietly beside him--no doubt some young buck who had come to ask his advice. The sentry in the run outside should not really have let him in without asking first. Never mind, thought Hazel. He raised his head and said, "Do you want to talk to me?"

"Yes, that's what I've come for," replied the other. "You know me, don't you?"

"Yes, of course," said Hazel, hoping he would be able to remember his name in a moment. Then he saw that in the darkness of the burrow the stranger's ears were shining with a faint silver light. "Yes, my lord," he said, "Yes, I know you."

"You've been feeling tired," said the stranger, "but I can do something about that. I've come to ask whether you'd care to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you and you'll enjoy it. If you're ready, we might go along now."

They went out past the young sentry, who paid the visitor no attention. The sun was shining and in spite of the cold there were a few bucks and does at silflay, keeping out of the wind as they nibbled the shoots of spring grass. It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more, so he left it lying on the edge of the ditch, but stopped for a moment to watch his rabbits and to try to get used to the extraordinary feeling that strength and speed were flowing inexhaustibly out of him into their sleek young bodies and healthy senses.

"You needn't worry about them," said his companion. "They'll be all right--and thousands like them. If you'll come along, I'll show you what I mean."

He reached the top of the bank in a single, powerful leap. Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom."

Josipa in the Museum

 

I was familiar with photography by Željko Koprolčec because he was behind some of the most interesting LP covers of pop albums when I was growing up in the 1980s. Namely, he was the photographer who created covers for Aska, Zrinko Tutić, Adi Karaselimović, Dalibor Brun, Novi Fosili, Đurđica Barlović, Ivo Pattiera and Arsen Dedić. Clearly, he was a successful and busy man. But I know him chiefly as a man behind the fabulous cover of 1982 album by my favourite Josipa Lisac - it was designed as an eye-catching, stunning cover and it presented Josipa as a fully fledged rock star. I was impressionable teenager and for me this was the best thing ever. To this day I envy people who got this as a concert poster. They continued collaboration and it seems like it brought up the best in both of them, he was clearly inspired by her confidence and she was in her element. 

I have just found several more of this photographs, some of them outtakes from sessions for 1982 album cover, others created later, most of them I have never seen before. There are still more of these pics that I have to discover and it makes me happy to see them, since its all new and fresh to me. 

Around 1998 Koprolčec actually presented a photo exhibition in Zagreb's Museum of Arts and Crafts focused exclusively on Lisac - it was not unusual for the pop singers to be subject of a photo exhibitions, but to my knowledge this was the first exhibition focused exclusively on one person and it validated Lisac's position as more than just a pop singer - at this point, she was a cultural icon. If I remember correctly, the exhibition itself was celebrated by two concerts by Lisac - one for the press and one for the audience. I was there and I recall Lisac being backed by late jazz maestro Boško Petrović in Duke Ellington's "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me". It was a very interesting, unusual musical evening because Lisac selected songs from left and right - not only her pop repertoire but also for example church song "Panis Angelicus" that I particularly remember because it was the first time I ever heard that song and had to look it up afterwards. To this day, I also remember thinking that "Janino ludilo" from "Gubec beg" (a famous mad scene from our first, 1975. rock opera) was perhaps too sombre for a pop concert because it killed the mood instantly. I do remember the exhibition and the concert very well - press reported about some disagreement between the diva and photographer - she gave concerts but declined to be at the opening. I also bought a beautiful photo album that was on sale and lost it immediately, since I started moving between countries and continents soon afterwards. These photographs remind me on that evening. 

My Duolingo stats for 2023

 

"The Invisible Man" by Herbert George Wells (1897)

 

I am actually reading more now than during the whole year - it helps that I have a new, handy E-reader + instead of countless podcasts, I started listening to audiobooks. Since my Goodreads 2023 reading challenge is over, I might even double up the challenge for the next year - by combining one audio + one paper book per month, I don't think that would be difficult? With Jules Verne still buzzing in my head, I kind of promised myself to finally read "The Invisible Man" by my old friend Herbert George Wells - it is one of his most famous novels and thanks to countless adaptations, until now I never got around to actually read it myself. 

"The Invisible Man" starts with the arrival of a mysterious stranger in a quaint, sleepy little village of Iping (that deserves to be visited simply because of this literary connection) where his solitude and insistent reclusiveness provokes extreme curiosity of quirky locals who eventually become completely hysterical and even violent towards him. The first half of the novel we don't know much about the main character and its mostly fascinating as a study of mob against an individual - the more our unnamed antihero demands to be left alone, the more locals knock at his door. His night walks are ridiculed and everybody noticed he is not going to a church. Basically he is an outsider, therefore dangerous. Up to this point I even had certain fondness for him - but in the second part of the book we find out more about him and author makes sure that he describes him as a sociopathic monster (nowadays he would probably be a mass shooter) so reader can't sympathise with him anymore. It is quite gripping and I must admit that Wells is much, much better storyteller than Verne who might be charmingly nerdy but is often lost in technical details. 

Even though the author did all he could to make the main character an antagonist and sociopath, I could not shake off the feeling that allegedly dangerous antihero is somehow less dangerous than ordinary people around him - under the surface, they are all extremely selfish, greedy and violent. There is even a scene where one character (Dr. Kemp) is running and knocking at his neighbour's door, just to get them slammed in his face. Wells is very insistent about antihero being dangerous lunatic who lost his mind and became a menace to society, but this is not a nice, warm society - the mob itself is far more menacing than The Invisible Man. 

"Around the Moon" by Jules Verne (1869)

 

Jules Verne exist in his own universe - even though he is often pigeonholed together with Herbert George Wells as one of celebrated literary ancestors of science fiction, where Wells was story driven, Verne is like a giant geek who thrives on encyclopedic knowledge and likes nothing better than to show off the breadth of his scientific knowledge. That also means that the reader has to have a lot of patience to plow trough what might not be exactly called a page turner - there IS a story but its process is secondary to author's delight in scientific explorations (combined with geography, etc). It didn't bother me so much when I was a teenager, because I would just skip the boring parts, but now as an adult I could not help but notice that it does slow down the story quite noticeably. One has to go trough a tons of calculations and informations before the story continues. Once you get used to it, though, it becomes quite charming. As with the previous part ("From the Earth to the Moon") I listened this as an audiobook during my daily walks to work and back - listening to someone else's voice somehow made it easier and more enjoyable than I expected. My congratulations to Mark Smith from Simpsonville, South Carolina who read this so lovingly and patiently, using many different voices. I have a feeling we might meet again.

Where the previous novel dealt with creation of enormous cannon who will catapult our three main characters into a space (and the whole novel was basically just a build-up), now we have them actually traveling to cosmos. As this was many years before actual Moon landing, Verne had to simply use his imagination (and lots of scientific calculations) to describe imaginary journey - the story moved very slowly but it was lovingly described and one noticeable difference from the first part is how Michel Ardan suddenly became sort of comic relief (where in the first part he was a hero). Our guys travel all the way to the moon but unanticipated meeting with a comet changes their course and they end up not reaching the moon but circling around it. Just lovely. I might even go back to Verne again sometime soon. 

"From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne (1865)

 

Because I recently read "The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells, I thought it would be just fair to check out his famous literary predecessor. Now, Jules Verne is of course an author usually connected to childhood and teenage years, when one reads adventure novels - however, it turned out that I am more familiar with his work trough the movies and cartoons ("Classics Illustrated") than actual books. It has been several decades since, but with a complete conviction I could name only a few of his novels that I have actually read:

- In Search of the Castaways (1868) correctly translated as "Children of Captain'Grant"

- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869)

- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

- Michael Strogoff (1876) translated as "The Tzar's Courier" 

It turned out my theoretical knowledge of Jules Verne is by far bigger that my actual acquaintance with his work. So to correct this, I decided to turn my attention to "The First Men in the Moon" written some 30 years earlier than Wells. Since Goodreads is constantly reminding me that I am lagging behind my 2023 reading challenge, I did the same like with "The Wind in the Willows" and started listening to an audio book. 

This was a very good decision, because I completely forgot how obsessed with scientific experiments, details and measurements Verne was. I actually don't remember him being so scientific or technical - as a kid, I have probably just skipped everything and focused on adventures - if I was reading this as a physical book, I might have skipped it all over again - but since I was walking lulled with a pleasant voice of certain Mark F. Smith, this didn't really bother me. In the beginning it took me a while to get accustomed to so much encyclopedic knowledge (do we really need to know name of every singe bank who contributed to finance of the project?) but I grew to like it a lot and eventually started really enjoying myself. I do must confess this is a very old fashioned, flowery writing style with a tons of encyclopedic digressions into all sorts of informations, calculations and technical knowledge - in fact, author often appears far more delighted with these scientific explorations than with the plot itself, hence the huge amount of research and only occasional return to the story. I would say, Verne's novel is 70% science and 30% story. As a society, we have changed a lot since - I don't think that kids today have patience or enough focus for such long-winded literature, it tested even my patience as a grown up man. 

So is it "From the Earth to the Moon" any good?

Yes, its delightful but the reader must accept that Jules Verne exist in his own universe, where scientific details and constant technical digressions matter more than the story itself. There is a cute satire with idle members of Baltimore Gun Club joining together to finance construction of cannon that could be projected to the moon. There is a president Barbicane, his enemy Captain Nicholl and heroic French adventurer Michel Ardan (whose identity I still didn't understand, he seems to come out of nowhere), all sorts of complications around them and building of huge cannon in Florida (Texas was another possibility). There is so much of science and engineering, that the whole story almost collapses under the sheer weight of it, but Verne adds surprising touches of humour and satire that keeps the reader engaged. I was surprised how much a novel from 1865 deals with stereotypes that are perfectly recognisable even today - Americans are gun crazy and of course, a French is a hero. This was so charming that I immediately continued with a sequel. Because, dear reader, the whole book is about construction about the cannon - the journey is described in the sequel. 

"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (1953)

 

Motivated by Goodreads reading challenge, I decided to pick up the tempo a bit faster and had finally arrived to the point where I have 10 books behind me this year, still have the whole November and December to reach 12 books as I originally planned. It helped that Goodreads also posted a list "short reads—all under 200 pages"  probably for the people like me, who found themselves at the end of the year and not enough books read. I did read, but somehow spent too much time on "Kim" which was mistake, I should not digest one book for months. (On the other hand, why not, some books are simply created to be enjoyed slowly) In any case, I quickly decided for Ray Bradbury for two reasons. First is that, besides brilliant "The Martian Chronicles" I have actually not read anything else by him, second is that stupid feeling that surely I know about "Fahrenheit 451" but had actually never read it. This was quickly corrected.

Dear reader, you probably already know that the title of "Fahrenheit 451" alludes to a temperature where paper burns - you might even know that it has something to do with books burning in some dystopian future. I had all these vague ideas about it, but was not aware that main character will be a futuristic fireman who turns into underground fugitive and refuses to toe the line. Like everything from Bradbury, this was excellent but a bit bleak and dark - for that reason its often lumped in with the works by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley - future never seems bright, perhaps there is only a slight hope somewhere at the end of the dark tunnel. I also understand it might not appeal to everybody, there are people who find it too dark and disturbing.

I thought it was excellent - initially it was kind of slow moving but I got into it really quickly and the last few chapters were really gripping. The main character is fireman Guy Montag who never questions his orders, until one evening he accidentally starts conversation with a kooky neighbour girl Clarisse who suggest that in the past firemen used to extinguish fires, not start them - even though Clarisse eventually disappears and is probably killed, this makes Montag think about his place in the world and why everybody does as ordered. Slowly, he changes his mind and keeps one book hidden in his house - it leads to hidden threats from his boss (Captain Beatty) and a betrayal from his ignorant and callous wife (Mildred) who cares only about her equally superficial friends and huge TV walls called "family".

Becoming a wanted fugitive, Montag runs for his life, helped by old professor Faber who explains him that there are others like them, living quietly somewhere in the countryside outside the cities. Right now I think I should read it again, just to enjoy it more with better understanding.

"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

 

Not sure are you familiar with the website Goodreads but it is a very nice little web corner for the book lovers and it often gives you recommendations, reviews and opinions about books + creates virtual friendships + gives you statistics how much you read. They even have something called Reading challenge where you decide how much you want to read per year and according to my statistics, I was far behind my decision - once, long time ago, I used to read 4 books per month so 48 titles per year was pretty standard for me - with beginning of a new life, moving to another country and everything around Covid epidemics, I slowed down my reading quite a lot and now I am struggling to even finish 1 title per month. I thought that 12 books in a year should be realistic and here I am in November with only 8 books - to fix this, I had to quickly force myself to leave internet browsing and focus on reading. So I gulped "The First Men in the Moon" and cheated a bit with what is called novella but its actually a short story, "The Turn of the Screw" in order to pump it up a bit + I started listening audiobook "The Wind in the Willows" while walking to my work and back. 

Now, why did I decided to listen "The Wind in the Willows" I have no idea - it is a beloved British children book and a classic but as I mentioned previously, I was born and raised elsewhere and in my country the focus was on different children's authors. Kenneth Grahame wasn't even translated into Croatian until 1989. when I turned twenty and was not reading children's books anymore. I think I wanted to actually read "Watership Down" and somehow accidentally started this one instead. Listening audio book was actually surprisingly rewarding experience, because I love my walks and listening to a gentle, soothing voice was just brilliant, I must admit that these moments were the highlight of my day. If I was reading, I might skip some pages but since I was listening, I simply followed the reader's voice and my heart almost burst when at some points he started gently singing as it was part of the story. 

"The Wind in the Willows" is adorable fable with four friends (Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad) as the main characters - they all live as friendly neighbours and its kind of Hobbit animal world where animals and humans somehow live together and nobody finds it unusual. In fact, some of the best moments come when situation is clearly impossible, as when Toad is driving the horse-drawn caravan or when he is camouflaged as a washerwoman and nobody notices. Because all four of them are so different, the story about their friendship is a pure delight and this might be my biggest literary discovery of the year - there was something soothing about listening to somebody else reading the book to me, not to mention the whole magic of the story itself. There are many hilarious, happy chapters mixed with superb poetic moments as when the Rat and Mole encounter "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" who is clearly God Pan protecting the animals. I think this was the prettiest thing I read in 2023 and might just continue with children's books. 

"The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells (1901)

 

It seems that I come back to Herbert George Wells on the regular basis - every now on than, I will visit or re-visit some of his classic novels and they always give me a lot of pleasure. He was often being called "father of science fiction" but I would rather group him together with Jules Verne who was sort of his French counterpart. In fact, the connection is real here - both men wrote about human visit to the Moon at the time when this was really just a speculative fiction. Verne published his "From the Earth to the Moon" some 30 years earlier and it obviously impressed young Wells who gives it his own twist here. I can't honestly compare these two novels because although I am sure that I read Verne, it must have been decades ago and I remember practically nothing of it (+ mixing it with "Journey to the Center of the Earth" that also have tunnels and craters). 

What did I read from Herbert George Wells so far:

The Time Machine (1895)

The Wonderful Visit (1895)

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)

The War of the Worlds (1898)

The First Men in the Moon (1901)

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1909)

I have somehow missed "The Invisible Man", maybe because I own classic old 1933 film so felt familiar with it, but should definitely correct this. "The First Men in the Moon" has its moments but its by far the lesser Wells - it starts good but he gets bogged down by scientific ideas that bring the story to a crawling pace, than towards the end it just meanders. I still love the man and enjoy his novels but this might be my least favourite of his. 

Real-life characters from the "Killers of the Flower Moon"

 

Real-life Mollie Burkhart (right) with her sister Anna Brown (left) and their mother, Lizzie Q.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" by Martin Scorsese (2023)

Looking back, it must have been the trailer that caught my attention - one of those skilful trailers that intrigue but don't show everything at once - and I purposely avoided reading anything about it beforehand, because wanted to approach it as tabula rasa with clear mind and without prejudices. If I did read about it, I would know about the film's immense running time (3 and a half hours) and controversies about it - when friend informed me about the length of the movie, I just wanted to die. Suddenly I remember, yes, Martin Scorsese of course, the guy whose recent "The Irishman" I refused to attend for this very same reason. Why I didn't think about it? This is what happens when you refuse to know anything about the movie. Well, it was too late - tickets bought anyway, so we went to cinema feeling like we are going to the gallows - I declined any food & drink, taking care of my capricious bladder and expecting long & silent suffering. It was anything but suffering! 

First of all, let me admit that usually I have a solid nap during the first 30 minutes in the cinema - it is what it is, probably because I feel so warm & cozy & comfortable, this is who I am and I actually don't have problem with it. Later I wake up and catch up with the movie. But this was the first time in ages that I didn't had a nap - in fact, the story was so interesting that it kept me watching (the audience was also totally mesmerised) and I was planning to whisper to my comrade "This is actually not bad at all" but we were both too busy to talk. I can't say that nobody noticed the length of the movie because it was not true - but it faltered only in the last 30 minutes, when we all start feeling a bit exhausted and just wanted it to finish. No break, of course. 

It is not my intention to discuss too much of the plot or to give away the story itself - its happening in the early 1920s (judging by the original scratchy 1921 recording of Mamie Smith whose "Crazy Blues" I am familiar with) when Osage Native Indians find themselves suddenly wealthy from the oil and the subtle, sinister ways whites were abusing them, all the way pretending to be their protectors. I must say that everything, from the script, original music and acting was top notch - and I don't even like Leonardo DiCaprio (I always felt he was product of the publicity industry) but here he was genuinely good, playing a simpleton who was manipulated by his uncle, crime lord Robert De Niro in one of his best roles ever. There is also a wonderful Native Indian actress Lily Gladstone as real-life Mollie Kyle (because this was based on a real-life story) and now unrecognisable Brendan Fraser as a nasty attorney corrupted by baddies. It is almost a pity that the controversy over its length might overshadow how good the movie actually is, Scorsese could honestly just edit it better, shorten the damn thing and make it more watchable. The way it is, I am sure that lot of people react the same as me and refuse to be pinned down in cinema for such a long time.

"Kim" by Rudyard Kipling (1901)

Of course, I know who is Rudyard Kipling - the British author who created Mowgli and The Jungle Book (and inadvertently, Tarzan that was inspired by them) - but I have actually never read anything by him. He might have not been the top of priority of translated authors in my country, in fact, a quick glance at online library catalogue lists "Kim" being translated and published only twice, in 1928. and finally again in 2019. The Jungle Book was a little more represented, but it never caught my attention since as a kid I was familiar with Disney cartoon version, hence it worked against the novel(s). Its only because I have never read Kipling, that I have selected this novel. I thought it might be good introduction to his writing style and I was not disappointed.

"Kim" won me over instantly, on a very first page. There is a beauty and magic in approaching the book without any knowledge about it, without any prejudices or preconceptions, just facing the opening page and discovering the storyteller's voice. And this voice said: "His nickname through the wards was ‘Little Friend of all the World’; and very often, being lithe and inconspicuous, he executed commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion. It was intrigue, of course,—he knew that much, as he had known all evil since he could speak,—but what he loved was the game for its own sake—the stealthy prowl through the dark gullies and lanes, the crawl up a water-pipe, the sights and sounds of the women’s world on the flat roofs, and the headlong flight from housetop to housetop under cover of the hot dark."

The storytelling itself was wonderfully old-fashioned and occasionally long-winded as expected from a Victorian novels - in many ways it reminded me of "The Coral Island" by R. M. Ballantyne - another creaky, dusty old adventure novel that comes from another time and it might be offensive to readers who are searching for things to be offended by. I was not offended by anything, because I perfectly understand that in his description of India under British rule, he was never malicious but actually genuinely affectionate towards the place where he was born and spent his youth. The novel is about plucky orphan Kim and his friend, elderly Tibetan lama Teshoo Lama  who are together travelling trough India in search of mysterious ″River of the Arrow″ (which might not even exist, as lama is very religious and follows his own paths), while there are many war-related spy intrigues around them. It sounds fairly straightforward, but Kipling has a deliciously old-fashioned way of writing so it takes a while to get trough the novel, I was busy with it forever but now very glad that I have finished it. I genuinely loved both main characters and cared for them.

Vacation time: Athens

I have actually never went somewhere for vacation since I moved here - initially I had no interest to travel since for many years prior I had to travel for work + I was glad to be in one place + this is the city I always wanted to live, so during vacations I simply enjoyed being free from work and was often house sitting for friends. Than Covid came and nobody could travel anyway. And finally, this year, I actually made a big step and traveled somewhere else as a proper vacation.

Of course I have been to Athens a hundreds of times - but it was always rush, always just a few hours before my ship would sail away and my time there was limited to a search for Wi Fi place, supermarket and perhaps quick visit to a particular place. This was the first time in my life that I actually had a proper time to enjoy Athens in my own pace - naturally I wanted to see everything and this is understandable since this was the first proper journey after Covid experience - so at certain point it turned out exhausting and we had to take a random day off, when we just relaxed and slept, because otherwise this whole "vacation" would be just running around.

Here I also must say that as much as vacations are nice, the whole process of traveling itself was extremely exhausting and we did not enjoy going from place to place - there were always some sorts of delays, crowds, nervous people, the journeys never lasted as planned and usually sucked all the fun from the trip itself - if we could just teleport ourselves to a certain place that would have been great, but waiting for the delayed train and delayed flight again & again was just nightmare. After experience of traveling to see Meteora which was extremely exhausting (since we depended on public transport) we decided not to bother with visit to islands because this is vacation after all, islands can wait. 

Some observations: 

- Tiny pavements that serve as nothing but decoration. There is no way you can walk on the pavements and everybody is forced to simply walk in the middle of the road

- Contrary to other big cities, people were extremely nice & friendly almost everywhere (except occasional pushy waiter demanding the tip). It was so obvious that we were actually genuinely shocked and surprised that people were so nice to a complete strangers, this is definitely not the case in Amsterdam where locals are openly impatient and rude to everybody.

- Outside of the most famous landmarks, city is not beautiful - its simply too huge for its own good and sometimes I even felt that the pressure on infrastructure might be too heavy. Millions of people all over and the houses are often simply growing like mushrooms without any aesthetic plans or considerations. 

- As always, I was totally in love in decrepit and old houses that have some history behind them and could not care less for "proper" buildings but loved everything that was obviously ruined, old and deserted.

- For such a famously Mediterranean location, they serve a surprisingly trendy, international food - we were naively expecting a diet of Olives, Feta, Moussaka and Souvlaki but actually everybody was enjoying Salmon, Quinoa and things that one would expect in the North. 

- The biggest food discovery was something so natural and simple but it never occurred to me: combination of thick, creamy Greek Yoghurt with fresh fruit and honey on top of it. We tasted it on the spectacular terrace of Acropolis Museum right after our early morning visit to Acropolis and it was so delicious, refreshing and divine that I said this must be food for Gods. We are eating it ever since.

Besides chaotic traffic, we ourselves did everything proper: we were always on time, planned accordingly and the best of all, we packed extremely cautiously - I have never packed as good as this time. Each of us had a backpack and a small suitcase that fitted above our heads in a plane. Underwear to last us for a week, some shirts, two trousers and I actually had only one pair of shoes, whatever we needed we bought there. On departure, my small suitcase was actually half empty and pleasure to carry around (on departure just slightly less so, but still it was a small suitcase and not the monstrosities that other people carry with them). 

Best of all, the return home was wonderful - even though the flight was exhausting (again delays, crowds and chaotic organisation) - it was a huge relief to sleep in our own bed and to simply be home, even though its totally Autumnal here now and a huge difference in temperature. It makes you appreciate home even more!