Blinking briefly

Back from Ireland.  I must stop eating lobster smothered in butter.  But those trolley dollies with their heaps of cream and custard and berries!  Agggh.  Croquet is not, may I add, an aerobic activity...Just read Forster's first, Where Angels Fear to Tread - a bit odd stylistically.  Does anyone else have any thoughts on his sentimental-ironic melodramatic tonal shifts?  Also enjoyed the first 95% of Netherland, until the cornball London Eye/ family values ending.  A missed opportunity to create a true classic.  Still, I actually find cricket bearable after that.