I was on a blogwalk when I saw James’ post: August 2025 in Photos and you can rest assured that I’m berating myself for not thinking about it and got myself in my usual what-should-I-blog limbo.
Last month, we had an early morning rainbow — and more rainbow sightings for the next couple of days, both in the morning and in the afternoon. Lucky!
We also enjoyed a splendid strawberry harvest from Malaysia’s very own Cameron Highlands‘ farms. I’m so impressed with the quality of the harvests as they are getting better and better.
I just realized I haven’t taken a lot of pictures lately. I’m not a selfie person, so you can be sure that you might see my face less and less, but looking back, I kinda regret not taking a lot of pictures. As we all know, August and September are The Months of Splendid Sunsets.
Yesterday, I just finished reading “Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar” by Maurice Leblanc. Lupin is one of the powerhouse names in the world’s literature, although I was quite confused seeing that there are not a lot of online discussions about the stories considering how famous he is. Even when it did, the only discussion place I could find is the Reddit’s channel /ayearoflupin. That said, there are ample mentions of its Netflix adaptation, a series with the same name, even shorter: “LUPIN”
As much as I would love to yap about this series (you have to watch it!), this post would be about the classic stories, the ones that inspired the Netflix series.
At first, I thought the story would be the usual Agatha Christie-ish: One book for one story, so I got pleasantly surprised when I found out the book is more similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous “Sherlock Holmes”: One book, comprised of short stories! While I enjoy reading detective stories, I admit that this type of arrangement of having short stories in one book is one of my favorites, too, since I don’t have to hold my focus for far too long and can easily hold my pace (yes, looking at you, Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”.)
Since this work is such a classic, I don’t think I have a lot of comments to share, other than Arsène Lupin has been such an icon that inspired so many characters, even in anime and manga.
What I love about “Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar” is how we also see this gentleman thief got caught, jailed, even fooled. I didn’t expect this because I had already grown accustomed to the main protagonist of the story always having the upper hand and consistently getting away unscathed. Perhaps this is the charm of classic works, as we also see the characters as human, as us. Just like Sherlock Holmes said, “I have been beaten four times — three times by men, and once by a woman.” I love how we also see the main character on their low points, and sometimes I caught myself thinking, “Lupin, you are being careless, my friend.” Another side of Lupin that I love is how sassy he is. The sarcasm is dripping, a jab to the riche nouveau, or those with money easily fooled with glitz and glam.
Arsène Lupin, the eccentric gentleman who operates only in the chateaux and salons, and who, one night, entered the residence of Baron Schormann, but emerged empty-handed, leaving, however, his card on which he had scribbled these words: “Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar, will return when the furniture is genuine.“
I also found it amusing seeing Sherlock Holmes — yes, that Holmes — appeared in one of the stories (“Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late”). Unfortunately, Conan Doyle’s lawyers asked Leblanc not to proceed with the character, which made Leblanc create a similar-ish detective character with the name “Herlock Sholmes”. Monsieur Leblanc, sir, the Gen Zs would call you “cringe”.
The only gripe I have about this book is my lack of knowledge and understanding of French and its history. I know I must have missed some important context on the story, which made me unable to appreciate the work on a deeper level. I got annoyed at myself when I saw someone on the subreddit channel mention Lupin’s disdain for the French class differences. The comment also made me realize that Lupin usually robbed from the rich and powerful, a bit of Robin Hood, if you will. That said, I’m not sure if we have a book about Lupin — and I wish we did — so I would allocate some time for myself to scour the Internet, looking for discussions and comments about our gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin.
Apparently, it was only for eight weeks. Well, eight or ten, I’m not sure.
That said, it was back on Monday, almost two weeks ago, when the doctor scanned me, and as she put down the scanner stick, she looked at me with such a look — a look that somehow my gut was already telling me that yes, I knew it, too — and with a really low voice, almost a whisper, said, “I’m so sorry.”
I could understand her sorrow, and at the same time, I knew. With my previous pregnancies, even when the pregnancy was as young as 5 weeks old, I could always sense that something was there, something alive, with a heartbeat. With this little one, for some reason, I could sense they left with a faint good-bye as my body decided not to continue the process.
In Islam, it is believed that the souls of children who have passed away are taken care of in the High Heavens by Prophet Ibrahim AS (Abraham) and his wife, Siti Hajar. I’m not sure if this little one is there, but I would love to think that way. Perhaps they are there, perhaps they are not.
Thank you, Little One.
Nindya’s quick blurbs
Saw this site mentioned the other day on Slack: neocities.org.
Scroll down and you will see “Featured Sites”. Never knew it brings back early 2000s, and it makes me so, so happy.
