One fine dinner with Roald Dahl.

picture source: 1, 2 // Hans Christian Andersen has created greater traumas, but Dahl was what I experienced first. 

A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men. — Roald Dahl

It was about a month ago; my boyfriend left his penguin classics edition of Going Solo in my bag. I was to borrow it as a property for a publication project. At home, I already have not only one, but two copies of the earlier edition books produced by the same publisher (my sister bought one recently not knowing the fact that we had already purchased the same thing years earlier). More than once, I have read it, and yet having that copy of his in my college bag for two weeks gave me the itches; so I went on re-reading it again.

It is exciting; probably is (if not) my favorite book written by one of the dearly authors I grew up with, Roald Dahl. I have always imagined him as a granddad whom I've never been able to meet. His stories, although often grim enlightened the young form of me about various kinds of possible-happening events in this world; which a lot of them aren't so friendly.

My first book was Matilda. I watched the movie not long afterwards and it gave me the creeps. Moving schools has never been so easy ever-since; there were a lot of Trunchbull-like teachers and yet no magical powers for me. Then mother bought me Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The BFG and as I grew I collected more, my latest purchase being Tales of the Unexpected back in 11th grade.

If you happen to already have gotten a copy of Going Solo, you might notice the actual war-time pictures Dahl himself took during his years spent serving for Shell and the Royal Air Force. He was handsome hands down, and those pictures bought me closer to the idea of what the scene was like back then. For the last couple of days, I've been constantly wishing for an opportunity to have a dinner—if not a picnic in the middle of an African savanna, with Dahl. I would love to talk about everything he went through; I have forever loved adventure stories, and to be able to hear one live from him would be one of the best gifts ever. But since he's already in a different world experiencing a whole different journey (if there is any), a one night rendezvous in dreamland will certainly do.

You are profoundly missed, sir.

*) You might want to listen to a 1990s interview with him here. Personally, it gives me a soothing feel. I say, a great story teller is a great story teller, wether written or told, and obviously Roald Dahl is an amazing one. 

What I would wear to the dinner, clockwise from top left: loose hooded grey coat from romwe, marni cardigan, 3.1 philip lim dress, yukaten shoes, 3.1 philip lim sandals, a.p.c claudette dress.