I think an extended leave is quite good. maybe Bond has convinced M that "something came up" and M granted his request.this would mean that between adraco's birthday and the college of armes scenes, quite some time has passed.
but still I'd settle for plothole.
"You see Mr.Bond, you can't kill my dreams...but my dreams can kill you.Time to face destiny" - "Time to face gravity"
This has never bothered me at all. First of all, plenty of time elapses between Draco's birthday party and Bond's visit to M at Quarterdeck. Second, I don't think Bond would have been able to make plans to visit Piz Gloria on say, Friday, and then pop over the next day; no doubt Blofeld would check up on Sir Hillary (no quick matter in the days before the Internet) and other arrangements would have to be made, so it's safe to assume a few weeks went by before Bond could appear in Blofeld's lair.
I believe the novel has a sequence in which the analysts in Bond's department spend several months deducing that Piz Gloria (and possibly Blofeld) is developing some kind of biological agent. This sequence covers several months and explains why Bond/Bray arrive at Piz Gloria at Christmas time.
I don't really understand why people think there is a plothole with the timeline.
Bond meets Draco on the 13th September as mentioned by Draco himself "Today is the 13th".
Bond meets M in the next few days and gets his two week leave. Within these two weeks, he has his romance with Tracy and then goes to Bern to crack the safe with his post YOLT safe-cracker. Bond then (off screen) contacts the College of Arms and meets Sir Hilary Bray.
He then goes to M at his house which is still within the two week period as M mentions "I thought you were on leave". Bond then says he assumes M will reassign him onto Operation Bedlam. Bond mentions that he has already taken the liberty of working with the college using an examination of his own family tree as cover.
In the next scene Bond meets Sir Hilary but it does not appear that they are meeting for the first time so it's definitely not a flashback. Sir Hilary also says they will send the time and place from where he is to be "collected".
Why can't it be that roughly two months pass from this scene on until Bond arrives in Piz Gloria? I mentioned in another thread that Bond probably arrives on Saturday 29th November just before the first Advent Sunday on the 30th November.
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but still I'd settle for plothole.
I don't really understand why people think there is a plothole with the timeline.
Bond meets Draco on the 13th September as mentioned by Draco himself "Today is the 13th".
Bond meets M in the next few days and gets his two week leave. Within these two weeks, he has his romance with Tracy and then goes to Bern to crack the safe with his post YOLT safe-cracker. Bond then (off screen) contacts the College of Arms and meets Sir Hilary Bray.
He then goes to M at his house which is still within the two week period as M mentions "I thought you were on leave". Bond then says he assumes M will reassign him onto Operation Bedlam. Bond mentions that he has already taken the liberty of working with the college using an examination of his own family tree as cover.
In the next scene Bond meets Sir Hilary but it does not appear that they are meeting for the first time so it's definitely not a flashback. Sir Hilary also says they will send the time and place from where he is to be "collected".
Why can't it be that roughly two months pass from this scene on until Bond arrives in Piz Gloria? I mentioned in another thread that Bond probably arrives on Saturday 29th November just before the first Advent Sunday on the 30th November.