Cav's Place

A week after the first time, I went back to Videle to plant more trees, the same NGO organizing the event, this time in partnership with Auchan. In fact this had been the first scheduled event, initially supposed to take place on March 24 and rescheduled due to the weather, this causing some confusion at first, since I initially got messages about the next event from both, the NGO stating April 14 and Auchan April 21, before it was made clear that the April 14 event will be in partnership with a bank and a week later they’ll do the one they had originally planned together.
I must also be fair and say that Auchan really did put some funds and efforts into this, since on top of having transportation covered, tools, gardening gloves, water and coffee available and breakfast and lunch provided, which had happened a week before as well, they also offered windbreakers and caps, as you can see in the pictures I took, and some Coca Cola and Fanta, though those seemed to have been mostly finished early during the day. Also, the sandwich offered for breakfast was a lot bigger and croissants and some cheese-filled pastries were also offered alongside it, while at lunch, alongside the individual portions, there were large trays, I guess the idea being to have one per table, filled with fresh vegetables, olives, cheese, and either something that might have been bacon, likely boiled, or vegetarian meatballs and schnitzels. And there was plenty left over at the end…

But I’ll get back to the previous evening now, when I took a shower after getting back from the Botanical Garden, which is something I’m yet to write about, and then got in bed some time after 10 PM. Since the washing machine was running, had to wait for it to finish, which I guess happened a little before 10:30 PM, or maybe even closer to 10:20 PM, before I could have any chance to fall asleep, but that was all in theory anyway, since I couldn’t sleep at all and just tossed and turned in bed until 12:30 AM, when I finally decided I had wasted enough time and got up to eat. After that, though it’s hardly the best idea to sleep immediately after eating, I got back in bed and actually did manage to catch a nap. I know it was 2:50 AM when I checked my phone, so I was in bed clearly before 3 AM, but it was well after 3 AM, likely around 3:30 AM, maybe even a bit later, when I finally fell asleep. And since I had set my alarm at 4:45 AM, I got just over one hour of sleep and had to function on that for the rest of the day.

At least I didn’t have to rush in the morning again, as I spent more time than intended on-line yet still left on time. Still ran most of the way to the metro station, getting there in only 11 minutes and then waiting for three or so more before the next train got there, and when I reached the parking lot where we were supposed to gather, no later than at 7:25 AM, the first bus was already leaving, but the second one, which I got on, only got moving at 7:48 AM. That also meant I could calmly change the shoes, since I had left wearing them, with my boots, which I had glued back myself and was worried about, especially since it didn’t seem like I had managed to do much about the heel of the left one. But they held just fine over the course of the day and I saw no reason to change again at the end. Admittedly, didn’t wear them when I ran in the morning and didn’t dig that day.

The trip was even more annoying than the week before though, even if nobody actually tried to talk to me. The team leader, or perhaps the main team leader, was also full of energy and wanted to get everyone in the same state, but she gave up soon enough, so I just gave her some nasty looks then and some even worse ones later, when she was stressing that we should look around and talk to people and make friends. The bigger problem was that, though nobody had taken the seat next to me before we were ready to leave, so the guy who I guess could be called the secondary team leader, who also said it was his first such event and kept being pushed by the other one to get more involved and talk to people more, sat there and after just introducing himself didn’t try to talk to me again, he soon got up and left the seat free for the rest of the trip.
Well, that didn’t mean that I was left alone, but that a girl I recognized from other such events, and who had stopped by the Botanical Garden the previous evening as well just to tell the organizer that she couldn’t stay, just suddenly appeared there and spent the rest of the trip talking to those sitting behind, one of them being an older woman who had also been at the Botanical Garden the previous evening. So she didn’t talk to me, but she just kept talking, about volunteering, at some point about pets, so nothing annoying in itself, but just never shutting up and being so infuriatingly excited and positive. When we were approaching our destination and she apologized to those she had been talking to for ruining their trip in case they wanted to look out the window or just rest, before launching herself yet again in a rant about how much she enjoys just looking out the window and seeing the places we pass through on such trips, I actually wrote “annoying babble next to me” on my phone, in the message I was saving, with the few notes I wanted to remember. Don’t know and don’t care whether she saw or not; been trying not to strangle her for over an hour at that point.

The next thing I wrote in that message was that we arrived at 9:37 AM. Then we gathered around the tents and tables, picked up the windbreakers and caps, which I used to make really sure I won’t get sunburned again, with the windbreaker’s hood pulled over my own cap and the one I received worn on top of it, backwards, and had breakfast. I for one grabbed a Coca Cola bottle and drank it all right away, to help myself stay awake, and was eating the cheese-filled pastry and still holding the unopened sandwich when our secondary team leader, as I decided to call him, came to see whether anyone from the green team was still there after they had shouted for us to gather around them a couple of times. But I hadn’t even picked up a croissant yet, so I finished the pastry, grabbed one of those as well, a guy standing in line letting me go ahead of him in order to do so, and then walked to the tables. Not that there was any rush, since I could finish eating before we were all called to gather to listen to a few instructions and then teams were sent one by one to their designated areas, the green one being among the last. And our team leader did show that she was serious when she said, on the bus, that she’ll lead a warmup before we’ll actually start working, after reaching our area.

Back to the moment when we were all gathered, I of course didn’t have teammates at that point, and we had been told to form teams of three this time. But as I was just ignoring the issue and taking a few pictures, a guy came to me, introduced himself, pointed to the girl he was with, and asked whether I wanted to be the third in their team. And I must say that they were great to work with, Giorgian digging, Luiza planting, really taking care to do it right while still being quick, and me chopping up the soil he was digging out and separating the part with the grass from the rest, so we’ll put it back on top, after pressing the rest around the sapling. At first it wasn’t quite so well separated, since he was digging but also chopping up to some extent, so I was also bringing some saplings and pulling the soil back into the hole alongside her, but after a while he really got into a rhythm, digging large chunks out and ending up several holes ahead of us, I think even eight or nine, and she had me just focus on chopping up and separating behind him while she planted on her own behind me. Eventually, before lunch break, he stopped digging and all three of us focused on planting in the existing holes, possibly also in a few made by others as well.
Since our secondary team leader said he was there to bring us water or anything else we needed, they sure made use of him in order to sustain that level of effort. I just grabbed a bottle of water and that was all I drank while planting, but think Giorgian asked for, and drank, a few liters of water over the course of the day, Luiza had a bottle of Coca Cola brought at one point too, and at one point they asked for coffee as well, leading to a somewhat tense moment when they were told there was none left, which only got worse when they were asked to wait for water as well. While still trying to rush the guy, he made a joke of it, but she rather lashed out, there was a somewhat angry little exchange, and when I muttered that it had probably been too much she asked what else did that guy do, reminding me that he had told us himself that he was there to bring us stuff, so he had to bring us stuff, it wasn’t like she was sending me, who was actually working. Then she said that “you must take advantage of people”, which both me and Giorgian reacted to, though neither of us actually said anything else.

Though lunch break was supposed to again be at 1 PM, as that time approached we heard team leaders say that it had been moved to 2 PM. In the end, Auchan employees who also took part in the event were the ones to go on break at 1 PM, while the teams of volunteers were called after that, I think also somewhat separately, to prevent overcrowding. It was still not quite 2 PM when we had our break though, at which point I grabbed the bread and beans and salad and left my teammates again, just finding a free spot for myself at a table.
Hadn’t spotted those large trays when I grabbed my food, so was quite surprised to see them on the tables, also wondering whether they had been placed there from the beginning, which is actually quite possible. There seemed to be two on the table I sat at, one of them empty and the guys sitting there poking at another, which was a vegetarian one, but not seeming to want to eat more from it. They were also almost finished with their portions when I got there, so they were asking each other what to do with that tray, deciding to just take it back to the tents without asking me whether I wanted anything from it… But I did want to eat from a tray too, since it was there and I was making effort, and on so little sleep too, so I looked around after finishing my portion, spotted a table with a covered tray left on it, one of those with meat, alongside the rest of the food those who had sat there hadn’t finished, and despite feeling quite embarrassed because of it, I just dug in until I felt I had really stuffed myself.

After lunch, the teams were rearranged, so those who had finished or were about to could help others who had more work left. It came as something of a surprise to me and my teammates when our team was listed among those which didn’t have much left to do on their designated area and were supposed to finish quickly and then help another, since it sure seemed like there was a fair bit still to do when we had a look, but we did indeed finish quite quickly and then moved on to help with the areas around ours. That wasn’t too easy for me, since I was so stuffed and was even worried I’ll throw up when moving or sitting in ways that upset my stomach, but I managed to hold it all in and get back into a rhythm, mostly planting on my own, close to my teammates, since there were plenty of empty holes.
Not that we had much time left to work after lunch. I heard our team leader ask for confirmation that we were supposed to stop around 4 PM and appearing to receive it, but it was only 3:30 PM when we were all told to just finish planting the tree we were working on at the moment, then bring the tools back and get ready to leave. At that point we, as in the green team, had just been led away from the entire planting area, to one right next to it, where other trees had been planted before, possibly in 2016, according to the guy I asked, and many hadn’t survived. Not sure why our team leaders wanted us to do that when there were still some trees to plant in one or two areas, and since I had spotted that when I had a look around I headed there at first, assuming that’s where we’ll be taken, before my teammates called me back, but either way we pretty much only got to be told that we were supposed to pull out the dead saplings and replace them, because that call to get ready to leave came just as we were getting started.

When I got back to the tents, to take back the gardening gloves, I saw plenty of two-liter water bottles left, saw a few people with Coca Cola bottles too but couldn’t spot any left to grab, but there definitely were large bags of bread that I saw a couple of people make supplies from, at least two piles of portions of beans, with lids on so they could just be grabbed, I think three trays with lids on and one with it off, probably with whatever had been left on trays at the end of the lunch break piled on them, and I believe also some sandwiches in a pile at the back of the tent. If those would have been set alongside the rest, I’d have grabbed one, but wasn’t sure I could just walk in and grab one from there and couldn’t get myself to ask, or to try directly. And I also couldn’t get myself to grab anything else, though I somehow felt a bit hungry again even though I had only stuffed myself about an hour earlier and had been feeling too full just minutes before, so would have wanted to grab another bread and at least some of those vegetarian schnitzels I saw on that open tray, and quickly eat them before leaving.
Team leaders even told us to grab water before heading back to the buses, but even though plenty of others were doing just that, I hadn’t seen any small bottles left and a two-liter one seemed too much to me to just take, especially since I couldn’t have found room for it in my already stuffed backpack and would have had to carry it in my hand. Did consider to get back to the tents and see whether I could persuade myself to grab food after all, but couldn’t even get myself to try, so I ended up being among the first back on the bus and waiting for the rest.
Didn’t even take more than a glass of water on the bus, feeling like shit to even ask for that much when our team leaders were walking with bottles and plastic cups and asking everyone whether we wanted some at the start of the trip back, saying they had five large bottles or so and nothing else to do with them. The woman who ended up sitting next to me, since her seat had been taken by someone else, said she had been given an entire bottle and asked whether I wanted some more a bit later, but even though I was thirsty, which is odd for me in itself and only shows that I had pushed myself a bit too hard, I just couldn’t bring myself to accept. So I just kept that plastic cup in my hand, hoping she’ll ask again and I’ll manage to bring myself to accept, but she didn’t.

Getting back to the start of the trip back, while a week before our team leader had called the names we had written down after leaving Bucharest, to make sure that everybody was there and back in the same bus, as required by law in these cases, this time this wasn’t done and some didn’t even listen when they were told to make sure they got back to the same bus and seat, some even complaining out loud about the request. As a result, when we got moving, at 4:10 PM, there were three people in our bus who were standing, as there were no seats left for them, and soon enough the buses stopped so they could move to the other… Though when the door opened, four people left instead of three, so I’m not sure what happened in the other bus, whether there was room for all of them or not.
In addition, the certificates were messed up as well. I had spotted someone filling some there on the spot before leaving, at a tent next to the one I had to take the gloves back to, but when I asked whether they hadn’t been filled in before she said, with a pretty thick French accent, that there was no point in filling in some that won’t be used, then looked at me and asked whether I was there with Auchan, telling me the certificates for the volunteers were already at the buses and will be distributed on the way when I said no. Some, including the woman sitting next to me on the way back, apparently just had her fill in theirs as well, likely because she couldn’t know who was there as a volunteer and who was from Auchan, since I saw that they had them, but the rest of us were largely left without.
There were certificates on the bus, but they seemed to be for the people who were supposed to be in the other one, as those of us who had gotten back to the right bus couldn’t find ours but a guy who had switched buses found his, as well as that of someone else he knew who was on that other bus. Then there were also some calls between our team leaders, those on another bus and the woman with the French accent, apparently about three people who should have received their certificates from her and were thought to have ended up on our bus, but which seemed to have actually gotten on the other one. And in the end our team leader told us to send her a message after we get home and she’ll either meet with us to give us our certificates or tell us when to go and pick them up from the NGO’s headquarters… But when she replied to my message she said our certificates had been left back there at the tents and we’ll get an e-mail when we’ll be able to pick them up, and so far I didn’t get it.

Either way, we were back at that parking lot at 5:55 PM and I was walking through the door at 6:33 PM, finding it locked in a way that would have indicated that my parents were probably about to leave, but not finding them. What I did find was the kitchen TV on, a hot pot on the stove, though the stove was off at least, smoke in the kitchen, dirty dishes everywhere… Knew my mother had gotten back here to go to the dentist, so that explained where they were, but not why they had apparently left in such a hurry, and definitely not why the door had been locked that way. But by that point I was quite a mess, and hungry and thirsty, so didn’t think much about it and threw my clothes to be washed, grabbed an orange, made myself tea and ate a large bag of corn puffs, therefore using up some of the “reserves” I had here instead of stuffing myself there with stuff that was left over anyway, and feeling even worse because of it. As for my parents, dad explained when they got back that he meant to just take her there and come back, but then stopped to talk to someone in the parking lot and never did get back before he had to go pick her up again.

At the end of it all, I’m happy that trees got planted, and quite grateful for my teammates this time around, but after having pushed myself so hard, both in terms of physical effort and of being around people, and with one trying to talk to me and another babbling endlessly next to me and others being too energetic, or infuriatingly cheerful or positive, or simply being there, too many, too close, too long, I was completely drained. Yet didn’t even nap that evening, didn’t even want to try, only going to bed at the usual time in the morning. And the next day, while my digestive system cleaned up, which resulted in having to take a shit five times, the last one after eating at night even though I hadn’t even made myself a salad, I could finally go through the previous week’s first post again, since I hadn’t until then, and then write the one about the April 14 event. And Monday I was feeling sufficiently recovered to go buy some stuff… But that’s a matter for another post, which will also need to include the part about the Botanical Garden.

This is a strange choice, to add a preview of the first actual book in the series consisting of its first no less than seven chapters, out of 40, after a very short story. It makes it difficult to decide what to comment on, but I’ll go with the whole package just as it is and say it doesn’t have much going for it. The writing’s all right, I guess, but the short story doesn’t actually seem to say much, generating more confusion than anything else, and that preview actually needs to be this long to get to the first possibly interesting bit. For six and a half chapters, there’s nothing there but some silly teen drama, and I’d actually emphasize the “silly” part, with a trace of past tragedy and just a few hints of something a bit more interesting. And those hints may be too little, too much, or simply pointless either way, since the reader already knows what the main character is, whether from the end of the short story or simply from the description.

Rating: 2/5

Read this translated in Romanian and extremely quickly, in about one hour, as part of a World Book Day event I took part in, so I very likely missed a fair number of details. But I can quite certainly say that the book lacks many details as well, being so awfully short, pretty much rushing through the part between the word starting to get out and the real trouble, and ending with a rather confusing scene in which not much is explained. At first I thought the confusion was my fault, as I read those final pages in even more of a rush, while pacing behind other people and after hitting my head hard on a low ceiling, but I looked for the book again the next day, read that part again more carefully, and while I did notice a couple of things I had missed the first time, the overall impression was the same.
Still, the only thing that actually bothered me was how “lucky” the much older man was, even more so since the author is an old man, so I’m not saying it’s bad otherwise, but just that there’s not much there. It’s very light fantasy, has just one location, pretty much covers just one event over a brief period of time, and doesn’t linger that much over anything. In terms of atmosphere, it does deliver to a fair extent, and I guess it will appeal more to those looking for something like a modern fairy tale. Did expect to see actual poetry though, seeing as the main character writes, yet that wasn’t included even when it was supposedly recited.

Rating: 3/5

Since I wrote about the night before in last Sunday’s post, I’ll start directly with the morning of April 14, when I rushed to eat, including making myself some salad, finish getting ready and go out the door. Didn’t even have time to take a shit or floss, as I only left around 6:55 AM even so, running most of the way to the metro station, having the train get there quickly, and even so only reaching the parking lot where we had to be before 7:30 AM at 7:25 AM or so. Admittedly, we actually left at 7:38 AM, but if I’d have reached the metro station just a little later, having to wait for the next train, it could have been a problem.

On the bus, the guy who sat next to me introduced himself and tried to start a conversation, but I obviously wasn’t interested, especially since he started by asking what I did for a living. Hearing about what had happened in Syria on the brief 8 AM news at the radio station we could hear on the bus did give me even more of an excuse to just ignore him, as I actually got on-line on my phone for the first time in order to read the articles about this on The Guardian, since I hadn’t checked anything that morning and therefore had no idea about any of it until then. And after that I pretty much just looked out the window, also taking a few pictures, not included in those I posted, those being from the event itself, of trees with all branches cut off completely, and which also seemed to grow a rather odd system of branches when allowed to. No idea what kind of trees those are, but saw a lot of them like that…

Either way, we got there at 9:25 AM, were offered a sandwich as breakfast, watched as each team leader explained, and showed, what to do, and then went to our designated areas. Or, more exactly, in case of the team I was in, we first went to the wrong area, the sign there being of a color that was close to ours but apparently not the same, and then finally found the right one. It’s possible that I had something to do with that mistake, since I had wandered around a little after getting there, trying to see where we’ll have to go, and spotted that sign but not the other one, so when the team leader was wondering where we had to go I said out loud where I thought our area was and, while I’m not sure he heard or cared, possibly simply meaning to start looking from one end, he headed that way.

We were supposed to work in teams of two, one digging and another planting, and that guy from the bus asked directly which one of us will dig, taking the fact that we’ll be a team as a given. However, once we started working I looked around and spotted the girl who had sat in front of us struggling on her own, so I quickly walked to her and told her she could join us and make a team of three if she was left without one, and she did just that, at first all three of us taking turns, since we started with the row right next to the road at the top of the area and the ground there was very hard. After that, the two of them ended up working separately while I moved between them to help, but quickly ended up helping her more.
After the guy ended up struggling to plant a tree on his own before I noticed, saying he called after me but I didn’t seem to hear when I asked why he was doing that when I was there, he ended up moving away, I guess working separately at one point and eventually taking a long break starting around noon, according to what he said when I found him again later. He had also brought a tree he wanted to plant there, being allowed to do so, and a bunch of seeds, which he wasn’t allowed to plant as well, which fact seemed to dishearten him quite a lot. But what did he expect? We were there to plant certain trees in a certain way, according to a plan made according to the needs of the area, not for him to create his own orchard!

Some time before the lunch break, which started at 1 PM, there didn’t seem to be anything left to do in our area and the team leader said we’ll go help others when I asked him what happens next, me and the girl also ending up working separately for a bit after that. I helped another woman I saw struggling on her own, went away again, dug and planted a tree on my own, found my teammate and helped her again a bit, the order of these things no longer being quite clear in my mind, and eventually went down to the tents to grab a bottle of water, which I drank on the spot. Then grabbed two more, to bring to my teammates as well, handing the girl one but ending up keeping the one I meant to give the guy, since when I went back to him as he was just standing at the top of the area, I saw he already had one he had just opened then. Since I didn’t drink again, eventually ended up bringing that bottle all the way back with me.

Then we were given lunch, and while my teammates went together and stayed together, appearing to be getting along quite well when I heard them talking, both before and after, I just found a spot at a table and ate there quietly, finding them again after I was done. They had chosen to just sit on the ground, at the bottom of the area we were planting trees on, along with plenty of others who didn’t use the tables, and the guy did mention that I had abandoned them then, but I pretty much just ignored that and simply sat next to them as they continued to talk, until the break was over and we were told that the area next to the tents was the last one left to work on. And since all of us were there and we were clearly going to finish quickly, the organizers didn’t even wait for us to do so, starting to call people one by one to get their certificates for participating in the event.
Some did stay around there for that, to be there when their name was called, but I actually even left my teammates yet again after planting I think just a couple of trees at the bottom of the area together, instead walking to the top to find whether any spots had been missed and planting a second tree on my own when I did so. Was actually still working on that when my name was called, so I stopped and went down, having to look for my certificate in two stacks until I found it, since the person who was searching for those for volunteers who weren’t there right when their name was called said he couldn’t find it even though it had been called likely less than a minute before I arrived. But I got it eventually, then went back to finish planting my tree, and by the time I was done there didn’t seem to be any spot that somebody else wasn’t at least working on, so I more or less wandered around a little longer, until we were told to get ready to leave. And we left there at 3:15 PM, getting back to that parking lot at 4:55 PM, with me spending most of the time in between filming the towns and villages we were passing through.

One problem I had as a result of that day was that I got badly sunburned. My ears and the sides of my face were affected as well, but the real issue was the back of my neck. Only really noticed when I was sitting next to my teammates at the end of the lunch break, and turned my cap around to try to protect that area a little after that point, then also tried to protect it a little with my hand while on the bus, on the way back, but the damage was already done and it was stinging badly. Let some cold water flow on that area as soon as I got back here, then tried not to touch it until I actually showered later, wondering how was I going to sleep with it like that. But by the time I went to sleep that morning, the stinging had lessened enough to allow me to do that, at least while I was careful to just gently put my head on the pillow and not move until I fell asleep.
That wasn’t the only problem though, the other being that my boots didn’t last. It would seem that the guy dad took them to in order to have them repaired only glued the front part of the bottoms back, even though if that was coming loose it should have been pretty clear that the glue was failing everywhere. So the back part of both was starting to come loose as I was running to the metro station in the morning, and only got worse as I was working. The left one wasn’t quite so bad, the heel being loose but the rest, what that guy did, seeming to hold on just fine, so there didn’t seem to be any danger of it all falling off, but the right one was just getting worse over the course of the day, only an area at the front still holding by the end, making me search for some of the discarded plastic “ropes” used to tie saplings together and do my best to tie the part coming loose, so I won’t lose it completely. The guy actually made a comment about his own boots likely being too good to be used for such activities as we were sitting there at the end of the lunch break, probably trying to figure out how to ask about mine, and I said I had “technical difficulties” with mine, which had been glued together and were falling apart. But at least they didn’t fall apart completely.

Went out every day this week and today, since it’s after midnight, I’ll be going to the Botanical Garden, since the schedule is between 4 PM and 8 PM and it may be less physical work, and I may get away without using my boots, which I had to try to glue back now and didn’t manage to do much of anything for one of them. Then, Saturday, I’ll be going to plant trees again, the same NGO organizing the event and in the same location, just the corporate sponsor changing. Not sure how my boots will last then, but I’ll see once there. The bigger question is how I’ll last, but I want to do this, then I plan to stay calm until the half marathon, almost certainly not attending the big protest announced for the evening of May 12 either, and also hope I won’t get sick again, since yesterday and today plenty of people coughed around me and I’m feeling colder than I should be and seem to be starting to feel something in my throat again.
Either way, while still not short in any way, this will have to be a quick post, because I haven’t posted anything this week and I’m trying to throw something here before going to bed now. What the week’s second post will be, I’m not sure yet, but it’ll have to be Sunday and I quite doubt it’ll be the one that would now need to cover not only last Saturday but this Friday and Saturday as well. If I go all the way to Thursday in this one, there will be nothing to say in another “Sunday update”, so won’t be able to get out of it that way, but Sunday is Earth Day, so maybe I’ll just throw a few pointless lines about that and say I did it. Speaking of that, wonder if there will be any events which will make me think about going out yet again…

After winning that ticket to Untamed Romania, Monday I went to watch it, going to the theater in this other mall from the area, as I meant to go to that pharmacy that’s on the way and pick something up, and also see about another Paysafecard code, because I thought there may be something to get these days and I still have a little bit left on one I should use over the next couple of weeks in order to avoid losing that little amount. I was wrong about this last part, so I just bought it earlier than I should have, and also spent money I had a hard time sparing at the moment, but I’ll make do. And at least I also found a metro card on the way, with five trips still on it, so in case both me and dad will really need to use the metro at some point, one of us will have that without needing to buy one then. Bit surprised that it still works, since I just saw it on the pavement, but there it was…
As for the documentary, I guess it’s nice enough to look at. But there were a total of six people there, including me and a guy who only came ten minutes after it actually started, so 25 after the listed start time of 5:10 PM. I for one was at the theater around 4:20 PM and the woman who was there seemed rather surprised that I wanted to watch that when I asked her what to do if I had that free “ticket”. But she gave me the actual ticket and I could freely pick my seat, as none were reserved at that time, and when, after wandering around for a while, I went in, at 5:05 PM, I was the first one there, two women walking in before 5:10 PM and one other woman with a child coming during the trailers, the man who arrived later apparently also being with them.

Tuesday I ran, but before that there was a power failure just when I meant to leave. Saw that there had been a fire nearby in the morning, so maybe it had something to do with that, but I meant to leave at 4 PM and it’s a good thing I was just a little late, because I got back to my room just at that time and heard the UPS beeping, so I waited for a couple of minutes, realized the power wasn’t coming back right away, and turned off the computer. It did actually come back around 4:10 PM, just as I was about to go out the door, but didn’t turn the computer back on then, just in case it’ll fail again. Problem was that, when I did turn it back on, after getting back, it paused for a pretty long moment on the boot screen, with just the first couple of lines on the screen and 04 in the lower right corner. Seemed fine after that, but I wonder what that was all about.
But the run itself sure went well, and I can definitely, finally, say that I regained my speed, as the time was 47:39, with sector times of 4:19, 5:12, 5:50, 4:29, 4:59, 5:48, 4:22, 5:00, 5:50 and 1:50, making for lap times of 15:21, 15:16 and 15:12. So each lap was faster than the one before it too, meaning I could really push. Of course, the weather was good and there were pretty few people too, the only moment when one got in the way being when a cyclist was coming down a slope and couldn’t brake in time, so I had to quickly avoid her. Had two guys ask how many laps I’m doing, but just said, and showed, three in passing, not explaining any more, and not bothering to turn to make sure they heard when I said yes when they asked whether that meant “big ones”, before congratulating me. There was also an old woman that I keep seeing very slowly jogging, so I gave her a thumbs up when I passed her the second time, as she was coming from the opposite direction, and then smiled and nodded the third time, at which point she wanted to say something, reached out the hand she was holding a coat or something in and started saying something, but I just said I cared for my time in passing and rushed past.
Was worried I won’t be able to shower that evening, as at some point there was no hot water anymore, but I saw that it was a big problem, affecting a large part of the city, and they were saying they’ll fix it by midnight, which they did, and since I tend to shower around 12:30 AM when I’m not alone, to go straight to the kitchen after that, it didn’t actually affect me. And I also managed to finish the 11th “Divine Empire” scenario in Disciples that evening, so I finally got through more than half of them. Wonder if I’ll manage to finish all of them by the end of May. Doubt it, but I may give it a shot, depending on how it’ll go over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday I went to buy things, again going to three hypermarkets and two farmers’ markets just for a few things. First meant to do this Friday, before seeing the Botanical Garden event and deciding to go, and then Thursday, before learning of the event I went to this evening, so that’s how it ended up being Wednesday. And it started pretty badly, as I was thinking of leaving around 1:30 PM but wanted to take the recyclables too, not including the plastic bottles and the few cans, and there was this plastic crate dad wanted to throw away but had put away on the balcony when I last took them out, so I forgot about it until then… And then I wanted to break it in order to just put the pieces in the same bag I put the rest of the plastic and metal in, but this didn’t go well, as it was really hard to actually tear apart and when something did break pieces ended up flying all over the kitchen, since that’s where I was doing it. In the end, I only left around 2:30 PM, after gathering all the pieces I could find, some in places I didn’t expect, and vacuuming and even quickly washing the kitchen floor, trying to get the plastic dust off it too. And I still couldn’t break it properly, so had to carry a part of it separately, though I could at least sort of hang what was left of it from a finger. Found one more small piece of it after coming back, in the thing we put dishes to dry in, but nothing else since, so maybe that really was the only one I had missed at first.
About the purchases, first checked prices at the other hypermarkets, passed through the first farmers’ market, not seeing that person I want to buy apples from, and eventually got to Auchan to buy bread, yogurt and some tea. Then took the free bus they provide to the second farmers’ market and got a few vegetables and some apples from there. Not good apples though, and not cheaper either. I’m quite sure I saw better ones at least at the same price, if not even cheaper, but with the person selling them calling after me when she noticed me looking I didn’t get back, ending up trying to pick from those sold by another, who rushed to ask how many I wanted and grabbing some herself, those she grabbed obviously being way worse than those I was picking. She did give me one more than the quantity I paid for, actually seeing that she had exactly that quantity and then just adding one more, but I may have to throw away a fair bit of most of them. They are still tasty though, and I guess you can say I prevented some food waste…
Got back after that, and since dad still wasn’t back I ate too, then went back out relatively late, wanting to see if there were any interesting evening discounts in Kaufland, as those apply I think after 8 PM, mainly to vegetables that spoil quickly. Met dad on the way, as he was finally coming back, but there were no such interesting discounts at Kaufland, though I did buy a few things. And before that I also bought one thing from Carrefour, which I realized was a problem after I got back with it, the plastic container it had been put in having large holes on both top and bottom. Didn’t notice it there since it had been placed in a plastic bag as well, and in fact didn’t notice the hole on the bottom until I was starting to move the stuff to a jar, but the holes are very smooth, so not tears, and the bag should have prevented the food from coming into contact with anything before I moved it at least. But that definitely was troubling and I did send an e-mail to complain, to which they replied to ask for more details, so let’s see what happens next.

Thursday I tried to glue the bottoms of my boots back, after the back parts came loose last Saturday. The right one seemed in danger of falling off completely, the left less so, but oddly enough it was the right one that I seem to have managed to fix to some extent, while the left just looks nasty, with a lot of visible glue and that heel still loose. And despite trying to keep my nose away from the glue as much as I could, I still ended up lightheaded and nauseous because of it. So that required a fair bit of effort, trying to hold the parts pressed together actually being quite exhausting, and now I’ll still have to be very careful if I want to still get any use out of those boots this Saturday as well, and I won’t be wearing them to the Botanical Garden now, and the work they say we’ll do there may not require boots in itself, though right now it started raining quite heavily, so not sure how much mud we’ll have to deal with.
Had to rush that a bit, as I still had to shave and then went to a viewing of “Portavoce“, which was supposed to start at 7 PM. I left a few minutes after 6 PM, to give myself time to find the spot, as it was in a university hall, but I was at the university entrance before 6:40 PM and thought I noticed where I should go right away, so I just spent a few more minutes wandering around and then slowly made my way up, as I still had to wait even then. The organizers got there and started the final preparations a couple of minutes before 7 PM and started speaking some 15 minutes later, but the movie itself only started at 7:40 PM and lasted just under one hour. The event didn’t end then though, as they took questions after that, until 9:40 PM, though I guess some lingered even after that, the one activist I knew who was there, and who was also actually a guest, posting only at 10:18 PM that she had just left. Did expect more of the known activists, but I guess they had gathered some time ago, when the movie was shown as part of One World Romania, when many of them were posting about it, while this was mainly for students, considering the location and that it was part of a series of such events taking place there and organized by that guy.