Cav's Place

Earlier today, Simona Halep played the second Roland Garros final of her career, which was also her second Grand Slam final. She played it against Jelena Ostapenko, ranked 47th in the world, and for a prize that included not only her first Grand Slam title, but also the first position in the WTA rankings. A number of elements had “conspired” to open up this opportunity for her, which was obviously circumstantial but in the end wouldn’t have made that outcome any less impressive, the achievement itself eventually remaining the only thing firmly written in the history of the sport, and in that of Romanian sports results as well.
Well, she lost. Or, most definitely, Ostapenko won, the statistics making that perfectly clear. Ostapenko’s 54 winners against Halep’s mere eight pretty much tell the story of the match, the fact that she also had 54 unforced errors while Halep only had ten not being enough to allow Halep to outlast her the same way she outlasted Karolina Pliskova in the semifinal. The strategy was the same, making a lot of effort to keep returning the balls but playing it safe, playing more not to lose than to win, letting the opponent thoroughly lead the match, dominate, while waiting for mistakes and opportunities. And it may have seemed like a good idea in theory, with the two seeming to have a similar style and Pliskova being ranked third while Ostapenko was, as I already mentioned, 47th. But Ostapenko was simply the better of the two, those nine additional winners and one less unforced error likely making all the difference. Admittedly, Halep also had six less winners and only four less unforced errors compared to that match.
It sure looked different halfway through the second set, or in fact a third of the way through it. After a tight first set which Halep managed to win in the end, she had started the second one in a great manner, leading 3-0 and having a break point three times in the fourth game, yet then she lost that game and Ostapenko turned things around, ending up leading 4-3 before Halep finally won another game, which would be her last during that set. Still, she then managed to recover at the start of the third set, leading 3-1 and serving, yet everything crashed at that point, or more exactly everything fit into place for Ostapenko, who won the next five games in a row, breaking Simona’s serve three times in the process.

Though she had to defeat Elina Svitolina, ranked sixth, in order to reach the semifinal and then Pliskova, ranked third, to reach the final, quite a number of things had fit just right for Simona Halep this time around, providing this quite unexpected and, I say again, definitely circumstantial opportunity to leap to the top of the rankings on top of winning her first Grand Slam title. It’s hard to believe a similar opportunity will come her way again, and it’s hard to believe another major tournament will be better suited for her to take advantage of any which may in fact arise. This, of course, doesn’t mean she couldn’t climb to the top the hard way at some point, and it’ll be even more of an achievement if she does so, but this truly was an extraordinary opportunity and it was lost, and this will definitely hurt. Remains to be seen in which way she’ll be affected by it and how she’ll respond, once it truly sinks in.

I was exhausted until a little while ago, thinking I won’t even be able to stay awake enough to watch the last set of the Murray – Wawrinka match, but then I did manage that and then went to help my mother with something, after which I found myself quite awake. Will crash again at some other time, of course, since I slept little all week and also pushed hard when I ran Monday and walked around a fair bit Tuesday, when I also “managed” to lose one of the two plastic bags I had been using for years, taking both out and unexpectedly managing to fit everything into one, then I guess forgetting to pick the other back up and only realizing it when I was already outside. It was quite worse for wear, torn in places, and I had been considering dumping it along with the recyclable plastic soon enough, but I guess things worked out differently.
Either way, at the moment it seems to work, I’m still awake enough, so here I am, after wasting some more time, trying to write this. Writing it today was the plan all along, but I didn’t think I’d manage, first because I meant to move things around and spray the rest of my room and then clean and move things back after wandering around outside for a while, and then, as I said, because I was too exhausted, meant to nap and then wanted to read later in the evening. But the rain, which even when I went to bed was supposed to end around noon and didn’t, meant I didn’t go out or spray, and feeling awake again means I can think well enough to post something here now and see about reading once I’m done.

Since I mentioned reading, yes, Monday I finally started The Hero of Ages and so far I’m just squeezing in enough late in the evening to be just on pace to finish in two weeks, though that’s definitely not the book’s fault. Wanted to sit and read more yesterday and didn’t, then thought I’d get at least a little more in today when it became clear I won’t be moving things and spraying and cleaning and going out, but now it looks like simply staying on that pace will be good enough. And since I’ll definitely need to somehow catch up on sleep soon enough and I’m also considering doing tomorrow what I meant to do today if the weather will allow it, it doesn’t look like things will be any different over the weekend.

On the other hand, since I mentioned purchasing yogurt “strategically” in order to participate in that brand’s contest, I should also mention that my strategy once again worked. Compared to the other brand’s contest, which I earned a fair bit in, I had to purchase each yogurt separately to get more receipts, which also led to me wandering around more than I would have done otherwise even though I could chain things together quite nicely, and also obviously ended up with one entry for three days of use instead of one per day, or two per day if I was also buying for dad back then, since I still bought the large ones now, plus that I lost even one of those entries due to that time when I had to run after being forced to interact and forgot the receipt. And on top of the far fewer entries, the chances were also halved because the number of daily prizes was halved. And I also wasted two entries because in this contest you’re notified of winning through an SMS sent later instead of a message displayed immediately, so I entered what I had and then learned the winning receipt was the second out of four.
But it was still an easy win, and this time it’s 150 RON. However, it’s in the form of a voucher which can only be used at the largest on-line store, and not for anything from their supermarket chain partner or for insurance. So not quite sure what to do with it at the moment, especially since this store is usually a fair bit more expensive than others, as otherwise I do have a list of things I want to get this year. But let me actually get the code first, since this morning I just got the call and sent the picture of the receipt as required, but didn’t get a reply yet and doubt I will over the weekend. And yes, waiting for that call was the reason why I slept poorly and little today, being worried I’ll miss it after missing the first one, yesterday, as after receiving the SMS yesterday morning and then not getting back to sleep in order to wait for the call, it came some five hours later, just when I had finally decided to go to the kitchen for a bit and not hearing my phone from there. So I guess it was the reason I slept poorly yesterday as well…

Either way, I’ll end this here, but not before also mentioning this week’s run, which I stated earlier was Monday. Being a free day here, there were plenty of people in the park, so I really had to pick my way through and push whenever I had the chance, which led to my right hip complaining a fair bit after that, but I managed to stay under 50 minutes again, which is quite an achievement under those circumstances. The time was 49:50, with sector times of 4:41, 5:19, 6:11, 4:40, 5:10, 6:07, 4:36, 5:15, 6:09 and 1:42, making for lap times of 16:11, 15:57 and 16:00.
At first I was thinking I was going to go for 16:20 laps, for 51 minutes, but getting that time on sector two of lap two without feeling that I had pushed quite so hard made me change the goal and I really gave it everything from then on, being worried I’ll fall just short until the very last moment… When I also noticed I managed a new record on that final sector, despite the fact that I even ran into a group of people just as I was going up the stairs and had to move from one side to the other while climbing and squeeze my way through. No idea how I managed that time under those circumstances.

I’ll start this by pointing out a new channel on YouTube called Metal for Your Soul, which already has quite a number of full metal albums from lesser known bands even though the first ones were only uploaded on April 1. Then again, I’m somewhat surprised it’s still there even now, though I guess the low number of views and the fact that the bands are lesser known explains it and may help it avoid removal for quite a while yet. Don’t be surprised if sooner or later the link will end up pointing to a channel that no longer exists though.

Since I mentioned that channel, the first band I’ll list here is Feridea, which is an older find which doesn’t even have new material since 2015, but which I was reminded of after spotting their two EPs there. There’s barely enough material for one full album if you put them together and they changed the vocalist between the two, but it’s good stuff, perhaps on Into a Dawn in particular, so I’d recommend at least listening to all four songs on that one, which you can find on their YouTube channel. The songs from Reborn in Time aren’t there, but they are on their SoundCloud page. Still, if I’m to stick to the usual pattern of picking two songs per band, I’ll go with Of Magic and Music and… Let’s say Song of a Longing Heart?

The second band I’ll point out today, Vandroya, is both an old and a new find. How does that work? Well, I’m sure I first stumbled into them years ago and Why Should We Say Goodbye? is actually I song I occasionally looked up to listen to again, usually getting pretty stuck on it once again when I did, but when I wanted to check whether their entry on my list also had the proper links after they started being shared again recently due to the launch of Beyond the Human Mind, I noticed that I didn’t have an entry for them at all, so I must have simply forgotten to add them there the first time around. Either way, I didn’t listen to all the songs on this second album yet, but let’s go with You’ll Know My Name out of what I could find. Rather too much focus on the guitars and those solos still bother me, that song actually being particularly plagued by this, but some enjoy this and she sure has a great, powerful voice.

An actual new find is Last Performance, who just released their first album. That sure is an odd choice for a name, but good voice, good sound, so I sure hope they’re not referring to themselves with it. One problem is that they don’t seem keen on posting or sharing much, be it information or songs, even the fact that at least most of the album is on Bandcamp not meaning much when they severely restrict the number of times you can listen to the songs. That sure is an infuriating feature of Bandcamp, by the way, and I’m not going to pick what to share from there when I’m hit with it. As such, I’m limited to what I can find on YouTube, which at the moment is Under Cover of Darkness and End of Pretense. No complaints, however, since they’re definitely good enough for the two picks.

AfterTime is a band I know I wanted to add before, but can’t remember whether that means I first stumbled into them last year, before writing the previous post in this series, or one of the times when I previously thought about writing this post this year was shortly after discovering them and I clearly had them in mind while trying to decide what to include in it. Either way, you can choose between YouTube and Bandcamp to listen to their songs, and I’ll go with All the Ruins Remain and World We’ve Lost as my two picks. Was more impressed with them at first, now I’m less convinced by her voice and not so keen on the sound of some of their other songs, but it remains a good effort and a good direction, and they seem to be improving, at least in my opinion.

As for Walk in Darkness, it was a rather random pick, but I do believe it is also a new enough find. They released their first album earlier this year and you can listen to all of it on Bandcamp, but I guess I’ll go with Carthage and Alexandria as my picks, the latter featuring the voice of Magdalena Lee, whose Tears of Magdalena I mentioned, albeit grudgingly, way back in the third “New Finds” post. Either way, being a rather random pick, it’s not something that exactly impressed or stuck in my mind, but it can be interesting enough, depending on taste.

And that’s about it for now. First post in this series this year, including the regular five bands, so no chance of getting to that target of 15 in only two posts. Whether 2017 will be the first year during which I’ll manage to post three remains to be seen, but there’s a lot of time left, so there’s reason to hope. And considering the number of bands I know of, a fair part of them at least good, some even outstanding, I really should be trying more.

I sure am leaving this late, writing this week’s first post Saturday evening, and after having some small issues with my Internet access last night that make me worry I may not be able to post this today and something else, which I hope will be this year’s first “New Finds” post, tomorrow. But I hope I’ll be able to post, and for that I must first write, which is even somewhat more of a problem than it usually is because this week is something of a blur. On the other hand, it should at least make for a shorter post, or so I hope.

This week’s run was Monday, and even remembering that would have been somewhat difficult if I wouldn’t have saved the time that evening, to have the date that page was last modified to check. Either way, the time was 49:10, with sector times of 4:36, 5:14, 5:53, 4:34, 5:08, 6:05, 4:36, 5:12, 6:06 and 1:46, making for lap times of 15:43, 15:47 and 15:54. So I managed what I went out to do, which was a regular time under 50 minutes, without trying for a new record. I did sort of consider trying to get under 49 minutes too, but the times never added up, even the first lap being a bit too slow for that target, so I may have needed just 11 seconds, but I didn’t have them in me; it simply never really seemed possible.

Wednesday I sprayed the mold which had again appeared in this corner of my room where the computer is. Had appeared quite some time ago and was getting quite bad, but I kept waiting before even asking dad to help me move the desk and also those boxes of books still in my room and when I did, last week, he said we’ll have to leave it for this week, and then Wednesday was the day when he could. Will need to do the rest of the room later though, unless I’ll actually do all of it again in case I didn’t spray well enough above the part of the window that’s behind the desk now, because I thought we had more spray left when in fact it was barely enough to allow me to cover this area, and do even that perhaps a bit less thoroughly than I’d have liked.
Either way, after doing what I could I went out, bought a few things, got quite lost while trying to again take the route I took when I accidentally discovered that farmers’ market, ended up quite some way away, tried to use little streets to find it again faster but somehow ended up back where I had been, then went the long way around in order to at least stick to a route I knew, since anything else obviously wasn’t working. That obviously made the whole thing last longer than intended, so I got back later than I meant to and had less time left for the other things I had planned for that day, before putting the desk and the computer back.

Those other things were cleaning the computer a little and looking inside to see whether I had actually connected the DVD drive again after I got the computer back, put together wrong and with the SATA cable which had been used for the DVD drive missing, since the system was never able to detect it again after that, and then finally opening my mouse to see what I could do about the double clicking. However, with the time lost I had given up on the idea of cleaning the computer before starting anything, and then, considering how things went with the mouse, also gave up on the idea of opening it again to have another look, since a first quick look, taken after taking it out of the desk, revealed that everything seemed connected properly… Yet I guess something wasn’t, because even though all I did was push the connectors a little more, not taking any out and putting it back in again and not feeling any actually move farther in under my fingers, after turning the computer back on the system could once again see the DVD drive, which, as I already mentioned, hadn’t happened in eight months.
But the bad news has to do with the mouse, where I was screwed by a screw. I was so worried I’ll open it up, take apart what I have to and break something inside or simply be unable to put it back together properly, but thinking I’ll at least learn what to do next time and perhaps still have the option to have someone replace the broken part, even if at quite some cost. However, what happened was that I was simply unable to open it, one of the screws refusing to move, no matter what I tried, and no matter what dad tried either, after I asked him to help. Worse, after saying the only option was to force it open in that spot and then see about putting it back together in some other way, he started working on it with a small knife and dug a fair amount around that screw even though I had just suggested trying to make a deep cut on the head of the screw in order for a larger simple screwdriver to fit and give us another chance. So, instead of trying that, before giving up he left me with a rough hole in the bottom of the mouse, the edges jutting out and even going a little past the area covered by the skates, so that part of the skates won’t stick back on properly anymore and the mouse sits unevenly on the pad and scratches it, making me uneasy about even moving it much anymore.
Still, while that damage was for nothing, as he was unable to break through, the screw in question is at the back, so I managed to pull the front part apart enough to slip through a matchstick with the end wrapped in a little bit of cotton on which I had dripped a few drops of cooking oil, since that was what I had on hand. Thought it was worth a try, since simply oiling the top of the microswitch is one of the possible solutions offered to this problem, though not what seems to be the proper one or one that fixes the problem for a long time, if it does at all. Yet for the moment it actually seems to have fixed it, so at least the left click seems normal since then, though it does feel different, somewhat sticky, while on the other hand the wheel now feels somewhat loose. Could do nothing about the side button that also sometimes double clicks though, and didn’t oil the right one despite being able to reach it and having noticed a few double clicks from that one as well.
So, in the end, I have the DVD drive back even though I have no idea how, but that was the issue I was least worried about, as proven by the fact that I could just stay without it for eight full months and it didn’t actually bother me. On the other hand, since I was in too bad a state by the time I gave up on the mouse, I didn’t clean the computer, and that will show in terms of the temperatures now that summer is coming. As for the main goal, fixing the mouse, I guess I can say the main problem, the increasingly frequent double left clicks, seems fixed for the moment, but I couldn’t open it and I definitely won’t be able to do so normally in the future, the bottom is damaged in a way that makes it quite a pain to use anymore, and I’m not sure what the fact that the wheel feels somewhat loose may mean.
I guess I’ll need to try to carefully file away the rough edges of that hole, as dad offered to do it or even to take it to those who handle repairs where he works, see if they can do anything about it, but I doubt I’ll be letting him touch it again. Then maybe I’ll try to fill that hole with something as well, and see how well the skate will stick back on in that place under those circumstances and how well it’ll slide after that, when even the raised edge of the area the skate goes in is now broken in a spot. But I really don’t dare to try that, or anything for that matter, right now…

After all of that and going to bed even somewhat later than normal, I woke up early Thursday. The reason I went to bed even later was that I looked through those books, which had temporarily been moved to the other bedroom, in order to select some, and the reason for that, as well as for waking up early, was that one of the large events gathering donations for poor people that are organized by someone every so often was taking place that day. Considering the date, this one was exclusively for children, but it still seemed like a good moment to donate some of those books which had been left here in my room for so long, and despite initially only meaning to select a few, I ended up taking no less than 51 volumes. Should have been 53, since I had two old ones in Romanian in my bookcase that I also meant to give away, but despite having moved them in front earlier, I hadn’t taken them out to put them next to the others Wednesday night and completely forgot about them Thursday morning.
Either way, after figuring out a good way to stuff them in one larger box and one smaller one, it was clear that I had to give up on my plans to just have one small box to carry and walk there, so I had to take the metro. However, first dad said he was also leaving soon and driving to a place that was quite close to the one I had to get to, so he could drive me there if I’ll wait a little longer, and then, after I asked why was he driving if he was going to a place that’s easy to reach by metro, he said he hadn’t even considered it and we ended up going together by metro, and to a stop that was closer to where I had to go, as he insisted that was the better option and will go with me all the way when I said I couldn’t quite figure out how to get from it to where I had to go and didn’t want to risk getting lost while carrying so much. And I didn’t carry anything, as he insisted on carrying the boxes himself all the way to the metro, and to a stop that’s not the nearest one since he didn’t want to have to switch trains, and then also from the stop we got off at to the park where the donations were to be dropped off, only leaving the boxes for me and going on his way when we were just meters away.
Of course, one may wonder why I went in that case, only to use up a trip on a metro card. Was wondering that myself when I got there, and even more so after the fact, when it was clear that I went only to mess things up. I’m sure he’d have asked what to do, telling me later that he assumed there would be people giving directions and likely also some way to register donations, so he’d have at least placed the books in the proper area. I, on the other hand, obviously avoided any interaction, looked around for a little while and eventually dropped the boxes in the area where toys seemed to be and wandered away. Walked back after that, of course, also picking up a couple more things on the way.
The issue is that a very small team of volunteers is handling all of this and they really need all the help they can get, so they ask for things to be brought only at the time and place specified, labeled properly and placed in the right areas, and I obviously didn’t do that last part at least. I mean, the event called for clothes, nonperishable food, toys, school supplies and hygiene products and I had found a comment stating that they’ll accept books as well, so meant to place them next to the school supplies, but spotted nothing of the sort, only seeing a large area for clothes and this other large one for toys, then one for nonperishable food and a spot next to it with some other odds and ends, mainly toilet paper and what seemed to be a few mattresses and pillows. Noticed after the fact, in pictures, that what each area was for had been written with chalk on the pavement, but while there I never even considered looking down for that information, instead checking the signs they had posted in the area for specific information and finding none.

After all of that, woke up early Friday as well, despite being exhausted already. A neighbor was drilling, so I couldn’t have slept longer anyway, but didn’t mean to either, meaning to go out again and then also eat before my mother would come back that evening. So I did that, also getting back to that farmers’ market, without getting lost this time, to buy more apples from the same person, my assumption that I should find her there again on a Friday being proven correct. However, I noticed that she was in the area designated for firms, not individual producers, and she definitely was in the same spot as the week before, so now I have some questions. Still, being registered as a firm doesn’t mean it can’t still be what I mean to support, and having all those cheaper apples, smaller, wrinkled, bruised, even in good part rotten for the cheapest ones, still makes her believable as a small producer, or a representative of a small group of farmers, and helps reduce food waste, as people can purchase products that stores would reject.
Would have liked to shower after coming back and eating, but there was no hot water again. The announcement I found on the site when I checked it after noticing there was none in the morning was that there was a malfunction in the entire area and it should be fixed by 4 PM, yet when I got back I saw that estimate changed to 9 AM today. So I just gave up on that plan and crashed in bed in the evening, getting one of those naps that result from my body pretty much shutting down out of exhaustion, waking up again all too soon to go to the toilet and then having all senses on high alert, so being unable to get back to sleep due to feeling uncomfortable in bed, paying attention to every sound and quickly feeling the need to go to the toilet again, but not quite being able to get up either. As a result, I was feeling even more rotten and disheartened by the time I finally crawled out of bed.

In the end, with my mother away between last Tuesday evening and this Friday evening, I had a fair amount of time alone when dad was out as well but have very little to show for it. I cooked something once, plus just something to eat that day then and one other time, but meant to do more and there was one particular thing I wanted to try to make and didn’t. Other than that and making the salad and eating more during the day, didn’t really do anything I wouldn’t have done with them here in all this time. Didn’t even vacuum in my room, other than just in the area where I was about to spray before doing so on Wednesday, so the dust won’t get wet and become stuck on the floor.
Of course, a good part of the reason for that was simply that I don’t feel like doing anything and see no reason or purpose in it, but another significant part was the fact that I wasn’t really alone, never for even one full day and usually didn’t even have a schedule I could rely on, dad sometimes not offering any and other times leaving and getting back at times that differed significantly from those he had mentioned or left written. So I felt watched, or that I could be watched, even though I know he doesn’t usually even notice what is specifically pointed out to him. I’m too aware of how unreasonably long it takes me to do anything, even how obsessed I am with some things, and feel bad enough about my abilities even without someone else possibly being in a position to notice if I try something and fail before I can at least clean up and maybe get rid of other traces as well. And thinking about it just makes everything take even longer, and it makes me even more obsessed with what little things I feel I can control better, and maybe even more likely to fail, or at least even more worried about it and feeling even worse if it does happen. It’s one reason why I feel even more rotten while eating at night for so long now as well, since he works late from home, sometimes going to bed at almost the same time I do.

So much for this post being shorter. I mean, it actually is significantly shorter than the previous one, but 3100 words instead of 4000 wasn’t what I had in mind when I started it. And even so I guess I missed and forgot some things. But just writing here for myself, if even that, to still post things and maybe also to have details available in case I’ll want to look something up later. So I guess this will have to do, and either way keeping the window open so long seemed to start triggering those CPU warnings after a while, as I got three despite minimizing it while trying to find my words after it started happening. And then, after posting, I noticed I had mmc.exe showing up as still running, I guess after it failed to shut down properly after I opened Event Viewer to see that there was nothing unusual about one of the warnings. Hope nothing messed up due to forcing it to close.

I’m alone until evening today, so that’s another reason why I don’t feel like struggling to write, on top of pretty much never feeling like it and the fact that I didn’t sleep enough lately and feel just exhausted, and also cold because of it. But, as the title spells out, there’s a lot to mention and it won’t get any easier if I wait and just throw some other quick thing here as this week’s second post. Plus, to start with the end, I already spent quite a number of hours in the kitchen yesterday, making myself something to eat then and also cooking something to have for the next few days, which I ate a bit of last night and then a proper serving earlier today. I didn’t even know what I wanted to make while making it, changing my ideas on the way, and it doesn’t taste like much of anything, but it’s edible, which is good enough for now.

Getting right to it, on May 20 I took part in the “Diversity March” for the first time, though this year it seems that they left that name which had usually been used for it around here as something of a subtitle, putting “Bucharest Pride” forward and therefore moving more towards what’s expected for such events. Always felt too awkward to do so in the past, being simply a straight supporter and considering the voices saying every year that heterosexuals who attend “just don’t get it” and shouldn’t be there, and then there’s also my stance on transgenders and that entire concept of gender, but current events definitely call for all hands on deck in support of sexual minorities and I did attend the November march as well, after all, and that was smaller and therefore each person’s presence was easier to notice.
This is a personal post, so there won’t be a report about the march itself, but I need to mention the downpour right when the march was supposed to start. Didn’t last long, so we could get going once it was over, but there were gusts of wind and heavy rain that sent people rushing for shelter under trees while those who had umbrellas tried to also shelter as many as they could, the crowd that was mostly near the street rushing to the other side of the area where people had gathered, making for an image that reminded me of penguins crowding together. And since I was just as much of a penguin at that point and also didn’t want to risk my camera even more, didn’t take any pictures of that period, but do have a bunch of others. And it’s not hard to find pictures including that period anyway.

With the Night of Museums also taking place then and the march finishing very close to a few I had some interest in and pretty much just at the right time, despite having also walked all the way to the meeting place for the march, I then went right to the Museum of Natural History, taking my place at the back of the line at 6:10 PM. And actually that line, long as it was, moved faster than expected, as it’s normal to spend a few hours waiting to get inside that museum when it’s free yet I was in after one hour and ten minutes. And once inside it didn’t feel crowded, the route to take was very clear, and information was generally easy to find and read, so it was all right. Not something I’d normally do, in fact this probably being my first visit to a museum after those to the Clock Museum back in the first few years of school, as for some reason schools regularly took pupils there back then, but I had been sort of thinking of having a look now and then for the past few years, so I thought I’d take advantage of the opportunity.
After that, I went across the road and to the Geology museum, having completely given up on one other thing in the area which I had initially considered, but to a far lesser extent than these two. That was a much poorer experience though, since there was no crowd management, everybody walked right in and was left to decide what to do, and that and the poor layout, with rooms in every direction, exhibits and information crowding on every wall as well as in the middle of rooms, and no clear route to take, made for an overcrowded, confusing mess. Plus, with the replicas of a few dinosaurs discovered in Romania upstairs, the advertised “Dinosaur Garden” exhibition, as in the part actually in the garden, consisted of five replicas in very poor lighting and required walking through the muddy grass left after the rain.
Meant to start walking back after making my way out of there, but took a route that also took me past the Observatory and saw a long line there as well, despite the clouds. And there admittedly were some breaks through which I could spot a few stars, so I thought there may yet be a chance to see something and took my place at the back of that line as well. And I ended up waiting for one hour and 40 minutes to get inside and ten more minutes to get on the roof for nothing, because the clouds had thickened during that time and there was no way to see anything anymore. One of the people there rushed to aim the larger telescope at a tiny break in the clouds while I was there, saying he thought he had spotted Jupiter, but it was only a false alarm. So we only got a couple of admittedly rather funny speeches… Which were actually somewhat refreshing after having spent all that time in line listening against my will to the guy right behind me weaving religion, conspiracy theories and conservative views in a continuous rant to the woman he was with. Considering the day’s events, the rant also obviously included lashing out against sexual minorities and the march, this being one of the few moments when she spoke up to agree, but then again I had heard a few quick comments along those lines while waiting to get inside the Museum of Natural History as well.

After all of that, I walked all the way back as well, also grabbing a cabbage and a few radishes from a non-stop hypermarket on the way. By the time I walked out of the store, at around 12:10 AM, it was starting to rain again, but it didn’t rain heavily, so it wasn’t much of a problem and I finally walked through the door here at almost 1 AM. Without all that time pointlessly wasted at the Observatory, I could have been back well in time to also take a shower, but it’s hard to get hot water at night from the city’s system, needing to leave it running for at least 20 minutes while paying all of it as hot water, hoping it’ll eventually warm up enough to just allow you to wash a little. So I just ate and left washing for the next day, despite feeling pretty clammy.

That sure ended up a whole lot longer than I meant it to be, but now I’ll finally get to Tuesday, when I ran again, for the first time after the half marathon. Finding motivation to just get back to regular runs for no particular reason was hard after doing it all with that clear goal in mind since winter, but I managed it by setting my mind on sorting out the frustrating matter of having only matched my record for ten kilometers by actually improving it. And, with no notable issues to slow me down along the way anymore, I managed just that, the new record being 48:32. Sector times were 4:32, 5:09, 5:51, 4:27, 5:07, 5:55, 4:34, 5:11, 5:58 and 1:48, making for lap times of 15:32, 15:29 and 15:43. So fastest ever third lap, first time I cover sector three of lap three in under six minutes, and matching the fastest ever second lap, which was managed on my second fastest seven-kilometer run, so when I didn’t have another lap after it.

Didn’t mean to go out again that day, but my mother was in the kitchen when I got back and she said she had assumed I was out shopping, which made me think that maybe that’d actually be a good idea, at least to get myself bread and maybe some other vegetables, as I was running out and adding that to what I already meant to do over the next couple of days will be more inconvenient. Plus, there was no hot water anyway, so couldn’t shower after the run, and in fact I only washed a little on some parts of my body after eating that night, with water heated on the stove and rinsing some areas very quickly with cold water from the shower, since it was apparently a scheduled maintenance period in the entire area, ending Thursday at noon. Definitely saw no announcement about it, but in the evening dad said he had talked to neighbors and someone told him about it, after which I checked on-line and found a PDF confirming this.
Either way, back to the fact that I went back out, that’s relevant for two reasons, the first being that I took a different route from one hypermarket to another and as a result stumbled into a farmers’ market that I was actually searching for seven years ago. It’s completely hidden away between buildings and I don’t know how anyone not living there or studying in the nearby high school could know it’s there, but as I quickly passed through I saw an old man selling apples that seemed decent and I actually was looking for apples, so I made a mental note to get back there some other day. And the second reason is that I dropped some money between my seat and the side of the free bus offered by this hypermarket when I used it to get back, and it was one of the seats above a wheel, so they couldn’t fall under it. Yet all’s well that ends well, because after failing to get the 10 RON bill back out otherwise, I saw that the lower part of the seat could just be pulled out, so I did that and retrieved my bill, along with a 0.10 RON coin that was under the seat in front and a bus card that at that moment, with people behind me watching and commenting on what I was doing, I actually thought was mine, as I checked and couldn’t find mine on me otherwise. Only when I got back did I realize that I hadn’t taken it with me in the first place, so I had found one lost by someone else.

Wednesday I went to see King Arthur, the main reason being how I remember seeing the 2004 one in a theater, with Andra. Or, more exactly, with her and that friend of hers, Razvan, since she had wanted us to meet then. Sadly, however, this one was a waste of money and time, having nothing to do with what the title leads you to think of other than having some names forced upon a fantasy tale that’s so cliché that it seriously bothered even me. And that’s saying something, since I’m not easily bothered by a lack of originality. But at least it was cheap, since it’s not available in IMAX and I therefore looked for a cheap option, finding a theater apparently recently reopened in a mall in one of the worse parts of the city and which, on top of being cheaper in general as well, has particularly low prices on Wednesdays. Did mean I had to walk seven kilometers each way to get there and back, but that’s hardly notable anymore for me.

After shaving, again with heated water, Wednesday evening, Thursday I went to the book fair, Bookfest, considering walking all the way despite the long distance and the fact that it was raining when I left, considering the lack of a monthly metro card. However, there’s a bus that goes straight from here to there, one was actually just arriving when I was passing by the first stop on the way, and I did have that found bus card, so I hopped on and used one of the validating devices to read it, finding that it’s an electronic wallet and not nominal, so can be used by anyone and on any route and has no expiration date, and that it had exactly the price of one trip left on it. So I then validated it, using up that amount, and went to Bookfest by bus to spare myself the long walk in the rain.
Since this time I actually intended to buy something and was meaning to check out something else on the way back as well, for once I didn’t look at pretty much everything, passing by whatever I had no interest in, as in not even in the sense of some degree of curiosity, which meant ignoring all the bigger publishers from here, for one. One place I was interested in, knowing that they sold books in English, now advertised that they had also started selling books in Romanian and that seemed to be all they had brought, but found another that was selling books in English that I didn’t know about. That was an unpleasant experience though, because a girl approached as soon as I walked in and she kept trying to tell me about them and to get me to fill a form to receive their offers, undeterred by the fact that I was ignoring her, looking over or around her and looking through books as if she wasn’t even there, only leaving me alone after I refused her a couple of times and bent down to look at the bottom shelf. On another note, the consumer goods fair which way back was by far the main event taking place in that area was now quite small and had been relegated to an area next to the one reserved for Bookfest, one being able to walk from one to the other, so I had a very quick glance in there as well, for no particular reason.
Back to actually buying something, there were five books I was considering, two of them found in two places, but two were those that I had also considered while checking out that science fiction and fantasy fair back in April and the publisher had far lower discounts now, and two others were cheaper if ordered on-line from this store I usually order from. Or at least I had seen one heavily discounted to a lower price before, confirming after I got back that it was again heavily discounted now as well, and I actually asked them to look up the other after making my purchase. So yes, I just bought one book and from them, since they’re taking part as well, the fact that I didn’t order it on-line meaning it won’t get added to my account, so I won’t get the points that I could then use for a tiny discount on a future order, and also spent a bit more, the listed price being rounded up. And I’m definitely uneasy about the choice, not being something I’d usually care for, but all those I considered fall into that category and they didn’t have the others there, so it was that or nothing and I did have some interest in that particular book, had been considering it, so it wasn’t a matter of simply seeing it there and deciding on the spot, I could still support them with the purchase, and it was noticeably cheaper than in the other place where I had found it anyway.

Once out of there, I also went to the little traditional products fair that always seems to take place at the same time as Bookfest, on the main alley, since I keep meaning to get something from there but could never get myself to approach and say something before. Had actually had a look before going in for Bookfest and had something in mind, so I pretty much went straight there, looking at the kind of cheese I wanted, and the person saw what I was interested in and asked whether I wanted to taste it. Didn’t particularly want to, but refusing would have taken more mental effort than simply allowing her to do what she wanted and I couldn’t manage it, so I did take the bit she offered, though I pointed out that it was actually a pretty big piece, at which point she told me not to worry about it. Then I asked for one of the small wheels, she weighed it, I paid and went on my way. It was actually smaller than I thought and I’d have wanted a bigger one, but, again, asking for another would have required mental effort I wasn’t capable of, needing to interact in such a manner. Either way, it’s tasty, and I supported a small producer. Or I hope I did, at least.

Since it wasn’t raining anymore, though I did hop on a bus at some point for a few stops, taking my time to check that the found card really was empty and then getting off when I could easily be at the door again, walking back seemed pretty much the normal thing to do, and I actually took a different route the first part of the way, to check out another store as well. Found nothing interesting there though, nor in the few small places selling fruit and vegetables that I glanced in on the way, nor in a farmers’ market I also happened to stumble into. Shouldn’t have gone in there at all, since a man stopped talking to the other one he had been talking to when I walked in and kept pestering me as I walked past him twice, since I needed to go that way again to get back out, asking what I wanted, listing things, calling after me… So that’s one place I won’t go in again, and I’d have no reason to go to a market in that part of the city anyway, but on the way I also found the location of a permanent fair, though it was closed for the day by the time I got there and I saw later that most sellers are only there on weekends, and that of a confectionery I had been curious about, confirming that I may try something from there if I’ll have a reason to be in the area when I will want to get some cake or something of that kind again.
But while I didn’t buy anything else on the way, I went back out after dropping off the book and cheese and getting things out of my pockets, because I knew the yogurt I tend to buy is discounted at a chain that has hundreds of stores all over the city, including one right in front of my building, and they, as in that brand of yogurt, also have a contest now that requires the number of the receipt instead of some code printed on the product. So for the maximum number of entries, the idea would be to buy one at a time, and I had gone out that day anyway, so I thought I’d just grab one despite the previous interactions, including one with an old woman and a child who stopped and insisted on inviting me to go ahead of them when entering the building and again when going up the stairs until I gave in and did so, having taken a heavy toll… And shouldn’t have done it, because there was a line, so all the people made me even more uncomfortable, and then I gave the cashier 2.07 RON, to get 0.20 back, and she dismissed the coins, telling me I had a discount, so the 2 RON were enough. I did explain, and she did give me the correct change, but she seemed either amused or irritated, or a mix of both, probably because a customer was calculating so exactly and had that kind of small change, and adding that to the state I was already in and all the other people around meant I just had to get out of there as soon as possible and only realized I never took the receipt, never noticing whether she had even pushed one my way, quite some time after getting back. So purchased that yogurt separately for no reason, as I can’t use it for a contest entry.

And to finally get to yesterday, before making food, I went out again in order to buy a couple of things I needed for what I sort of had in mind to cook, and definitely for apples, as I was completely out. And while I got those other things, as well as more bread and a couple of other things, from the hypermarket I buy most things from, I went back to that farmers’ market which I had accidentally discovered Tuesday for the apples. Actually, passed through it once on the way to the hypermarket, having a good look around and pretty much making my decisions, then returned to it on my way back, as I walked both ways. Did get somewhat confused after leaving the market though, but I eventually found my way, and this may be a route I’ll be trying to learn and use more from now on.
And yes, definitely managed to buy the apples and they’re really good, they were also cheap and I really think I supported an actual producer. Also got some radishes from another person, but the apples were the reason I was there and there were three selling them, though one shouldn’t have really been in such a market, as he pretty much had a store selling imported fruit. That left two, one guy having just two kinds, at 3 RON and 4 RON per kilogram, and one woman having several kinds, I think eight or so, at prices ranging from 1 RON per kilogram for the pile of quite rotten ones to 4 RON per kilogram for some big and shiny ones… Too big and shiny, I’d say. She was the obvious choice, also because having all those kinds and having them sorted according to their state in that manner definitely made her believable as an actual small producer, wanting to sell as much as possible of what she had.
So I picked one kilogram at 1.5 RON, as you could find decent ones there if you paid some attention while selecting them, and one more at 2.5 RON, those not requiring much selection. And I could do that quite all right, as I had placed some 700 grams of the first kind on the scale before she even paid any attention to me, coming to put them in a bag and wait for me to finish, then she just held another bag when I said I wanted some more of another kind, putting it on the scale when I asked how much I had already picked. Then I kept going to one kilogram, managing to hit the quantity both times on first try. Or, well, it was actually 990 grams for the first kind, to be exact. Either way, I obviously didn’t want plastic bags, having my own, but it would have again been too much mental effort to refuse, and it took quite a lot to just manage to pay even so, during which time I was worrying she’ll trick me in some way, being unable to even follow where the bags were anymore. Found them right in front of me though, and after wandering around a little to recover and weighing them on another scale as well, to check, I made my way back. And yes, I did taste each kind already, and they’re very tasty, the 2.5 RON ones in particular but the others are good as well.