Cav's Place

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.