Few things that became even clearer during the latest holidays

Holidays are great, they are the best and largest excuses source ever for indulging oneself in things one normally would sorely try to resist temptation to yield to. So I will not bother my two readers with stories of scrumptious food and palate-tickling beverages, sun bathing, dolce farniente, and any other similar activity.

I will resume myself to listing some apparently trivial, yet not all that useless observations (especially for those slower with the synapsing thing).

1. Don't kick rocks. Willingly or not, kicking rocks, small or large, is a habit you should avoid. Walking with damaged toes is scarcely pleasant, and meddling with the metacarpals is hardly more gratifying.

2. People tend to be right especially if something not particularly pleasant is at stake. It is flattering when you are proven right after many have told you the opposite. Unfortunately, being right is not always pleasant, since 'truth' rarely is. Nevertheless, the ability to 'read' into happenings and people nicely butters up one's own self.

3. The conundrum of to tell or not to tell remains as such, a conundrum. If you tell people something personal, rarely will you receive the reaction you expect. Not telling and them finding out anyway equals secrecy and on purpose malevolence. No one ever thinks of the other in such occasion, only about how THEY THEMSELVES were affected (usually this is altogether pointless for the entire situation and participants but for the person in question).

4. Preaching does not mean actually doing what is preached. More precisely, too many preach tolerance while not being tolerant themselves. And God knows we DO need tolerance, from the small, insignificant matters to the huge ones.

5. People are NEVER satisfied with what they have. If it is cold, then they long for hot weather. But not too hot. When they do get it, they miss the familiar cold and claim to prefer it to the hot. This lasts until they actually do get it. Moment when they switch back to hot wanting again. Replace 'hot' and 'cold' with any other pair of antonyms and you have the accurate picture of the human psyche. Now, I'm gonna put on my warm socks, because the cold I was missing when I spent last week under scorching sun is starting to get to me.

Corollary: I do hope this helps humans progress, although the only progress I can fathom right now is in the whinging department.

6. Packing is messier than unpacking. I knoooow, this IS a surprise, but it is nevertheless true.

7. The source of platitudes never dries out. NEVER. :-)


On this note, dear two readers, I leave you to another classic of the Andrews Sisters, this time with Danny Kaye, which conveys number 5 better than I ever could. Civilization... I'll stay right here!

Almost December

I had no time for blogging these past weeks. I started the superhero post a while back, after I had seen the latest Bond flick, and never got to finish it. So I've just posted it today as part 1. The superhero theme is very dear to me and will certainly get back to it.

I spent some time in Romania, traveling to and fro, seeing family, friends, acquaintances, doing things with them, chatting and catching up, and in the end we were very grateful to have chosen a very comfortable car in which we spent almost half of the time. I have also realized that my home now is in Germany. I am glad to be home. It was good to see everybody and be back in my native country, but it is also good to be back home.

Romania is very much part of me, and the relationship with it is a strong love-hate one. I hate the things that are not working, corruption, bad roads (although I have to admit that they are not as bad as I expected, some of them are more than passable), unwillingness to change things for the better, the constant need to prove something (whatever that may be). I love the warmth of people, the laugh-while-crying attitude, the raw emotions you get to experience without any warning at all, the inventiveness of the place and its people that leads to hilarious shenanigans (for example, passing by a gas station called OVM, yep, no mistake, not OMV but OVM, although it was so shabby it could not have fooled anyone into believing in a typo...). It is a lot like our great compound family - crazy but lovable, heartwarming and exasperating.

I think it will take a longer time than estimated for things to get on the right track in Romania. I don't even know who is to blame for everything that Romania is criticized for - the politicians, the people who still elects the same proven over and over again dubious characters, the indifference of any authority you might think of, the inanities you get whenever you have to deal with bureaucracy. We did not invent all these, but instead of getting rid of them, we just try and find ways to coexist with them. Is this wise or foolish? I tend to say it is foolish, but I have not been a trend setter of main-stream follower of renown.

Anyway, there were some good experiences that we did not expect to have - some good roads, helpful and expeditious bank personnel, nice small neighborhood shops with polite shop assistants. And this is nice. After a long period of having a lot of bad things happening to you in your own home country, it is very comforting to have something nice to say about it.

I have just realized that today is election day in Romania. But due to some questionable legal provisions, neither hubby nor I can vote, because you have to be in the place where your legal residence is (for us Buzau) in order to be able to vote. Not that I would have known whom to vote for anyway. In Buzau or in "diaspora". I don't trust any of them candidates and would most likely have voted blank. But, thanks to the new uninominal vote law, we can't. In the same situation as us are the rest of the people who are abroad but have not renounced their legal residence in Romania, or the students who are not studying in their home town, or those completing their military service (which nowadays is no longer under forced conscription). Uninominal vote is good though, so we'll make do this time and hope the law will get better in time. I just hope that for presidential elections things will be different. I do want to express my electoral opinion in this respect. Although senators and deputies have more power and actually make the laws, I don't know who could really make a difference for the better. But I do know whom I am voting for as president.

It's Sunday. It's sunny. It's a lazy day spent at home. It's almost lunch.
So, toodiloo for now. (I keep considering these posts as letters sent to someone, and I have to end them in a letter-writing way. I am lousy at writing introductions, and not any better at finishing them.)