January - probably the strangest month of the year

For me at least, January seems to be a very strange month. It goes by so quickly on the one hand, while, on the other, it simply drags on and on and on. January seems to have more weeks in it than the usual four and a bit. It's nearly the end of January and yet so much seems to have happened since the start of the year. I keep asking where the time went, but there are still six more days to go.

A very strange month. Maybe it exemplifies Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. As the quote attributed him goes...

                     “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. 

                       Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”.

And that is January for you...one moment it's rushing past you, and the next moment, it's positively dragging its feet.

Here's a picture of Janus, after whom the month was named. He was, to quote Wikipedia, "the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames and endings."

And this is supposed to be an improvement? Part 2

I bought some fish yesterday. It's actually bits of fish pressed together and then cut into 100 g blocks. What I do is defrost one of the four blocks in the pack, then pull the bits apart, dunk them in a beaten egg and dip them into fine polenta (gluten-free) and then fry them. Serve with vegetables.

I reckon I've been buying them for at least a decade and in all that time, they've come in a simple cardboard box. This week, I bought two packs (because they were on special offer) and was disgusted to find, when I opened the box, that they were now packed in plastic. And not just one plastic bag. No, they were put into two plastic bags containing two blocks of frozen fish. Why??? In an age when people are trying to cut down on the use of plastic, this company has suddenly had the stupid idea of putting their product into plastic. 

Given the state of the sea, into which a dumper truck of plastic is thrown every minute of the day and night (according to one book on economics I am reading), the last thing we need in this world is more plastic. Madness.

Not the brand I buy, but the same product.

"Call me Eeyore!"

Some of you may recognise that as a misquotation of the opening words of Moby Dick by Herman Melville, which starts with the words, "Call me Ishmael." (Ishmael is the narrator of the book.)

And if you are a fan of Winnie the Pooh, you will remember that Eeyore is the gloomy and pessimistic donkey in the stories. 

Well, gloomy and pessimistic sums up how I have increasingly felt over this last year, which is why I've not posted anything here in two months. 

Never, at the start of a new year, have I felt so pessimistic and gloomy as I do this year: the mad man in Russia, rising prices for gas, electricity and food, recession staring most countries in the face, companies closing down as they can't afford the fuel and power prices any more...what is there to feel good about?

Speaking with many older people of my acquaintance - they seem to feel even more desperate than I am. Let's hope we are all wrong and that you can soon stop calling me Eeyore.

Not what I was expecting

A couple of days ago, I had an errand to run in town so I had half an hour to kill before my nature-drawing class started. I decided to have a cup of tea in a café near the classroom. It's the one I call "the drug dealers' café of choice" as you often see some right shifty characters sitting outside in front of it, smoking away.

As I was sitting there, sipping away, four bruisers (Schlägertypen) came in and sat down around a table two tables down from me. From their size, shape and appearance, I assumed they were the kind of men who carried knuckledusters (Schlagringe) in their pockets at the very least. They all looked hard and tough. 

Imagine my surprise when I heard what they ordered. I was expecting beer at the very least. Followed by some "whisky chasers", but no.

The first bruiser politely ordered an espresso, the second Orangina, the third a milky coffee and I didn't hear what the fourth ordered as my mind was doing cartwheels. Not what I was expecting at all.

How much?! Part 3.

A few weeks ago, I found out by chance that I could tolerate some gluten without the dermatitis and the eczema breaking out within minutes.

So what did I do? I tried out foodstuffs that I hadn't steered clear of for 9 and a half years. One of the things I tried out first was pizza. I chose a pizza salami made by Wagner. It cost EUR 1.79. Hmm... nothing to write home about. Rather disappointing, in fact. 

Two weeks later, I went past the chiller section in the supermarket again and saw that the same pizza cost EUR 2.99. Definitely not worth that price.

But the shocking thing was that within two weeks, the same product was now 67% more expensive than before.

Talk about a cost of living crisis.

How to ensure there are no joggers in the park when you go for a walk?

Go when it's raining.

I've just done my usual 5 km fast walk through the nearby park and I didn't have to shy away from any jogger wheezing past me, panting his or her possibly virus-laden breath in my direction. It was bliss.

Not my photos, but definitely photos of 'my' park.

How much?? (Part 2)

Sometimes, I hate being right.

Last Tuesday, I had to buy some paper for the printer. The local supermarket sold a ream (500 sheets) for EUR 4.99. As I was also doing some food shopping at the time, I only bought one ream.

"I must stock up on paper, " I thought. "The paper industry uses up a lot of power and producing paper will probably become very costly."

Three days later, I went back to the supermarket to buy more paper. The price had risen to EUR 5.99. In just three days.

How I hate being right.