And so the sun fought
Salomėja’s skin was uncovered when the ultraviolet rays had penetrated her upper body without restraint. A deep red pigment had replaced the supple white skin she had grown up with since she entered the world. The dazzling sun took a turn she had not anticipated many hours ago when she woke up after a an evening at the tennis courts. She had managed with ease to win by two sets against her newly wed husband.The rest of evening was spent tirelessly in front of her laptop trying to think of words and sentences to end what had seemed forever, a chapter in a novel that she was hoping will be published one day.
The conifer tree in front of her bedroom that was on the second floor of a newly built block of flats was hitting her window, giving the impression that the day was not going to be very hot. How nature can rapidly change. If only humans could change too for the better. After hearing enough of the wind blowing, Salomėja got out of bed as there was no use lying in bed hearing the window being attacked. She emptied the kettle of yesterday’s water and filled the kettle with new water before getting Alanas, their black cat some water. The female cat purred almost silently when her bowl was filled to the top. Her fur was a bit unruffled, the neighbours male cat kept her company last night.
After the usual preparations of the day were made, Salomėja and Algis decided to stay at the sandy beach. This was when without knowing, the sun started to become more aggressive. The water at the beach displayed the identical colour as the celestial sphere, a graceful view, that eased the couples daily stresses. They took turns in entering the water, each also brought along a book to read. While walking to buy delicious vanilla ice-cream, instantly a burning sensation started to be felt on her body. After finishing up their ice-creams, they spent 20 minutes in search of an open chemist, when one was finally found , she was confronted with so many different brands to choose from. After deciding to choose a brand selling a family size bottle she cued up to pay, the sales assistant told her that she was entitled to another bottle for free, she smiled at him and said she was happy with just one bottle. The assistant expressed a look of surprise ( as if to say, why are you not taking advantage of a free bottle? ) while handing over the receipt. The remainder of the day lingered on pleasantly.
There will be training….
I am taking my time over trying to solve something for a client at work. I need to contact the client in order for him to help me. Unfortunately its not so simple, he starts telling me off ” This is something simple, hello hello , are you there” I quietly reply “I am here, listening to you” his tone of voice changes from pleasant to damn right rude “You are not giving me much confidence, how can I trust you , is Marc there?, is anybody else there” I simply ignore the ignorant fuck and pass the phone over to another college who jokingly says to me after he has spoken to him “That guy is difficult to work with, he is a asshole”
During the rest of the day, I felt pretty hopeless as many of the problems that piled up I found a struggle to solve. I even kept the nice college who took the call from me earlier from attending a client on time, he arrived several hours late.
I am not sure if I should feel so despondent, I am being paid peanuts for being a Junior Support Analyst, and told about a “a training package will be put in place” … its meaningless dribble .. I have heard my boss discussing quite openly behind my back to a client how he is hiring “temps” to get by or he is thinking about what to do with me.
Whatever that’s the reality of life, its possible to climb high mountains and breath and wonder at the sky that’s suddenly closer or fall into very deep black holes covered in smelly manure, wondering in desperation what life really has worth living for .
provide me with addresses
Where did my journey begin? (including the address of the location) where will my journey end? (also enquiring the street number and postcode) were just two of the questions looking at me on the oblong passenger survey that was given out to me on the first bus I took today to get to work.
Do the buses arrive on time? Do you think they are enough buses in your area? were simply omitted, there was not even space for a comment.
I wonder what the whole point was ? why does the public transport need all of those addresses? it could not possibly be for further surveillance?
Too fast too slow
It is ironic that I just failed another driving test for loitering down a country lane at just under 48kph/30mph. On a previous test I failed for speeding , hopefully my third test I will drive at just the right speed.
Granted a job
After a month long free slog, at around 17:00 today my boss called me to the meeting room as he had something to tell me. Once inside the air-conditioned room (which I am envious of) he told me first of all why we do not have air-conditioning,( tight manager) and then he said that I have potential and offered me a paid job. I am waiting patiently for a email with the contract and hopefully good wage. phew I do not have to continue the endless months of soullessly filing in job application after job application.
Finding work voluntarily
For the last three weeks I have been providing my services for no cost with the hope that I will be offered a paid position very soon, next week is the last week that I will be a freebie to Teknite.
I have been working on a mixture of 1st to 3rd line helpdesk support, troubleshooting windows problems. Little solutions from finding out how to organise emails in outlook to search for large emails through to setting up windows 2003 servers with exchange.
I would much rather work with Linux or any unix-like operating system. The colleagues I work with are great, the opposite could be possible where I work on the software I enjoy but the colleagues are hard to get on with. Work is a compromise for the majority of people in the world.
Revisiting pastimes for fun
A few friends on a chain email started to discuss their very first concerts with jubilance, which I have written about my first concert before. The email knocked off a reaction that made me look into some of music I loved in the early 1990s and have not heard for over a decade.
Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell… and Crash Test Dummies God Shuffled His Feet became a itch that I needed to attend immediately. The enthusiasm was transient and after a few songs, I turned the album off. Back in 1993 I could listen to those two albums on repeat for hours.
I use to not be able to function in entirety without video games, I remember Street Fighter II on the super Nintendo, unremittingly using Ryu or any of the 8 possible players against a friend I know longer unfortunately see. I scarcely ever play video games now.
I wondered into my brothers room and remarked on the above to him and was reassured that Street Fighter is still made on newer game consoles. My immediate reaction was one of cynicism, how can they still make such ancient and simple games so exciting and yet appeal to a younger generation of gamers? The same Capcom logo appeared after the game was turned on, I instantly thought my brother was teasing me by candidly putting on the old game but that was not the path.
Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 has very similar music to the version I fondly remember, the choice of the same 8 players is still available with some new personalities to choose from. To my surprise the game is still 2d, well almost , before the fighters challenge each other, the camera swings around the venue in definitely non-2d graphics. The special moves are also still possible in pretty much the same button combination.
I don’t foresee myself looking back at the moment at any other hobbies I had almost two decades ago….
Khaled Abdul-Wahab
In my ignorance I was not aware of Khaled Abdul-Wahab until today when a correspondent for the guardian wrote an article on Israel being asked to honour this man that hid jews from being killed .
Abdul-Wahab, a well-to-do farmer and son of an eminent Tunisian historian and writer, sheltered 24 people from two Jewish families on his farm after he overheard a Nazi officer planning to rape one of the women, Boukris’s mother. He shielded them from harm by keeping them on his estate. He even intervened when a drunken German soldier threatened to kill one of the girls, shouting: “I know that you are Jews and I am going to kill you tonight!”
Like Schindler in occupied Poland, Abdul-Wahab protected those under his charge by remaining close to the German occupiers, often wining and dining them at parties.
Would this be encouraging for improving relations between Israel and Palestinians if Israel did honour Khaled? One would hope so but I cannot see this happening. After all they are two completely different issues. The first is for Israel to accept the history of jews saved outside the state, the latter is to accept history of the Palestinians inside its own state. It is easier to accept what one has kindly received than what one has brutally given.
Two films reviewed
I have been a member of theauteurs film social networking site for a little while now, here are two film reviews that I have posted on there.
wolke9 or cloud 9
Untapped condition
This is a consoling and laughable comedy in which a married sexagenarian falls in love with a septuagenarian customer.
The Squeamish sex scenes that followed almost made me want to end this film, I persisted and was gratified by the humour that pervaded throughout the film. The film looks honestly at the affairs of the mature and reflects good heartily .
I am not aware of any other film coming to grips with what may once appear as a taboo subject.
Chekhovskie motivy or Chekhov’s Motifs
Astoundingly honest
It may be Tuesday or Friday in my family home that voices are raised and exchanged over the days continuous misfortunes. At a family table in Russia a dark humoured exaggeration of this is played out wonderfully, the hopelessness expressed unafraid. The scene is recreated as if one has had enough but at the same moment one is going to stay still and endure life as it is. The camera moves to a ballerina on television as a smart pause in mayhem.
Later on in the film people are laughing and babbling to each other inside a uncommunicative Orthodox church reminiscent of my childhood days at synagogue when me, my brothers and others wanted the religious service to be immediately finished, as if we should not have bothered going in the first place. The litany in the film is depicted almost in its entirety when a moment outside someone utters
If you need money, you get married quietly at a registry, not in a church.
to highlight the insignificance of marriage for money.Back to the family home, the father and son re-establish a once friendly relationship, a magic lure that consistently becomes a fact in my family.
Shot in High contrast black and white, adds a layer of warmth and sadness to the characters.
Please sign the Libel reform campaign petition
I should have blogged about the Libel reform campaign back in December last year when I signed. I have received two replies from my local MP since then, the last letter was a copy of an attached response from the Ministry of Justice regarding possible reforms of the law on libel in England and Wales.
The Libel reform campaign petition can be found at http://www.libelreform.org/sign
Lets hope the current unjust libel laws are scrapped soon