Thursday and another challenging week at work.
“The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward.”
Henry David Thoreau
We open a bottle of wine. Our last bottle of wine. Barolo.
A pang of concern after we finish a single glass and decide not to drink any more.
Is there underlying health conditions at play here?
Physical or emotional ailments?
I have been a little ‘off’ for a few days.
“I was so sick that I found myself worrying about the future of man’s soul, my own in particular.”
Allen Ginsberg
Ajman tomorrow to restock on wine.
I hope whatever malaise is afflicting us has moved on after sleep.
“Death was a friend, and sleep was Death’s brother.”
John Steinbeck
It is Friday and ten hours sleep has not cured my indisposition.
A new variable, lack of wine, is now in an already complex equation.
I will head to the gym. Nothing brings a flush to the cheeks and a spring to the step like exertion.
Should the gym fail, I will revert back to the tried tested regime of day drinking.
“When I was drunk and Lydia was insane we were nearly an equal match.”
Charles Bukowski
We have been to Ajman for wine. The shop is unobtrusive from the outside. Inside it is a jarring mix of nightclub, brothel and Liberace stage design.
“It is impossible to have bad taste, but many people have none at all.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The place is full of men dressed in kandora. Confusing, considering Islam forbids alcohol.
It is called haram – حرام – which means illegal or against the rules.
Islam, like many religions, seems to have grey areas. Apparently, the Quran is a choose your own adventure story.
Haram – alcohol – but not if you have discovered the pleasant sensation of inebriation. Or you are in Turkey, where Islam universally embraces alcohol.
Haram – owning a dog – but not if you want a cute little pet.
Haram – a woman committing adultery – actually, no confusion here, they will stone you and your drunk French Bulldog to death without a second thought.
“Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model.”
Christopher Hitchens
I like this idea of à la carte religion. A buffet to pick and choose.
Don’t want to work Friday, religion!
Want to get totaled on Friday, my religion is flexible!
The confusion is not surprising, Allah spoke the Quran to the angel Gabriel over 23 years. Gabriel, in turn, told the Quran to Muhammad over the same period. Unfortunately, Muhammad was not literate, so he in turn passed the details onto a few old men who put it in to text.
No small chance of ‘lost in translation’.
“And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence”
Bertrand Russell
It is a dangerous path to tread. The students at school are taught that Allah is keeping score – thawāb – ثواب
These points are recorded, in past times I assume in a notebook, obviously now Allah prefers the convenience of an excel spreadsheet, where he keeps ثواب on all of us.
Paradise awaits and half the worlds population does not realise they are playing this strange points game.
“The true paradises are the paradises that we have lost.”
Marcel Proust
I spend the afternoon reading Child of God by Cormac McCarthy and drinking the rest of the Barolo.
“All the trouble I ever was in, said Ballard, was caused by whiskey or women or both.”
Cormac McCarthy
We open a Chianti. Continue reading.
Asleep by 7.30 pm.
“The ‘Muse’ is not an artistic mystery, but a mathematical equation. The gift are those ideas you think of as you drift to sleep. The giver is that one you think of when you first awake.”
Roman Payne
It is Saturday and the swell is up at Nikki Beach. We have not planned anything for Ras Al-Khaimah so we hit the gym.
I am feeling better this morning. A clear indication that wine is the cure-all I always thought it was.
Groceries and reading while Shell does some work.
I have finished Child of God.
“Each leaf that brushed his face deepened his sadness and dread. Each leaf he passed he’d never pass again. They rode over his face like veils, already some yellow, their veins like slender bones where the sun shone through them. He had resolved himself to ride on for he could not turn back and the world that day was as lovely as any day that ever was and he was riding to his death.”
Cormac McCarthy
I have ordered Suttree.
If it does not arrive I have A Slap in the Face, The Ecology of Freedom and Arguably all at various stages of completion to get me through the weekend.
It is 6.30 and I have a sore throat.
I might actually have a proper illness.
I am in bed early and the last thing I feel like is drinking.
We watch Dune and I am asleep by 7.30.
“More often than not, all that would be needed to complete the cure would be for the sick man to show a little imagination.”
Joris-Karl Huysmans
It is Sunday and I definitely have something. Could be a cold, could be AIDS.
I skip paddling and don’t go to the gym.
Shell shows me a picture on Instagram of a friend. Their child is turning one. The caption says ‘Happy birthday Tragedeigh, we are so proud of you’
Not her real name.
I am wondering what moments in the child’s first year would justify such pride. Did Tragedeigh get accepted into University? Publish her first novel? Commit countless hours to helping the needy? Solve the Collatz Conjecture? Dabble in quantum physics? Cure Alzheimer’s?
Or not shit in her pants?
What would the Boomer’s think about the heaping praise Tragediegh is receiving from her social media inspired procreators?
I often think about Boomer’s, mostly because Boomer’s are so loud and so quick to judge the ‘kids these days’. Kids like Trgedeigh and her parents. Has it ever occurred to Boomer’s that when they throw insults on the current generation, they are disparaging themselves?
The people in the crosshairs of their anger are their own children, or more recently, their grandchildren. Who raised these people? Boomer’s. It is not in their nature to accept blame, these hardworking, never go out for coffee folks who bought houses for a few hundred dollars and had free University. The fact remains, they raised the people they love to hate. And their children raised the generation they love to hate the most.
Where else could the fault lie if the current generation is failing, but with the generation who raised them?
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
Kurt Vonnegut
Not for the first time in history, the finger pointer shoulders the blame for how things are.
I think kids these days are doing just fine. It’s the imbeciles who name them that bother me.
Poor Tragedeigh.
A rant. It has been a while.
I apologise to my Boomer loved ones, you are the exception to the rant.
“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened.”
Mark Twain
We decided to stay in the UAE for this coming holiday to save money.
It is no surprise we have just booked flights to Budapest for the coming holidays.
I reflect on how much my life has changed since I met Shell. The melodramatics of planning a trip to Europe in the past compared to the casual booking without a second thought these days.
“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
Aldous Huxley
I spend the afternoon reading.
I finish A Slap in the Face.
It is an interesting look at insults and their psychology. I enjoyed Irvine’s writing style and will order another book from his library.
I continue on with the Ecology of Freedom.
This weekend’s drinking (mediocre effort) –
Thursday
2017 Marchesi Di Barolo Barolo (Barolo, Italy)
Typical Barolo, powerful yet restrained. Dried herbs and sour cherries. A very good wine with a hefty price tag. I will do a mid week post with more details.
Friday
2020 Sensi Dal Campo Chianti (Chianti, Italy)
Great fun. See previous notes.
