“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
I wake up at 3.00 am. I have always struggled with jetlag.
Shell can sleep through a cyclone. I listen to her breathe while I read my book, hoping the soft glow from the Kindle doesn’t wake her.
I have finished Faulkner. His prose is beautiful, almost poetic. Like McCarthy and Kerouac, when I read his work, I think about all the rules that my students are supposed to follow for ‘correct’ writing. Yet some of the greats throw these rules out the window.
How much natural writing talent is stifled because of rules?
On to Hemingway and working through my fourth Alan Watts novel on Zen.
I could live in Budapest. Somewhere in the city, a nice apartment I could never afford.
The sky is great, and the weather is cold. We stroll to Zëgrë for our usual breakfast.
If you are on to something good, you stick with it.
We are heading to a few camping stores today. Shell has her eye on a new pack. This means I get her old one. Everyone gets an upgrade. The same system applies to phones and headphones. Shell gets something new, I get something used, but new for me.
“Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?”
Chuck Palahniuk
No luck with the packs but it was a beautiful day for a walk around this stunning city.
Phó and beer for lunch, and we head home to read and relax.
I get restless and decide I need some wine.
The first place is closed, as is the second. I end up at a restaurant that sells wine to take away. The friendly sommelier takes my phone and directs me to a nearby boutique wine store. With a smile, he told me I could buy great wine for half the price he would sell it to me.
I shake his hand and my faith in humanity improves slightly.
Bortársaság-Ráday is a tiny store with plenty of hard to get local wines. I spend some time with the proprietor and decide on a Pinot Noir from Balaton and a Kadarka from Mureş, Romania.
He gives me a free waiter friend and I am convinced Budapest is the place for me.
“Nobody realises that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
Albert Camus
We open a bottle of wine and Shell repairs the pockets on my R1 jacket. It is now ten years old and still my favourite light weight jacket.
I take enormous pride in wearing clothes out. My last pair of runners now have a hole in the souls, seven years. My work pants are ten years old. In a world that is throwing everything away, I like that Shell can keep our clothing going for decades.
“The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect.”
Yuval Noah Harari
Tonights wine –
2022 Balla Géza Sziklabor Kardaka (Mureş, Romania)
This is an excellent wine. Polished, balanced, and silky. Cherries and tobacco with dark chocolate. I am heading to Romania.
I get hungry. It is raining outside but the hunger outweighs getting wet.
Pizza. Shell has a slice, maybe two. I eat both of them. Disgusting.
Bed.
Discover more from now please now
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.