dance day 56

So the Kindle has been my friend during covid, a period in which my kids monopolized the tv and I couldn't really go anywhere.  In under four months I read twelve books. 

Calypso
The Marriage Plot
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
Vanity Fair's Women on Women
The Vanity Fair Diaries
Born a Crime
Prisoners of Geography
The Whole Brain Child
From Socrates to Satre
The Brothers Karamazov
The Course of Love
Mood of Future Joys:  Around the World by Bike

The last book was one I had been meaning to read for a while and when I say a while I mean a while, since 2004 when I lived in Japan because that when I met it's author Alistair Humphrey.

I was at a party and a welsh friend casually came by and was like, hey you live nearby right? When I said yes he proceeded to ask me if I wouldn't mind letting two guys who had just biked through Siberia stay with me as they had no place to go.  Not sure why I said yes because I was basically letting into my home two strangers of whom I knew zero about except that they had willingly cycled through Siberia in the dead of winter, so obviously two crazy men.  Good thing I was in my carefree 20s and probably a little drunk. 

So that is how I ended up with Alistair and Rob on the floor of my tiny Japanese apartment.  When they left they left behind a black fur Russian hat and a goodbye note thanking me and informing me that said hat, in which I had immediately put in my head, was probably made of cat.

What has been particuarly satisfying about reading Alistair's book is that it and my brief experience with Al supplement each other.  There are things in the book he never mentioned to me (witnessing the death of a man during a fire in Siberia) and there are things we talked about that he doesn't mention in the book (somehow crossing the border out of Siberia even though he inadvertantly used Rob's passport instead of his own).

After more than ten years the details of my time with Al and Rob are blurry.  What's not is my image of Al sitting on the floor of my Japanese apartment, enjoying the mudane existance of shelter and warmth, listening on repeat to Glory Days. 

dance day 55

So I'm back in the office today.  An office with A/C.  It's going to be 31 degrees c (86 degrees F) outside today.

dance day 54

So Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for COVID-19.  Guess you can add him to the list.

dance day 53

So the French president picked the guy that oversaw France's lockdown exit, nicknamed "Mr Deconfinement" to be his new Prime Minister after the party he formed (La République En Marche!) failed to win any major city in the recent local elections.

The winners?  The Green (Ecologist) Party taking Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Besançon .  The far-right unfortunately took Perpignan.   The elections also yielded the first transgender mayor, and more female mayors in major cities than ever before.

A post co-vid world is looking alright, you know except for that part about the worst recession in France since World War II.

dance day 51, 52

So this weekend was the first weekend after everyone went back to their "outside" lives (work/school/day care).  We had no plans so it was just the four of us all together in the apartment.  Must say we're pros now and it was easy to slip back into our lockdown apartment routine when you know it'll be only for two days and not sixty-six days.

I even kept my lockdown instinct to make and not buy when I had some leftover cream cheese and craved some bagles to go with.  

dance day 50

So I went into the office finally.  Despite the time away the daily work routine was still familiar to me albeit peppered with COVID differences; the masks, the hand gel, the markings indicating where you should stand or sit to ensure proper social distancing, police-like tape blocking off certain areas, indications of how many people were allowed in certain places, notes with helpful hints like using a pencil to choose a coffee at the coffee machine.

It felt sort of like a weird dream where I’m in a super sterilized hospital that looks a lot like my office and if I look hard enough I can make out that the masked hospital personnel are really my colleagues.

Strange to say the least. 

dance day 49

So in preparation for going back into the office I went into Paris to finally get my hair cut.  It's been a while the guy noticed.  COVID I said behind my mask.  He nodded sympathetically and proceeded to cut my hair while systematically wiping down his equipment.  Afterwards he showed me the result but I only really saw what I looked like after taking off my mask when I left.  

Afterwards I went to my favorite Vietnamese place only to find that it wasn't yet open, or so I hoped as I would be sad if they had closed for good.  

Instead I went to a café and choose a seat on the extended part of the terrace loaned by the city of Paris so restaurants could serve more people outside due to COVID.  

There I gave my order to the masked server, took off my mask to I drank my wine and took in how chic Parisians choose to wear masks or not wear their masks.  

It felt nice to be out and about in a city again full of life after all this time.