‘If I was a bird I would Fly..’
...was written in pencil with elegant Romanian letters on the backside of this photo. Bought loads of beautiful pictures during this antique fare last Saturday at Obor – 1913 up to 1940-
It was a great day that I wanted to write about, but forgot... not on purpose though.
Every time I want to write I get distracted. It’s nothing bad, but I would like to freeze time for day so I can focus on one thing that I want to tell. One thing stands out but then another overthrows it. It’s a bit like our building, besides getting stuck in our lill 1 by 1 lift we also have power and water cuts without any warning. Today was a one of those happy days.
Monday morning, a beautiful warm spring day with the sound of singing birds chasing each other. My Sunday -I work Saturdays- started perfect... if it was not for the builders working on the apartment downstairs that have been my unwanted wake up call for the past 7 days. Today it was drilling, over the weekend they stripped the bathroom and not sure what will be next. But, it was a beautiful day and nothing could ruin my mood, I wanted to go to the gym anyway so rolled out of bed into the kitchen. Had quick breakfast and finished my coffee whilst doing some Panfu translations. Must say that it’s quite exciting in Panfu these days, there is this machine in which you can shrink your panda into a baby....Anyway, I was off to Obor market, the place in which is -besides a gym- a massif food and ‘random things’ market. You can also find here lots of religious stands, and take away food. Jesus is everywhere.
Because the gym doesn’t have a shower –don’t ask- I walked over in my work-out-outfit. It was not too busy. After an hour getting angry at the bike I went to get some tomatoes and a Bretsel as a reward for my hard work, together costing 50 cents. Inside Obor market is this bakery that makes the best Bretsels ever, for 60 bani -12 cent- you have this lush warm piece of heaven. In a couple of greedy bites it was gone and I was on my way back home for a shower. In this short strawl that takes about 5 minutes I shook off a gypsy lady with a golden top that tried to sell me a leather jacket, spotted a new footless beggar, two midgets and could have had my zip repaired at about 5 different mobile stands. You might find the words ‘new beggar’ strange but its not that weird. The beggars of the hood have there regular times and there regular spots you see, some sit in smashed phone boots others next to the fancy pizza restaurant. My favourite beggar is the one with the weighing scales next to the metro station, he smiles –and this is rare. One day I caught him methodically cleaning the dust of his shoes, pulling his torn jacket straight and personaly inviting people to come and find out 'their score' by only saying the word "Un leu!" I saw a proud businessman.
Our flat is close to the metro station, at the flower shop right and then left past the offices and the homeless camp -that for some reason has a fence around it- and then your there.
I'm getting used to taking the stairs, had 3 power cuts the past 2 months and don’t want to risk getting stuck in the smelly lift. Home! First food and then the shower I really needed. When I opened the tap a little steam was pushed out... that was it. Water pressure down, yay. I just accepted it and like there was nothing wrong sat down with a book and a made myself a sandwich with tomato. It wouldn’t last longer than an hour, happened before. The first time we didn’t have gas I got so frustrated and didn’t understand why us and why then and why....I stopped doing this for my own sanity. And of course after less then half an hour everything was back to normal. The workman started their second shift and I was off to a nice café we discovered a couple of weeks ago to chill, write some reports and answer some Panda support emails.
The wind was blowing warm air down the street I was walking through. Although I was wearing my new summer dress -which I bought last week in this dead cheap second hand shop- it was almost too warm. Spring started, what will summer bring? Think I will hide in the hallway of our block or in the National History Museum, not sure which one I fit in best.
