The ride back to the flat on Christmas day would have been dreadful if there wasn’t anything occupying the mind. There was a story to be told and I was going to continue telling it. The things that occupy the mind when traveling. Not the scarcity of people that were in the same boat going somewhere. 

  
I said goodbye to the folks and to the comforts of togetherness. Going back to the empty flat that has sat disused for the last few days. There were some things that needed my attention but they never got it yet. I’m supposed to be moving out and I should start packing up and doing some cleaning. Moving out in January isn’t the best time. 

It was kind of a sad time as my mind thought of the memories we just made as a family. I’ll be at work on Boxing Day. We all scattered post Christmas and now I’m in this cold flat that is trying to be warm but it’s not designed to keep the heat in with its single glazed windows and no control over the heating. I’m tired after all the occurrences and sleep eventually envelops my thoughts and actions. 

  
Boxing Day was an easy day at work but the thirteen hours spent there made doing anything else impossible. There were the lunch excursions and the need to do more than just what was on the slate. Somehow we were doing really well we called in some extra work. The day was a blur of of studies and I remember being tired by the time I made it home. 

The next day was the first day of actual time off and somehow I got it into my mind that I should watch some movies. I had a long chat with Bernie on the other side of the Atlantic. He made me aware of the flooding that has taken hold in and around Manchester. Not something that is welcomed at Christmas time. We talked about a lot of things and movies was one of them. He told me his opinion about the new Star Wars and having watched it later I must agree with him. Nostalgia and sentimentality has allowed the absence of critical evaluation to take hold. It was and is however better than the prequels. It has also generated lots of discussion that will continue to generate anticipation of the next two installments. The franchise is a monemaker. 

The day after Boxing Day slipped away into the darkness as I sat in rapped attention watching the stories that make up our new collective mythos. Spectre on the screen is another success story of the past year and we were asked to suspend our disbelief in order to accept the superhuman double oh. There is a puppet master that is behind it all in both of these films. They seem to be able to exert a great deal over the universe they inhabit. Is art trying to tell us something?  

I managed to finally have the place looking spic’n’span the next day. Barbs wondered if I’d be interested in going to the VAG to check out the show that was on display. It’s an exibition of famous or important Canadian landscape painters. They were influential in shaping the romance of the wilderness found in this country. Their development as a group helped record and shape the relationship people developed with this land. There was an influence from Europe as art developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These new ideas were digested and developed into the schools that produced striking images that are now symbolic of this land. We made plans to see each other later. 

  
Barbs had her time with her friend and we spent a quiet night having dinner and watching another movie that has been highly rated. The place looked presentable for her visit. The Revenant was shot in the cold wilderness of Alberta substituting for the frozen winter of Mizurah.  The story of a single minded pursuit of revenge for a wrong committed. It’s an incredible story of survival and human drive. It was beautifully shot in natural lighting according to the stories I’ve read. 

Barbs and I were kind of speechless when it was all over. It was a gripping drama and the end left us with questions like whether or not he was alive and what would he do next if he was. It certainly wasn’t a movie that was romantic leaving you with some kind of uplifting sense that the world is alright. It makes you think about how tough life used to be for those out on the frontier. It makes sense to cuddle up with someone to share the heat. Companionship is such an important part of humanity. 

We both had responsibilities in the morning. Work needs to be done as bills have to be paid. The endless stream of necessity drives us forward and the wants are relegated to another time temporarily on hold. The soul needs nourishment too not just the body. What troubles the soul is not physical but the discord between dreams and reality. The reality is difficult to face when one doesn’t get enough sleep. It’s alright if work is busy and I’m sitting in the control seat but it more difficult if I’m just watching as I did towards the end of the first day. 

The next two days weren’t much different from each other. I’d come back from work and try to stay up but sleep was needed by my body and mind in order for me to function fine. As New Year’s Eve approached this weird sense has gotten a hold of me. It’s a time for renewal and to look back to see where things have been and where things are going. There is this sense of the weight of my decisions exerting a pressure on me. There is a joy and a sadness an optimism and a pessimism. These feelings are pushed aside though when I’m at work. It’s an escape from my thoughts. 

Rains when not falling were intimidating that they were going to from the thick clouds blocking the now waning full moon. Over the course of the week a new system moved in and displaced the clouds with cold winter air and crisp clear skies. The mornings were frosty as if snow fell overnight.