Hundreds and thousands of miles away isolated from family and friends. This has been another holiday spent away in a foreign land. Going on those excursions earlier in the weekend helped to minimize the monotony of being by myself in the flat. Inside of me there is a need to get out. There is also the want to stay inside away from the winds and rains of storm Katie which seemed to reak more havoc further south than it did here. 

  
Successive gusts of wind rattled the doors. I’ve kept the windows in the kitchen open in order to sneak darts of fresh air through the open window. There are two windows in the kitchen and I’ve noticed that the drafts are able to minimize the amount of air moving in from the outside if I position myself correctly. There is or was a strong fish odor inside periodically from one of my flatmates cooking. It’s better than sneaking darts in my room where the draft has a definitive drag towards the interior of my room regardless of where I position my dart. Going up and down three flights of stairs got a bit tiresome. Besides its fun to break the rules a little bit. There’s not much else to do. 

There was something that I was going to start to study but that hasn’t happened yet. What had me intrigued for a while was some reading and some news watching. In particular there was a program explaining the Drumpf phenomenon to the British by way of a documentary. What is it about this man that has the “most important country” so fascinated. Politics have caused major divisions in that country and the disillusionment has breached a point where the vile underbelly has been turned to face the light. He has a high degree of popularity because people feel like he speaks for them. He is not part of the “establishment” and some of his views resonate with a particular segment of the population that feels like it has lost its voice. He is a rich man for sure but he lacks the empathy to be an effective leader. He acts like he’s tough but only when he has an audience and someone to get their hands dirty for him. He’s never been in a fight and as much as he wants to treat the operations of the government as a business the model is not applicable at least not in the way he sees things. His tastes are gaudy and much of what he projects is luxury done on the cheap to maximize profit for himself. So how is he going to maximize this success for everyone when he only ever thought about himself? On the one hand I believe that he won’t make it but on the other it is still too close to call. His hands are too small to handle such an important position. 

  
Time shifted this weekend literally. Summertime finally happened which means that we sprung an hour forward between Saturday and Sunday. I really dislike these shifts. My body has become tuned and the circadian rhythm like a clock wakes me in the morning. All that goes out the window until it resyncronizes again. 

It happened again but in Pakistan this time. Their target was a playground filled with children and their mothers as the community gathered to celebrate Easter. There is a power play at work here. A purging that they want to take place in order to take over a land and call it their own. It’s sad that so many perished  just as their lives were about to begin. Just like that girl who was in a bouncy castle that blew away in a strong wind. 

There were other stories and other events that occurred in the wider world. I didn’t go far and from my perch I shuffled from one place to another venturing outside to sit at a coffee shop observing the locals and typing away. The local tuffs hang out by the golden arches naturally. A place where they can get a signal and buy high caloric food to feed their malnourished growing bodies. I wonder if that’s how I was when I hung around the local shop that had a few arcade games. I wasn’t part of a crew like these guys are. The one hyperactive kid who the others follow. Their problems are monumental as they sort them out in an animated fashion amongst themselves. Their hoodies over their heads to signify that they are not to be messed with. 

A surprise announcement over social media trumpeted my relationship with Barbs. At some point I’ll have to start using her real name but with our distance so great I can only hold her in my arms in my imagination. That doesn’t compare to the real person the real body. What comes across on the interwebs is the mind of a complex being who has intrigued me enough to stop searching and motivated me to get back. We spent many hours talking over the weekend. This activity was what all other activities revolved around. 

  
With nothing else to do I eventually settled to calculating how this reunification is going to happen. What kind of position will I be in by the end of the year? Life isn’t just about money but some of my carelessness lead me to think about money now as well as over the past while. So I find myself living a spartan life in a small town. Being away from loved ones and friends is the sacrifice I felt like I needed to take. Living this way is no way to maintain my life in the long term. Condensing it has given me a sliver of light to focus on and make my way towards it.