what you get here

This is not a blog which opines on current events. It rather uses incidents, books (old and new), links and papers to muse about our social endeavours.
So old posts are as good as new! And lots of useful links!

The Bucegi mountains - the range I see from the front balcony of my mountain house - are almost 120 kms from Bucharest and cannot normally be seen from the capital but some extraordinary weather conditions allowed this pic to be taken from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel in late Feb 2020

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

nomads


I see that my ratings („hits”) have gone down recently. I do realise my posts are too long – and too personal! Of little interest to most people. But – as I’ve said several times – the daily discipline is useful for me – even the travelogue stuff. So, if you’re a quick skimmer, please persevere….
I remain a nomad – and find that a change of location does bring new ways of seeing things – to steal the phrase the writer/artist John Berger used all of 35 years ago – even if I don’t venture far out of the flat or house I happen to be in (I counted recently the number of flats and houses I’ve lived in (excluding holiday places) and gave up when I reached 30). I soon create my own space – this flat was both metaphorically and physically cold when I arrived a week ago – but now is so cosey (hugelich as the Danes say) with my bright red old kilim; 8 modern (as distinct from contemporary!) Bulgarian paintings; smells of spices; a music system and special lighting.
Sunday morning was reflection and composition time for the blog – then coffee with Ivo at „Tobacco” (back of National Gallery). I’ve never smoked – except in the last 2 decades one Sumatra cigar each quarter year – but I hate the politically-correct banning of cigarette smoking. Another reason for liking Bulgaria. Ivo took me out to the upcoming Mladost area on the airport part of the ring-road to show me a cheap flat in a panel block which has admittedly better air than downtown Sofia – and which will by the end of the year have a very fast metro connection to the centre. But it it is still too much like the Wild West for my tastes – and the flat itself didn’t have the room dimensions I like and also needed a lot of work
Ivo and his colleague Ivan then quickly sorted out the problem I had with my 14-year old Cielo – whose rear brakes first seized up in the cold mid-week and whose battery quickly followed. I was prepared for a major hassle – but the 2 of them took only half an hour (with Ivo’s BMW off-road) to get the old dear back running. Ivo and I had major conflict with one another in the early months of our work together 3 years ago – but he is now one of my few really trustworthy friends. Verily, you have to go through fire to know your real friends! The same happened in Kyrgyzstan where I had a real outburst against a couple of individuals (one the Minister himself) who were, I felt, just a bit too overbearing. After that we became great friends!
I've come across one of the very few other blogs in English from Romania - and this posting tries to explain why the guy chose to live and work in the country - despite the many frustrations.

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