Chapter 345

I woke up at 11. I like sleeping.

After eating a big brunch of pierogies with sour cream, a curry pie, and some baked fish, I went outside and started assembling the metal frame we’ll use for our small camper car. It was repetitive work, putting three bolts and nuts in every corner or T-junction, and I did it directly in the car, which meant I was often bent over in uncomfortable positions. Halfway through, I was out of bolts, so I drove off to a hardware store. I was faced with the all too goddamn fucking common “meiyou” (don’t have) with a drooping mouth and an idiotic hand wave, so what should have been a 10-minute errand turned into being ping-ponged from one useless excuse of a hardware store to another, until I just rage quit and drove to the gigantic complex by the highway, that actually stocks such simple things.

I got back, assembled a few more segments, and left the rest for tomorrow. I was hungry, so I made cream cheese bagels and ate them while watching some stuff on YouTube. Some American guy with a channel about obscure and interesting music did a video about Harmonium, a Quebec progressive folk-rock band from the 1970s, which was pretty cool to see. There was also a link to a documentary made during that time period about the band’s trip to California, and it made me want to listen to some songs of theirs again. I knew a few of their classics that entered Quebec’s culture, and now that I have more, ahem, maturity I guess you could say, I think it’s great stuff.

Then I went to the gym to train jiu-jitsu. It was quite the eclectic group of people on the mats: a 6-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl, the Italian blue belt, and a guy who’s been curiously watching us and whom I convinced to come and try. So it wasn’t much of a one-size-fits-all training session, everyone trained something according to their skills and size and needs, and I was helping them out. The new guy was strong, but knew less than nothing, and my one year and a half of experience shone, I could control him at will. The Italian blue belt and I taught him a few moves he could implement to get out of some situations and attack, same thing with the kids, and a good time was had by all.

I rode home and ate the ribs the girlfriend had made, with rice and vegetables. We watched F is for Family, and then she wanted to watch videos about something she just read in the Chinese version of the Lonely Planet magazine she bought, the Kungsleden hiking trail, which spans 400 km in the remote and at times desolate but also strikingly beautiful northern expanses of Sweden. Can you tell we got a case of the itchy feet?

I did the dishes, and then played Mount & Blade Warband, attacking castles and generally ruining the Khergit Khanate’s shit. I stayed up a bit too late and felt stupid for it. I’m trying to build muscle, I need some solid restorative sleep.