The rest of the week

And it's friday already, a stormy friday until 2 hours ago when for the first time I saw two walls of clouds coming from exactly opposite directions and crashing heads on, if so can be said of clouds, one against the other with massive lightnings and hail, but a full summer friday now, how and humid.

The week has been mostly uneventful on a personal level. I had the pleasure of hosting for an evening my best friend, returned from the States the same day I returned from Berlin, with whom I spent time eating, drinking (possibly too much) and narrating each other of the respective girlfriends only to stop at some point and stating with some sort of annoyance how soft the years made us, just to start again after some minutes. A pleasant evening, truly.

Then was the time of an happy hour with Liesbeth, who's once again facing the expiration of her "possibly but not certainly, and maybe not probably" renewable three-months contract with the international agency of the time, and once again wondering what to do, but with more optimism than usual. I think she'll get a renewal, again, but I can't but be disgusted by this way of hiring people that all the UN agencies have and that produces the effect of having a few people with incredible salaries and a wide array of fringe benefits and most of the work being done by volunteers and consultants paid nothing or close to nothing.

On another evening I had a long and pleasant talk with Bea who did show me her new website were she puts some of her artistic works on display. I hope she will not mind me placing the link here and showing, as my personal sign of admiration, a few of her works in this entry as well (click to enlarge). I also promised to go back looking among my stuff and the boxes still unopened after the move of last may for a nice watercolor of my seaside house. She painted that one a few years ago, when we were a couple, and I saved it so carefully to avoid it being damaged that obviously I can't find it anymore.

Anyway, the international situation is the same as usual, actually worse, I'm more and more disgusted at my government and my foreign minister above all of them and to forget about it all, and see my parents, who I haven't seen in weeks, I'm heading to the seaside house mentioned above for the week-end trying, after having read Caldwell's Tai Pan while in Germany, to finish Shogun now and then proceed with Gai-jin.

Have a good one everyone.