by I’ve hit the skids in recent days and weeks. All this being sick all the time, the sinus pain, the serial colds, the lack of energy, has caught up with me. I guess I’ve been experiencing low-level depression. I’ve had an extremely good depression-free run since my move to Romania; it was bound to rear its ugly head again at some stage.
Last weekend was a low point. Some cancellations meant I had no work at all on Saturday. Lack of work is rarely a good thing. In the morning a shelf loaded with books and files collapsed. This was my stupid fault; I knew the shelf was far too flimsy for everything I had sitting on it. Luckily nothing was damaged. In the afternoon I decided to walk to Shopping City and try to find a bookcase. This took forever; just putting one foot in front of the other was a serious effort. I was also completely unable to relax.
This anxiety continued into Sunday, when S picked me up to take me to some of the various hardware hypermarkets in the southern part of the city. I wasn’t in the mood for any of this. She thought I just wanted a shelf, not something far bigger. We found something suitable but it didn’t fit into her car. She suggested getting her brother (who has a bigger car) to pick it up for me, but I hardly know her brother. During our trip, she tried to execute a U-turn that I’m amazed was even legal (this is Romania, though) and could easily have caused an accident. As it was, her manoeuvre led to a queue of cars and honking horns left, right and centre (again, this is Romania). We got back into the centre of town, but many of the bars near the river were inexplicably closed. We ended up in a café in the square, where they were showing the Fed Cup match between the Czech Republic and Romania, on Czech turf. S knew almost nothing about tennis (she said she’d never played it), and I tried my best to give her a run-down of the rules in Romanian. Simona Halep beat Karolina Pliskova in a tight three-setter. When I got home, I saw Mihaela Buzărnescu lose in straight sets to Katerina Siniakova. That left the encounter tied at two matches apiece, and the doubles match would decide it. This was one of the best doubles matches I’d ever seen. Drama and quality from start to finish, and a great atmosphere. When the Romanian pair dropped the first set on a tie-break, I expected the Czechs to rattle through the second, but no. Romania won the last two sets 6-4 6-4 to record something of an upset. A great result for Romanian tennis. (This reminds me, it would be good if I could start playing tennis again soon.)
I’ve had a solid amount of work so far this week. That seems to be a good remedy. Yesterday’s early-morning lesson started in amusing fashion: he’d been driving the car immediately behind S’s when she attempted that U-turn. He said he recognised me in the passenger seat, and thought my face was a picture. One of those funny coincidences. Last night I had a new student, and I should have another one – my 70th – this evening. The sun is shining, there’s a busker outside singing Vinovații fără vină, and I’m reasonably confident that this latest episode will be no more than a bump in the road.
