by This morning’s service at the cathedral took place outside, but tomorrow will see another easing of the lockdown. Although other parts of Romania are still suffering, we now have very few active cases in Timiș, after being hit quite hard early on because of our proximity to the border. Let’s hope it stays that way. Yesterday I visited a bike shop – masks were mandatory, my temperature was checked on the way in, and at the checkout we all stood on blue circles two metres apart from each other. These measures will remain in force.
Last week the Romanian teacher gave me the encouragement to press on with my book, of which I’ve now written about 90 pages. After all the angst with the flat in Wellington, that put a much-needed spring in my step.
I’ve confirmed that I will sign the sale agreement, but I let the committee know that I wasn’t a massive fan of the way they’ve handled the process. They’ve been deliberately opaque about the number of signatures they’ve received, making each non-signer feel like they’re the only one, then putting a gun to their head by imposing a tight, and totally bogus, deadline. What tipped me into signing is that I just wanted out of the whole thing. I never want to hear of body corporates again. If I was still living there and had been exposed all this time to three-hour meetings and endless officialese and the chair’s oh-so-rounded vowels, I’d have gone round the bend.
Mum and Dad talked this morning about how materialistic the world has become. Dad said it’s horrifying how obsessed with stuff we’ve become since the sixties and seventies. Although I wasn’t around then, I really despise materialism, and living in Romania has allowed me to live an unashamedly simple life with few material possessions. And it’s not like I have the money to splash around anyway. This isn’t 2007.
The bike shop and back was a 9 km walk. All I needed was a new inner tube. But then I thought, I really could do with a new bike. The cheapest ones were 500 lei, but the one I really liked was 1200, or about NZ$440. It was a Dutch-style bike, with baskets on the front and back, and white tyres. Just what I would need to get to my lessons and the markets. I saw it was made in Portugal rather than Asia. That isn’t a ton of money to spend on a bike, though it feels like it. I should probably just damn well buy it.
