by The worst thing about being alone at Christmas isn’t being alone. That bit’s fine. No, the worst part is people telling you if you’re alone at Christmas, then something must have gone wrong in your life. I could have gone over to England, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. (It’s chaos there at this time of year normally, even without everyone going on strike.) It was nice having three days to myself, not having to talk to students or to the builder, and certainly not to a dozen people all at the same time. On Friday (the 23rd) I went over to the English couple in Dumbrăvița, where we ate the sarmale and salată de boeuf I’d made earlier that day. They gave me a present: a book of Romanian recipes, in English. The book has a very pleasant rustic feel to it. Whether I’ll actually cook many of the recipes is another matter though. Here are the ingredients for “toba”, for example: 2 pig’s trotters, 2 pig’s ears, 2 kidneys, 1 tongue, 1 heart, half a pig’s head, 1 pig’s bladder or a thick cow’s intestine, … The list almost entirely lacks anything that doesn’t gross me out. I’m now reading Homo Deus, the sequel to Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, and every page I read makes me think about becoming a vegetarian. More and more people I know are making the conversion. There’s one snag right now though: I live in Romania which is just about powered by pork. In summer I get by with very little meat, but in winter I’d be struggling.
Those three days gave me the chance to reflect on a few things. Like, wouldn’t it be nice to have a cat? When I go out for lessons I’m often surrounded by cats and other furry friends; the companionship is clearly beneficial. Pets haven’t been a big part of my life until now. When I was little, though, we had a tortoiseshell cat. She was mute and had virtually no interest in chasing mice or anything else. A zen cat. My parents adopted her as a kitten – there had been a plague of kittens near their old house. When I was nine, and the cat was two years older, we spent six months in New Zealand, so Mum gave her to one of the teachers at her school. A few weeks later a letter arrived at our Twizel house in Temuka. I’m sorry but we seem to have mislaid your cat. The big negative of getting a feline friend is what I’d do if went away. I’m planning to spent three or four weeks in New Zealand during our summer, so perhaps I’ll wait until after then. Four wheels first, four paws later.
I didn’t get up to much over the three days. I went for a bike ride, read my book, watched Doctor Zhivago for the first time (great film), and did a really good job of busting out of poker tournaments just before the money. Of course I caught up with family. My sister-in-law sent me photos of my nephew at his first Christingle service. Christingle. Such a funny word, isn’t it? These oranges with candles poked in them weren’t a thing when I was a kid. Then it was his first Christmas. I suspect I’ll receive lots of pictures of firsts over the coming months and years.
Dan the builder is back now. He’s a nice guy. We just had a chat about the mildness of our current winter. It’s a far cry from what I experienced six years ago when I learnt all that winter vocabulary such as țurțuri (icicles) and chiciură (hoar frost). He said that during the Ceaușescu period they used army trucks to clear the chest-deep snow. This year it seems all the snow has been dumped on the US. It’s like a war zone in New York State. My cousin and his wife, who live near Albany, are now in New Zealand, but they had a heck of a time getting a plane out of America. Dan should be finished tomorrow, when Bogdan the plumber will also come back. Soon I’ll have a new fully-functioning bathroom (I hope), then I’ll need to give this place a damn good clean.
