For one hundred and fifty six days I walked 10 thousand steps or more, before I broke my streak by going for two bike rides. The first one was a twenty five kilometre loop. The second was a more ambitious 51km loop. I ended up in Geneva, by the Palais Des Nations. This had not been my goal. I just felt good so I kept going.
This morning I decided to go for a run, rather than studying or doing other things. I ran along one of my usual routes thinking that it would be quiet but it wasn’t. Groups of people walking two to three abreast, or more were blocking different roads so I deviated through fields, turned around or rerouted.
Out of pandemic I would have spent weekends doing things with people so I would have been one of those people doing something with others. In pandemic I do things alone. I have been doing things alone for five years now. One year because I had no car, the second because of a broken arm, and for three years because of the pandemic. Three or four years ago I lost the ability to walk by couples or groups of people without feeling deep sadness, so I found routes that made it possible to avoid people. With the pandemic I had an excuse to do that openly.
Today I went on my daily walk and found an island of tranquility. Instead of walking in one direction I reversed it. In doing so I saw the river from another point of view. I was on a trail and saw that I could get down to the riverbed and did. I saw a tree lying from one bank to the other and I thought, “Look, a bridge” but of course I didn’t cross it because I’d have fallen in.
Wait in terminal And so the weekend came to an end. It began on Thursday with a trip around Malmo and dropping into two or three bars and a night club. Discussions were had and dancing took place. The first day was about getting back up to speed with the friend and keeping to the promise that I’d made about coming to Sweden would come to fruition. I was in the city of Malmo, across the Oresund from Copenhague, Denmark’s capital. It’s on the southern tip of Sweden. It’s a city of around 500,000 people. We went to two bars before dropping into l’étage. A nightclub that wasn’t that busy. We met a few people of which a fashion student. I was interested in what she had to say but this was cut short by the boyfriend interrupting to speak about football. The night ended early and I was exhausted. The second day was more relaxed consisting of a meal at a restaurant I had been to previously where the food was good. On the third day, we visited the city of Copenhagen. I had already been to the airport but it’s nice to visit the town and notice some of the atmosphere and the architecture. There’s a circular ice rink where people can come and ice skate in a square. It’s some grass in the middle so it’s circular. Some people were enjoying the ice. Back in Malmo we had some dinner before passing by a night club where we stayed till closing. It felt relaxed, consisting of a corridor and three rooms. One part was the restaurant, another the dancefloor and the other a room with table tennis. It lasted till three am and can’t think of any conversations I flew the next day and I was writing this entry on my phone it seemed that we were chasing the sunset back to London. Those sunsets are always enjoyable and colourful.
In about 23 hours I’m going to be ready both physically and mentally for a trip to the city of Malmo in Sweden. There I expect to find a city I have already been to twice in the past. It is there that I may find a cold wind, blankets in the piccolina Piazza… Lilla Torg and enjoy pear cider. I take the tube towards central London and the bus from there to Stansted. I board a plane that will fly for around 1hr and 20 minutes, land in Copenhague, get to the train station, catch the Oresund train across to the city of Malmo and look at the big waves in the sea below the tracks. It’s a short enough trip. I haven’t spent more than five weeks at a time in the same place since the beginning of the academic year. I love traveling and seeing other countries and their cultures. It may be the last time I drop by for cheap since the friend will be moving from Sweden within a short amount of time. Three nights in Sverige It may be time for me to learn some Swedish other than “what are you doing” or “you are cute” and learn more relevant sentences. Thursday will make these decisions for me.
It’s Sunday morning and yesterday was another day of shooting and editing. As a result of that, the documentary has progressed a little more. One or two more segments have been added, graphics have been improved and the project as a whole looks good. There’s still a lot of work to be done and I’ve been thinking of extra graphics and shots that could help make the documentary more interesting to watch. Another 7hrs before editing is over for today