Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Please take a moment to download and read my file Fully Funded Public Transit .

The first full day home is traditionally spent doing a mass of mindless trivial chores inside the apartment (vacumn, laundry, bake bread and so on) and outside (grocery shopping, repairs to my orange bag, banking and the like). Also I try to keep the noise to a minimum while I am wailing, and gnashing my teeth

Thirst Things First: I make myself a mug of coffee, totally unlike my coffees of the past three weeks. For one thing there is no early-morning stroll through the quiet streets, for at seven in the morning here the streets are not quiet. I boil water in a jug and pour it quickly through ground coffee held in a fine-meshed sieve. I add milk to a warmed mug, then strain the coffee. It is coffee, and to my mind, better than the $5 coffee at Starbucks fifty paces from my door, or the $2 coffee at McDonalds in the other direction, but it is not the same.

The wailing, and gnashing of teeth begins.

Last night before retiring I had retired my travel clothes in a bucket of soapy water. This morning I drain the bucket and make a trip to the laundry room on the eighth floor and tip the drained clothes into washing machines for what will be two cycles of rinsing. Back in my apartment I set the oven timer for 27 minutes and at only fifty-cents a load, the wailing, and gnashing of teeth begins to subside.

I have started a loaf of bread and a batch of porridge. At around 11:45 I shall leave for the intersection of Parliament and Gerrard to check out Toastmasters, do my online banking, raid No-Frills and return home by streetcar.

Note to self: Must buy some more Senior’s tickets and forget about swiping my Navigo Card.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth returns with a vengeance.

Note to self: I had better record my blood pressure, I haven’t made a reading for over three weeks.

Time has passed. By 6:45 the laundry, bread, porridge and oatmeal are all bubbling away. The sky shows a faint brightening in the east. In fifteen minutes I shall set off for my early-morning stroll to collect the newspaper and life will be back in gear.

I gained five pounds while away, which doesn’t surprise me. Eating out, no matter how much you strive to picnic well in France, tends towards a stick of bread, some cheese, and sweet grapes. Within 48 hours of my return, my weight began dropping back to its previous level.