bad day

At work today, and there were no jobs.
Arrived, climbed the stairs around the pendulum, walked down the corridor in the bridge between the buildings, started the computer.

Nothing to do.

Study the construction of the old camera.

Very interesting.
An email!
Spam!!

continue to measure the holder for the camera and make notes

Another email!
more spam.
make notes for the mechanic.


Email!
Some woman selling a relationship with herself.
Spam!

Write a mail and ask whether the work announced witll take place.
There has been a delay.


It is good that the time wasted today is being paid for.

And just before the coffee break, somebody brings a poster to print.

Great.

black magic

The young man from the computer department sets up the computer again, a clean installation, a system ready to go.

He goes, thank him for his trouble, settle down in front of the machine, start the download.

A blue bar, from left to right.

A question.

yes, tick in the box.

Another question.

yes, tick in the box.

A message, try again? could not find the dongle.

Press the button, try again.

A message, try again? could not find the dongle.

Press the button, try again.

A mesrsage, try again? could not find the dongle.

Press the button, try again.

A message, try again? could not find the dongle.

Press the button, try again.

That is not going to work.

Search the web.

no luck.

Look at the dongle again.

Look at the back of the other machine.

There is another dongle.

Swap the dongles, might as well try black magic.

It works

A message, these files or other files.

Other files, please.

Oh.

Where are they?

The young man from the computer department sets up the remote disk.

He remains friendly.

Thank him again.

Press the button another time

It works.

Later on, from the remote desktop.

The installations programme needs an IP adress.

locally, on one of the printers.

Do that this afternoon, go to the café first for a cup of coffee and a panini and celebrate the wasted morning

croak

there is the a sound from the hallway door, from the stairwell. A croak from the cat. A mee-ow that came as short croak. The cat wants to be let in, has heard that there is somebody underway who is able to open doors, and who might just do it too.
Let the cat in.
Got to the bathroom, turn on the shower, have a piss whilst it is warming.
Then wash the head, the grey hair, wash the body.
That is it, go out, take one of the towels, dry everything, and go back to the bedroom stark naked. Slide the door to the wardrobe to one side, in the second from the bottom drawer there are washed underpants, take a pair, put them on, in the bottom drawer a pair of socks, take a pair, put them on,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  go over to the plastic box beside the bed, and dress up in the other clothes.

All the while the cat is watching.

Go to the kitchen, the cat follows.
She sees that there is food on her plate, left from yesterday.
She eats.
She goes back into the bedroom.
Make a cup of coffee.
Take it to the bedroom.
read the news on the computer.

The cat is on the bed.
She looks over.
She opens her mouth and makes a croaking sound.
She has acknowledged the prescence of somebody else.

Pick up the bag and leave.
Go to work.

blue plastic gloves, for hygienes sake!

Leave the cafe in the Institute for Advanced Studies behind, go down the steps and cross the vast concrete area in front of the department of Engineering.  There is a a small truck parked in front of the building, a sign on the side says that it is from the blood donation service.
Inside the building, the floor of the high lobby is covered with hundreds of students, all on their various ways from or to their midday meals, or may be lectures, or maybe just hanging about. It is noisy and full of people, all young, all eager, all in a hurry.
Pass the crowds, and there is a desk.
Show the identity card, hand over the little blood donors card, this vanishes into a card reader. The young woman at the desk explains that most of the details on the necessary forms will be filled out automatically, it is just a matter of waiting for the printout. She smiles, she is unsure as to how much she has to explain, she is eager to please, and yet surprised to see such an older person giving blood.

Take the forms to a table, with partitions to ensure privacy in front of every seat. Fill out the forms, be accurate, no HIV, no surgery in Great Britain, no residency in the UK, no HIV, no hepatitis, no indiscriminate sex with multiple partners, no heart problems.
It must be fifty questions, fifty ticks in little boxes on the freshly printed paper.

Take the forms to the next queu, sit down, show the identity card, the blood donors cart, at the request of the man behind the desk bare the lelft arm. Then sign both of the papers
A short pain in the little finger, and a small plastic holder in the mans gloved hand goes red with blood. The thing is pushed into a machine, and almost immediately some figures appear on a small alphanumeric display. The man makes a note on one of the pages, then hands the whole sheaf of pages back.

Stand in the next queue and wait. There are interview desks set up behind partitions, at each one of these a blood donor is being asked questions related to the forms, and getting their blood pressure taken, an inflatable band around the arm.
A young doctor pushes a probe into the donors left ear, quickly the body temperature is taken, and questions are asked as to the morning pills that the other doctors ordered.
All being well, off to the next queue.

Here, a  woman, looks at the passport and wishes a belated happy birthday. She is friendly, and she is tired. She has a page with self-adhesive numbers, she sticks these one to every page of the forms, one to each of several small tubes, one to each of several bags. She is very fast.
Then she smiles, says wait for ten minutes afterwards, and says to lie down as soon as a couch is free.
Wait in the next queue.

After about five minutes, shuffle to the head of the queue, then a couch is free.
Put the bag down beside the couch, and wait.

There is a young woman in a white coat, her head ctopped short on one side, long on the other, dyed green and red. She has small beads and pins and rings pierced into her face for decoration.
An astonishing appearance in her white coat.
And blue plastic gloves, for hygienes sake!

A young woman in a white coat and a Muslim headscarf comes over to the couch. She says that she will put the bag underneath the bed, so that if there is a spillage it will not get soiled. She takes the left arm, and puts a band around the upper arm. Then she swabs down an area inside the elbow.
There is a short pain, and then, looking down, see that there is a thick needle in the vein and that the tube has turned red. The woman is experienced, there is no mistake and no difficulty placing the needle.

Say that she has done the job well.
She smiles and says thank you.

And the blood flows for five minutes.

Hope that it will help somebody on their way.

waiting for the winter time to catch up again

Awake, agape at the silence outside.
Sunday, the last day of the week.
Get up.
Kitchen.
Turn on the coffee maker, a small espresso machine by Pavoni, checking the water tank to the rear.
This is empty. Fill it from a bottle behind the machine, a plastic bottle with a blue lid.


Then to the bathroom.
The same boring routine as every day.
Back to the kitchen,

Make coffee.
A slice of bread.
Return to the bedroom,
a fast and frugal breakfast.

And get dressed.
It is Sunday.
Stop the Brillie clock in the sitting room, stop the Bulle clock too. Take care with that Bulle clock, the  slightest residual movement in the pendulum will start it up again.

The clocks will remain silent for an hour, waiting for the winter time to catch up again.

And after having put on the clothing for the day, the son is up. and at work in the kitchen preparing for the breakfast,  putting the Sunday cake on a plate.
Times have changed, but really, everything remains the same,

cat and company

The sons party went on into the last night, the voices dimming into the background of sleep as the door to the bedroom was closed. Singing and the sound of computer games. No loud music, strange. Nobody would have prevented it, maybe that was the reason that there was no interest.
In the morning, the six young men are scattered all over the sitting room in their sleeping bags. Not all of them, one is up again at the old glass monitor of one of the computers.
Reading the news.

So make a cup of coffee
hurtle into the weekend non event.

No activity, not anywhere.
Everyone is still sleeping.
Apart from the one young man at the computer.
And the cat.
Outside the door.
Complaining.
Let her in.
Fill the plate with food.


She eats it all.
Quickly.

Pendelum

go up the spiral staircase by the pendulum.
The clock in machine has given a plus of nearly fifty hours, that is a surprise. Might just as well turn around and go home.
The spiral staircase winds it's way around the entrance hall, past a curved wall of glass bricks. The pendulum is in the centre, slowly swinging over a dial on the floor. There is a magnet hidden under this dial which gives the pendulum the impulse that it needs to swing on for ever.
The spiral staircase winds at least one hundred and eighty degrees, enough to make a height differance of one floor of the small building. The pendulum  swings back and forth unchanging, the earth rotates beneath it.

Walk down the corridor, really a long rectangular tube between the two buildings, the old physics department and the newer building. There are round portholes in the wall of the corridor, permitting a view onto the waste bins and the gas storage facility.


It is seven in the morning, take a left at the end of the corridor, walk a short distance down the passage, take the third door on the left.

The office.

Start the computer.
Look and see.


Then, outside the window, a huge white dumpster, two men in dayglo green overalls start to collect the rubbish.
It is Friday.

A young friend working here has had a heart attack.
A fit young man, a wild cyclist.
There is no fairness in the world, who would have known it?

news

press the button on the tablet's screen, turn the jingle that functions as a daily wake-up alarm off.
Go to the bathroom, turn on the shower so that it will warm up, go to the toilet and brush the teeth. Then get under the meanwhile hot shower and wash, shampoo the hair out of habit, and rinse away the soap.
That is all that it is.

In the bedroom, open the wardrobe, take out socks, a shirt and a pair of underpants. See that the socks have holes in them, well, so what?. They will do for just one more day.

The coffee machine in the kitchen, grip the black handle, a quarter turn to the right, and the little sieve is released from the retaining bayonet holder. Wash the old ground coffee out of this sieve and go over to the coffee grinder and refill it. Put the sieve back onto the holder on the machine, and get a clean cup from the cupboard in the corridor.
A slice of bread into the toaster, and all is ready for an early breakfast.

This is a day when there is nothing really planned at work, but the organisation demands prescence, so that is what will be done.

But there is no joy in this anymore, not even later, reading the news on the computer, drinking coffee and eating buttered toast.

Later on, driving through a village, coloured lights everywhere, red stop lights, hard to see.
Overlook a red light at a crossing.
Brake at the last minute,
it is a close thing with disaster.

gas

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

The long white truck with the" Air Liquide

logo backs slowly to the wire fence

around the huge liquid nitrogen tank.

It stops beeping and backing two metres

from the fence. The driver gets out , slowly walks to the rear of the

vehicle, and opens the doors There, behind

The enormous white tank.

Today is the day of the nitrogen

delivery two warning signs out,

two triangles

-., and puts them up on

either side of the track. Then, he

unlocks the door to the gas tank, a

vertical white tank, about eight metres

tall. He pulls a flexible pipe from

the back of his tanker truck and

connects it to the tank. A short walk

around the tank, some valves are

offended. Then, back to the truck,

more valves. A motor star

stop looking out of the window at

the early morning gas delivery.

get back to work.

Otherwise, it will be a long day.

cramp

Tuesday, 22nd of October 2019.

Awake to a cramp in the left leg, a cramp

that will not stop. simultaneously, the alarm

sounds flrom the tablet left on the writing

table.

When the cramps have stopped, get up,

turn off the alarm. go to the bathroom, let

the water ran hot, take a shower.

go to the toilet, all those morning things.

It is just past five, and go to the kitchen,

have a cup of coffee, put toast into the

toaster,

When done, put on the shoes, settle

down to the small table in the bedroom

Toast and cheese, a cup of coffee, and read

the news..

Hear the san get up, he is up early, he has

school things to do. He comes into a morning

tmg, and then he goes away again. He

is not really awake yet.

gather the tilings needed for work, take

the pills that the doctor ordered, a small

ore for the heart, a big one for the other

ttftbssdarh outside, it weillbedak for a

farther six months.

Take the small black car into the

tunnel. A following driver would like

to go faster, so he drives so close,

his lights are blinding e. them kumy

town, he overtakes and speeds off into

the distance.

He is waiting at the red traffic

light at the road works a short way

~' He was no faster, for all his lwmy

Today the trees are almost bare, all

their leaves now on the grass.

The blaze of Autumn is over.

top branches bare

Monday, 215 October, 2019

The traffic was Monday slow today, slow with many stoppages.. There is always more.

traffic on a monday, maybe people returning 

from the weekend, maybe they are just

starting the first day of the week early.

Things will not work properly today

at work,

the computer is slow, the heating is cold. The cleaning man, the who cares for the floors and who also wipes the tables, has returned from his holidys.
He is a friendly, quiet  man.

Work away, and nothing works. The fluidity has gone from the job, it has just turned into a hopeles act of mopping up failed attempts.
Just before the midday cup of coffee, theins seem to work again.

It is strange.

Sit at the someplace in the cafeteria and

 ook out of the big windows. The Top branches 

of the trees outside are entirely bare now,
the lower branches are still covered in yellow leaves

teenager dream

Watch the son down in the yard, he is cleaning his moped. It used to be  a young farmer's, it was driven through the fields, and it still has much of the farmyard stuck to it. There is chaff and straw everywhere, and muck, and a bovine smell, the farm animals .
It had been stored in a barn for six years, and now it is in the back yard, it is the new toy, the new obsession. There are parts to buy, and mechanisms to understand.

But first the farmyard has to be removed.

The son is down there, hosing away the dirt and the detergent, the small machine has a red frame, which now starts to shine, all in red and chrome.

It is a 70's teenager dream.

moped

Slow Saturday progress, in the big car with a tiny trailer hitched to it. Slow, those are the rules. Speeding with trailers is illegal.
The landscape is in bright Autumn colours, and the journey is being made to collect a small moped. It is the first vehicular purchase made by the son, a powere assisted bicycle, or a pedal assisted motorbike. More the latter than the former.
Leave the small town behind, there is nervousness due to the lack of an internet connection, the small phone has been left on the table at work by mistake.
But  there are alternatives.

After an hours drive, partly along a brand new motorway, there it is. An ancient farmhouse to one side, and a more modern one to the other. There are five kittens in the yard, young and clumsy. Three white and grey ones, and two black ones. Press the doorbell, the woman of the house comes to the door, she says that her son is out the back somewhere,

Later, when the son has taken charge of his moped, the son of the owners of the farm shows off the old house, it is due to be knocked down, of foot of an agreement made many years ago with the local authorities. He remembers living there, up to the age of nine. All the floors need to be removed, the roof, the windows and then the doors, and then all the bricks and mortar will land in a bulldozer, and then that will be that. A hause that stood for one hundred and fifty years.
He asks whether there would be interest in any of the parts, and so say there would. An old wooden floor and the staircase would be great.

Make the agreeement.
He will call when the things have been removed that are still being stored there where the floor is, and
One of the wardrobes can go as well.

Slow Saturday progress, in the big car with a tiny trailer hitched to it. Slow, those are the rules. Speeding with trailers is illegal.

Return to Landshut,
the son is thrilled with his new motorised bicycle, or pedal assisted motorbike.

balls and refuse

Friday, 19th of October.
It is dark outside the office, but for a street lamp illuminyting yard, with the gas store all fenced in by industrial wire mesh.
A dumpdter backs in, to vollect the contents of the recycling bins in the other corner of the yard. The loading bay to the rear of the truck has bright whtie floodlights attached, they illuminate the whole yard now.
Two men in orange work suits jump out and rush to collect the containers that have to be emptied. The containers are huge galvanised steel bins with wheels attached. They are pushed to the rear of the truck by the men, and then the one presses buttons, the whole container is lifted up and empties the contents into the truck, shakes a few times and is then lowered back onto the ground. That is it. All in the dark, glistening light from the floodlamps. The empty bins are returned to their places, the truck drives on to the next customer.
Later, when it is light, a small truck arrives to collect the heavy metal container. Driven by a white haired man in dirty blue overalls. He backs his truck up to the metal skip, then he gets out. He has a remote control for the loading mechanism of the truck.
Two arms fold back from the truck, to either side of the skip. The man in blue fixes chains to both sides of the skip, and at the press of a button the whole thing is lifted into the air and onto the back of the truck. A few buttons, then the man gets back on board, and the truck drives off into the sunrise between the university buildings.

Stop watching others working. Turn back to the computer to finish an illustration for the cover of some scientific magazin. Hundreds of balls, some cut through the middle. A lot of work, lthe software cannot cope with the quantity.

All balls, really.

orange

Thursday 17th of October 2019

Look out of the window again, The trees

are losing their beautiful orange and yellow

leaves and going bare for the winter.

It is atter today too, there are not as many

students around. Also, they have learned that

the old cafe is closed, it has relocated to

the ground floor of the new building

behind the chemistry department.

There is a small congress in The faculty

for advanced studies, the place is crowded.

scientists milling about, telling each other

the states news.

, talking about themselves

too. They are working, and enjoying

themselves at the same time

. all on their

break from the congress, they are in

the foyer of the building, enjoying their

coffee and cake.

Then, a man claps his hands.

And-they are all gone

. To the lecture

theatre, to hear one of their number

talk about discoveries made.

This is

probably the full of science.

Talking and socialising,

straight back

Wednsday, 16 October
The trees byond the concrete flags of the terrace outside the window of the advanced  studies cafeteria are turning bright yellow and orange before a backdrop of mid-blue sky with white fluffy clouds sparsely distributed upon it.
The sky is blue, the sun is out. The weather forecast predicted rain yesterday. It is doing the opposite, the weather.
There is the insistent beeping of somebody's small circular chip informing them that their pizza is ready. Then another starts making a honking sound, like a goose. This is easier to hear.


A young chinese woman passes by to collect her pizza. She has a pale face, blemish free,  a striped pullover, horizontal lines. She walks errect, she has an absolutely straight back, walks with elegant small steps, turns her shoulders to face about, more her shoulders than her neck. Caarefully dressed, neat black trousers and sneakers.
She is with three chinese men in ill fitting clothing with baggy sports trousers.

buzzer

Tuesday, 15 th of October 2019

This is

midday now, sit in The cafe at

the Institute for advanced studies.

There are students everywhere, so take

refuge in this more expensive place, with

a cup of coffee served by a noisy Italian man. He makes coffee well, nicely

served, strong and hot. He has a strange way of using

his voice, squawking loudly

.

a high pitched loud voice.

He serves pizzas, coffee and cake.

If you order a pizza you get a small

round disc. This sounds an alarm

when the pizza is ready.

black smart , difficult start

the streets and alleys of Landshut are dark, and the approaching winter lets them feel cold. There is the little black car, press the button on the key, let it light up. Put the bag on the passenger seat, the key in the starter. Turn the lights on, then try to start the car.
It doesn't.
A failure.
Withdraw the key from the lock.
Turn off the lights again.

An impatient driver to the rear wants to take the space. He leaves his headlights on. Everything is dazzling and the car will not start.

Relax. Force that.
Turn the key
The car will not start.
The radio blares.
Turn it off.
The car to the rear switches the headlights off.

Turn the key,
The car starts.
Reverse.
The waiting car turns its headlights on.
First gear, then automatic, and then leave the space behing, see the car with the bright headlamps in the rear view mirror swoop into that empty space.
So somebody is happy.

Later, drive along by the river, a full moon to the right and a pre-sunrise dawn to the left.

exhaustion from nowhere.

The morning on a Sunday is just a lazy day, a day of no work, a day to relax.
Take the basket full of dirty clothes from the past week and put them into the washing machine, then take a shower as the machine runs it's programme.
Hear the son run up the stairs. He is going to get a sunday cake from the freezer.

Lie down for a short while again.
This is just a tired sunday.

Have breakfast of cake, and talk about yesterday's demonstration.

Today the depressions will take their toll
and
just
stay
in
bed

after having taken the washed clothes into the attic and hung them all on the line.
See all the work that needs to be done
there is no joy in this

bigot

At the shop buy a can a pack of water bottles. This is just still water, for the coffee machine. But it makes the coffee taste better. Wait at the till until the son arrives with a loaf of bread, then pay.
Go up the main street, cross the bridge. The water is heavy, six platic bottles each containing more than a litre. The son walks along to the one side , he carries the bread.

All the way up the town there is a radical politician, s peaking at a demonstration, demonstrating bigotry, a clever mixture of singular events in history that would serve the points that were to be made.
The man rushes around with great energy shouting into his microphone. Helpers in black fancy dress, tee shirt and camouflage, hold up placards showing pictures from the Jihad. They are to illustrate that this is the way of all Islam, to shoot and to destroy.T The man is demonstrating alternative facts for stupid people. The son meets a few school friends, they are holding up banners to protest at the public sp eeches.
The police are there in force, All in black uniforms, to keep trouble down.
The sum of the protesters and the speakers, the demonstrators, and the spectators is smaller than the quantity of police.

Take a few pictures, the little camera is difficult, it is too slow.
A woman with a glove puppet makes fun of the speaker.
He calls her stupid.
He calls the Suddeutsche Zeitung a leftist propoganda circular.

The man is a bigot.
His friends come over, complain.
They do not like having their picture taken.
Ask the police.
The police say it is in order to take pictures.

funnybone

 Friday, 11 October, 2019

The workers are all in the cafeteria today. the

workmen that do the electrics. At another table,

a group of engineers from the reactor. All perched

high on the pew-like seats.

Sit at one of the low tables beside the window

look out at the lawns beside the chemistry

department

.

. There are a few fallen leaves on

the grass, the first harbingers of Autumn.

Outside, all is neat and settled. Inside the

cafeteria, it is not neat, neither is it settled.

People are

uncomfortable, self-conscious.

And it is cold. The air conditioning function

well in the winter.

The design has a flaw,

the place is not welcoming.

A twinge in the arm, at the elbow.

Suddenly, there is pain all the way

up the

left arm, the nerves of the neck, on the left

all radiate pain. Take

the elbow off the table,

this must be nerve clamped somewhere. Do

not scream, this is a public place. Put the

arms down, hands on knees. Lower the

head. slowly, the pain fades, then it is

gone, nothing left but a numb feeling in the

left arm.

What was that? Maybe it was the elbow

propped on the too-high cafeteria

table. The pain started in the elbow's

funny bone after all.

The cafeteria is filling now. There

are late-awakening scientists, in to take

breakfast before they go to work.

forces, habit

Change lane, the truck is overtaken,  see the sign ahead with the three stripes, then the sign with the two stripes. There is a truck ahead, just passing the sign with one stripe.

Without slowing, move left to the right onto the slip road. 

Brake, turn, drive on up the ramp,  slowing all the while,  and stop at the junction, look to the left, there are cars in the distance, never mind them. 

Proceed, pass the green traffic lights.

There are more lights ahead, proceed slowly, never mind them, the car tiny car will not accelerate faster.

There is a yellow sign ahead,  with the name  of a village. Slow down, as the law requires. There is a traffic light here too, but that is green.

Then there is another sign, a diagonal bar in paint on it.

The end of the village.

Accelerate.

And cruise along the country road.

Another yellow sign

Another village.

The traffic light is switched off here.

A  delivery truck takes to the road from a side road.

It is slow, so brake.

Then there is another sign, diagonal bar again.

Accelerate,

A sign with  the figures "80" in a red circle.

Slow.

Take a turnoff to the left.

Another yellow sign

Slow to fifty.

Pass the new university buildings,

take a left, then a right,

anothere right,

the park place

paved with gravel

almost empty

take a space.

Turn off the car headlamps,

Turn off the engine.

boy racers turned ambulance chasers

Wednesday, 9th of October, 2019

Take the tiny car from its tiny parking spot,

and do a three point turn. The reverse gear does

not work properly. The vehicle moves back

in jerks, it is hard to control. Drive the car

through the tunnel,

all the other cars are in a

hurry, overtaking, cutting into the lanes,

all a massive expression of haste.

Ten kilometres farther on, take the turn

for the motorway.

It is raining, the windscreen

wipers moving back and forth, the ventilator

blowing air onto the windscreen to take 

away the condensation. The cars ahead are no

more than a mass of blur-edged red lights,

coming closer, then moved away again. It

is not possible to maintain a constant speed.

Big cars have trouble passing the trucks in the

narrow lands of the carriageway beside the

road works. Still, it is possible to move, the

traffic never stops here.

After the roadworks, a car approaches

from the rear flashing it's lights, trying to bully

a clear path for itself. Then there is a flash of

blue lights to the rear, an ambulance making

its way in the rain, followed

by a number

of cars using the free path that it

has generated. Let them all rush past,

boy racers turned ambulance chasers.

The cacophony of sound, the

horn, the rain, all vanish into a

confusion of red and blue, all blurred

by the spots of rain on the windshield,

reflecting in the wet of the road. It will

be light in ten minutes, or so. First

dawn, and everybody in such a hurry.

futile

Tuesday

October 8th.

Today is the day that the new

cafeteria at work opened its doors. It is the same distance,

a wooden building, a concrete building

coated in wooden boarding, all plywood,

The doors are heavy steel, power assisted.

They are more secure than the doors of a bank

The cielings are too low , even though they

are not really low. The seating is newly

made, immovable, benches with high backs

like church pews. It is not a cafeteria.

At first sight, it is an uninviting place

But huge.

Today is the day of the lecture on nuclear

safety, radiation protection, or whatever

they wish to call it.

Write these notes, a

steadily increasing

sense of futility.

The fifteen minute break from work

will be up and over shortly.

That is going to be and over shortly,

A boring day.

fire alarm

ironing

Awake early,there is a need for the bathroom, a need not to be refused.
Return, why not have a cup of coffee, all are sleeping but for the cat.
Make a cup of coffee using the small espresso machine, the sieve half full, and sit down at the computer, read the news.
About trump.
About brexit.
Iran.
Hong Kong.
No news of any countries without trouble.

Make another cup of coffee.
The son's alarm sounds.
Hear him stagger down from his hight bed, jump the last short stretch.
The alarm stops.

Later , lie down again.
Then hear the son running upstairs to the deep freeze.
Then down again.
The oven starts, a grumbling sound from the little fan blowing hot air through the machine.

Get up, see that the son has laid the table.
Strangely enough, he is wiping the surface after putting the crockery down.
This seems awkward.
The cake that he has heated is some Grecian pastry.


Sit there and talk about cakes and clocks. The battery clock is working again, it needed a new fresh battery.


And then return to the bedroom, and look at the stack of clothes that need to be ironed.
Flattened and put away, that would be another way of expressing it.

Saturday post is missing,was deleted, who knows?

a last cup of coffee in this building

Friday. October fourth, 2019

arrive at work, there are parting spaces

free at the front of the building. The

tiny black car is parked beside an oversize SUV car now, a huge silver BMW.

Enter the building, go to the office, it is

cold in there, the weather has turned and

the heating was off.

Turn the knob on the wall, and some seconds later the heating starts to hiss. Settle down, check the information on the computer, nothing untoward has happened.
The job is still on, to take a picture of two directors and an American guest from the Department of Energy, an important visitor for the scientists at the reactor. Half an hour early, carry over the setpladder, the camera case, and the tripod. Nearly for the important ID card, but only nearly.
Navigate the turnstiles with all the baggage, sliding the magnetic card through the reader beforehand to release the locks.
Say good morning to the secretary of the Director, ask her if everything is as planned. Things are running early.
Set up the equipment, do the checks on all the levels, the camera adjustments, everything. It is all

ready to go.

A five minute wait, then the three

men hurry ie, quiet conversations,

polite hand states, explain  the

procedure, take the picture.

Change position take another.

Job done, the three men hurry on.

Take the journey through the turnstiles in reverse, and go to the office. Take the card from the camera, put it into the card reader on the computer..

The pictures are in order.

Play with the editing software, make a wask, the work is done quickly, work

that would have taken hours back in the

analogue days, the days of sensitive film

and chemicals.

Close the office, it is time for a break. Go

to the cafeteria, then see that all is bare,

the counters are cleared. They are closing

the cafeteria permanently  today, the man is saying;
They are closed.

But he hands over a cake, and a last cup

of coffee in this building.

big-faced showoff

the third of October today, a German holiday, the day of German unity.
The alarm goes off at five, it does not care about German unity, or for the fact that it is a holiday today. Stumble over to the folded down flap of the secretary and press the button on the screen of the tablet.
The alarm stops.
Return to bed.
Later on, the son comes in to the bedroom, he wants to visit the cafe. Think about this, tell him that first of all, he will need to change into his day clothes, you cannot go to a cafe dressed in your pyjama. Then he goes again.

Put on day clothes, nothing special, it is only a Thursday.
The  cafe is open, and it is very busy indeed.
A cup of coffee and a croissant are OK.
The son has a Bienensstichkuchen, he has an appetite for cake, and that is a sweet creamy cake with a layer of nuts on top.

Sitting in the cafe and wonder, there is little to say. The son says that he will be able to give up Latin next year. Suggest that this may not be a good idea, after all his Latin is improving. He gives a disapproving look, and continues to eat his cake.

Nothing happens this morning. Walk around the quiet town, there are no shops open. A jewellers store is displaying watches, huge big-faced showoff watches. And they are cheap too.
Not a thing that you would really wish for.

swatch

Wednesday, second of October, 2019

There is a sharp double knock on the

door, and a cheerful woman comes in to

collect yesterdays work. She comments on

the posters all being in cardboard tubes.

Say that this is for their protection, to

prevent scuffs and rain damage. The

inkjet printed posters are not water

resistant, water will destroy them.

Help her to carry the posters to the hallway, where they

.

are to be put up. she is in a hurry today,

she excuses herself and goes on.

.

Return to the small room

and proceed

with the work, the work involved in

calibrating yet another material for the

printer. The problem is to find the limit,

to find the amount of

ink required for

maximum density, yet no smudging.

Print the first swatch, go to the basement

of the building, the printer room, put A

printed swatch into the reading device,

align, start the measurement.

Return to the office

, on the may see

that preparations for the open day have

progressed. There are noticeboards

up everywhere, information to be had.

on atomic reactors.

shave

Tuesday, cnst of October 2019

As the water runs, find the razor on the ledge in

the bathroom

> find the black tin of shaving

foam, a spray can, too.

Meanwhile, the water is hot, the cold water

from the pipes has gone down the drain.

Wash the face with hot water, then apply the

shaving foam, wait a short while, and

then use the razor to remove the fresh growth

of facial hair, remove the nasty stubble.

Then clean the sink of foam and stubble,

use a sponge to push all the stuff down the plughole.

Then step into the shower, wash

the body with soap and water, some

shampoo into the hair. Three minutes,

it does not take long, use a towel to

dry. The air dryer in the bathroom

starts to work, extracting the moisture

from the air.

In the bedroom, put on the pants and

the shirt, trousers and socks. Sit down

the cat jumps onto the knees. She waits to

be petted, it is after all, a quarter to six

in the morning.