turn for the worse

 The day has starte off warm today, it was already warm at six in the morning and it is warmer now, an hour and a half later. Now there is the sound of young voices from the street, as children go to school. 

Cars are no longer as noisy as they used to be. The engines are not really loud, it is the noise of the tyres on the cobblestones that is disturbing. There are hardly any noisy little two-stroke scooters to be heard any more.

The news that the exhibition of the pictures from work will receive a showing in Landshut is good, all the work was not in vain. It is only a show for vanity's sake. But there is no harm in that. It is remarkable how a meeting can take place out of a small suggestion, suddenly there are directors assistants and public relations managers and gallery owners and curators and graphic artists  involved. It is probably a good idea to remain silent. The original pictures are not the first things on the agenda.

The small part to repair the coffee machine has been made by one of the precision engineers at the old institue, and it was good to speak with him for a while. A sad surprise was the news that a friendly colleague had died at the young age of seventy-five years. He had many plans for his retirement, perhaps he managed to realise a few of them. Still, the surprise is there, and it is a reminder of ones own mortality.

Reading of the war in Ukraine today, there is nothing but surprise and horror at all the killing and destruction. Was all of this necessary, is this really the way to solve problems between countries that like to call themselves civilised?

Outside the window a police car rushes past, the sound of the sirens doppler-shifting as it hurries down the main street. Somewhere, somebodies day has taken a turn for the worse.