"I live alone, entirely alone. I never speak to anyone, never; I receive nothing, I give nothing."
I finished reading the three short stories in Death in Venice, they fit comfortably into my current mode of living. I returned the book to the shop and exchanged it for Nausea, by Sartre. I have read a couple of his later novels, which I liked, so I decided to give his first novel a try. The introduction states that it is his best book, and just a few pages in was the above quote, and seeing that it accurately describes how I am living my life just now, I appear to be having a bit of curious luck with my book selections. I am looking forward to finding quiet places in the city where I can read and reflect. The colorful and mystical wats are a good place to read, I was in Wat Chiang Man today admiring the grounds. The gray mossed elephant sculptures caught my eye, as well as the tired and hot dogs which sleep in the shade of bodhi trees.
I walked to Free Bird cafe this morning, looking forward to a breakfast of Jok and honey covered fruit, but when I arrived I saw a sign which read "we will be closed for the next 2 weeks due to an emergency". I thought of Maria and hoped that all was well with her. I went to the Free Bird website to see if I could get more information and discovered that the cafe was robbed last week. That explained why Maria asked me the last time I was there if I knew how to manage music on an iphone (their ipod and computers were stolen). The robbery is not the reason they are closed, so the Free Bird is having a run of bad luck right now.
There are plenty of other restaurants in town so I went to the Veggie Cafe and ate french toast and fruit, but I was getting bit by mosquitoes and left in quite a hurry, and was so flustered I forgot to bring my pineapple shake with me, which I had only taken a few sips from. When I returned home I discovered that somewhere along the way I had lost a 500 baht note (17 dollars), which did not make me happy. I have been keeping a daily budget sheet for the month of February, and was averaging $9.50 per day, and was pleased that on Saturday and Sunday I spent a total of $4. Being frugal the last few days makes losing 17 dollars not so bad, so after tomorrow my daily average for February will be $10, which is right where I want to be.
I had forgotten how long it takes to get to know a place. Every day I discover something new and pleasant, or not so pleasant, and it allows me to make better choices the next day. As time moves forward it gets harder to learn new things, and the good choices become a habit. Tomorrow there is a local hiking group jaunting out to a waterfall, according to the posted route there is a forest path leading up the mountain not far from where I am living. The hike starts at 9:00am, but I am scheduled to run at the Municipal Stadium at 7:00am. I have been feeling a bit off the past few days so I don't think it would be wise to do both.
Yesterdays run at the stadium went well, I was a bit sluggish, but still ran 40 minutes, doing some intervals and also a few rounds of stadium steps. As I am still eating 1 meal a day, most of the excess fat is disappearing, being replaced with muscle. I am at the age where it takes a lot of concentration and work to maintain a healthy body, so getting complacent and slacking in the off season really isn't worth it.
