yawn, just killing time

Well, it's been an interesting week of firsts.

I managed to finally tick the box and visited the Staedel Museum. There has been a Botticelli exhibit on display for the past few months, and I managed to squeeze in the trip before it ends next week. I'm not really one of those guys that is frequently walking around art galleries, but I do enjoy the experience when it comes up, and I certainly was not disappointed, despite the 45 minutes of queuing outside in the cold.

That was a rather decent way to start the week, and the culture mix continued when I went to a little poetry reading/interpretation at a library in the city on Wednesday evening. A South African author who writes very angry poetry gave a bit of a talk, and rapped from several of the books he's written over the past 17 years or so. He's a little older than I am, and I appreciated his bitter sarcasm. I'm probably not going to run out and buy his works, but it was pretty interesting seeing and hearing his take on the happenings in his country over the past 25 years.

What I found even more interesting was the way the mediator would translate his comments into German for the audience. I got the feeling most everyone there had a relatively good grasp of English (which this guy spoke and read in), but the author's candor was pretty aggressive. He spoke very graphically, and I smiled more than once at some times that Whit and I used to make some very similar references and expressions when we were much younger. Of course, I'll in know way suggest that Whit or I was on the same level as this guy. How can you compare "turning someone over and eating them like an ice cream cone," to the rage this guy expressed about the plight of the people of his country.

At any rate, the question and answer session at the end of the talk was also quite enjoyable. More than once, the dialog went astray, due in part to language barrier, but due more to the fact that this guy had a tendency to be a smart ass whenever the opportunity presented itself.

But, it was quite the way to spend an evening.

Earlier in the week, I'd decided to take the day off on Friday. I've worked half this year in Prague, and needed a day to sort of get things in order around the house. Had I remembered to turn my alarm clock off, perhaps I wouldn't have woken up so early Friday morning, as I'd been out a little late the night before. Fortunately, I did manage to turn over and go back to sleep for a couple of hours, thus having a bit of a lie in. However, I woke up and realized that I'd not turned my "out of office assistant" on, which meant that a fair amount of emails were in need of response.

I made myself a coffee, then took care of the work. (priorities first, you know)

Then, a few hours later, I was trying to convince myself to go to the gym, when an opportunity to go shopping presented itself, and about 30 minutes later, I set foot in an Ikea for the very first time. I held out as long as I could, I must say, and overall, I can understand why the place is constantly full of people stocking up on things that I'm sure they justify are really needed for their household. Since my flat is already kitted, it's not as if I need to visit Ikea on a regular basis, but I noted that there are some cool things on offer. I did buy a bit of bed linen, so you might say that at least I took away a souvineer.

So, I'd do (and will do) all three things again, when the chances arise. Personally, I'd bet I'm more likely to be in the museum or the library again before hanging out in the picture frame department of a furniture warehouse, but you've got to do it sometimes, eh?

I'll leave it at that for today; perhaps one of the most boring posts I've put up in a long time.

next week - more details on what happens when some idiot technician uses a customer's laptop to surf the internet and pull down as much gansta rap as possible while chatting online at flirt.com during the repair process - tentative title will be something along the lines of, "why diplomacy helps a fuckload in the job of a program manager."

keep the faith
bryan