Semester 19 Chapter IX: Pumpkins

Okay, it’s that time of the year again. Rain, wind, cold. In the Netherlands specifically, wind and cold are often on steroids. Blankets and tea seem more and more appealing and time outside more and more challenging. It’s still fun, it just all gets a bit less comfortable.

 

Last week was cool. I’ve been re-watching the whole Andor series and I’m gonna say it again… Best Star Wars story every developed and that includes the original trilogy. I worked quite a lot, I did the Wednesday social run with Sore Legs, I went out for dinner Friday evening… Not too bad. Wish I had had a bit more time for running but I’ll try to catch up on that this week.

 

Saturday after lunch, we went to a meeting point to join these Sore Legs folks once more as they had planned a ride to one of the spots outside of town where they sell pumpkins. Different types, different shapes, never seen that many of them at one place. We loaded bunch of them on cargo bikes and then proceeded to this communal garden where we carved some and left them there for kids and as decorations. It was a coordinated effort between the collective and the garden and even though it was getting progressively cold (and kinda wet too), I had a great time. Kudos to everybody making this happen.

 

Sunday, we took it to Katwijk for an afternoon sauna session. We could have easily gone to the one over here we decided to make it a bit more of a challenge and connect it with a ride through the dunes. It was nice but the wind was getting insane at places. The session itself was great as expected. It always is. You could feel the wind pressing against the windows, you could see the whole beach with kite-surfers flying all over the place… And I had some good talks over there. That also happens a lot. Almost always, there are some people starting a conversation and it usually turns into something cool and interesting.

 

It’s Monday afternoon now, I’ve done some work already, got more ahead of me and I would love to do at least my regular 11km running loop later on. Let’s see how that goes. Shout out to all my readers, shout out to all the runners, yogis and vegans… We got this. Keep it light, keep it positive, don’t entertain bullshit and don’t let them fuck with your inner light. One!

 

Highlights:

• Pumpkin ride.
• Sauna.
• Yoga.

Semester 19 Chapter VIII: Documentary

Hello world, here we go again. Another the Sunday, it’s a bit cloudy outside but I’ve had a pretty great weekend and winter is not here just yet so it’s not too bad. Just finished cleaning the apartment, did some grocery shopping and in about an hour, I’m heading to sauna to properly conclude this week. But first things first…

 

Okay so last week was mostly work. I have some new students and among those, I bagged a flat-earther. Now, I have met some of those before and it’s always great. When you apply “everybody lies about everything all the time” mindset to your reality, it’s inevitable that sooner or later you arrive at that. And look, I understand why conspiracies exist. I don’t generally have strong opinion on them but I get why people find some critical historical moments, some big pharma cases, some political decision weird. Sometimes the mainstream narrative seems totally off plus there’s loads of money and power in the air… It makes sense questioning that shit. But the idea that generations of scientists have managed to lie to us about the shape of our planet without a single leak and only a guy named Dave and some other of his buddies see through their lies is just beautiful. Like, who benefits from selling us the wrong shape of Earth? It’s funny, because you can’t just win the argument. You can literally put a camera onto a balloon and let it go to space so you can see it with your own eyes. You can send a satellite up there sending you picture every 5 minutes and they go… Photoshop. In the world where most of us don’t understand most things we use on the daily basis, not trusting anything and anybody (apart from a guy named Dave and his buddies) must be a very unique life experience. More power to everybody!

 

Anyways… Besides work, I did a 25km run on Monday. Managed to squeeze it under 2 hours, felt great, went to sauna afterwards to celebrate it. Did some more running Wednesday after lunch and in the evening, I joined Sore Legs for their regular social run. Friday evening, I hopped on a bus to Amsterdam to spend some time with my friend who lives there. Saturday morning, I did another run over there and in the afternoon, we were moving between cafés, restaurants and museums. Lovely day, good talks… As always.

 

Saturday evening, I was on a bus back to The Hague and Sunday morning, I was posted up in front of the building to be picked up by one of my diving buddies. This time it was Zevenhuizer Plas. It’s always good getting out, spend some time outside and submerse for a bit. Shout out to the guy who offers me the lift. You’re a legend. The dive itself was rather shallow and pretty uneventful compared to the dive last week but I was still very happy with the whole thing. And the temperature of 13 degrees ware bearable. I found out that my compass is fucked tho. Gonna have to get a new one. In Tenerife I wore it mostly as a decoration but in Dutch low-visibility waters, not having a functioning compass fucking sucks. Already talking to a guy who’s selling a second-hand one nearby online.

 

And that’s pretty much it. Let me just close this up with Fuck Trump and everybody around him, fuck all the fascists in the emerging new Czech government and Free Palestine. Shout out to all my readers, all the runners, lovers, vegans and divers out there. Keep it positive, don’t entertain bullshit and don’t let them fuck with your inner light. One!

Highlights:

• Running | diving
• Documentary. Got back to Game's debut album and man... What a record.
• Amsterdam.

Semester 19 Chapter VII: Drops

Hey guys, checking back in from the Hague. Got the latest Bad Bunny album playing, sun is setting, another week has home to its conclusion. First of all, let me shout out whoever is in charge for music acts at NFL (pretty sure it Jay-Z). If MAGA thought Kendrick was bad last year, they are totally baffled now with Bad Bunny. You had a super pro-black rapper with nearly no radio hits performed and pretty fucking complex messaging. Now you gonna get a cross-dressing LGBTQ+ supporting men kissing Spanish speaking rapper who has recently turned down touring U.S. because he didn’t want his fans being picked by ICE in front of venues. Republicans are losing their shit, racists are losing their shit, it’s beautiful to watch. It’s not gonna solve anything but it genuinely warms my heart.

 

Last week tho. I enjoyed two and a half more days with my dad and his partner. We had a chance to explore downtown a bit, we hung out in Delft, we enjoyed some good food, some movies, some good talks. I even took them to the sauna around here which immediately became a highlight for both of them. It is a special spot. It’s super cozy, it’s on the beach and you usually share the space with some lovely people, too. All in all, I think it’s safe to say that their visit was a success and I’m happy I got to contribute to that a bit.

 

I did work quite a lot last week as well and I devoted my spare to time to running. Did everything from the Wednesday social run with Sore Legs to my regular 11km to a half-marathon. First time timing that motherfucker. I was super happy with my total time and my pace and I intend to do it a bit more often. I also figured out a super nice route and I’m planning to do it twice at some point to hit the full one. Physically, I feel pretty much ready.

 

Saturday afternoon, I met up with one of my dear friends who’s based in Amsterdam. She came to town for a catch-up. We did some snack in Plenty, walked around downtown, visited the fucking museum with the girl with the pearl earring (for real tho, that particular painting is magical) and wrapped everything up at Vegan Pizza Bar. Shout out to that spot. Matterfact, shout out to all vegans. Love to all of you!

 

This morning, I got picked up by one of the instructors of the shop I sometimes dive with and we hit the road towards Vinkeveen. Never dived that site before. Ended up in a group with one guy I’d been familiar with as we had done some sites together before, and a new guy. The site is super nice. And there were so many divers. Popularity of diving in Netherlands still amazes me. There was one of those automatic refill stations by this lake as well. Crazy. The location is fun too. You got all kinds of crazy shit under water. Cars, boats, bikes, weird platforms. Everything connected by a line so it’s virtually impossible to get lost. Very friendly. Temperature (about 14 degrees) and visibility were bearable up until about 10 meters. At some point we decided to go for the platform which is at around 18 meters and that whole journey looked like straight from a horror movie. Everything went dark, temperature dropped to 9 degrees… And you’re out there thinking… What the fuck am I doing with my life? It was fun tho. Nice 43-minute dive. It took quite some time to warm up afterwards. Shit’s a bit different from the last dive I did in August. Still happy I get to do this here and there.

 

And there you have it. Another week has passed, got some minor things planned out for the next week, we’ll see how everything goes. Got some Chicago (the band, not the musical) on the speaker (been into classic rock lately), about to do a call with a friend… All is well. Hope you guys are doing well, too. Keep it G, keep it positive, don’t entertain bullshit and don’t you ever let them fuck with your inner light. Let is shine. Less death and violence, much more compassion, all that. Until the next time. One!

Highlights:

• Diving.
• My dad and his partner.
• Half-marathon.

Semester 19 Chapter VI: Politics

Okay so the numbers are in. Czech people have voted and it’s safe to say that the next couple of years are going to be absolute shit. Let’s start with some good news. It has been shit for a while now so in many aspects I do not expect any significant change. We used to have these right-wing liberals with terrible (or non-existent) social politics rooting for ultra-rich, not giving gay people equal rights, supporting Israel, not considering environmental issues essential. In this sense, we’re maintaining the course with the newly emerging idiots. The winning ANO party led by one of the richest motherfuckers in the Czech Republic is really much more similar to the previous government than they make it seem. Hadn’t they built their whole shtick on portraying one another as arch-enemies, they would make so much sense just hugging it out so they can keep fucking shit up together. There is a bit of a difference tho. Even though I really can’t stand the previous guys, they did have a solid stance on Ukraine and on Czech placement within European and NATO structures. Now, I don’t expect too much of a change with the new government but in order for ANO to get any kind of majority, they will have to rely on some other parties. And since most of those fuckers refuse to talk to one another, they are left with two options. And they do need both. One of them are straight up fascists who hate everything unless it’s white, Czech and heterosexual (and preferably male), who want to leave both EU and NATO and who don’t really see Russia as that big of a problem. Cute irony is that they are led by a Japanese immigrant. Thank you, Japan. The other ones are also fascists and Hitler admirers who are literally called Motorists because they basically hate environment, cyclists and pedestrians and would like to go everywhere by car. And I’m not even exaggerating. The also hate immigrants and gays. So the big question is… If ANO needs both, how far it’s willing to go to make them happy. In many ways, things will stay the same. But I guess we’ll have to figure out to which degree we normalize fascism and how deep are we to stay in the European sphere. All the other shit I consider important is going to stay neglected which would have also been the case with our previous government keeping their seats. To some more positive news, extremists definitely didn’t get as many votes as I’d expected and Pirates (whom I don’t love but who also seem like they are not completely detached) didn’t crash and burn. And a small note to myself. If I ever move to The Czech Republic long-term, I will join politics. Not necessarily to become a parliament member but to find out how the fuck my issues (and issues of pretty much everybody in my social bubble) are not communicated. Just to sit at a table and go… Listen… So massive taxes for ultra-rich, regulation of housing, environment protection as a priority, and genocide is bad. Not to say that I have simple solution for those things (with the exception of genocide – with that you just stop) but those thing have to be the main fucking topic of public discussion if we are to stand a chance and we really mean it with the future for our children. So yeah, god help us for the upcoming 4 years.

 

Okay back to this shit. So The Hague… Been actually quite cool. Arrived Sunday afternoon and spent couple of really lovely days here. Hangouts, running, yoga, all the usual. There are parts of The Hague which I do not love but it can be super nice over here, too. And I got reminded of that. Saturday morning, I went to the local sauna which has freshly opened after the summer break. It was really cool apart from the weather. The wind was so strong I was barely moving on my bike on the way there. A simple 5-minute ride turned into a hardcore 20-minute ride. Would I get blown away into the sea, would I not? Some crazy shit. In the afternoon, I did another run and a bit later, I picked up my dad and his partner at the bus stop close to our building. Since they were a bit tired after the long journey and since the weather was still kinda shit (strong wind, rain), we spent most of the day watching the election updates on TV. Had a bit of a walk later on and wrapped it all up quite early. 

 

Today, the weather has gotten a bit better so in the afternoon, I took the old timers around the park. We hiked my regular running route and despite rain and wind we had a really good time. Gonna take it easy for the rest of the day but we do have couple more days ahead so there’s more things coming. And I’m happy they came. Anyways, hope you guys are good, keep it simple, keep it positive, don’t entertain bullshit and don’t let them fuck with your inner light. One!

Highlights:

• Yoga.
• Running.
• Family.