Theatre masks from wikimedia. Attributed to Matthew E. Semrau, www.PureLightStudios.com.
Two is a fantastic number. When you have two objects, you can set them side-by-side to juxtapose them. And you can see a lot more in this way, even if you take almost random objects.
Not everything goes as smoothly as these simple calculations, where the result (underlined twice) emerges quickly.
Satisfaction from a task done depends on its relevance, complexity and on the ratio of outcome/energy invested. Since rarely do these all meet, I find it nice to celebrate when this is the case.
Man shrugging from Emoji Terra. The portrait of M.P. from wikimedia.
There are a few French institutions that warm your heart. For example, Boulangerie, bakery. They operate on the premise that people will buy fresh bread and pastry any time of the day. And guess what, they do! (Granted, boulangerie does close around 8 p.m., but that's good enough.)
Another one is the historical memory. While working in the office, you suddenly hear a sonorous voice uttering a calmly energetic invocation of an old historical character, "Oh, Pétain!" You can only envy the French that they use wartime collaborators as a figure of speech. The trend extends to hard-core intellectuals as well: later in the day there was an alarmingly angry Pétain! from someone who got a letter from the tax office. Very appropriate choice of words.
I find it fascinating that darker characters from national history in the West get the same treatment as old pagans spirits and gods like Perún/Parom, Lempo and become swearing bywords. Wouldn't it be appropriate if we followed suite with our war-time collaborators as well? :)
There's a bed to sleep on. A book about Paris that my new colleagues gave me. A set of keys from my flat and our office. And the card for the Paris public transport system.
Now I finally feel that I'm settled. Thank you, Michaela, thank you, Katarína!
