My bike broke down last week (not surprisingly), the axle is actually broken, I didn't notice it before, but eventually it jammed the pedals. So since I have no tools and don't own a garage, I had to take it to the shop. They told me they had to order a new axle, it would take a few days. I come in this morning, the guy says he'll fix it by this afternoon. I come back at 5, it's still not done. Here's the interesting part, guess what he says? "I'm sorry, I forgot about it, it's my fault." Oh good god. Yes, it is your fault and thanks for apologizing, no hard feelings. I said I'd be back in the morning, he even offered me a replacement bike in the meantime. Now it's starting to feel like civilization again.

Sweden has made a commitment to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to...zero. It's time someone took a bold stand like that!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,1704954,00.html?gusrc=rss

So I was walking the streets again today, was getting dark when I got home. Starting to know Utrecht better and better now, it's fun to walk some place I haven't seen 403 times already. The housing here is pretty unique, very condensed. In Norway, every house will have a flight of stairs leading up to the entrance, so in effect the ground floor is a meter above the sidewalk. That means you can't look into people's windows, unless you make a special effort to do so. But here there's no room for stairs, so the entrance to a house on the street will be right on the sidewalk, you take one step inside, you're already in the house. And so the ground floor is at the level of the sidewalk, you can look right into people's homes. It's a bit rude, but I'm a curious person, so I look in. I don't stop and stare, but I do look as I walk by. Most people don't want you to look, so they put up curtains and blinds, a lot of windows at street level have matte glass.

When I do look in and I see people in there, most of the time they're watching tv. It's usually their living room facing the street, so they're on the couch, remote in hand and tv set illuminating the room. For some reason, I feel sorry for people when I see them watch tv. I kinda think to myself "that's a shame". I guess that's because most of the time I'm watching tv, I wish I was doing something else. Sometimes I see them at the computer and that I like better. "Maybe he's learning something, maybe he's getting enlightened." Or maybe he's just gaming, but even that is much less passive than watching tv.

One thing that strikes me about these houses is that none of them have mailboxes. They all just have this slot for the mail in the front door. It seems so backward and 1st millennium, doesn't it? It's like in 976, before there was print, you would get messages on stone tablets, the mailman would deliver them through that slot (which seems to be dimensioned exactly for that purpose). Invariably, those mail slots have these special stickers on them. My Dutch is still crap, so I can't read the text, but I assume it's something along the lines of "No advertising without a recipient to this address".

Just as I was getting back, I was walking in the center and I see these three funny looking guys turn into my street and so I ended up walking 30m behind them for a couple of blocks. It was a curious sight cause in Utrecht you don't see a lot of skater/hip-hoper/gang-banger types, and so as a curious person I was watching them. Skater clothes, baseball caps, sagging pants (that's a given), very funny walk. It wasn't until a while later that I realized they were talking Polish to each other, one was saying something about how the other owed him five grand. As we pass this coffeeshop (ie. weed joint), the tall one gestures to some people inside, giving the impression that the proprietor is a buddy. Interestingly, there was a long line inside the coffeeshop a Friday night at 6.30pm. Just as I pass the coffeeshop, I see this girl standing outside the entrance, looking incredibly bored, then her wacky looking male companion steps out of the shop with a little bag and a goofy smile on his face and they walk off.

I'm sorry, but squash (also known as racket ball I believe) is a silly sport. I played it once with a person who also hadn't played before and we didn't know what the hell we were doing. We didn't know the rules (are there any?), we were just running around the court like headless chickens, with no purpose to it. Naturally, I thought we were totally messing it up, it's probably nothing like that really. Well, it is. I went to the gym today, and they have squash courts right next to the gym, so I went over there to see how people play squash. Some of them were clearly beginners, some were more advanced. But the way they played was exactly the same as we did. It doesn't look any more clever, it's really just running all around the court. Now tennis, that's different, because it actually makes a lot of sense, there are rules to adhere to and it takes skill to play tennis, it's not merely hitting the ball. But as a kid playing tennis, sometimes I wish I could hit the ball as hard as I possibly could, just for the hell of it. Well, that's squash. But when there isn't much else to the game, it doesn't offer much at all.

I resent going to the post office, something comes up regularly which makes me have to go there and I always hate the thought of going, it's such a pointless chore. Over the years I've had a lot of computer equipment sent to my address, some of it was broken, I had to send it back, I've bought stuff on ebay, I've sold stuff there, I've gotten packages from friends, I've sent out packages, I've gotten letters I've had to sign for a few times, I've picked up stuff for other people, and for all of this the common denominator is the post office. I used to have a post office right near my house, next to the supermarket, but they closed that branch to save money.. :( So I had to go twice as far, to the next post office in reach, at the shopping center. This made me resent going there, it felt like an unnecessary obstacle.

Then I get to the post office and there's _always_ a line. I would actually plan on when to go so I wouldn't have to stand in line with my number on a piece of paper, waiting for my turn. I would go early, I would go at 10, just before closing, I tried various strategies. And I realized that it's actually quite random when people show up, it's hard to find a formula that would guarantee no waiting. I could get there at noon on a Saturday and walk right up to the window, then just as I was being expedited, seven people would walk in in the meantime and a line would form. Of course, waiting at the post office would be less of a problem if the postal workers were more efficient. No matter what your business is at the post office, there is a lower boundary of about 3 minutes, there's nothing you can get done in less time. These people really take their time and I imagine they do quite a good job since they never rush. I know I always get good service at the post office.

But, there is a certain phenomenon I started to notice after years of going to the same post office. I would pretty much recognize everyone who worked there. And for some reason, I felt kinda sick of seeing the same people again and again. I felt resentment for them and I can't explain why. I would notice that at the supermarket too, "oh it's you again". As if by going there, I knew I couldn't escape those people. Even though I didn't know them at all.