I open my eyes and stretch. No alarm goes off, no alarm needed realy, never have. i just wake up when i need to. After the required amount of stretching i get up, wash and get dressed. Then spend 5 minutes on my hair. Its been recently cut so 5 minutes is still enough time to fix it. I head downstairs for some breakfast (cornflakes) and a check of my mail via remote desktop. Just the usual Viagra and fat related spam. A few taps of delete and it bothers me no more. If only life where so simple, i ponder vaguely at the great idea of having a ctrl-z in life, wouldn't that make life easier.
5 minutes later I'm heading out for Blaze's morning walk. There is a moderate rain but nothing my coat and hoody cant handle so no need for the umbrella. As usual they are doing road works so i have to tip-toe myself through 5cm of mood to get to the walking spot. But that's why i have "walkies" shoes. Blaze is his silly self again, bouncing around making that silly face while he does his toilet thing. Not very playful in the morning. The odd stick i kick or throw doesn't even get his attention. After making my full circle i head back home to brush teeth and leave for the day.
Again dodging mud, this time in my good shoes, i manage to get the metro station not to dirtied. Briefly i ponder the irony of one of Amsterdam's nicer neighborhoods where i live sharing a metro station with one of the worst neighborhoods just the other side of the station. I flash my chip-card across the scanner and head up to the platform. Once there i notice yet again that I'm the odd one out. Being the only Caucasian in a group reminds me of my rather unpleasant primary school days so i sidle of to the edge and stand staring into the raining distance. After a few minutes the metro arrives snaking its metal carriage across the rails and around the bends towards our stop. The crowd edges closer to the platform at the various points they prophesize the metro doors will stop. For a crowd seeming eager to get to where they are going they seem an unhappy bunch. Not a smile between them. The metro screeches to a stop, about half the people in the crowd could be the next Nostradamus. Doors stiff with age hiss open and the herd enters. I follow somewhat behind wary of the smell i know is going to hit me, that damp old clothing and cheap deodorant mix. I stand idly in a corner observing the crowed, looking for a pretty face or even a happy one and finding nothing but blank and disappointed stares. I remember the days i used to go with metro 51 to Mirella in Amstelveen. A lot more pretty faces on that metro. I wonder momentarily whether that's because rich girls have better genes or better make-up.
2 stops later we arrive at Amstelstation. One of the bigger stations and few train stations in Amsterdam. 3 metros stop here all going to central station. A wave of students and commuters from other cities hits the metro squeezing themselves in for the short ride. The air, and odour, thickens. I wonder how many of these people i have seen before, how many have seen each other before yet none of us knows or even recognises each other. All to obsorbed in their own little world. Oh there is the odd greeting here and there, classmates or coworkers i guess but mostly its a tin can full of strangers. Happily i only have 2 more stops to go before i can get off. These stops go by in a matter of cramped minutes and i can exit. Quite a lot of others also exit i notice, a few more chance meetings go on as people from different carriages meet up on the stairs.
Exiting the station i scan my chip-card again and walk up to the tram station. Reaching the top of the stairs i notice, as usual, the tram i just missed disappearing over the little bridge. Looking on the screen i see the next tram is in 5 minutes, damn it, I'll walk to the next stop. Apart from the rain its a pretty nice day anyway. I pull my hoody on and down over my eyes and start to walk. I like walking, in the tram/metro I'm usually to busy observing people to ponder. Pondering is good, gives you a chance to think, sort things out. And that is what i do as i walk. The walk to the next stop is quite short, reaching it i decide i might as well just walk all the way, the tram is still another 2 minutes incoming anyway and its only 1 more stop. So i ponder and walk on. Sometimes (i ponder) it all seems so pointless. We all go to work every day, herd ourselves like sheep into the metal boxes, and then into the concrete boxes working with others to make money that we can spend on our own metal or concrete boxes. It all seems so futile. My ponderings are not always this grim. Must be the rain or the economic crisis that's starting to push itself into my life and business.
I arrive at the office, so hello to our downstairs neighbor and run up the stairs. What is about stairs that makes me want to run up or down them? or at least walk at a brisk pace. A quick turn of the key and an enter of the alarm code gets me into my own concrete box. I walk over, turn on the radiator, login to my PC and start going through my mails.
And thus starts another day at the office.
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