314 - 30.8.26 - 14: Rainforest Ireland

The Twisted Willow we rescued all those years ago... it was a twig that was dying

The veg garden

I cleared the entire pond area - it was covered in mimosa and comfrey... and it was several wheelbarrow loads

More of the veg garden

Bench Kevin made with my class

Gary asking for food

Me yesterday

The biggest thing I did yesterday was keep my end of the bargain and clear up the pond area in the garden. It took me almost two hours and it was done. I could tell it wasn't cleared for at least three years and had gone completely out of control. Anyway, lots of stretching and squatting and sawing - I was utterly sweating by the time it was over. Even in just my T-shirt. No one can tell me that gardening is not about fitness and cardio. I think that if I hadn't been in the best shape of my life for a while, I would certainly not have had the stamina to have completed the entire area. 

I went home and then had a hot shower and spent the afternoon watching two Batman films: the Dark Knight which I had never seen and The Batman, which I had but forgot completely. I find it difficult to understand that I could completely forget that I saw it - I only realised that I had seen it when in the last half hour. But maybe I saw only the last half hour... or maybe I saw it on the plane and fell asleep.

I made fried bee hoon and broccoli, which is a lot tastier than it sounds. Then for supper I had the broccoli with melted gruyere cheese. The ultimate comfort food. 

Today I will hoover the house and do the first load of laundry I have ever done. It will be the first housework I have done in like forever. Or since I came home. I think that will be enough. I'll buy food so that its ready for when Ghin is back. Life here is so much cheaper and affordable. Mostly because I am not someone who buys shite all the time. Also because I have so much shite already, there is no need to buy more shite. Also because I have everything which I need already.

I have everything which I need.

I don't understand people who need to constantly buy stuff. Or even have to eat in a fancy restaurant. My experience of fancy restaurants is that they are the most disappointing. It is like going on a fancy holiday. Nothing every quite lives up to your expectations and on top of that, you cannot believe that someone has charged you this amount of money to eat. I think there needs to be an upper limit with regard to these places, after a while, the laws of diminishing returns starts to kick in. It simply cannot be THAT good. Ridiculous. Nothing will taste and smell as delicious as a piece of meat roasted over an open wood fire. Nothing. Or fresh windfall from a tree of perfectly ripened apples. The satisfaction of a well stewed stew. Or a stir fry which has been cooked under 5 minutes and you are ravenous and consume it, grateful at how little time it took to cook. I find the roasts just about as far as I can taken cooking. Even then, cooking a roast is really a waste of time for me. Two and half hours of cooking, 20 minutes of eating. Where's the sense in that? Overly elaborate meals... it's just bored people trying to justify their existence. Like those crazy roasts of peacocks and swans and geese and duck and chicken and quail all sewn in together and brought out with feathers. Or the aspic and jellies and pate confections. It's so pointless. 

There has to be an upper limit to the stupidity and waste.

Anyway - how did I get here, as Talking Heads says. The new Batman series is set in the moral and literal decay of the western world. It shows how the decay has touched everyone. Even the ultra wealthy cannot shield themselves from the rot and decay their greed has created. The hypocrisy, like acid has rotted through everything. Police and mobsters have merged into one. It is a very very dark version of Fitzgerald's Gatsby without the whimsy which papered over the yawning crack. It is now inescapable. It is only 7 am. I think I will do the hoovering and then I'll do the shop for Ghin. Then after that I'll go for a walk... or run. See how it goes.