Well-rested, with enough sleep and an empowering breakfast behind you, you get to the office. Your desk is still empty, as is the e-mail inbox. Slowly and with a relaxed pace, you start yet again from zero. Another week, with only 37 and a half hours of work to put in.
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Not so for the self-employed and freelancers among us.
This is how my desk looked this Monday morning. A tangled mass of unfinished jobs. A to-do list from last weekend, hardly tackled at all. Notes which only make sense again after re-reading them several times. Thousands of unanswered e-mails. Reminders of past trips to write about and of future travel to be planned. And more and more issues pile up every day.
(If you have a boring, non-fulfilling job with an insurance company or in some kind of marketing department, you are welcome to use this image as your desktop background. – Zur deutschen Fassung.)
If a company advertises its services and products as “artistic and up to date” but uses the following display to do so, I doubt both parts of the statement.
Hiking through the forest behind the zoo in Targu Mures, Romania, I spotted this spooky bundle strapped to an innocent tree. It was hidden far from the path, as if some secret society did not want to scare the hiking public or wanted their mysterious rituals to remain undetected.
Fighting my way through layers of cobwebs, I got closer – and was shocked by what I saw: evil flowers, feathers of a black bird that had been sacrificed, and all of this tied together with a piece of cloth soaked in blood.
This little bird flew through the open door and made itself comfortable in my office while I was gone for a shower. When I returned to my desk, it didn’t want to move away and simply remained there, right next to me – until I finally took a photo of it; as if that had exactly been the purpose of the visit.
I was never one to get flowers for girls (or boys, for that matter). The non-recipients of flowers attributed this to my stinginess, my forgetfulness or my general ignorance of other people’s wishes or feelings.
But now I have proof that God has always been on my side:
Ever since the Watergate scandal, the suffix -gate is used to denote scandals, cases of corruption and other complex illegal activities.
At this year’s EXPO in Milan, Italy, the planners or architects have already provided for the likelihood of corruption, bribery, waste and fraud which is usually involved in projects of such a large scale by naming it EXPOgate.
The signs pointing to the “danger of bears” had a rather alluring effect on me instead of warning me. Many years ago, I had already unsuccessfully tried to spot a bear in the wild when I was at Yosemite National Park in California. Now in Romania it had to work!
So, for the past few days I spent as much time as possible in the forests around Băile Tușnad in Transylvania. All Friday: negative. Saturday: negative. My disappointment grew. Sunday: Without much hope, I walked towards a fortification tower in the forest above the town before lunch. I would have to depart in the afternoon, so I didn’t have much time left.
I was walking without making any sound, placing my steps carefully and not stepping on any branches that could break. To make sure that nothing escapes my eyes, I even wore my glasses. Only a few minutes outside of the town, I heard a rustling to my left, in the forest. A few moments passed before I recognized it. It was indeed a bear!
The first photo shows the distance between the bear and me (around 50 meters/yards), the second one shows the bear’s contours a bit more clearly.
I stood there rooted to the ground. My legs were shaking. My heart was beating frantically fast. Should I remain, run away or slowly turn the other way? As always in such situations, curiosity prevailed over fear, the existence of which I wouldn’t want to attempt denying.
So I filmed the bear, unfortunately only for a few seconds before it disappeared in the green thicket without having noticed me at all.
Despite the brevity of the encounter, I was overwhelmed. Such a beautiful animal, so cozy, but so majestic at the same time. Lion, tiger and elephant may argue about who is the king of the jungle; the king of the European forest is undoubtedly the bear.
I needed another few minutes until my pulse and my breathing had normalized. Probably, I stood there in the middle of the forest with a sense of happiness clearly visible all over my face, as if I had discovered a treasure. I continued towards the direction in which the bear had walked off, still making no sound, camera ready. But unfortunately, I met neither this nor any other bear.
On the way back, I crossed paths with three young Romanians who asked me for the way to Apor Tower. I mentioned the bear and showed them the video which I had just recorded. They seemed almost excited, definitely not alarmed, and went off in the direction of the bear’s last known residence. Afraid of bears? Not the people here in Transylvania. But then, it’s easier to be brave when you are three.
(If you have a boring, non-fulfilling job with an insurance company or in some kind of marketing department, you are welcome to use this image as your desktop background. – Zur deutschen Fassung.)
The Happy Hermit 