Monday Dec 01
National holiday in Portugal, possibly our equivalent of Independence Day (did anyone like Independence Day, by the way?). I celebrated my independence to do whatever the Hell I wanted in the privacy of my own humble abode, by playing games, moving the furniture about and actually taking time to prepare a meal... instead of tossing a couple ingredients onto the same pan and hope for the best. I also celebrated my independence by only remembering what the holiday was about at the end of the day. Who cares anyway, as long as you either don't work or get paid double for your work, it's all good.Tuesday Dec 02
My first (hah! As if I didn't know the trade all too well...) day working with Pops. I arrived at the office at eight and immediately entered a state of despair. There was a six month old layer of dirt and dust on everything but the keyboard and mouse. Had to clean up the whole thing, organize the drawers, dispose of two garbage bins filled to the brim with useless papers and dispute my workplace with a small community of mice. Not the only dwellers in this place either: snakes, lizards, spiders and cats are also a common sight. This is a desolate place to work, really. The walls and ceiling are caving in very slowly from loose debris, sand and age, there is no water whatsoever and I'm pretty surprised the wiring still works. It's a miracle how the office is still standing. It's a miracle, too, how you can have Internet here.My first customer was precisely one of those people that make me loathe working with the public. He walked in, nearly coughing out a lung, looked at the bill, complained the name should've read "Engineer So-and-So" instead of "Mr. So-and-So" (these pedantic morons irritate the crow outta me...), complained about the price, charged it on his credit card and then bid me farewell by saying "I hope it's really fixed." Who the fuck does this piece of shit think he is?! It's meeting people like this I sometimes think some members of the human species should be dragged out of the building and shot out of their misery...
More lousy news awaited me when I came back home. Grandma isn't as fine and dandy as we were first led to believe. She's gonna come back to our place, which means my Mum will be sleeping on the couch. Grandpa once again proved he is one of the worst people I've met: when we asked him for help a couple of months ago because we didn't even have enough money to buy food, he said he didn't have a dime to spare. Suddenly, he has money for everything. See it's shit like this that makes me grateful I hardly ever see them, because if this had been said in my presence, it wouldn't go unanswered. Mum had a chat with me and the kid at dinner, and said a rule would be imposed for as long as Grandma is around: we are strictly forbidden to check on her, under any circumstance, unless she calls us. Because, I think, she's scared the old lady is gonna kick the bucket and we're gonna find the body.
In fact, we were told that Grandma will likely not last for long. Or become severely dependent for a long time. Frankly, I don't know which would be the worst.
Wednesday Dec 03
Crow, it's freezing today. It's colder inside the office than outside, believe it or not. Heating systems do not exist anywhere in the vicinity, neither do cooling ones during Summer. I'm inside a cube of cement planted in the middle of a yard, on my merry way to become cooler than I ever was in high school.Pretty bored too. I brought my Gameboy along, a book and a few dungeon maps to edit on my spare time. It's nearing the end of the month, so a lot of people will be saving the car repairs for later on, if they have any cash left after the Christmas shopping is done. It's a pity I can't really watch movies here, streaming is not a good idea on bandwidth limit.
Thursday Dec 04
An SMS arrived for me to pay my Internet bill. An SMS - who the fuck charges via SMS? Needless to say, I didn't pay it, and after we all got home, Mum decided to lay the smack down on them via phone. Turns out, all our bills have been sent to an address that was ours, yeah... some seven or eight years ago. I gotta hand it to these guys - on the realm of messing up, kudos to them.Friday Dec 05
Woke up a little later than expected, lost the first bus and had to rush my way to work. Incredible: a 10 minute delay at home grants you a half an hour delay on the bus. I checked schedules - before lunchtime, there's a bus every 20 to 25 minutes. If you're willing to walk up the street, you can get the train for less than half the price of a bus ticket and there's one every 10 minutes. The train screwed up traffic in Almada, but it's the easiest - not to mention, cheapest - way to move around.Anyway, rushed to work, half an hour late. At least I'm not cold, try running up the avenue to my Pops' and there's no cold that can reach you. The guy in the bus was cool: the bus was full, so I entered via the back door. He let me ride the bus without a ticket, sent me away when I approached to tell him I hadn't paid for the fare. It was a lousy day today, apart from this: all day with my arms crossed, bored half to death and browsing Crime Library.
Saturday Dec 06
Lazed away. Played some Manhunt 2, some Sims 2, some Super Mario Bros. 3 and watched time go by. Nothing to do...Sunday Dec 07
Well, managed to find something else to pass the time. Deadpool anthology, plus the first 30 numbers of Gen13 (the ones worth reading, you know? I used to have the first 10 numbers of this in Brazilian. Then the company that published it stopped doing so, and I never learned how that particular arc ended. All hail the Internet) and the final numbers of the Forgotten Realms arc published by DDP. Well, Pool is about 60-something numbers, so I oughta be done with it next week by this time...No new movies popping around. It's been very poor as cinema is concerned. It seems everyone now prefers Veoh TV, which I refuse to subscribe to since I think it sucks and is about as fast as YouKu... still, I may have something in store soon. Started downloading a few old favorites.
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