into paradise

peonies

george clooney and balzac

Saturday night. My own kind of entertainment. I'm on my bed, wearing a colorful hoodie, worn-out jeans, and my latest purchase and obsession - a shiny pinkish necklace that I call "the berry necklace" because it looks exactly like a magnificent string of red bilberries [see post love at first sight]. Really, in my mind's eye I see the red juice running down my wrist all the way to the elbow when I squeeze it. A giant cup of steaming tea sits on the table next to me as I'm cracking open hazelnut after hazelnut and reading a magazine called Baltic Outlook. It is issued by airBaltic (they say it's an "inflight magazine") and you can pick it up for free at tourist information centers in Riga. It's one of those magazines that some companies come up with apparently just to have something extra to do. It is like a cauldron similar to that legendary one from which the Powerpuff Girls once sprang - it's an eclectic mix of "everything nice". It is quite interesting, however. This is the May issue and the main article is about Rome. That's eight pages in total devoted to the "city of eternal magic" and some places worth seeing there. But that's not all, oh no. There's also a tiny anothertravelguide.com pamphlet glued inside the magazine. It tells you where to eat, where to shop and what to see in the museums of Rome. There's also an article about airBaltic's bycicle rental project, which I was very interested in as I've been willing to try those bikes for a while now. There was an interview with the F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, which I was completely not interested in. There was an article about the Capital of Champagne - Reims, about the Go Blonde festival, about the third biggest airport in Europe - Frankfurt am Main, and a couple more. What grabbed my interesed more than any of the aforementioned articles however, was a small piece written by Robert Cottrell. You know, that British journalist who is all charming and charismatic and opened one of the first second-hand English book stores in Riga, therefore kicking my life up a considerable notch. Hell, my copy of The Lost Symbol comes from his shop, thank you very much. Books, however, are not the subject of this little article titled "Me, George Clooney and Balzac". Coffee is. Robert, the funny man, compares himself to George Clooney. What do they have in common? Their good looks, charm, taste for clothes and coffee. He goes into a short jabber about how he's tasted all the bad coffee in the world but his taste buds are still not able to differentiate between the tiniest nuances of the finest of coffees. He ends with mentioning that Balzac, the great coffee-drinker, would surely be outraged at the size of coffees available in this Starbucks age. This is a neat little piece of writing. But really, what is it about? Nothing. It's really about nothing relevant. It's just a short fragment of someone's neverending flow of consciousness. Just another rumpled piece of information in my already loaded mind, which will surely find a way to strike roots in my mind permanently. Oh, I bet it will. Like a parasite it will feed on and spread its spores over the useful files of information. If it's a parasite then why do I find it so interesting? Why would anyone choose to publish someone's surplus of thoughts as if it's something fascinating? Hey, who's going to publish my flow of consciousness? No one. Exactly. Because I've done nothing remarkable and no one cares which way my consciousness is flowing.

I scanned the article just in case anyone is interested in reading it. But if you're interested you might as well go here and download the current and all the previous issues in pdf.

muffins and more

If you are in Riga and you like muffins there is only one place to go - Muffins and More at Gertrudes 9.