The tale of the fluffy green-yellow-purple hat

Yey! It's time for another bus-story (see here (June 16 2005) for previous story)

I was going home from downtown a Wednesday evening (this particular evening in fact)... I missed my dance class due to having looked at an apartment for too long, which pretty much turned out to be my dream apartment. Although can't get it, because it was immediate possession and I have two more months on my old... At least now I know what I'll be looking for.

It was a chilly February evening. Clear but humid -17. My feet are still like ice. I sat down on a half-empty seat on southbound 55, next to a person speaking some other language with a mom or something similar. It's funny how some people seem to need 1.5 seats in order to sit comfortably, so that you can only sit on the very edge of the outer seat.

I'm in the stage now that I can read on the bus without getting seasick (a very rare and wonderful stage), so I fished up my current book (actually one of L.M. Montgomery's Emily books - I've never read it in English before, and I'm noticing that the swedish translator had skipped many chunks in the translation, so it's a wonderful experience to re-read it again for the umpteenth time). Then I looked back at the person in the seat on the side in front of me, whom I had noticed when I entered the bus. The synapses between my eyes and part of brain that registers things had apparently had a siesta, because not until now had I processed the info and realised that he was somewhat different from the other passengers.

A young man, perhaps 18 years old was sitting there. He looked a bit tired and never
met anyone's eyes. The most eye catching thing about him were his hats. Not one, two, or three but four of them were piled on top of his head. He wore some kind of pilot's hat, black in colour, in the first layer, then a brown toque, then a cap. On top of it all he wore the most amazing hat: it was striped in three bright colours, green, yellow and purple, in some kind of furry feathery plush, in a stylishly rounded model. The hat alone would have been a sight, but on top of three others, it had a life of its own. I was in awe. Secretly of course, I didn't want to make the boy feel uncomfortable. On the outside I took on the same calm and undisturbed attitude as most winnipegian passengers usually possess and pretended to read on about Emily's adventures.

Furthermore our friend was wearing black pants with the waist on mid-thigh. Underneath he wore black and silverwhite sports-shorts. The shirt-coat he had underneath his two outer jackets had lots of scarves hanging out of the breastpocket, turning my thoughts to magicians. His left hand wore a blue bicycle glove, while his right one was adorned by two rings with huge rectangular rocks, and a watch, also rectangular, with a wide golden wristband. This was however worn over his hand, just beneath where his fingers ended, instead of the more traditional location over the wrist.

His also wore his round Harry Potter glasses a bit crooked over his nose, pretty far down on the tip, which was sticking out from underneath the tower of hats. Now, his appearance was not at all the one of a homeless person. He was neat and tidy, and the shoes were definitely new, even with tags still attached. I was playing with the thought of asking him about the outfit, mainly because I admired it so. But embracing my "svensson"-heritage (=average swede, with all of what that means), I never dared. Most people ignored him, I only saw one other girl glancing at his general direction twice, but keeping a straight face. I just love how winnipeggian bus-travellers can see anything without letting a muscle declare what thoughts go through their minds. But most of all I admire this young boy. He made what would otherwise have been another dull bus ride into a colourful experience, reminding me to notice the lives of other people and by that even so more my own. I get happy and feel very much alive when things just a little bit out of the ordinary occur, like this. I only for my life hope that the boy was happy too. It was hard to say with his winnipegian expressionless look. Unless he kept his expressions in his outfit. The top hat alone was definitely a happy hat.

Perhaps I should talk to my cellphone provider who told me I was "eligible for an upgrade" (of all stupid things...!!!) when I checked what I could do now that two years have passed and my slave contract is finally up, and get a phone with a camera...

In other news... Well, there are none. I got well from my cold, although I suspect I have to carry around the national reserve of phlegm in the unknown depths of my nose quite a while longer. I tend to forget it, and start blowing my nose at a restaurant, only to realise after a while that people might not appreciate the sound of trumpets under water at quite that high dB's while enjoying there bubble teas (authentic scenario from earlier this evening). The research is still as annoyingly elusive, keeping the immediate answers just out of reach. I am not amused.

Edit: Swenglish, so much swenglish. Still! bah, I'll keep it. Perhaps some swenglish is actual english.

Trying out Hello!

It seems to work out pretty neatly!

My brother Ben sent me this one on hello - it's Cassie, the cutest and most amazing dog in the world, studying an incredibly winterish Sweden. So I just forwarded it.

Indecisiveness and atschoooi-ness

I just installed this nice little program called hello, with which you simply can share photos with everyone else who has it without having to resize etc, and can upload photos to your blogspot-blog. So I might abandon lunicrax.livejournal.com a little while to try out this one.

Today... I watched an Egyptian film at the IMAX with two good friends. Very very nice, it made me remember lots of details from my Egypt trip about 6 years ago. Then we had some delicious lunch. In a timespan of about 3 seconds I got attacked by a vicious migraine, and had to go home immediately. The busride was far from comfortable, and well home the only other option than beheading myself was to sleep. Now it's almost gone, just lurking behind an ear, leaving room for an extra malicious COLD. I had it coming I suppose, I don't think I've been sick for about a year (not counting broken feet and migraines now and then). Well, this gives me time to do laundry and bake some bread.

Meg went back to Calgary today, and next time I'll see her will be in Sydney, about half a year from now. She gave me a lonely planet book on Australia and New Zealand for a farewell present, as inspiration. So there's no return. I simply have to go. And nothing makes me happier right now, it's been 7 years since I was there, so it is about time. And then I can meet two of my very best friends again. Back to life of NOT eating out, porridge diet and saving again. The priorities are set. Now, let's see how this looks, so I can try out that hello-program as well...

Edit: A few moments later - I guess one can get carried away with the settings and the photoshop smudgetool.. :)