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words/07-06-2017.md

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+# 07-06-2017
+
+Some days I feel like I've got life all figured out and decide that even though there
+are some kinks, floating through space and witnessing the great chaotic spectacle of life is pretty great.
+
+On other days I stand in the kitchen alternating between eating leftover pizza and drinking olives directly from a jar while spitting the pips at the bin, missing 60% of the time.
+After a hard mental battle over whether or not to go and exercise I opt to crack open a beer, throw the cap at the bin, miss that too, and consign myself to another night of hermitage.
+
+First, I have to undo the preliminary work towards a healthy lifestyle done by my past, more motivated self. This person took special care to ride their bicycle home from work, abandoning many useful items, including the scarf I will probably want to wear tomorrow at the office contained within a tote bag they continue to use, even though it is completely useless for a cyclist.
+
+Whilst still riding the wave of endorphins and adrenaline released by being constantly tested by oblivious peak hour drivers, this person brought a bicycle, a helmet, a lock that was supposed to be pretty good quality but is now in pieces and lacking the plastic clip for attaching it to your clothing that pushed its price into triple figures, and dumped these things squarely in front of their bedroom door with the intention of removing their jacket, putting on some already chalky pants and immediately turning around to head to the gym.
+
+Where did it all go wrong? Perhaps it was a text message from a climbing partner saying they were too busy to go, or the chilly winter winds outside? Maybe it was a stubborn pain in the shoulder leftover from the last session subtly suggesting that another workout would do more harm than good.
+Your guess is as good as mine, but I would venture that it was too difficult to fetch the chalky pants, still resting comfortably in the dirty clothes basket, with a bicycle and all in the way.
+
+Such an obstacle can hardly be left to obstruct a quality night of laziness, and so a brief adventure into the cold begins. The first encounter on this trip is a well-meaning neighbour who comments that he, his partner, and their pair of Russian Gray cats thought that I had moved out because none of them had seen or heard from me in some time. Initial feelings of belonging to a community that cares and had noticed my absense subside and are replaced by the alienating realisation that despite going to sleep less than 10 metres from these people every night none of us have crossed paths in months.
+
+"Nah mate, still here, just been keeping busy, see you round." I say as I descend to the ground floor and make my way into the storage room. I gingerly wheel past a gauntlet of cheap bicycle shaped objects that are either chained obnoxiously to the handrail in the walkway or from wall mounted bike racks that give insufficient clearance for the Foodora boxes strapped to their rears. The majority of cycles on both sides sit untouched since the end of their owners' last health kick, as dusty as the béton brut surrounding them. After running into about 5 bicycles, catching my boot laces on a pedal and realising that the broken half of the bike lock is still in my jacket pocket I arrive at the cage where that do-gooder past version of myself not 5 minutes ago said to himself "Actually no, I won't put the bike away, gonna ride it to the gym right now anyway" and decided to wheel it upstairs.
+
+"Maybe a cautionary tale of man's growing dependence on technology told as an anthology of anime shorts will make for some good viewing" I think as I make my way back upstairs, crossing paths with concerned neighbour for the second time in several months as he makes his way outside for a cigarette.
+
+A golden opportunity! I plan to kill birds with stones as I drop off my phone and wallet, grab a dart left over from the weekend that's been tempting me and head (back) downstairs, excited to share it with my estranged neighbour over a conversation about the dichotomy of apartment buildings that bring people into proximity but keep them profoundly separated, at the same time building up a plausible sounding excuse to tell my brain for breaking my own rule of not smoking during the working week.
+
+On the way I pass another neighbour, this one holding an enormous leek in a plastic bag, who confides in me that she actually has no idea what to do with it. I tell her I hear it's good for roasting, a claim I can in no way substantiate, and walk outside with a smile on my face, cigarette between my teeth and lighter in hand only to see that my neighbour who has been banished to the ground level for his vice is on the phone to somebody I can only assume is very far away.
+
+"Maybe a cautionary tale of man's growing dependence on technology told as an anthology of anime shorts will make for some good viewing" I think as I return upstairs for the third time, still fiending for a cigarette.
+
+--ntr