lou

(i)

it is some time after 11 pm and i just got back from a long jog.

the seafront, seen from the top looked like the scene you get when people leave a stadium late at night, after a concert - crowds walking past slowly, street vendors, people stretched on the grass smoking and eating in small, scattered, improvised picnics.

the restaurants and cafes downstairs swarm with people till late - you can hear the chatter and music, the noise of plates and laughters, the waiters calling each other.

if you look and listen for too long you never feel like going to bed and i guess that's what happened tonight.

i came back from my evening class - and headed out straight.

(ii)

today the temperature hit 38 degrees.

the weather is hot and dry: throughout the day you cannot a single cloud, the air does not move, the light blazes on - like a paralysing spray...stopping everything...even the sea... slowing down people, slowing down thoughts.

it is high season for cruises "doing" the mediterranean - so the few passers by around are interestingly clad elderly foreigners, looking like a bizarre contemporary rendition of colonel rommel in the sahara desert.

they sport very (very) purple tans.

street vendors sell cherries and watermelon in every street and some kids dive in the sea by the port - careless of all the dirt, the smell and the fact that the kyoto agreement would be re-written if people realised how oblivious turkey is to any grasp / concept / knowledge of good hygiene practice, let alone environmental awareness.

(iii)

taught a new class tonight. it is an ab initio class - which makes it very hard to actually communicate.

as i entered i could not help but notice that one man sitting to my right looked like the clone of lou ferrigno - the actor who (painted green!) famously played the incredible hulk.

i was so focused on the amazing resemblance that, i must admit, i could not even catch his name when he introduced himself.

but then he started talking about what he does - ......later on he added something about where he comes from etc - and i did manage to take lou ferrigno off my mind.

he works as a surgeon and operates on urology patients.

oddly - he could mumble through the basics like "my name is..." etc - but when it came to giving detailed vocabulary on prostates / bladders and urinary tracts - he was a natural. (which impressed me - but went unnoticed by the rest of the group).

but it was when he said something about his family that i nearly fell off my chair.

he has 4 sisters and 6 brothers.

for a total of 11 siblings!

given such large numbers and to finish off my excited statistics - i asked what they do.

3 are teachers;

2 are policemen;

1 is a security guard;

1 is a butcher;

1 is a farmer;

2 he did not know the english words for.

his father retired from working as a truck driver recently.

"as baby i want be truck driver me too" he added with a polite voice "but my father say to be doctor. so i am doctor".

as i was jogging tonight - i kept on seeing his quiet smile saying that and thought that anywhere else he would have sounded out of time and history - maybe taken to a therapist "to cope"; maybe looked down at as backward or even simple.

i don't know.

when i meet people like him i feel the life and world i come from is a bit spoilt - perhaps a little twisted...and certainly self indulgent.

is that too banal a reaction?

(maybe yes, but still).

i can still hear the noise from 8 floors below, people are still slowly pacing along the sea - but it is time to go to bed now.

i may dream of turning into a green pile of muscles.

hopefully i will be back into bruce banner mode when i wake up tomorrow...