01/03/2005

It is cold in Sturovo. With this bright blue sky it looks like spring, but the eye deceives. A cold wind chills the bones. Yesterday I was outside all afternoon, when I got home I couldn’t get the chill out of my body. Today I feel sick.
I don’t want to leave the house but there’s nothing to eat. Dressed up like an eskimo I head for the local supermarket. It is just before twelve. Fifteen minutes before everything closes.
In the hall of SAMA customers are waiting. At the other side of the door the saleswomen are waiting. The light is off. The door is locked. I check my watch. 11.50. I trie the small shop at the other side of the street. I open the door, lights are off, three women stare at me. I trie to ask them if I can go inside, I trie English, I trie German, I trie my baby-Hungarian, I trie handlanguage. They don’t move, they don’t answer, they smile and ignore me when another customer gets in and asks a question which is probably the same as mine.
I walk back to SAMA but it is twelve already. I head back home, shall I take my bike and go to the big supermarket? I don’t feel like it. And I know there’s always something edible left in the far end of my cupboard. Besides I’m dying for some coffee.
When I open the fridge there’s a dark hole. No light. I look at the coffee machine with some regret. The only thing I can do is wait. This happens every now and then. The whole city, or at least the whole center, has to do without electricity.
So I wait and type untill my computer’s battery is dead.