The Coming of the Container, etc.

I have not melted, and I will finally write my next post.

On the 29th of July our container arrived. There is a bus lane right outside our apartment that is free on Saturdays; the truck came and left it there -- after we had to call the police to tow an unfortunate fellow who ignored the signs and left his car parked in the most inconvenient spot on it after nine o'clock.

Our uncle, his friend, and people off the street (for money) helped us move our belongings (over 500 boxes and individual items, amounting to about ten tonnes -- teaching us all the value of minimalist interior design) out of the container and up the stairs. The stairs, incidentally, were only those leading up to the first floor, but the first floor is always taller than the others, and the stairs are windy. Even carrying one box up felt really unhealthy. I mostly put the boxes into appropriate places in our apartment, which was a figurative pain as well as a literal one. Anyway, we all perspired amazing amounts (fortunately it was only about 27 degrees, or we might have perished), and we have all sorts of aches and pains. My mother and eldest brothers have impressive colonies of bruises on their legs, my parents and I have muscle cramps, my eldest brother couldn't fold back his arm far at one point, etc. The whole thing took six hours.

I really enjoyed the activity, and could easily have done the same amount of work over again. If I had no box I could run up the stairs easily -- even though my back "killed" yesterday. It's liberating to work really hard and intensively; since I'm no good at sports I've never had such a good opportunity before. The shower afterward, and the wearing of beautifully clean clothing, was such a luxurious experience, too.

At any rate, our grand piano is with us now. I've already played a lot: Beethoven variations for cello and piano with Papa, piano duets with T., bits of Beethoven's sonatas, some of Mendelssohn's Lieder Ohne Worte, Schumann's Kinderszenen, pieces in the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music repertoire (I reached Grade 8 in their programme, at which point I failed the exam twice), three of Chopin's mazurkas, three of Brahm's waltzes, the first two movements of my favourite B flat major sonata by Schubert, etc. Today Papa went to a computer store to buy two power supplies, then to the music store Hans Riedel. He bought notes and grease for Mama's French horn, and checked whether our piano bench would arrive soon (there's no real hurry because sitting on what we call "rolly chairs" at home is lovely too). I looked through a big pile of notes and found two suites and a chaconne by Haendel, as well as a book of technical exercises by Czerny. I played the first two exercises and the first two movements of a suite when we arrived back home.

Then Mama and I walked to the post office, then two Turkish grocery stores on the way back. When we were home she prepared delicious lamb chops in a yoghurt sauce, which we ate with a type of Turkish flat bread sprinkled with aromatic black as well as white sesame seeds. In the evening Papa made one of his great pot-roasts with leeks, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes alongside the meat -- and we had cake and ice cream for dessert. Of course we won't dine so well every day! I must say that the past four weeks of Doener Kebabs have been nice too, because the restaurant where we get them really make them well.

As for other activities today, I went with my youngest brother J. to a bicycle store to get him a helmet (later he had to return for a lock), I continued knitting my scarf (probably one of those many knitting projects that remain eternally unfinished), and I read a little of the newspaper. I wonder if the Israeli attacks of Lebanon will finally mark the turning-point of the situation in Israel/Palestine -- if people will finally see that they cannot depend on the Israeli government (especially under Likud) to defend itself a) successfully, and b) without killing hundreds of civilians. Reason and humanity have been ignored, or invoked in ways distorted by fear and hatred, long enough. And the fact is that now none of Israel's neighbours have little enough to lose by invading it, the majority of the Palestinian population (as polls indicate) wants peace, and the Palestinian government is ready (and has been ready for a long while) to negotiate; the Israeli government should no longer be excused from turning to diplomacy with the sincere desire to finish what Yitzhak Rabin started.

And now I should get off the internet because I shouldn't be on here for longer than an hour . . .