Life is a Mystery

Finally I manage to sit down and update a bit here. I should have done it earlier, but...

No matter, the snow is gone now. It rained away early last week, and it was actually possible to feel some warmth from the sun, too. Not that I was particulary much outside enjoying it, but it was good in any case. On my trips out it was mostly to go shopping a bit, and here a couple of mangas probably is the most interesting. Not much fascinating to see either, on these strolls.

The last days I've used to be a bit frustrated inside. I happened to find a nice PHP script for a search engine for my web site. It could be nice to have a search result without ads, like Freefind, my current search engine has, and at the same time get all the information about the searches made that Freefind provide. It gives me a little hint of what I can improve, among other things.

What has created the frustration, is that the script uses a function in PHP that is turned off on my server, for security reasons. There are ways to overcome this problem, and I did get a couple of hints about where to look and what to use to solve it, with a bit programming. Easy to do when you know what you're doing, but in this case I didn't know anything. But - I think I've managed to solve it now. Just have to test ig to make sure I've got it right beffore I start using it.

Oh, by the way - that old building I've wondered a bit about seems to be a private house. I managed to get a grip on myself as I walked past last time, and noticed a sign on the door, and it showed a mans name. There were something in smaller letters below it, but I didn't want to go up to it to study it. My curiosity is satisfied now.

Finally.

Well - I had a friend over here a couple of days since last entry. Not to ally with him to wake me up by that building, but just for some good time, watching films and digest some tasty food. This was good enough for me not to think of any buildings at all.

Still - yesterday I was out in the nice, sunny weather again, for a little stroll. And - well, maybe I still need to beg the concentration come to me? I have mentioned briefly earlier that mysterious lady in old fashioned dresses - one that I've become somewhat curious about. On my stroll, I noticed her again, from a distance. At least I'm pretty sure it was her - it was more the clothes than the face I recognized. Anyway, I thought maybe I could manage to meet her this time, as she was sitting there and not walking, so I started walking toward here.

This is where that concentration bit comes into play. When I noticed her I was on a small height, seeing over hedges and bushes. These were obscuring the view as I got lower in the terrain, so I didn't see her. When I got to the spot where I thought she was - she wasn't there. Normally it would be easy enough to figure she had left, but in this case the bench she was sitting on wasn't there either. Didn't find any other benches in the area either, so... Guess I can be somewhat absentminded then, or something, not remembering place or direction to go.

Oh well, I guess mysteries shouldn't be too easy to solve - and that girl is a mystery to me.

A while ago I just walked around in town, trawling streets and narrow passages just for the fun of it, noticing small shops I never knew existed. I also promised myself I would visit some of them again later - not just go past them. Well - today I started fulfilling that promise.

I was walking down a side street to the main shopping street - on the opposite side of what I normally do the few times I walk that particular street (in case details are important to know ) - when a woman left a shop in front of me. I turned my head, looked in the window, and thought: Why not? So I entered.

First impression: Womens draper's. Second impression: And more. or maybe it was the other way around. When I looked in the shop window I noticed there were different things inside. A sign on the door said it was a womens draper's, but... I entered anyway. Another man entered right after me - but he only delivered something, so I guess he doesn't count. But there were a couple of others there, apart from the clerk/owner. One lady, and one - guy. Painted or tattooed in the face, like - well, a shaman or something like that. Very "native tribe"-like. Talked like that too - and he had something for the shop owner.

Now, he didn't really look very much out of place in the shop. Womens garments were sold, yes - but it was also sort of an alternative shop: Pillows from Nepal, with patterns that told a story and should help, incense, and - well. Jewellery and poems as pictures and soaps and much other stuff too. Some magazines were on a table, with such alternative themes, but I don't think they were for sale. And then something about a shaman lesson or something - I didn't read. Third world, alternative and womens garment sums it all up, though.

Where do I fit in in all this? Well - the owner told me, after the lady she was serving had left, that she hadn't seen me in the shop before, but she had waited for me. She had seen me many times in the street (main street where I walk several times a week is very visible from the shop) and knew I would come. She didn't know when, but she knew I would come. And wondered if she could help.

Well - I just wanted to see what kind of shop it was, and what she had to offer. Then she turned to that tattooed guy who had been waiting. As I was browsing I overheard pieces of their conversation: He had been on his way up the street, when he had felt he should come into the shop, and he wanted her to have something. She did sound a bit sceptical, didn't think he knew what he was talking about - but at the same time, curious of what it was he had for her. When he left, she was back to me at once. She had something to show me, something just right for me. And showed me - a skirt.

OK, it was a nice skirt - I have no problems admitting that. She also found a couple of others, but - well, not my style really. So she showed me the rest of the shop, telling about the various stuff, like the pillows from Nepal, and how one woman (a new mother) didn't have milk in her breasts, but with the help of the pattern on the pillow she bought and some incense or oil (don't remember what) the milk started flowing. Well - nothing magic there - it just helped her focus and relax.

The most peculiar thing about my visit there though, is a painting. It was a big painting that was there when she got the premises, much red and orange. I noticed it and studied it some. She noticed me watching it, and told me she had looked at it a while before she noticed what it all was about: There are three persons in the painting; A man with a hat, seen from behind, at the bottom of a staircase. A woman in a red dress in the middle of the staircase, showing her leg. And a woman in a door frame at the top, wearing her corset. They're prostitutes, and there's no faces painted - even though the women look straight at us.

This is not peculiar in itself - but the fact that I remember the conversation we had about the picture is. Not remembering from this afternoon in the shop - I remember it from somewhere else, a long time ago. I remember the picture, too - at least the colours - but, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen it before... Do I remember it from a dream I've had? I don't know.

Well - I left the shop without buying anything, but I got a stick of incense with me. To me from the owner. She insisted I should have it.

Whew! What a week. Busy is one word that can be used to describe it. Tired another. Working day and night to start and finish a project - I made it in time, but it took it's toll: I just want to sleep all through the next few days. Well, maybe not quite, but it feels like it at times.

As I've been occupied inside all the time, nothing much has happened outside. For me. Only times I've managed to go out is when I've had some necessary errands in town, in addition to some very brief trips to get some fresh air.

It is when I force myself to sit down and write this - completely void of interest - that I start thinking of that restored building. (Well - I think of it as restored anyway, no matter if it is or not.) It's far from where I usually go⁽¹⁾, but when I went to get some fresh air monday evening that's where I went. Admittedly, I had walked far past it before i noticed where I was, so I still didn't know what kind of building it was. Wednesday I needed to go shopping for some foodstuff, and again I found myself walking down that street. Of course, without realising before I had walked past the building. Thursday evening: Getting too cold, so I turned around and walked home again. Friday evening (project finished and delivered, yay!) saw the actions from Monday and Wednesday repeated. Walked down the street, but failed to register when I walked next to the building - and realised it long afterwards.

Well - I never walked down that street to find out what building it was, not consciously at least, so it shouldn't bother me. However, today I wanted to go there specifically to see if the building gave me any clues as to what kind of building it is, but expecting that it wouldn't. Well - that wasn't quite what happened.

Guess what!

With the specific intention to go there and find out, I completely failed to accomplish my mission. No - I didn't go past the building without realising - I failed to be anywhere near the street itself. I know, I know. You probably think I'm some of the most absent-minded there is - and you're probably right - but for this post I'd like to think of the building being elusive on purpose. Just to spite me. I'm sure of it.

(1) Not far away in distance, but last week was the first time I've strolled down that street ever, from what I can remember.

I got out in the morning. I got back in the afternoon. Nothing unusual there, and nothing of particular interest happened between those two events. But what made me curious happened at those two events, for two very brief periods. So - what happened?

Well - nothing much as such, it's just that I saw somone I didn't really expect to see again, or at least recognize. It's that girl in the old fashioned dress I briefly mentioned earlier. Both in the morning and the afternoon I saw her, from a little distance. She disappeared from me quickly both times, though, and I didn't notice where.

One other thing I didn't see, was the heavy makeup I connect with the goth style. Maybe I'm just plain wrong there, but whenever I've seen a goth pictured, it's been with heavy makeup. So - this girl is not a goth? Or?

I do remember an article in a magazine my mom bought years ago, about a woman in England (London?) who loved the Victorian era. The interior decoration of her house was in the Victorian style, and she wore dresses from that period. Guess this may be some of the same - at least my curiosity is peaked. Now I think I'll have to look out for her later, just in case. Doesn't hurt that she's cute, too...