Montpellier

Ack! I have to keep tweaking this post because I never finish it by day's end and details have to be changed, things added or deleted. New thoughts have sprung forth, words, sentences or even whole paragraphs must be deleted as I read them again and wish them gone. But then new things appear…

And on that very topic, it is now the next day so…

Contentment slips into me, and, as it often does, surprises me. Not because it is a state that rarely finds me but because of the mundaneness of what I am doing as I become aware that I'm content. I am eating and reading, something I do quite a bit but I think it's what I'm eating, what I'm reading, where I am and my general state of being. I don't have the burden of wondering if my motorcycle will be ready by end of day as I was told a couple of hours ago that there was a 99% chance that it would, therefore, I'm not worried about finding a place to sleep in Nice tonight since there are no more budget accommodations left. There is a 99% chance that I will be on the road by 5 or 6 pm and on my way to Nimes and then tomorrow, Barcelona.  I am eating a tasty lentil and butternut squash salad with red beans and almonds, coconut milk, olive oil, spices, etc. along with some cucumber and houmous, chips, and dark chocolate with almonds (see attached photo) - the salad I just bought at the grocery store, the rest is stuff I had leftover from yesterday. The salad fills me with joy and I sense that my body is quite happy with this choice too, a welcome break from the baguette and cheese that I have most days. The book is Contrapposto by Dave Eggars and it has really resonated with me for reasons too long to get into here and I am flying through it. All these things have gelled together perfectly and I am content.

I am on a train from Montpellier in Nice again. I loved Montpellier and will expound on why later but for now, I'll just add a bunch of pictures, a couple of videos and this short story;

I feel like I've gotten away with something the last few days, not a purposeful deception or swindling, but still, something received without being paid for. I am at my core an honest, ethical person, but not perfectly so, and as long as I can remember, I have made allowances and bargains within the general framework of my fluid ethics that I have always, well almost always, felt very comfortable with. When I was in my teens and shoplifting quite prolifically, I would only pilfer from large stores, chain stores, reasoning that it was fine and even morally right to steal from them because they were part of the system, the Man, who were ripping people off and deserved to be ripped off. Besides, it was only a rounding error of missing stock for them. Like I said, fluid ethics.  

Here's what happened; I booked the EKLO Montpellier hotel - the rooms were a bit pricey since I'm currently travelling alone, but they had some nice looking dorm rooms so I booked a bed in a dorm for four nights, the 1st to the 5th - but there seemed to have been some sort of confusion when I checked in and when I got to the third floor and opened the door to what I thought was a dorm room, it was a private room! What to do? Go downstairs, back to reception and advise them? Maybe, because surely, I thought, they’ll eventually realize the mistake and there'll be a knock on the door or a note slipped under it or someone coming up to me from the reception desk and saying, "M. Swieca, désolée maïs...nous avons faite une erreur et...du coût...euu...pardon mais..." and I'd be shuffled over to the dorm room. Fuck it, I thought, I'll stay in this room and see what happens. Well, it's been two three four nights and no knock, no note, no acknowledgement of the error. Surely, I thought, the hammer will fall when I check out. I thought about dropping my card key somewhere on the counter and hurrying out before they could pull up my dossier, uttering something about being late for my train, waving and saying, “merci, a la prochaine, au revoir…” but finally I decided to face the music and try to talk and reason my way out of extra charges if they tried to get me to pay. After all, this was their error and I would just say that I thought they decided to upgrade me because they had mistakenly double booked my dorm room bed.  So, this yesterday morning, upon checking out, I calmly gave back my cardkey and asked them to store my bags since I had about two hours before my train departed. I looked and listened carefully for a sign that the guy working reception I had given my passkey to had seen anything on the computer screen that might spell trouble for me, any beeps or flashing lights advising him to immediately stop this person and recoup the missing funds. Nothing! He smiled, placed my bags in the back room and calmly went about his day.  I thought this deserved a small celebration and récompense for EKLO, so I stayed and had the buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Whoop, whoop...living the life!Read more