Not so Manic Mondays

In fact it started off better than I could have hoped, based on the impunity with which we consumed wine yesterday afternoon. I spent the day sightseeing, in this part of the world no one cares if you sightsee with a bottle of vino. We went to the Slavin WWII memorial on top of a giant hill and watched life go by in the city below. It was fun and surprisingly relaxing given the significant hike up the hill.

Things promptly went awry though when I was pick-pocketed on the way to work by some rogue Roma skank (-50 Euro). I took little solace in the notion that I was feeding a family of Gypsies for a week. I've decided not to give a penny to a homeless person for the next 20 years. Take that.

Work was difficult, not in the usual sense. I spend the majority of my days on the phone with pharmaceutical exec's in Europe. Today, 14 European countries were on holidays and so our list of opportunities was diminished in the most stark of manners. I resorted to watching the clock and thinking about the money I wasn't making.

Lunchtime should have offered a reprieve from the excruciating boredom punctuated with hunger pains that hallmarked the 5 hours prior. Unfortunately, as if to remind me once again that I was in a very different part of the world, we didn't get lunch. I've commented a few times on the complete lack of customer service and today was subject to it once again. We went to one of the more reliable restaurants and ordered our food immediately. Lunch menus here usually have 3 options on a chalkboard in front of the restaurant -enabling the servers to do the least amount of work possible. We then waited for 50 minutes before realizing we weren't going to get to eat. I made up for not eating and managed to get through the afternoon, with periodic and substantial doses of caffeine.

I then missed my bus because a parade was blocking the street I needed to cross.

It's all behind me now though and Amit is coming to visit tomorrow so that should be great fun. I really should start depositing to my sleep bank now as I'm sure I'm about to over withdraw.

UPDATE: The big elevator in the apartment building seems to be broken. There is now a 4 person elevator, that is very slow, for an apartment with 120+ people. Sweet.