Journies at home

By journiesathome

I read about a town in Alaska where 90% of the population live in one enormous construction containing flats which home 800 people.  In the same building there's a school, a cinema, shops, hairdressers, gyms, a town hall and a police station.
This is what it's like here in the ice cube (without the snow).

I manage to amass 5000 steps a day by walking round and round the chateau grounds, back in the room I flick through bad TV channels then turn to my book.  At 6.30 I'm down with the Hungry People waiting for the canteen shutters to rise and find a shadowy corner to eat my three course meal alone..  I found a old man by the coffee machine who didn't have enough change so I bought him a coffee and he offered me a black tobacco Gitane. 

Before going to bed I ventured out onto the smoking terrace and joined a small circle of cold looking people.  One of the men looked over to me and said 'you've just arrived haven't you'?' I nodded and he introduced himself along with a younger man with trembling hands and a sad look on his face and said 'You're a veteran compared to him, he arrived this morning'.

The trembling man told us he was fighting alcohol addiction and had a pretty bad cocaine habit. He was lighting one cigarette off another and drinking a cup of tisane which I eyed covetously.  He explained that the first time he'd gone into rehab he'd not thought to take a kettle and teabags with him and he wouldn't make that mistake again.  
It was good to know.  A life lesson.

He went off to make me a tea.

Coffee machine man came out in his dressing gown and lit a another Gitane. 

Trembling man came back with my tea.  I asked him if they'd given him Valium, he said he already took 5 a day, washed down with red wine and topped up with snow.  I suddenly felt very clean..

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