The bottom line of this perhaps rather long narrative, is not, as I initially started out as a perhaps green, green badge cab driver, who did not move to the valley of Diesel “Ilford” with the obligatory new cab, wife, mortgage and two kids.
No one more surprised than I at the realisation of what has materialised, a first hand description humiliation and deprivation of the British working class from the 1930's.
This erosion brought about entirely by deliberate policy of successive governments.. and the ten draconian years of Tony Blair who deliberately, for whatever reason, encouraged the influx of irrepresible waves of the World's disenchanted onto these shores, by doing so, creating a powerful, intimidating, devisive weapon against the indigenous labouring masses and a hard core of … crime, poverty and unemployment… the triple iron fist of all governments,plus Enron, 9/11, Afghan conflict over oil, Kosovo all emphatically used by Blair; any outcry was by "politically incorrect racists" as Dr David Kelly was to find to the cost of his life.
The differential between rich and poor, is greater now, than during the Middle Ages.
Sunday, November 03, 2002……..5:11 PM
Saddam Hussein... relaxes with his eight female bodyguards, Peter sits, contemplating Mr Putin's move of lowering the Marriage age to fourteen, wondering whether he should get the bus to Murmansk... Stalingrad... one of those exotic places…….. the third day of November… take Cynthia.. she could organize a party, it having died the death here.
All my entourage have inevitably gone the way all females I have ever known have gone once they were set on their feet. I found Dana a wealthy Englishman... once that was arranged not seen her since. Lisa is off to the States… a 73 year old, with three houses, three Cadillac's and a house on Malibu beach ……. Cyntia found him for Lisa. She leaves tomorrow...
I am not taking money as whether or not we shall get so much as a post card from her.
Laura, she my own particular pearl, never having seen the sea until we took her to Costinesti on the Black sea.
Her father had this penchant for locking both her and her and her sister up in a mental home during the long school vacation (a) because he did not have to keep them and (b) because he was paid about 1.000.000lei (you want to believe it) … all that we straightened out .. She found her feet after about a year here……..
Regardless of my giving her taxi fare home, soon realized she only had to show out and she does have plenty to show, the first car squealing to a standstill on the greasy cobblestones... watched her jump in with alacrity, drive away to where ever she was taken. Not bad for a girl just out of school………
Monday 7th February. 2.p.m.
Anyway determined not to be detracted, really have to push on., irrespective of what is happening here and there is plenty. Dana has just left looking radiant… been with me almost three weeks ..no longer having to work seventy two hours a week, 6 nights, with four boys in the sausage factory loading onto a lorry 24,000 kilos of meat .. her wages something less than 2.000.000 lei a month less than $20 a week, I pay her that for doing very little ..very little indeed…….. a couple of hours a day and perks.
Sunday she was here all day because she wanted to be ..she cooked dinner .. had a small party, five of us who where here… she thought it rather better than the sausage factory run by a Greek who has no qualms and has every interest in exploitation.. ..knows the ropes in that respect.
The Greeks, as so many affluent nationalities, come here for two reasons only, Sex and exploitation.. but the last has to be modified…A certain Cypriot gentleman I know of, came here with little and has built up literally a thriving empire in the clothing business.. but he has taken good care of the myriad army who labour ever on for him.. this flotsam from the lost World of Ceausescu and the indifference of so called “Western Civilization” …
There was also another young woman here ..apparently, without any work, any visible means of support.. whom really I cannot continue about now, so much as I would prefer to.. very entertaining …….for Peter.
"Feel" is the word of the moment …feel I have to get on with it otherwise I shall never catch myself up .. before death catches up with Peter.. Death, hardly something to stand on ceremony, hardly something that can be asked, in all politeness to wait until one puts the finishing touches to this rather obscure , meaningless, perhaps sad, existence.
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Dana
There has been a lull in the proceedings since that meeting with Aura, I have continued to exist, a comfortable existence, Very few words coming into my head , mostly struggling with the past, perhaps just another sign of living too long.. tend to live in the past quite a lot, then it is nothing new with me.. look backwards, in fact, not only do I look backwards, think backwards. I write backwards, this aspect perfectly apparent to anyone who has held on to these words for so very long, all five books. You need a medal for persistence… sheer bloody mindedness.
As myself , possibly hanging on, waiting to see what will happen to the old man. I, hanging on for that one reason only , refusing to take the last exit, why should I subject myself to more pain..? have had more than my share. What will happen ? what can happen? As reiterated in the past , as reiterated so many times, most of my friends are dead, those who have not been released have suffered some quite bad experiences.
Aura not shown since that last night, described above, I no longer expect to see her, other than by accident, to meet her, other than by accident, as with AndreeA in the Unirii Metro.. that so brief encounter.. our last.. apparently a lifetime ago.
During the last couple of weeks I have , shall we say, attempted to "replace" Aura, with a young lady, twenty one years old, who reminds me somewhat, of a taxi which will not start.
Looking at her, as most of the others, one would think . 'Oh yes! quite attractive!!" , when you lift up the bonnet and look in the brain box, find all manner of things wrong, which need repairing, need time, need patience and invariably, need money.
Usual story.. the "boy friend.." a soldier, in this particular case, with her five years ..went away and married someone else, after one month changed his mind and wanted the original filly back. The inevitable repercussions of that, swore to herself she would not have sex for one year as a punishment , hardly know whom for ..only herself… When Peter dutifully tried, he did not get too far, although there was no resistance, still did not get anywhere.. if that makes sense.. think about it. . Another Susan, another Aura , who more twisted up than she ? so much work straightening her out. Always find the mental cripples, cripples in the brain box, or they find me.