Sunday 17 April 2022

More Cleopatra


            On Saturday morning I finished memorizing “Le régiment des mal aimés” (The Regiment of Broken Hearts” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll search for the chords. 
            I finished working out the chords for “L'avant-guerre, c'est Maintenant” (The Pre-War is Happening) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and English, then I uploaded it to Christian’s Translations where I started the editing process to prepare it for publication on the blog. 
            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast. 
            In the late morning I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of grapes, a whole chicken, a large container of spreadable margarine, three bags of skim milk, two containers of Greek yogourt, a container of skyr, a bag of peppercorns, a blade steak, and a dozen large free run eggs. I had to look up the difference between free run and free-range eggs. Free-run eggs come from chickens that can wander around inside of a large barn but can’t go outside. Free-range eggs come from chickens that can go outside. 
            The supermarket was very crowded, I guess because they would be closed on Easter Sunday. There’s some confusion about the line-up for the cashiers. Checkout 1 sometimes has its own line-up and the social distancing marks on the floor indicated that was the case. But those marks have been removed and so sometimes it has its own line-up and sometimes it doesn’t. This time there was a very long line for all the cashiers, but I went to check if there was a separate line for checkout 1. Seeing only one customer I thought I might be cheating if I started a line behind her. I went to stand in the long line but then a few minutes later a woman stepped in front of me. I thought of saying something but the way she was swaying from side to side made me think she probably had psychological issues. Then when I got near the front with checkout 2 and 3 each serving one customer, I would have been next. But then an elderly woman stepped up to check out two as if there was no line-up. I didn’t say anything, but I thought about it. It’s hard to know if she was deliberately cheating or simply unaware. But logically why would she think that people were lined up to the back of the store for only checkout number 3? 
            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. I had a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with peanut butter and a glass of lemonade. 
            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. It was six degrees and cool enough to wear two scarves and my winter gloves. But a lot of younger people have gotten used to showing off their spring clothes and refuse to accept that it’s a colder day. I saw people in tank tops and shorts. At Queen and Spadina a cab pulled up at the light beside me. I looked down at the front passenger seat and it and the floor were full of junk from food containers and drinks. Clearly, the driver didn’t expect a passenger to sit in the front seat which is where I would have sat because there’s more legroom.
            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 17:25. 
            I worked on my essay for about an hour. I have five days before the deadline. 
            I heated nine dosa masala samosas. I made a dip with chipotle taco sauce, salsa, Piri Piri sauce, and honey. I had dinner with a beer while watching an episode of Astro Boy. 
            This story is supposed to be a sequel to the previous story about Cleopatra’s heart, but there are inconsistencies. When last we saw the robot Cleopatra and her creator Rasburton they were inside a giant stone robot that Astro Boy had blinded. The robot fell off a cliff and sank to the bottom of the ocean. As this story opens the robot emerges from the river Nile, apparently after having walked across the Atlantic Ocean floor, then the Mediterranean Sea floor to the Nile. In the previous episode the robot Cleopatra was already the leader of the Crimson Brotherhood, but in this one Rasburton presents her to them for the first time as Cleopatra resurrected, emerging from a sarcophagus. 
            Meanwhile, Astro Boy and Dr. Elefun have come to Egypt to return the Heart of Cleopatra gemstone to the museum that had once housed it. But Rasburton has learned of this and sends one of his giant stone robots to attack. Astro Boy goes after the robot to fight it, but it is really a decoy to lure Astro Boy away so the Crimson Brotherhood can take Cleopatra’s Heart, which they do. Astro Boy has destroyed one of the robot’s hands but it has caught him the other one and he can’t break free. But the robot is standing too close to the edge of a cliff. The edge collapses beneath the robot’s weight and they fall. The robot is destroyed but Astro Boy’s circuits are damaged by the impact and he is paralyzed underneath the stone robot. 
            Astro Boy is found by Ben Abdal, a former member of the Crimson Brotherhood, who is now a leader of the resistance. He takes him to his tent and since he has watched lots of medical dramas he thinks he can repair Astro Boy. He does manage to get Astro Boy to open his eyes and speak, although he is still paralyzed. He tells Ben to contact Dr. Elefun, who comes and fixes Astro Boy. Then they all go to face Rasburton and Cleopatra. 
            Later when robot Cleopatra appears before the Brotherhood she reveals that she has Cleopatra’s Heart to prove her identity. But Astro Boy calls her fake and tells the crowd she’s a robot. Then contrary to her programming Cleopatra has an attack of conscience and confesses that she is a robot. The crowd revolts and begins to throw stones. One of the giant robots attacks the crowd and so Astro Boy fights it. Meanwhile, Cleopatra carries Rasburton away to a chamber deep in the temple and seals the entrance behind them. She places Rasburton in a sarcophagus and then pushes a button to cause the chamber to be destroyed with them inside. It’s basically a murder/suicide.

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