By mistake, this morning I took a slow train to London. On our way to Paddington, we are stopping everywhere: Maidenhead, Slough, Hayes, Southall, Ealing Broadway… The liquid crystal display in every carriage cycles through these names over and over again. Yuch. It does not help that I find most of them quite hideous. What have I done in my previous lives to deserve living among the Teutonic tribes of North-Western Europe for an entire decade now?!

Addendum (December 22, 2019)

This piece made me laugh when I came across it by chance. Indeed, what have I done in my previous lives to deserve living among the Slavonic tribes of South-Eastern Europe for nearly two decades now?! But chances are that similar thoughts would occasionally cross my mind no matter where I lived on this planet. As it turns out, I am annoyed by the human species entire (“The Human Species Entire,” July 17, 2019). As for the previous lives, it was only a joke. It shows beyond any doubt that I was not serious about the Teutonic tribes, either. The very belief in previous lives annoys me no end all by itself.