When watching the animation below, could you hear some sound?..



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October always appears one of the mystical months in my life, and it closely associates with the melancholic spiritual image-theme by U2 of the same title, where this word appears ominous.

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In the beginning of the month there were elections for the 12th Saeima, the Parliament of Latvia. Only about 59% of all citizens took part, that shown the absolute minimum of all elections even happened in the "re-born" Latvia of the past 25 years. This could be explained in various ways: either the most active part of citizens already swapped Latvia for UK or Ireland, either people were disappointed in government and the life level going down all the time; either that, again, shown that there is no "united nation" living in Latvia, despite it's trying to be the "Latvians-only".

For a long time I've thought there's no term a "nation" because all humans already are mixed up together with no reference to the initial gene, so when it comes talking about nations and nationalism, it makes me fun - because it's lambs stuff. What truly organizes people, is not a nation, and not a religion. Actually, a common language and bits of something else, which will be NEVER achieved in Latvia, and IS achieved in Germany, Poland, Russia, even USA and other countries speaking ONE common language, and so ideology.

Actually, I didn't take part in these elections, too, and I think, I will never take any part in such a farce. It made me laugh, when forming the ministers government, the winning "international" party was beat out by the "Latvian national coalition", despite they were not winners; so people were voting with no sense again and their opinion was actually ignored by the big latvians clan. Some persons which were "minused" by electors in their bulletins, still used some law's flaws and they became still filling the Saeima stuff.

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What made me laugh at most: near the place I live, the current Riga's Council major coalition (which also won the elections to Saeima) *finally* invested a bit of money into continuing so called "Daugava Promenade". What was frozen for about 3 years and what was about mud and sand only by that time, was inaugurated exactly before the elections:





They actually built about extra 150 meters of the walking / bicycling road, calling it as the "big work completed" (which was actually about few weeks of work). This road now finishes near castle ruins of the former Mazjumprava Manor, which was also a place for the Jungfernhof concentration camp. I'm not quite sure, whom the poster attached to the road is created for: tourists will find just a very short information in English, the biggest part is in Latvian, and no other languages involved. The English info also ignores the fact this place was about hosting Jews in WWII; of the approximately 4,000 people transported to Jungfernhof, only a bit more than a hundred persons survived. In English, "the end of the 16th century" slightly transforms into "after WWII" period:



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There are also more interesting stuff you could see walking down the Daugava promenade and areas. For example, one of the building is still about holding Ilyich:



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Right after disappointing elections, I was forced to move back to Rezekne to take the washing machine for installing in my new apartment. That would make the apartment suitable for living and the final moving. About a year ago I've bought the new Indesit IWSD 51251 for my mom; but she actually never used it, because she wasn't prepared for new technologies. This proved how even a simple thing could be difficult for seniors...

I've took my VW Golf IV and got on wheels; but the last 50 km prior to Rezekne were awful. The road was completely renovated, I've counted about 15 traffic lights, standing about each 3 km and opening the only one existing traffic lane. It was looking similarly to this:



- with an exclusion that there was not even an asphalt pavement on this lane, just sand and mud, and it was not fully horizontal.

It's an awful feeling when you must drive at about 15 km/h and counting small stones hitting the bottom of the car all the time. It's even more awful when 50 km are reached in about a hour or even more. It could make crazy, if it's the only one road to the city, and no other bypass path is available.

After visiting mom's tomb, and taking the IWSD down, in a couple of days I've finally started to move back to Riga. There was a small detail: before driving, I've checked the oil indicator and it was already showing the level closely to the minimum, but I've thought it should be enough for about 250 km. Also, for some time I noticed a strange sound coming from the right of the bonnet, if the car was standing without movement.

Right after I've completed the "long" distance of the half-a-road, I already started to move at the highest possible speed, then suddenly something wrong happened. The oil indicator was extremely blinking at the diagnostics panel, a strange beep appeared, I didn't understand in the beginning what failed and stopped the car, then I finally saw volumes of smoke coming out from the bonnet.



That was the first time in my life I experienced something like this, and it wasn't the good sign at all. After about a hour the engine cooled down, I've tried to switch on the ignition hoping to drive slowly, getting to some closest city and the car service, but there were lots of clicks and cuts heard, so I wasn't brave to drive with such an engine damaged, or whatever it was... Something was seriously broken, and I even didn't know where I'm stuck.



Luckily, the mobile connection was fully on. Near my stopping point there was a country bus stop called "Berzi". I've called my friend and asked him to search Google maps to discover the place were I'm on. He wasn't able to find such a village, or city, or whatever "Berzi" was about. May be it was about the direct translation - "birches"; truly there were some birches located on the side of this road.



Luckily, it all happened on the very straight part of the road. My car was notable for other cars, so they could overtake it easily; despite it all looked scary, because the road was still very thin. On the right, there was forest; on the left, there was a railway.

After some thinking and heavy smoking (despite I don't smoke, in general, I always keep a pack of cigarettes in a car for exactly such cases), I've called my insurance company, and it appeared my policy included the "help on the road" for free, i.e. they were able to evacuate my car and bring it to the closest city. They suggested to move back to Rezekne, but that was the nightmare suggestion - I wouldn't be able to get through the 1/2 of the muddy road again, thus sitting in the evacuator, with my car attached to it and with the washing machine inside of my car. Visually I understood I'm on the way to another big city - Krustpils, but the insurance company girl still wasn't able to determine, what "Berzi" is about, and if it's closer to Rezekne or Krustpils, so I finally decided to move to Krustpils, because for me it didn't matter the car service - I didn't know one in both cities.

I waited for the evacuator for about 1,5 hours, and it was already about 5 p.m. when it finally arrived and found me on the road. So I've spent about 4 hrs just standing in one place, walking here and there, before a cigarette made me vomiting. It was a scary feeling being alone in such a wild place; I even prepared a little crowbar for any case - I always have such a thing in the car. But the little barking dog was the only one which made me nervous.

It was a very lonely place, and I was also lucky, because it was a sunny day. Right before the evacuator arrived, the rain started to drop in slowly. Later this day and month, it became even strong (read below); so all in all, the "unhappy" event wasn't truly bad.



All Latvian car services communicate with each other mutually, so despite I met the man who transported my car, the first and possibly the last time in my life, I've asked him to bring my car to the best service possible. He asked me to describe what happened, thought a bit and dropped me to the "Auto Liga" service in Krustpils. Those Latgalian guys looked truly friendly, and I didn't have some other choice except leaving my car here (with the washing machine and some other stuff inside), because it was Friday, the 9th, before the weekend; I've took only the most important things, and arrived by a train to Riga to make rest.

The service took a week to complete - they actually fixed a lot of things. The "strange sound" I was hearing on the low engine speed, was related to the broken cooling pump - that was actually the reason of why the engine has been overheat. They also changed engine's belts, oil and anti-freeze. That all costed me about 265 EUR - but I was truly happy with their service, and all my stuff inside the car was on its older place.

That appeared a long-lasting, still nice and educating journey, anyway. Despite I could buy a new washing machine for such amount (or just a bit bigger), it could happen sooner or later with the car, and now it appeared to be fixed, giving a completely fresh driving feeling. It was a good lesson. I learned, how important is to hear your own car. Whatever is sounding strange, needs an immediate diagnostics. Also, the car doesn't love when something is on the exhaustion level. Food your car with fuel and oil in time.

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Later, I found the place were I'm stuck on Google maps. It was mystically located in opposite to the Teichu Nature Reserve (Teichu dabas rezervats), the biggest swamp in Latvia (about 16,000-19,000 ha wide), a very closed and secured place, having a European and even International meaning, known for its unique ecosystem, and the place of living of many unique birds and plants.



This place is closed from the public tourism, and the visitors are welcome to overview it only with the help of the local ranger or instructor, which is impossible to reach (or at least by now I don't know, how). Related website is mostly offline, so the Latvian government obviously is not interested in advertising this place a lot. Not a miracle I knew about it for the first time in my life. I didn't even know such a place exists in Latvia. A broken car made me more educated... and that was a good sign.

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The 2nd part of the month was notable for the heavy rain the whole state experienced. I didn't remember any sunny day in October anymore. The part of Latvia called Zemgale was washed away; Dobele and Ogre cities were under a special critical status. It all looked like this:































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The weather and stress made the final cut to my own mood and health. I've caught a seasonal virus, which was so strong this time, that it even caused conjunctivitis. I've spent my family to another city, so the kid could stay safe from my illness; I wasn't able to work or even go outside for food, so I've spend more than a week in bed, drinking Matricaria teas and watching action movies.

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There were actually a lot of action movies released this year or earlier I didn't watch previously, I'll mention just the top 5 here.



5. Death Race (2008). When I first saw Jason Statham in Guy Ritchie's movies, I've thought he should be a new action movies star - and so I won. So far I couldn't name a movie with Statham I didn't like, 'cause his charisma could transform any action shit to a delicious candy. "Death Race" is not an exclusion if we talk about the plot story, which appears to be just a big hole; but the tricks, special effects and Jason's role-playing make this movie an adrenaline filled action.

4. Taken (2008, 2012, 2014). I like most of Luc Besson's produced action movies, because they are light and transparent, and sometimes, they even bring something new to discover. "Taken" series are mostly made by Liam Neeson, the giant man showing his cruel skills to murder everybody with all possible methods, when his daughter is in danger. Watching all series, you are transferred to Paris, Istanbul, and L.A., so it's also a journey through continents. Watching the first two parts more closely, I've learned something new about specific fighting knives as well.



3. The Protector (2007). In Thailand, they also learned to film excellent action movies. This one stares Tony Jaa, the martial arts master inspired by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The movie includes some of the astonishing fighting and street running scenes, most of them are repeated twice from various angles, so the viewer could enjoy them even in smaller details. That makes the movie even more honest and proves all scenes are natural, as the camera doesn't suppose lots of montage.

2. The Man From Nowhere (Ajeossi, 2010). This one made in South Korea, and it brings the quality of the script and most of the action scenes, incl. fighting scenes, on top of the many Hollywood-based action movies. It lasts for almost 2 hours, but I didn't get bored even for a minute while watching this. There is a scene, when the camera-man jumps from the 3rd floor, following Bin Won, playing his main character - I'm not sure how it was filmed. The final scene shocked and made me cry at once. Very powerful, yet truly cruel action movie.



1. John Wick (2014). That's possibly the only good action movie I could mention for this year. The main character is played by Keanu Reeves, and he's making so much blood in this movie I never seen in his other movies at all. The movie follows the standard schema of the 80s action movies: bad russians, drugs, and the guy who's came to murder everyone for his puppy. What makes the movie outstanding, are its fighting scenes, and some fresh irony hidden between. Despite "Neo" is not martial arts master, and he rather prefers guns than hands and legs, all one-to-one scenes are filmed with the minimum cuts possible, from beginning to the end. Quite a rare case for such genre.

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Closer to the end of the month, I've found a curious video on YouTube, which've been shared at about the same month and was about How You Could Gym Your Cat :) A very nice idea, combining both the force to move the cat, gathering food, and playing.

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As it may be seen on the Jaime's calendar for October, this month appears still warm and sunny in Lungau. I couldn't say the same about Latvia or Riga, in common. Definitely, I'm not enjoying a resort place!

Pounding in my head.. the picture is funny too ;).

So in California there's lack of water and in Europe there's too much; not sure what's better overall (except for balance ; ).

I couldn't hear any sound there.

Only in more than a year sad news came to me, and this is kind of post-scriptum to this month's blog. At October 18th, 2014, being just 44 years old, there was gone an excellent healer, physician, and a truly professional surgeon Edgars Zarembo. My dying mother passed through tens of doctors of Rezekne Hospital, but Mr.Zarembo was one of the persons who gave me the most meaningful advises in my life, which I remember until now. Don't be angry at the sick people, is a great sin...

I was shocked to know a couple of months later, that Edgars is fighting with the final stage of cancer. He was looking so fine that I couldn't even imagine that. I suppose, while carrying other people, he forgot diagnosing his own health... In the stream of doctors curing my mother, he appeared one of the most trustful and understood person I ever met, despite I've met him only once.

He's gone just in seven months after my mom.

Rest in peace, Great Man.