The Book of Ashes

Working in Palmy, the new evolution of plants... 8:34AM

Three men in suits, walking across the courtyard, folders under the arm and laptops in hand as they walk up to the front door. The first man flicks his cigarette to the side as he wals in. The others follow. Each in turn greet the receptionist at her desk as they walk past. She smiles at the attention. They reach their lift and press the button. A door opens and they enter. Five seconds pass as they stand in silence. A bing marks the forth floor where they depart. The first man reaches his arm inside his jacket pocket as he walks along. He pulls out a swipe card and swipes it down the wall at the entrance. The door releases and they file in. They reach their room and open up their bags. Quickly they set up their gear and boot up their laptops. For the next 10 hours they will work solid here.

The evolution of plants facinate me. Over the past few thousand years, a small period in their full evolution path, they have had to adapt greatly. New plants have taken up the play and adapted themselves to the new environment. No longer is it the hardiest plants that survive, not the cactuses in the desert that require viruatally no water to survive or the weeds in our back yard which proliferate everywhere they can. I speak of the office plant. Those plants found in many offices that are three or four tall sticks pointing upwards and slightly outwards with big fat free leaves spaced sparsely along them. They take up a small potplant and sit quite inconsicuously in the office corner. People grow these plants by the hundreds, they no longer need to reproduce themselves, they are then transported hundreds of kilometers to shops where people buy them and place them in an environment where they are looked after every single days of their life till they die, without reproducing, yet another will come to take its place. They have developed a new sense of evolution. They have acquired caretakers to make sure their survival is emminent. They are not the only ones, such simple plants as grass, lettuce and pine trees have also evolved to attract caretakers into looking after them. Evolution is not always straight.

You cannot fight it. It has a life of its own. You can only go with it. Tonight I brought three microwave dinners and ate them all in one go. First was the baccon fetticune. Quick and easy to microwave (6 min cooking time), fairly simple but eatible. Second came the pork wontons (12 mins in the oven) which where fairly crap. After that was the chicken cordon bleu (30 mins in the oven), longest to cook but best of the foods. Still quick meals suck. They are no where near the real thing.

Tomorrow I was meant to have a day off. Mum is going over to China for 10 months and I wanted to help her pack up her house. Also my uncle is doing some work on the marae. I also wanted to help out there. Work interrupts. Tomorrow I start early to work. I don't know how long I work till. I don't know if I can do everything I want to in this one day with its limited time