View from the 12th floor

Although busy as I am these days, trying to complete the plans for a project that is quite challenging, I still cannot miss what goes on around my lodgings on the 12th floor of the highraise I live in, here in Tirana. The glass doors of the balconies offer great views, even from where I normally sit at my desk.
 

As reported earlier, the swallows that decided to make their home between my kitchen and bedroom windows have completed their nest, which now has only an opening toward the outside, but hidden to my photographic reach. I notice them especially in early morning hours when these sub-tenants take turns coming and going to feed themselves. 

 

Not too far, across from the canal that runs in front of my building, there is a little park where elderly men congregate every day to play games. Sometimes they're not deterred even by bad weather. They come provided with pieces of cardboards that they can use as a cushion to have a dry seat.

 

There are no special requirements of separating garbage when disposing of it into the metal bins that the city provides on the streets. In my neighborhood’s corner the sanitation trucks come around, like clockwork, twice a day (by midday and midnight),  and empty the bins, producing quite a bit of noise for a few minutes, every time. Each truck carries four workers. Two of them cleanup with brooms what may drop onto the street when the bins are turned over for discharging into the truck. This has been going on for quite a few years now, but my mind goes back to the days of my early visits to Tirana in 1993, when there was no modern equipment, but the collections were quite frequent and they were loaded and squeezed by hand and showel into some old trucks.

As of this year though I noticed that, every few hours, some young men now provide an additional service that, I'm guessing, is just performed on an personal, entrepreneurial basis. They are usually twosomes that travel on tricycles, some of which are motorized. Out of the bins they pick all plastic materials, which they compact by just crushing them with their feet. I have no idea where they deliver their collections, but it's certainly done for a profit.

This past Tuesday morning we were hit by a terrible storm that awaked everybody up with its thunders, lightning, strong winds, and even a bit of hail. It lasted for a few hours and produced lots of floods everywhere. 

 The Lana Canal below me surged  to very high levels, and looked ominous.

One item for which I have no picture, should actually be called an event, and was quite unsettling, when it happened on Thursday, around noon time.  Although I was sitting at my desk, I had the feeling of losing my balance;  when I turned to look outside, I realized that the entire building was swaying….. Yes, there was an earthquake and it was felt quite a bit in Tirana, mostly on the upper floors.  Just to make sure that I was not dreaming, I turned on the Albanian TV that confirmed the happening by just flashing the news in writing, while a reporter was talking about something else. Its epicenter, I learned later on, was in Macedonia and reached 4.5 on the Richter scale.

 

I have experienced earthquakes over the years in Albania, in Italy, and in New York,  but the uncomfortable feeling of being completely powerless is always very upsetting. Expecting further sismic movements it took another 15/20 minutes before the anxiety subsided.

These are all the news and comments that I wanted to share with you this week, when the weather is turning hotter and for the next few days the temperature will hover around 90°F.