Isadora walked along the large avenues of Ban Ralik, sipping at the
Big City Life
atmosphere and enjoying the sights. She had been there for almost two months
now and felt that she was beginning to get the grip of things. How different
everything was from life back home on Sendar Lake, even the simple fact of
getting fresh fish for dinner. Back home she only had to walk down to the
wharf and the fishermen would sell her some fresh fish, straight from the
lake. Here on the other hand, she had to go to a fish-market where she could
consider herself lucky if the fish was fresher than two days ago. And not
even considering the prices! Three times the money for a third of the
quality. But that was big city life.
She had on the other hand got a very nice place to live. An apartment near
the shoreline in a neighbourhood considered to be ?not too? rough by the
locals, but not nearly as flashy as the ones where most of the other Arch
Mages lived. But she didn?t really mind, the people in the house were
friendly and it still cost enough to nearly give Johan a heart attack when
he heard about the rent. But that was big city life.
Not mentioning all the people. Back home on Lady Lake she had considered a
hundred people many, but in this city she could walk around all day and
never be surrounded by less than ten so many. Wherever she looked, people
worked, ate, slept and lived their lives. But that was big city life.
Nevertheless she had never enjoyed herself more than in these last two
months. She had been to countless meetings with everyone who was anyone
within the council, constantly lobbying for her cause. She had been to
different parties with different customs, eating food she had never heard
off, hearing languages she had problems realising were in fact languages and
not just people clearing their throat and been polite to people she to late
had realised belonged to the menservants and not the hosts. But that was all
part of the big city life.
And life in the big city was all she wanted.
I dagens samhälle lyfts valfriheten till fullständig maxim; får du inte välja fritt så är något fel. Detta gäller i sin tur alla livets aspekter; från vilken förskola, skola och utbildning du vill ha som barn, till var och hur du vill bo, vem du (eventuellt) vill dela ditt liv med, vad du vill jobba med och hur du vill tillbringa din pension. Utöver dessa större val ska vi även välja mellan olika abonnemang och hur vi hanterar återkommande kostnader. Dessa sträcker sig från mer obligatoriska sådana som lån, försäkringar, internet, boendekostnad, telefon och tv. Till mer frivilliga som hemstädning, kläder, smink, rakblad, kalsonger, dataspel och vidare, beroende på det egna hushållets intressen. Har vi barn ska deras önskningar helst uppfyllas; gällande allt från antalet skärmar, begränsningar i skärmtid, läxläsning, studiehjälp, olika fritidsaktiviteter, osv. Sedan ska vi hantera alla vardagsköp, och ta ansvar för dem. Köper vi alltid ”bra miljöval” och Eko? Ska barnen ha en plas...
Comments