Like Camping Indoors

This morning as my eyes first opened and began to adjust to sight, something on the wall made me think, “Oh no, what’s that?” I realised that it was only the knob attached to the string that moves the blinds. Phew! My vision then moved down to the floor where I was greeted by a cockroach doing a dance on his back which I can only assume meant, “Good morning, Roomie, let’s party!” Oy vey. We got up and snacked on the last of our dry cereal. Daniel took care of our dance party friend and we decided to buy some food to put in our kitchen. Our first stop was Flannery’s Organic Health Store. We only picked up a few vegetables and pasta there before we decided to move on. Down the street a couple more blocks is a place called, Gabba Fruit Market. There we bought a large mango, an Asian pear, some bread, zucchini, spring onion and chive cream cheese, basil and feta pesto, salt, pepper, orange juice, rice, soy sauce, and eggs. Back at home Daniel fried up two eggs and I spread the cream cheese on slices of bread for breakfast. The yokes of the eggs are florescent orange! All of a sudden at breakfast I felt very home sick. I missed my Mom. I thought if she were here she’d help us clean this nasty place!
Daniel went to campus in the hope of connecting to the internet and doing some work. I decided to stay here in the hope of my blisters healing from not walking ten miles a day. When he returned he brought with him some mould killer, windex, a sponge, a mop, and a piece of chocolate. Bless his heart for all those things! He reminded me that Valentine’s Day is coming up so I’m saving that heart shaped morsel until then. We then swept again and busted out our mop to vanquish the dirt from our potentially pristine cement glossed floor; a task that took us about an hour and a half. This place is sort of like living in a warehouse. The walls are not fully enclosed in some of the rooms therefore we are somewhat exposed to the elements. The elements I’m writing about are dirt and bugs. Daniel even said, “We could literally do this all the time.” Meaning, I’m not sure if it will ever be truly clean. Thankfully it is at least ten times better than it was and the mould seems to have disappeared, and we extracted about ten spiders so it is feeling more like a place I want to live. We also did a load of laundry. I think we flooded the storage room where the laundry is done so we’ll have to inquire how we used the washer incorrectly. Unfortunately we’re back to the days of hanging our clothes to dry. Dryers are not often used here and we always see clothes hanging in people’s yards. That is where our clothes are now. At least it’s warm and sunny here; I’ll let you know if they’re any less stiff than they were in England.
For dinner we made pasta with the left over potatoes and the new pesto sauce. It was good and we were happy to feel like we finally had a normal home cooked meal. As it is a Friday night Daniel has mentioned going to our local pub for a beer. I’ll go with the intention of making friends. We could benefit from some locals giving us the lay of the land. We have met one of our neighbours and his dog, Jet. He was very friendly, as was the dog that licked my hand when I introduced myself to him. He is a black shepherd and he seems to feel protective of our yards.