18 June 2017

Yay! I’ve got my first reader! Someone read this blog and liked it! What a lovely surprise to wake up to! Ok, so she’s a Facebook friend and I hinted … strongly … but still, made me happy!

No avoiding the shopping today. I have not found a single shop in this town where shopping is a pleasure! This weekend alone, I enjoyed the following: standing at the bakery stand facing a whole crowd of assistants including what turned out to be a supervisor later – I stood there a full minute facing them while they were chatting. Milk in the shelf had expired. To the teller I’m invisible – she just asks whether I have one of their special customer cards, then chats with the other tellers while swiping my goods. I requested cash withdrawal, when I asked if I could have smaller notes I was told ‘You’ll have to take what you get.’ Shopping in this town is not a pleasure! I’ve bought ‘fresh’ bread that was green the following night, ‘freshly made’ tuna salad that tasted fined, but gave me dire rear (no, I cannot take credit for that spelling! Thank Sir Terry Pratchett). I’ve seen milk in shelves with a week-old expiry date. Maybe I’ve just been to the wrong shops – but I have not found a ‘right’ shop here, yet. So I try to get this ‘grocery shopping’ over with as fast as possible. And it’s best to go when they open, first thing in the morning.

Also no avoiding the laundry today, but at least that’s done by machine. I just have to hang it up.

It was a lovely day, so I spent most of it in the garden and my neighbour joined me again! Lovely! Her cat seemed to be bored or something today, he kept coming around, flopping down then getting up and wandering off. Then coming back for attention. My neighbour had baked scones and kindly shared them with me. I found I had blueberry jam – with some of that and some whipped cream? Delicious! And added bargain: I was full, so no need to cook dinner!

It’s winter now, so whereas in summer I would have to wait for shade to work in, now I look for sun to work in. Just outside the direct sun, stepping into shade it gets quite cold! Whereas in summer I come out around three, now I go in at that time.

The garden next to my neighbours has a lovely coral tree and it’s currently in flower. They are more orange than the usual fiery coral-red, but when the sun catches just the flowers as it sets – it looks like each flower is a little live fire dancing on the tree. I tried to capture it, but again the camera shows colours different to the eye.

I also took another photo of that play of colours in the east at sunset. Notice that turquois ocean topped by a slim ribbon of white followed by the dark blue sky then the ribbon of pink below the pale blue sky. It looks as if the dark blue ribbon should be clouds – but they are not.