- a 3 year old nephew who finds the only thing strange about a Skype video call to Africa is that he can’t see the other person (my internet is only strong enough to support one video stream and that jerkily)… When I was 3 video calls were only in science fiction.
- birds that like eating the newly-ripened chilis off the bush my guard has been growing behind my house… They’re tiny but extremely powerful and disappeared immediately they became red - until I gave him some of my mosquito-net material to drape it with. Now there’s about 20 to harvest from the last 3 days with many more small green shoots to ripen later. I didn’t think birds liked hot spicy food!
- having to cut out remains of plastic dividers in the backpack I use for carrying teaching materials to IMS … they cracked and fell away after becoming brittle from the heat while stored and I had to pick out all the little black bits when they sort of shattered.
- having too much stuff for my small fridge even without shopping one day after I got back… Those living in my house left many of the sauces and condiments I had left them (home-made pickles, beetroot, jam) and some they had bought (ketchup, mustard), then my friend Jane left and I had hers too. I consolidated one or two, gave some away, threw out some really old ones, and layered things on shelves. I’ve had people over already 4 times so leftovers of food and desserts are also taking up space though some have gone to the guard. I’ve had past experience of wastage: with the heat here sauces, jams etc that might not be refrigerated at home are here if you want them to last more than a few days so shelves get cluttered. I’ve had a dream for a while for a freezer: could store rice and flour until needed, those leftovers, whole-wheat flour so it wouldn’t go off in the heat of an ordinary shelf, freeze vegetables in season (currently carrots are 250% the price when I left, and broccoli and strawberries are only available Jan-Feb of each year), and finally be able to buy a whole chicken or leg of lamb.
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