28 December 2018

On Christmas day I was supposed to meet Wendy in town at the ACK Cathedral (her choice) followed by lunch at Blue Room.  It is becoming our old-white-single-female-expat holiday tradition but on Christmas morning she phoned to say that she had was ill and couldn’t come.  So, I cancelled my pikipiki and just stayed home.   I read a book, watched a couple of Christmas DVD’s, ate popcorn & apple and drank Coke Zero, 😊      As usual, things were very busy here at the beach on Christmas Day.  Fred’s wife Nancy estimated that there were 1000 people on the stretch of beach that runs past my house—many of them from upcountry.  Fortunately, there was very little loud music at this location—up the beach at Minazini (half a block away?) it was a different story.   Boxing Day morning, Fred’s daughter Yvonne collected 3 gunia bags (gunnysacks) full of glass liquor bottles and plastic drink bottles people had thrown away on the beach over the holiday.  Oh yeah, a good time was had by all.  

Animal Adventures:  Several evenings ago I was making white sauce and reached into the utensil drawer for a  whisk.  The silicone was coming off of the tines so I stopped and took everything out of the drawer.  What did I find at the bottom?  A small, but very dead rat.  Don’t you know I scrubbed everything in that drawer very hard!  First time for everything—and last time I hope.     Then, I was awakened at 3:30a.m. on Christmas morning with a loud prolonged feline growl.  It took several seconds for me to realize that the sound was not coming from outside, but from right next to my bed.  I sat straight up and said “Izzy!”  There was a bump, a thump, a hiss and then 2 cats streaked out of my room and down the stairs.  A feral cat had come in through the cat door and upstairs.  In the morning I discovered the bag of cat food in the kitchen had a big hole chewed in the side of it so the visitor had also passed through there.  Now all cat food is in glass jars and Izzy is sleeping at the top of the stairs facing the cat door