Aug 2006

Our trip to Vila (which is where we are right now) was well timed in terms of some much needed shopping. We used our last tin of tomatoes during last week (I'm amazed how long I made 6 tins last) and I also need a new pair of shoes to slip on so I can venture out to the toilet in the middle of the night or go to the shower. The story goes like this...

The other night I was having a particulary bad nights sleep and was unimpressed to wake up yet again and need to go to the toilet. I usually cope OK with the long drop but the disappearance of the sun below the horizon marks the start of cockroach happy hour at the Wain-van den Bronk Loo (it's the hip new place that's recently been renovated!) One of Nic's renovations to the toilet was to get rid of the original wooden crate with a hole in it that was the toilet seat and construct a taller, sturdier seat with a hinged lid so that the cockroaches and spiders couldn't hide under the lip. I found this fantastic and I've been steadily picking off the little blighters by squashling them with my shoe.

However, on the night in question in my sleep deprived state I took aim, smacked at the nasty creature, missed, hit the other edge of the toilet with the recoil of the attempted whack and dropped my shoe into the long drop! I stood in shock at my stupidity (now quite well awake) and then burst out laughing at myself. On going back to bed I found that I still couldn't sleep but this time because I had the giggles and couldn't stop myself from thinking silly things like "Well that's 3000VT down the toilet....literally!" (I'd bought the fake Birkenstocks in a dodgy duty free place when we first arrived in Vila). In the end I had to wake Nic up to tell him & share the hilarity. I'm sure, though, that he didn't need to be woken in the middle of the night to know that he's married a complete dill!

Little Dog, Dingo

Here is an indulgent blog of our puppy! He’s very entertaining especially when he’s bouncing after the chickens. (I’m sure he thinks he’s bounding but he has more of a Pepe LePue action of all four feet off the ground at the same time and coming down to land practically in the same place as he left off) We’re slightly concerned that he’ll figure out the co-ordination thing and actually catch one, then we’ll be hauled off to a sorry ceremony to make it up to the owner of the chicken!

Anyway, I think pictures say it all:

A dog in a hanging basket? It would keep him away from the chickens!

This one's for Nic's dad, Dingo thinks he's a builder's dog sleeping on the timber!

He seems to do a lot of sleeping, doesn't he?

In other news:
Nic’s project was officially advertised (to him alone) and he has applied so now we’re just waiting for that to go through. [update: we got the "Yes" email today! Yay!!!]
I’ve run my second workshop on the different ways kids learn which went over quite well – the headmistress couldn’t make it because in the morning she was invited to attend a wedding that day and she needed to go and represent the school (the woman getting married was the daughter of the school council president).
Third term is nearly over (at the time of writing) and Nic & I plan to head over to Vila for some running around and some R&R this time!
We’ve moved to our new place (the other building closer to the sea where we get a better breeze).
We’ve had 100mm of rain in the last 3 days and this is supposedly still the dry season!