Homemaking

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A Day of Firsts

I didn’t sleep well again last night, sighs. I’m really hoping that if I can get my room completely dark I’ll at least not getting woken up right at six by daylight creeping in….

First order of business was work, then I put together a shopping list of odd bits I needed. It became evident that hitting up a Walmart might not be a bad idea. I decided to wear my grey and white striped dress that I probably haven’t worn since Mazatlán and which is fabulous in this climate, made from some sort of microfiber that breathes and looks quite “luxe.” I’ve been wearing slummy clothes most of the summer so it’s nice to break out the pretty things. When I was at the house in Chelem, I didn’t want to wear anything Puppy might ruin and as the summer wound down, I was doing grubby work in town so it didn’t make sense to dress up.

Around eleven, I hopped on a bus toward Centro to go to the Walmart at Paseo de Montejo (their “Centro” location).

I wanted to get off no further south than the Convention Centre, but kept passing signs saying buses can’t stop on that stretch of 62. When we passed Avenida Colon, I finally got up and asked the driver to please let me off as soon as he could. It ended up being about a block or two further south, which was fine. I doubled back to the Colon and then shot over to Walmart. Crossing Paseo de Montejo at that corner is something I remember from last year and it’s just as much sport this year!

Walmart had a lot that was on my list, but not everything. I wasn’t desperate for anything so if I didn’t like what they had of something, I held off.

One thing I did find that I am inordinately pleased with is a rack for my shower so I don’t have to store everything on the floor. I found some wire racks to hang from the shower head that were just about useless — only enough room for one bottle. This one had room for at least two bottles and the picture showed a loofah and razor hanging from the bottom section, two things I needed storage for as well (as evidenced by this picture!). There’s also room for my pumice. Best part? This rack was the cheapest option at only $75, $50 less than the wire racks!

Another thing I was looking for was another cutting board so I can have one for meat and one for veg. I got all of these for only about $70 and the label even showed examples of how the colours can be associated to a specific food. They are also non-skid and will work great on my tile counters.

I found a stopper for my kitchen sink and am pleased that it fit. I guess those things are universal. Now, I can wash dishes in the sink and use the basin for rinsing, or vice-versa.

I also picked up blackout curtains in a brand I have in Miranda, but, spoiler, they are NOT blackout curtains. 🙁 I’m so disappointed and will return them.

The grocery section was quite nice and I picked up a few things there as well. I was amused that one block of Philadelphia cream cheese was $29, but I could get two and a very nice container for $50… I also picked up this loaf of bread, curious as to whether the spots were olive, chocolate, or raisins:

I paid for my purchases with my debit card and asked if I could make a withdrawal. I didn’t even know if such a thing is possible in Mexico the way it is in Canada, but what the heck. The man asked how much I wanted to withdraw and I said $500. So far, so good as the max was $2,000. He then held up the card and said, “This is a Mexican debit card. Right? Not a foreign credit card?” I confirmed that it was a Mexican debit card. “Okay! No problem!” So far, there are only perks to having a Mexican bank account!

I came out with my mound of shopping and decided to treat myself to an Oreo McFlurry at the McDonald’s desserts-only counter. They only had one size (ginormous) and they put fudge in it. So good, but definitely lunch!

After that, I decided to try Uber again, adding “cash” as an additional payment option when I was once again unable to get a car. That did the trick! After a few minutes, I got a call from the driver. Turns out I didn’t place my map pin exactly right and he thought I was somewhere down Pérez-Ponce, oops! I was able to tell him I was at the corner of Pérez-Ponce and Paseo de Montejo in front of the stairs to Walmart and that was clear.

The driver helped me put my shopping in the trunk and off we went. I’d done some research and knew to sit up front since Uber is not quite legal here and drivers don’t want to make it obvious that they are with Uber. He tried to speak to me in English, but I stuck to Spanish and he was happy to not only converse in Spanish, but also corrected me the whole way home. That sounds terrible, but it was so helpful!!! The trip cost me $40. Taxi service here is notable for being terrible and expensive. I got an estimate from a cab for the same trip and it was almost double!

One thing of note in our conversation that I’ve been meaning to mention is that Mexicans aren’t shy about asking how much rent I pay. To be honest, I’m always embarrassed to answer because my rent is really high for a single person here.

I got in just as I received a text message from TelCel that I needed to top up. I used their new app, which I linked to my Mexican PayPal account (linked to my Mexican bank account!), and was able to top up in just a few steps. It was so much more convenient than going to Oxxo and I got 500MB of free data for trying out the app!

The electrician texted shortly thereafter to say he was incoming. He got in and did the work quickly, but my UPS is still unhappy. I had him reverse the polarity, just in case, but that didn’t help. He didn’t have a working multimetre, outlet testers aren’t a thing here, and I was stupid and left all that stuff back in Canada so we had to leave it at that. I’m going to pick up a multimetre and see if I can get an outlet tester online. We both suspect that it’s a low or high voltage issue. At any rate, my Macbook Air charges fine in the outlet so I’m still way ahead of where I was when I didn’t have a three-prong outlet by my desk. He insisted on charging me $100 less ($600 total including materials) because the job wasn’t a success and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think he knows I’ll likely have more work for him in the future.

So all that to say, really didn’t do a great job of checking out the wiring in the house before renting. Visually, it looked fine and well finished, but there are issues right to the junction box at the street. Anyway, everything but the UPS seems to work fine and folks who lived in the house previously had no issues. I’m just going to make it a point not to buy myself any super expensive electronics!

It was about five when he left and I was famished. I remembered seeing a taco joint a short ways down Calle 60 and decided to walk there on the off chance that it might be odd and open for business at about 5:30PM.

It was… And while they weren’t fully up and running (they had to cook a portion of al pastor meat on the grill for me), there were Mexicans eating there at that hour. I asked for two al pastor tacos and while I really wanted Nestea, asked for more “Mexican” jamaica (hibiscus) tea, which I’m not fond of. They were out of jamaica so I got my Nestea. 🙂

They were so good! I should have just gone ahead and order a few more. Next time, I will get an “orden” to go or even delivery, which is enough fixings for about five tacos. I asked for my tacos “con todo” after the server came to ask me once if I wanted onion and then came back to ask about cilantro.

I was surprised that there was a creamy sauce option to put on them. It was a bit like tzatziki, which, now that I think about it, makes sense for these tacos modelled on gyros/donair/shawarma. There was also lime, green and red sauces, and guacamole.

I doubt I’m going to find a closer taco joint with better hours so I really want to break the ice on getting delivery since their food is so good and cheap (al pastor tacos are only $11 each!!!). They don’t do Whatsapp and their store is VERY noisy so I’m worried I might have troubling giving them my address. To be determined…

It’s been another long day and I am exhausted and a bit footsore. I have some easy work to do tomorrow, then my priority will be getting my desk set up. I’m now back to thinking about painting, having noticed that the movers did more damage than I realised (they tied it down with rope, which rubbed off some of the finish). But that can wait as long as I deal with the structural issues.

Oh, my landlady just called as I was about to hit publish to see how things are and I complained about the water heater. Her husband is coming in the morning. Here’s to hoping I can take a hot shower tomorrow. It’s chilly here at night! I actually regretted going out without a shawl or something to get my tacos!

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A Working Kitchen Finally Emerges

I didn’t sleep well again last night and so I decided to focus all my energy for today on home chores and the bit of transcription I had left to do. I only went out around 6PM to get a beer!

First thing I did this morning was heat a ton of water so I could wash all my new china and get it off the kitchen table, which would give me a surface for cutting out my shelf liner.

I’ve got a tip for y’all for cleaning dishes in an area with very hard water, such as Yucatán. The water here is so hard that even the water softener in Chelem was little match for it. Detergent doesn’t work well and dishes always end up with a film on them. The solution, when it came to me, was incredibly obvious — vinegar! I add a glub of white vinegar to my dish water and about a quarter cup to a pitcher that I top up with hot water for rinsing. In Chelem, I would fill the second sink basin with hot water and add the vinegar. The vinegar counteracts the minerals in the water and gets your dishes squeaky clean and spotless.

Once everything was clean and had air dried, I put it all away in the china cabinet:

Doesn’t that look lovely?! And I thought that beautiful cabinet was just going to sit empty!

I then got to work and in between spurts of typing, I cut shelf liner and cleaned more dishes so I could start really sorting out all my kitchen things and find a place for them in the furniture I have, which I knew was going to be enough since it was at least as much storage as I had in Miranda. I really love having a kitchen with free standing furniture like this. It’s really not unlike my Bulgarian kitchen.

Mid-afternoon, even with the kitchen still being a disaster, I set to work making a proper lunch!

I’m so tired of cooking on that hot plate, but have to admit it has served me very well. Chicken in one pan, veg (carrot, onion, zucchini, garlic) in the other, and I had basmati going in my rice cooker as well. The hot plate is two small for these pans, so the cast iron is actually hanging off of it and I had to keep stirring because the heat was so uneven!

Since this was my first real meal in this house, I decided to go all out and use a bunch of my new dishes, going so far as to use the covered serving dishes!

The curry was of course delicious, but the star of the meal was the fresh veg! I just sautéed it in oil with a bit of salt. I couldn’t believe how well it turned out. It was hard to get fresh veg daily on the beach and one of my eventual goals is to find a reliable source of veg within walking distance that I can buy from almost daily.

I continued to type and pick away at my kitchen organisation as the afternoon turned into early evening. The electrician texted just as I got back in with my beer that, oops, it’s a holiday (Day of the Dead) and the hardware store he goes to was closed. So he’s coming tomorrow afternoon. I loved his “Holaaaa!!!” greeting. I texted back that he got an evening to relax and know I made a couple of mistakes with that, but the emoji he sent back told me he got what I meant. They are a universal language. 🙂

A logic for sorting out the kitchen materialised. Things I don’t use much obviously belong in the china cabinet. On that shelf, I have my French presses and some vases. In the drawers, I have a table cloth and napkins my mother made for me eons back that should fit the table.

I’m trying to figure out who miscalculated because I ended up with WAY more shelf liner than I needed! I don’t mind since it was so inexpensive and it gives me the option to replace some if I wear through it.

Here’s one bookcase with the shelf liner on, but the back not yet painted, and full of things I use daily:

The big blue tub, which you might recognise from my bathroom in Chelem, holds my dish cloths and towels.

The bottom of the deep cabinet next to this bookcase is full of containers, mostly the mason jars I got from my neighbour Caroline that will slowly be filled with foodstuffs. They have air tight lids and so should be good for this climate. There’s also some plasticware down there.

The drawer above is heaven sent, really. I find the dimensions of the cabinet to be awkward, but the drawer is absolutely fantastic and, best of all, it’s on rollers so it opens and closes well. Inside, I have my mandoline, cheese grater, measuring cups, smallest sieve, meat thermometre, Ove Gloves, and tea strainer. It’s also the perfect place for plastic bags and wrap as well as aluminum foil.

The big open space above the drawer has my pots. I can envision a future where I put in a wire shelf to get a second layer to store more things since the cabinet has so much volume.

Above the pots on the narrow shelf are other things I use daily, including a colander, sieves, a scale, a big metal mixing bowl, and a glass measuring cup. The shelves above hold odd bits at the very top and the rest of my plasticware below. The very top shelf is hard to reach even with my E-Z Foldz step stool giving me a boost.

The other bookcase is coming together, but isn’t done yet. I’m due to go pantry-building!

Another thing I did today was give my sink two coats of carnauba wax. Doesn’t look much different until you run water in it.

See how the water now beads? The sink should be much easier to keep clean now and I shouldn’t have anymore issues with rust.

Still very much a work in progress, I’m starting to get a sense of the workflow on the counter area.

Yes, that’s my trashcan right on the counter. Trash management is a pain in the tropics in a house that’s open to the elements. What I’ve found to be easiest is to have a small bag right within reach that gets taken out when it’s full. It’s a bad idea to have the trash under the sink or in some area where you can forget about it.

Here’s the other part of the counter.

There’s way too much going on here and some of these things will move to the table temporarily and then eventually to an island. I especially need to set up my coffee station somewhere less busy. The grey cable you see is a heavy duty kitchen extension cord. There is an outlet immediately to the right of the hot plate, but it doesn’t work. *sighs* So I’m running everything off that outlet to the left. Yes, I know better than to run multiple items at the same time!

Finally, there are key and mail holders behind the door. The key holder is a good enough place for now to put my apron. 🙂

The kitchen is far from being done-done, but it’s now usable and I have an idea of what I’m missing. I still really like the stainless steel table idea for an island, but am now wondering if I could find one with (locking) wheels. I really like the idea of a rolling cart, but I want something counter height. If I didn’t, I’d make do with the round wooden table that came with the kitchen.

It’s been another very full day. I’m going to turn in early in the hopes of getting a solid seven before the rooster wakes up…

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First Full Day At Home

I had a good first evening at home and managed to not get caught up in any major projects. I did determine that I don’t have a single grounded outlet in the house, meaning no place to plug in the UPS that I use to protect my electronic equipment! Croft gave me some good advice about that. With Mexican electricity standards being so different from Canadian ones, the wiring here looks like nothing that I’m used to and so there was no way I was going to try to fix this myself. An expat on a forum said that the guy who changed my tap did a similar job for her so I decided to contact him in the morning.

My first shower here was good! The pressure was sufficient and with the water coming directly from the tinaco on the roof, it wasn’t icy cold. We are getting into the colder evening season and I am going to want hot water at some point, but for last night, I was very happy.

I went to bed around 10:30 after adding cardboard to one of my bedroom windows since a light from the mechanic’s shop was shining right into the room. My bed was comfy and I fell asleep right away, but I woke up several times during the night and was really irked to be woken at 6AM by both weak sunlight and a fucking rooster. Pardon my French, but I’m going to find him and make soup out of him!

The light is going to be an easy fix — black out material simply attached to the existing valance with clothespins. Not sure what to do about the rooster. I hate those things with a passion — they ruined so many nights of sleep in Maz and I can’t believe I’m dealing with one here!!!

Another disappointing thing is that the controller on my new bedroom fan makes a very loud buzzing sound. Google tells me that’s normal for cheap fan controllers and not necessarily a wiring issue. So the new fan is basically worthless to me, unless I can get used to that buzzing sound and turn it into white noise… 🙁

So all that said, I was up at my “normal” time this morning. Made coffee and had a croissant with jam at the breakfast bar. My bistro set stool is too high for the counter, but will serve me until I find an adjustable one. Oh, and I’d put a carton of almond milk in the fridge last night and it and everything else I put in was cold, but not frozen while everything in the freezer was frozen solid. I’m relieved and so pleased with my purchase! I am going to try to find myself a fridge thermometer to make sure everything really is hunky dory, though.

Next order of business was to check on the cactus I planted last night that I forgot to tell you about — V sent me off with an already rooted pitaya cutting. Hopefully, I’ll get fruit in the next two years!

Then, it was time to get to work. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I remembered that my plastic table is the right height for my computer chair. So this morning, I set up a temporary office in the kitchen! Really less than ideal, but it made no sense to take everything off the table to move it to the office, which is quite full.

Late morning, I popped the screen out of this window and in a feat of parkour made my way onto the roof to the gas tank by jumping from a crouched position on this ledge to a lower ledge and then to the roof. I was rather impressed with myself!

As I suspected, the valve was off. I turned it on, then hauled myself up onto the ledge, from which I was able to jump back onto the window ledge. Great exercise, but I’m not making a habit of it! Back down I went to the water heater. I had no trouble getting it lit once I got propane (imagine that!), but it’s not staying lit. It’s so rusty that I’m wondering if it needs to be changed… So that was rather frustrating, but at least now the problem is at ground level.

I also made contact with the maintenance guy and after a few voice calls, messages, and photos, we were close to being on the same page. He promised to come by in the next few days to wire me a three-prong, grounded, outlet.

An expat on my forum offered his services to do that and my first question to him was if he’s allowed to work here legally. Not surprisingly, the answer is no. One of my biggest pet peeves are expats who hire other expats “under the table” (the term he used) to do a service that a Mexican can do, even if, like him, they charge NOB prices and aren’t really in competition with Mexicans. These are usually the same people who bitch about immigrants stealing jobs back home. Even if this was my house and I had money to spend on it, I would make an effort to find a Mexican who understands NOB electrical norms before I’d hire an expat who is able to work here legally.

I worked at my first job of the day and then decided to go run some errands. I wanted Autozone for car wax because my sink is being too high maintenance (was told that a basic carnauba car wax would do the trick), HSBC for an ATM, and Parisina for fabric. As it turned out, Parisina is right by the HSBC. And look what’s across from it:

I was definitely deserving of a sushi lunch! 🙂

I put on a pretty dress and hat and then ambled across to Prolongación Paseo de Montejo, going first to Autozone. I was immediately asked if I needed help and I requested simple car wax with carnauba. They had a tub for $79, the best deal by far that I’d seen anywhere.

Parisina was after the bank. I wanted to price blackout material and also shelf liner. I had all my measurements for the shelves and what I wanted would have come close to $600! But then, I found some cloth-backed vinyl table cloths that would more than do the trick. Enough to do all my shelves was only $150! The patterns and colours were garish, even for my taste, but this was acceptable:

I’ll cut it down to size. I especially want it to the protect the surface of the big cabinet where I want to store my pots to keep it from being scratched, but also to put it on my bookcases to make sure the wood doesn’t get wet.

Blackout curtain material is meant to be a liner, so it comes only in beige and white. The width of the fabric was awkward for my size of windows so I’m going to instead price premade blinds similar to the ones I have in Miranda that I saw at Costco.

I also saw at Parisina something that convinced me not to paint my desk. Need to speak to my mother about that as she is an expert for working with this material…

I then went across the street to the sushi joint. I’ve made my peace with the fact that Mexicans have no idea what sushi is supposed to be like and to embrace the weirdness of Mexican-style sushi, cream cheese and citrusy soy sauce included. They had a roll with octopus, the first time I’ve seen such a thing, so I obviously went with that! Even with the cream cheese, it was delicious, the octopus so sweet and tender. Lunch was a proper treat and, best of all, prices were very reasonable and they deliver to my house — they’re the folks who left a flyer in my mailbox! Next time, I’m trying their salmon and mango roll!

While I was eating, the electrician messaged me to ask if he could come by between 7 and 8PM tonight! Yes, of course!

Next stop was Superama, a bit of an upscale grocery store, to do a bit of my “gringo” shopping. I knew I wasn’t going to cook tonight because I still had work to do, but it would be nice not to have to get anything tomorrow to make a curry. So I bought chicken, basmati rice (very $$$ compared to Mexican rice, but a must!), and some veggies, among a few other things, including very expensive NOB style butter that I’d been on the lookout for (Lurpak brand). At the till, I was asked if I wanted a complementary magazine about beer. Um, yes, please! 🙂

I thought of taking an Uber home (cheaper and more reliable than taxis here), but it was my first time and I could not request a car for some reason. I knew I could be halfway home by the time a cab got to me, so I rearranged my shopping and headed home. I don’t think I could have made it a block further. 🙂

When I got in, a mere three hours after I left (city living rocks!), I put the shopping away and then headed out to Oxxo in Moya to pick up two 20L jugs of water. I know I can get water delivery here, but it’s going to take time to set up and I wasn’t going to keep buying 1.5L bottles at $10 each!

The cashier and I exchanged pleasantries and then I said what I wanted and that I didn’t have empty bottles. A five-second pregnant pause followed. She said, “I have to charge you for the bottles.” I replied, “Of course.” Another pause. “It’s $46 for the bottles and then another $54 for the water because refills are $27 each.” Again, I told her that was fine. “So that will be $100 in total.” I reassured her yet again that that was okay and she finally rang me up! Then, her colleague kindly carried the jugs to the truck. As I hauled them in the house, my muscles asked me to please not carry anything heavy for the next few days. 🙂

I then had to get typing as I was really down to the wire. I got up at one point to turn on the porch and street lights and decided that I was done flicking light switches aimlessly. So I took five minutes to go through the house and label all my light switches!

As it turned out, the porch and street light are at the bottom left!

I had 30 minutes of work left to do when the electrician showed up at about 8:00. He quickly confirmed my diagnosis that the house has zero grounding whatsoever! He said that Mexico lax standards be damned, I should suggest to the landlady that she rewire the whole house. Yeah… But since I’m renting and don’t need things done perfectly and only need one properly grounded outlet, he’s going to ground just the one by my desk. That means a return trip tomorrow since he didn’t have the materials he needed to do that.

He’d brought his girlfriend, an American gal from Eugene, OR. She and I got gabbing as he worked. We had a laugh when we realised the other speaks English (she correctly surmised by my accent that I’m a French speaker and figured I didn’t speak English!). We got to talking about the street food scene in Eugene (a city I really liked!) and some places that I remember enjoying that are still open.

I paid in advance for some materials and they left, promising to get in touch tomorrow about when he can come back. Then, I got back to work and finished with two minutes to spare before my deadline! I threw together a very quick dinner of wontons with spicy chile sauce, followed by some chocolate ice cream, promising myself that tomorrow, I will chop some veggies. 🙂

It has been an insanely full day! I’m hoping that now that I have an idea of the normal noises around here, I might be better able to ignore them. I’m also resigned to going back to my sleep mask until I get the curtain thing resolved.

Tomorrow, I’m going going to get to work on the dishes even if it means heating water on my hot plate, which will take forever, and line shelves so that I can properly set up the kitchen. I want to have a curry dinner (well, probably a Mexican-timed lunch) on my new china. 🙂

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Gifts from a Foreign Land

Today was my last morning and partial afternoon in Chelem! I really didn’t have much to do besides finish up my own laundry and run into the village to buy the owners a few 5-gallon jugs of water. And, of course, I played with Puppy for the last time…

The owners, V (wife) and F (husband) had flown into Cancún and texted at 10:45 to say they were in the taxi on their way, about as early as I expected them to have cleared customs and collected their luggage. So that put their ETA around 2:30 and that’s almost exactly when they showed up.

V and I did a a quick run through of house stuff as F got reacquainted with Puppy and she started to unpack. She had quite a few treasures for me! I have no idea why anyone would see anything bright pink and think of me… 🙂 Lovely housewarming gift!

She had several scarves and this light turquoise (it really is bluer in real life and darker than aqua) with roses fits in so well with my decor that I’m going to display it!

I’d asked for a jar of tikka masala sauce and was brought all this!

The jar and one packet are tikka masala. The other is butter chicken, which happens to be my second favourite!

We had a coffee (which I will likely regret) and then it was time for me to head home before it got dark. I was surprised that it was only about 3:50 when I gave Puppy his last cuddles before pointing Moya east.

The last thing I wanted to do was make any stops so I just went straight home, knowing that I could walk to pick up a beer or anything else I might need once I landed. Bliss!

I got in and had no trouble squaring Moya away in a parking bay, where I anticipate her staying for a bit…I unpacked what I had with me and then promptly went to check on my fridge. Everything that had been frozen before was still frozen, but what I’d added was only partially frozen! I was definitely on the right track! I put the freezer setting up even higher and I think everything will be okay now.

I then went around the corner to get water for tonight (will see about getting a five-gallon container delivered tomorrow) and a beer, then went a bit further afield to the Super Aki to get a BBQ lighter (for working on my water heater) and… ice cream. Oh, I’ve missed being able to bring home ice cream. 🙂 I’d brought my hosts back a giant Costco pizza yesterday and was not surprised to be sent home with part of it tonight, which was all the supper I needed.

The water heater isn’t getting propane regardless of the position at which I set its propane hose valve, which makes me think that there might be a “master” valve right at the tank on the roof. I’m going exploring tomorrow!

Tomorrow is going to be more hectic than planned since I got in two jobs I couldn’t refuse and my desk isn’t ready to go. I may just work out of my IKEA chair because it would be stupid to put the desk back together only to have to dismantle it again.

Now for a cold to lukewarm (crossing my fingers for the latter) shower and then to see if I can actually relax for a bit and leave for tomorrow all that needs to be done. But it’s only  6:30, even if it feels like 9:30!

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Hiccups

I’m T minus about 24 hours to moving into my house and am reminded of pre-departure days when I was RVing.

1) I have no hot water because the guy didn’t show again (odd since he was so punctual about the bedroom fan);

2) My fridge is still freezing everything (although I think I’ve finally figured it out — I hope…);

3) My UPS (uninterrupted power supply) does not like the outlet I was going to plug it into in my office with a heavy duty power cord. By the way, this is why you should have such a thing — it protects my electronics from now just blackouts but also brownouts.

On a happier note, my master bathroom has come together nicely, even if I’m ruing my GREY hand towel!

The blue towel and purple mat I bought for my house in Maz were perfect for the room and I added a purple garbage bin I’d bought for my office corner in Chelem.

I love how bright this house is…

I’m quite happy with the bathroom the way it is. All of the things I wanted to store in the vanity fit in it and the bit of larger overflow fits in a cabinet in the master closet-room. I have some pretty wooden boxes I’m going to dig out for holding my jewellery and I’d like to put up some art, but like the master bedroom, I’m happy with the space I’ve made with very little.

Ditto with the living room:

I really need to replace or recover those hideous cushions, but the fabric I bought for the house in Maz continues to serve me well. The IKEA chair is awaiting a makeover of its own…

The kitchen is coming along really nicely, although I have so many things to wash! Since I can trust the freezer, I put all my frozen things in it and I put things that can freeze, like cheese, in the fridge. I left everything else — condiments that don’t necessarily need refrigeration — in a cooler with ice to deal with tomorrow.

The thing with the fridge is there are two controls, one in the fridge, one in the freezer. The one in the freezer determines how much cold air is sent to the fridge. When I first saw that my fridge was freezing everything, my instinct was to set the fridge control to the lowest setting. As it turns out, the setting is for how warm the fridge is. I should have left it on the highest setting and only played with the freezer dial, which I’ve set to “normal.” Now, to see the state of the water bottle in the fridge when I get in tomorrow…

My office is a disaster and I have to go back to work Wednesday afternoon (client is too important to say no to), so I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that at this point. It really seems a waste to put the desk back together without fixing its issues, but I’m not sure I’ll have time for that on Wednesday morning. Never mind where am I going to plug in everything?

I’m a bit annoyed that I had all this time to sort out issues and am caught at the last minute, but it is what it is. Live and learn! At least, all the heavy duty cleaning is done and my bedroom and living room are made up so that I can collapse tomorrow evening! I’ve still got my kettle and toaster here in Chelem, but the kitchen is clean and ready to receive them so I can make breakfast Wednesday morning. I just hope I can put the milk back in the fridge!

My last night in Chelem is going to be an easy one — pizza, beer, Star Trek, and The Big Bang Theory. 🙂 It’ll be nice to just chill after so many very full days of working extremely hard to get everything ready. I’m impressed by how on top of everything I’ve been and that, really, there’s not much to do tomorrow except play with Puppy and wait for my hosts to get home so I can go home!