blogger email no.3
Sa vakacava tiko? (how are you doing?)
Flora and fauna:
gigantic cochroaches (luckily not too many of them - I think Sydney has more)
mice living in the roof and eating my bananas and pawpaw at night
geckos
ugly toads that you can step on if you don’t watch where you walk at night
mongoose whose tails stick out very straight behind them parallel with the ground and who run faster than any rugby player anywhere
earwigs
worms
centrepedes
ants - millions and millions of ants. I think I had about 5 million in my toilet the other night. They formed a column like Orcs from ‘Lord of the Rings’ going to a battle. They were transporting white particles from one hole in the wall to another hole in another room. The column snaked around the toilet and down one wall. I swept them all up but within an hour the masses were back. So I left them to their work and sure enough by morning they had all disappeared with the job done.
Here is a recipe with ants in mind:
“on one piece of bread, apply peanut butter so that it covers all of one side, place a second piece on top. Leave sandwich on counter for 10-15mins. This step will automatically add small ants for added protein. Enjoy!”
In the backyard: two coconut trees with coconuts that fall regularly and which I husk and grate to eat, a breadfruit tree, and some growing pawpaw trees and pineapple plants. I am growing some ginger plants which have gorgeous red and pink flowers. Someone living here before has planted some roses. They look like they don’t belong. I plan to pull them out.
I am on the look out for all my favourite tropical plants and where I can pinch them from. I have a back and front yard that is all my own. I plan to plant all my favourites and start a tropical paradise. The plants I have planted so far grow a leaf a day - and this is the dry season.
I had the pleasure of shaking the hand of the Vice President of Fiji. Fiji being a republic has a Prime Minister and President. I was at the awards for Human Rights achievements in the Pacific. The umbrella body that the Association of the Deaf comes under (Fiji Disabled People’s Association) won an award last year. All the diplomats and VIPs were there. The police band played and they had dancing from the Kiribati islands, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. If you appreciate physical beauty of the human kind, there was plenty to look at. I hope I wasn’t drooling. FDPA won again this year. The boss is blind so she asked me to walk with her to get the award. Otherwise she could have asked Sajend who is in a wheelchair or Aquila who is even more blind than she is or she could have asked Serevi who is deaf but very shy. So it was me. And that is how I got to shake the hand of the Vice President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi.
Things that make me laugh:
At midday yesterday while on the bus, I see two council workers having a snooze. One is sitting in the wheelbarrow hunched over and the other sprawled on the pavement in full view.
Getting in a taxi in the back seat, I see on the dashboard written in white pen corrector liquid “put seatbelts on pliz”. So I reach behind to locate it behind the seat and I have to wrestle with the belt to pull it on, and I get black dust on my hands in the process, then I go to clip it in and there is no buckle so I give up. It is the law that you wear seatbelts mind you.
The only way to get traffic to stop for you on a pedestrian crossing is to be half way out in the middle of it. I did this the other day and a military officer just managed to screech to a halt to stop from killing me. There are letters in the paper regularly making the point that you can’t expect the populace to obey traffic rules when they see the Police, military, taxis and bus drivers regularly flouting them.
A story from the paper
“A kindy mum and her daughter got into a bus at Narere and paid 90 cents to go to Suva. Upon returning, mum and daughter boarded another bus belonging to same company who charged extra 50 cents because cunning driver said 4 year old had no kindy uniform on”.
The use of the word “cunning” is very Fiji.
Next week I am borrowing a ladder from the husband of my boss. I am on a mildew exterminator expedition. I feel like that mutant robot from ‘Dr Who’ whose sole lines in the show were “you will be exterminated!” said in voice rising with hysteria. The bathroom here is covered in a mottled grey wallpaper actually heavy duty mildew. Maybe it’s part of settling in and feeling at home or maybe it’s that manic cleaning side of me coming out but I am determined to have a mildew free house even if it’s only for a month before I have to start all over again. So I am very excited about my weekend of scrubbing ceilings coming up.
It’s now 2am. I have been having trouble sleeping not due to the heat but more from thoughts whirling around in my head related to work. My body is still adjusting to being here. I find that I can’t eat much breakfast and anything rich gives me rumbles. I am eating lots of pawpaw and drinking lots of tea. I go to the markets every week and get fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread lasts only 2 days before growing mould and that’s in an air tight container so I have given up bread and am eating crackers instead. People have a lot of sugar in their diet which explains why you can only buy 2 and 4 kg bags of it. I had to lug a 2kg bag home with my shopping today. People have been telling me about a great Australian style supermarket to go to. I tried it out today but chocolates, Timtams, pasta sauces, pesto and dried fruits are the last things I want to eat. They just don’t work here or not for me yet. I am sticking with root crops, bananas and pawpaws and curry and roti and Indian sweets. Last week I fainted in the middle of the night while on the toilet with an upset stomach. I woke with my head on the floor and a huge bump on my forehead the next day. My stomach seems to have settled down since then!
Sototale (till next time)
Kate
Flora and fauna:
gigantic cochroaches (luckily not too many of them - I think Sydney has more)
mice living in the roof and eating my bananas and pawpaw at night
geckos
ugly toads that you can step on if you don’t watch where you walk at night
mongoose whose tails stick out very straight behind them parallel with the ground and who run faster than any rugby player anywhere
earwigs
worms
centrepedes
ants - millions and millions of ants. I think I had about 5 million in my toilet the other night. They formed a column like Orcs from ‘Lord of the Rings’ going to a battle. They were transporting white particles from one hole in the wall to another hole in another room. The column snaked around the toilet and down one wall. I swept them all up but within an hour the masses were back. So I left them to their work and sure enough by morning they had all disappeared with the job done.
Here is a recipe with ants in mind:
“on one piece of bread, apply peanut butter so that it covers all of one side, place a second piece on top. Leave sandwich on counter for 10-15mins. This step will automatically add small ants for added protein. Enjoy!”
In the backyard: two coconut trees with coconuts that fall regularly and which I husk and grate to eat, a breadfruit tree, and some growing pawpaw trees and pineapple plants. I am growing some ginger plants which have gorgeous red and pink flowers. Someone living here before has planted some roses. They look like they don’t belong. I plan to pull them out.
I am on the look out for all my favourite tropical plants and where I can pinch them from. I have a back and front yard that is all my own. I plan to plant all my favourites and start a tropical paradise. The plants I have planted so far grow a leaf a day - and this is the dry season.
I had the pleasure of shaking the hand of the Vice President of Fiji. Fiji being a republic has a Prime Minister and President. I was at the awards for Human Rights achievements in the Pacific. The umbrella body that the Association of the Deaf comes under (Fiji Disabled People’s Association) won an award last year. All the diplomats and VIPs were there. The police band played and they had dancing from the Kiribati islands, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. If you appreciate physical beauty of the human kind, there was plenty to look at. I hope I wasn’t drooling. FDPA won again this year. The boss is blind so she asked me to walk with her to get the award. Otherwise she could have asked Sajend who is in a wheelchair or Aquila who is even more blind than she is or she could have asked Serevi who is deaf but very shy. So it was me. And that is how I got to shake the hand of the Vice President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi.
Things that make me laugh:
At midday yesterday while on the bus, I see two council workers having a snooze. One is sitting in the wheelbarrow hunched over and the other sprawled on the pavement in full view.
Getting in a taxi in the back seat, I see on the dashboard written in white pen corrector liquid “put seatbelts on pliz”. So I reach behind to locate it behind the seat and I have to wrestle with the belt to pull it on, and I get black dust on my hands in the process, then I go to clip it in and there is no buckle so I give up. It is the law that you wear seatbelts mind you.
The only way to get traffic to stop for you on a pedestrian crossing is to be half way out in the middle of it. I did this the other day and a military officer just managed to screech to a halt to stop from killing me. There are letters in the paper regularly making the point that you can’t expect the populace to obey traffic rules when they see the Police, military, taxis and bus drivers regularly flouting them.
A story from the paper
“A kindy mum and her daughter got into a bus at Narere and paid 90 cents to go to Suva. Upon returning, mum and daughter boarded another bus belonging to same company who charged extra 50 cents because cunning driver said 4 year old had no kindy uniform on”.
The use of the word “cunning” is very Fiji.
Next week I am borrowing a ladder from the husband of my boss. I am on a mildew exterminator expedition. I feel like that mutant robot from ‘Dr Who’ whose sole lines in the show were “you will be exterminated!” said in voice rising with hysteria. The bathroom here is covered in a mottled grey wallpaper actually heavy duty mildew. Maybe it’s part of settling in and feeling at home or maybe it’s that manic cleaning side of me coming out but I am determined to have a mildew free house even if it’s only for a month before I have to start all over again. So I am very excited about my weekend of scrubbing ceilings coming up.
It’s now 2am. I have been having trouble sleeping not due to the heat but more from thoughts whirling around in my head related to work. My body is still adjusting to being here. I find that I can’t eat much breakfast and anything rich gives me rumbles. I am eating lots of pawpaw and drinking lots of tea. I go to the markets every week and get fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread lasts only 2 days before growing mould and that’s in an air tight container so I have given up bread and am eating crackers instead. People have a lot of sugar in their diet which explains why you can only buy 2 and 4 kg bags of it. I had to lug a 2kg bag home with my shopping today. People have been telling me about a great Australian style supermarket to go to. I tried it out today but chocolates, Timtams, pasta sauces, pesto and dried fruits are the last things I want to eat. They just don’t work here or not for me yet. I am sticking with root crops, bananas and pawpaws and curry and roti and Indian sweets. Last week I fainted in the middle of the night while on the toilet with an upset stomach. I woke with my head on the floor and a huge bump on my forehead the next day. My stomach seems to have settled down since then!
Sototale (till next time)
Kate
posted by kate at 3:16 pm
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