Yesterday, I went to dinner at a place called Mad for Garlic in the poshest mall around. It’s really an incredible place. There are two Dairy Queens, even. (That’s above and beyond the Cold Stone, the Magnum Café and the ice cream and fudge place that also sounded good.)
It was good to get out to do something non-work related even if it was in the company of a work colleague. I don’t know anyone else.
Today is Sunday, and it’s the first day in the new building, but I’m off. I’m still a bit unclear on how long it will take me to get there, but I am hoping to walk at least on the way there. Since it appears that I won’t be getting off before midnight in the foreseeable future, I’ll definitely be adding at least cab fare home to the budget, which is still unclear.
There are no plans for today. There were, but by 2 p.m. I’ve already accomplished them. Not sure whether that’s good, bad or neutral but that’s how it is.
One of the tasks was to figure out the laundry system in the building. The deal is you take the stuff to the minimart, but beyond that I wasn’t entirely sure. Turns out, it costs about $6 to do what amounts to one load of laundry and it takes three days to do it. Sounds quite extreme, but this is my only option right now.
So far, I’ve been washing Morocco-style (except not on the roof) and just hand-drying, but I had jeans and sheets to do so I cut my losses, filled up to little grocery sacks and splurged.
I’m not sure what I will do to A. dry off and B. sleep on tonight, but that’ll sort itself out. I still have a comforter here, and it’s possible to air dry.
It’s certainly hot enough. You know how when you take a shower and you have that second thought as soon as you pull the “shower” lever and you realize the first jolt of water that shoots out is going to be cold? Well, that doesn’t happen here. It’s cold, but you think, wow, how refreshing!
On the topic of showers, I’ve been frustrated with mine since I moved in. While the water pressure seems fine, I have not been able to get the shampoo out of my hair. Now, I am not blessed with thick hair. Mine’s baby fine and just not that long.
As an aside, my hair sheds a lot. A LOT. My tile floor seems to constantly have hair all over the place. I might shed more than Kocur.
But for some reason, as much as I rinse, the minute I put in the Pantene, it suds up again. It’s been really frustrating, and God knows I’ve had some frustrations.
My hair’s also been really dry here, which seems weird considering the humidity, but it’s just basically out of control and straw-like. I mostly just pull it into a ponytail, and it’s been so ratty that I can’t even get a comb through it. My industrial-strength comb – not a cheap one – actually snapped off, and I’ve had to cut out some mini birds’ nests.
I don’t spend money on shampoo, because Heloise and Mary Hunt and every expert around stresses that shampoo is simply detergent, and it’s silly to waste money on that.
Instead, conditioner’s where it’s at. I spring for Pantene, and I brought a whole litre or something with me. A big bottle of it, which I use following the cheapo Suave shampoo. I brought enough of both to last six months.
And, as I washed my hair after my workout this morning, I put in the conditioner and it sudsed up again.
Only then did I pick up the bottle of Pantene and read the label. It clearly states “shampoo.”
Yeah, perhaps I should check out the directions next time.
I finally documented part of my walk to work. Even with the relocation of the office, this will still be the second leg of it. (The first leg involves just walking down my street and remembering to avoid the big one open sewer and dodging the food stalls, motorcycles and rats. Although I’ve really only seen one rat, but it was enough.)
Mostly, this is just the view from this crosswalk where I go over the highway, which is under construction. It’s a little scary because the stairs aren’t exactly uniform (although they are much better than ones in Morocco, and they have handrails) and at night there are people sleeping in there. (Not begging, sound asleep.)
I took a photo of a little stretch of sidewalk, too. They’re kind of done in concrete slabs and usually – but not on this stretch – they are partially sunken or cracked or something.
You can also see the apartment building (my tower is the short one; I am on the 8th floor facing the other direction) and gauge about how far it is. The crosswalk marked about a third of the way to the old place but will likely be an eighth or so to the new place.
The river is one I cross every day. It’s loaded with filth and has some shanties on the banks. I took the photo the day after some serious rain so the river was quote swollen and the trash was flowing.
The last photo is simply my view on a rainy day.If you look closely at the third photo, you can see a Starbucks sign. As far as I can tell, there are three within a kilometer from my apartment. Too bad I am not a coffee drinker.
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