Late nights and early mornings

I went to bed last about 4am and barely managed to eek out 3 hours of sleep. What is totally unbelievable to me is that I have been able to manage till now without a puss nap. Even went to the sukarmarket (Imelda's word for supermarket). These are more like regularmarkets though, because you end up having to go to at least 3 to get the three ingredients to cook rice.

Turns out that I got paid today. Thank heavens. I went to the ABM in faith that there was an errant 10 bucks in my account. I gasped when I saw my salary. Anyone looking on would have thought that maybe they had made the deposit to the wrong account or something.

So I hightailed it to the sukarmarket with Neighbour who from now on I will call Silly. Neighbour is too long. So Silly went with me and we marvelled that certain things were actually put on ice, and that there was relatively low junjo (decay) this week.

I got my honey whole nut cereal and soy milk, and turkey breast and brown bread and chicken wings for lots and lots of chicken soup. Treated myself to a bottle of the best of the worst Merlot available in the world. Need to take my multivitamins and resume my morning green juice cleansing routine. Dont know if I can juggle that, exercise, breakfast and pack lunch and still get to work before sundown. EEEKS ...this is beginning to sound like earlier mornings. Damn. We will play that sankey by air.

So I am back in the swing.

Modifying diet and resuming exercise.

I will go for another ride tomorrow evening. Eventually, I would like to build up to a 45 min circuit 6 mornings a week and cycling two evenings per week.

I am giving up cigarettes for lent. I am on my last pack.. It will be finished by tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Early bird with lots of worms to find

I woke up early this morning. Got up at 6. Woke up while it was still night but forced myself back to sleep until dawn. Went to bed at 11 and did a fair bit of tossing until slumber arrived. It wasn't peaceful slumber either...but it was somewhat amusing.

I figured it would not have been an easy task sleeping with a steam cap on my head. I had given my locks a cactus hot oil treatment and it was too late to wash it when I finished watching the movie last night at 9:30. Of course I was so consumed, that I totally forgot that I needed to wash my hair before it got late.

Furthermore, I have no hot water (it broke down in December and I am trying to be frugal because electricity is extremely expensive on this Island Behind God's Back). And it's cold. It gets cold the moment the sun sets and temperatures lower consistently until it rises.

So I decided to go to bed early, the mission to wake up early and wash my hair, hang out the laundry, and finish some of the housework that I ambitiously set out to do yesterday. I have no dryer in this fully furnished apartment. I also had to chose between a TV set and a microwave, only to realise that I was getting an even older Daewoo tv than I had back home. Heating up left overs is a pain of magnanimous proportions and has to be done on a huge electric stove. You see why I haven't got the heater fixed?

The truth is that every small goal becomes one of many parts. And so simple things require complex systems to execute. Such is the nature of the culture here. So I do what I can...

Yes I could spend hundreds of USD to buy a microwave and save on re-heating food so that I can have hot water in this cold Caribbean winter. But my logic is clearly thwarted. Plus I have no intention to acquire more things to scramble to sell when I leave here in a few months.

Neighbour is up doing her dishes. Dont ask me how I sleep through all this every other morning.

I have a long day at work today... and I will try my best possible not to make it painful.
[Enter lowered expectations who progresses to centre stage]

Today robins will continue to sing.

Light's... action!