Grateful for:
1. Having tuna off a friend’s plate at 3am in the morning. What?.. It might be even worse than that midnight McDonalds episode from Sydney.
2. Having a day all to myself and spending it suntanning naked in the garden. What started as an attempt to get rid of pesky tan lines ended up as a natural sauna as the day’s heat and humidity poured it off me in liters.
3. Having fresh coconut out of the fridge for breakfast (at 2pm). And while I was enjoying my coconut I was also enjoying the show two squirrels put on in the coconut tree in the garden chasing each other and then scratching away at the coconuts to get to the delicious inside. My crazy coconut buddies.
4. Receiving valentine’s greetings.
5. Getting through some emails, not yet at inbox 0 but it’s in sight.
6. Making a complete mess of baba ganush and hummus today. One over peppered another over salted and if that is not enough I could not be bothered peeling the local limes again (which I am certain have been specifically bread to obtain a non peelable strand) so chucked a whole one into each. So they are two very interesting dips I got sitting in the fridge. Thankfully I make them every few days so I have a chance to redeem myself soon.
7. Having 3 fresh fruit smoothies, which is good enough in its own right, but the fact that it’s the usual daily occurrence is the one to be really grateful for. Today’s selection: avocado/carrot, pineapple and guava.
8. Having black rice pudding. It’s rice, it’s cooked and it has sugar but it’s so delicious.
9. Going for an ocean swim at night. The most refreshing and somewhat even mystical experience ever. A string of night time swim memories in Sydney and Vanuatu now has a new addition.
10. Watching a movie in Russian! Firstly, it was ages since I watched a movie. Secondly it was a Hollywood movie with Russian translation which was quite funny and which my friends did not miss a chance to point out and enhance. So what originally was released as a psychological triller in English ended up a comedy in Russian.
11. Spending all my time exclusively with Russians here, which there is an abundance of thankfully. I did not know just how much I missed it after 10 years, there is a definitely a large degree of comfort and relaxation in the interactions. I can’t say that they just “get me” since I have acquired a peculiar way of looking at the world and some vocabulary from my extensive personal growth journey that I am still struggling to translate into my mother-tongue but still, it does feel like a social “coming home” of sorts.
12. Day 3 off Facebook and going great! Initial withdrawals have been offset by a much larger amount of presence and time in the day. So far the trade has been worth it and I will see if I can incorporate it back on a weekly basis as a method of contact instead of it being a kind of persistent life background it has become to me of late. I do miss sharing stuff the most, even contemplating sharing only and not checking, but sharing does tend to take me out of present moment and feels too much like a thing of the ego so more contemplation required on that point before a decision can be made.
13. I was getting kind of annoyed with an iPhone keyboard at first for making all sorts of inappropriate corrections but now decided to be grateful for it. Firstly if it wasn’t for the iPhone most of the recent blog posts would not even happen as firing up the of just feels like too much work at night. And secondly I have spotted it make at lest two hilarious corrections already so I hope the ones I missed cause my email or blog reader just as much merriment.
1) “I’m having a great time” was mysteriously replaced by “Obama is having a great time” (no joke!)
2) “drinking&dancing” was replaced by “funking” thank you iPhone, I finally know what the origin of the word funk is.