Friday night I bummed around, talked to Joe. Saturday morning I woke up and breakfast came at half seven. Except it was just bread, butter and jam with some sort of orange beverage (Fanta? SoBo orange squeeze?) because the power was out. I hadn’t noticed since it was light and I hadn’t tried to turn on the TV yet. Of course, once the power came back on and I did try to turn on the TV, nothing came out since they seem to have not paid the bill. I kept getting notices all week in my little message box, but I figured they’d pay it. Then again, Fred told me that he didn’t get paid yesterday along with several other lower tier employees, so I’m a little more concerned about that. I’ll have to chat with Fred on Monday before I pay my bill so I can have words if necessary.
More breakfast came, which was good. Then I bathed and went downtown. I had to stand in the giant ATM line again since I gave all my cash to S yesterday. I guess I should have brought my checkbook for the Money Bureau. After that I went to the Old Town Mall, which wasn’t all that. I went to Shoprite for really the first time, and it was amazing. It had a ton of stuff. I even found a cheap wine bottle opener so I can have cheap South African wine. The minibus back was annoying. First it was totally empty, and then these two guys got on and squeezed next to me, and everyone else who got on had to climb over them to get in back. Assholes. Then the bus didn’t leave forever, trying to fill up. But no one wanted to get on, so give up already. Then I couldn’t get the driver to just friggin’ pull over where I wanted. He kept saying, Capitol Hill? And I’m like, No! Here!
I vegged at home a bit and then went to see if Cloud was open. It doesn’t open until 5, so I said fuck that. I wandered through the area with the library and British Council and ended up on the road to Four Seasons Center, so I walked that way. The walk over seemed not so bad, but the walk back seemed long. Once home, I felt sticky and my feet were filthy, so I bathed them briefly. This somehow caused a flood in the hallway which is separated from the bathroom by entire closets… and the water came from the ceiling! The guy who came to mop the floor said something was wrong with the “geyser (?)” and if there was a kink in the shower hose, it backs up. What fucked up plumbing! He said there is another room like this one if it continues to be a problem. I took the opportunity to complain about the TV too.
The boss came to get me around 6, and we went to her house for a quick dinner. Then we were off to a music thing at the girls’ school. It was basically a bunch of faculty and local expats singing along with a pretty good local band. Some of it was pretty great, and some of it was just awful. Made me want to karaoke. I’m the oldest daughter’s BFF, so I spent a lot of the evening chatting with her when I wasn’t chatting with the adults. The younger daughter totally ignores my existence. Upon returning home to put the girls to bed, we noted the older one’s stuffed cheetah was missing, so K and I went back to look for it. We did find K’s sweatshirt she hadn’t realized she left, but no cheetah.
Sunday I was mostly a bum but went out for a walk in the afternoon. I walked through the Taipei Gardens, which was amusing to see in Malawi. I ended up over by the mausoleum for former President Banda, which was rather pretty. Then I went to City Centre from the back side and realized there is a whole courtyard and other stuff beyond the front. I wonder if it’s full of annoying people on Saturdays or if those folks are confined to the front.
Today I went to the Money Bureau, since K had told me that apparently they are threatening to close them unless they join up with banks, and the deadline is tomorrow. I guess there is no regulation currently. On the way, I saw a guy selling a cat on the side of the road… I had seen a guy with two cats a week or two ago, and when cars would go by he’d swing them out like they were bananas. Totally hilarious and awful.
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