a few anecdotes...

We don't use a dryer here. Why machine dry your clothes when you can hang them outside or in a warm pool room? This, along with being environmentally friendly and better for your clothing, gives an interesting insight to the people that you are living with. Its not everyday that you get to see the bras and nickers of a boss or employee. Can you learn something about a person by what style, colour and designs they wear hidden under their clothes? or learn something about how people interact by comparing their underwear? or are they just meaningless pieces of fancy loincloth?

I had my first driving lesson last week! I drove a manual car, on the left side of the most narrow country roads you can imagine. (so narrow that the 'left' side IS often the right side and you have to pull over on the grass for another car to pass) Driving was a less nerve wracking than I imagined, switching gears wasn't bad, but I was bad at picking the right one, and the first time I stopped at a traffic light I stalled 3 times when trying to start up again. All in all my instructor Clive said I wasn't too shabby! Ok, so I drift to the right side of the road and I brace for death everytime another car is on the road... but im sure those things will pass. On a slightly different note, Clive spent about 20 minutes explaining to me why immigrants are ruining his country and the good old British way of life. :|

Ive had an interesting relationship with one of the ladies that comes over to help every few days. The first time I met her I was holding my lunch, a plate with crackers, hummus and veggies in a pile that was dauntingly high. She looked at it and said, "You'll waste away on tha' you will!" I was thrown off by the encounter, but have come to really enjoy the bluntness of her company. The other day we were having a conversation about why such a nutritiously pointless vegetable like celery was always in the house, and she said, "celery is mother nature's biggest mistake."

One of my tasks of today was to collect the chicken and duck eggs. The ducks were out on the pond when I took theirs, but the hens were keeping a watchful eye on me as I got closer to their coop. Like a nifty fox I opened the back hatch and stole the 3 eggs. By this time the beige chicken was about an inch away from me, cooing, clucking and cocking her head as if to say, "What in gods name are you doing stealing from me?" I actually talked back.