Making Waves

That photo Jo took in the last post was a sign of things to come. Although it feels as though we've had fewer days of rainfall than usual for a wet season, when it has come, it's been torrential. It's the flash floods that cause more problems than sustained, regular rainfall. The news today is that close to fifty people have died due to landslides in the past couple of days. A down-side to living in The Land of a Thousand Hills is that sometimes they collapse.

This comes after a building in Kenya collapsed in floods last month, killing ten (picture above).

The past week has been one of ups, downs, chaotic action and lazy-arsed telly watching.

The down was that I ended up in the second round of an interview for a job I hadn't realised I'd applied for. It's a long story, but, even with a severe hangover, I did pretty good. It was a really interesting new publishing start-up with a lot of funding behind them. We got as far as talking terms, but I had to turn it down.

The job required relocation to Berlin, non-negotiable. 

I felt rather gutted, but had to follow my heart. I'm just not ready to leave Rwanda. I love my home here, my friends, my life. Germany's nice and all, but giving up sunshine and breathtaking hills to go listen to European politics and migrant issues? No thanks.

Commiseration Avocado and Egg Salad
with Homemade Hummus

Tried to make sorbet from fruit, but it froze into a solid brick.
Defrosted it and used as a hair and face mask instead.

In good news, I drunk texted an old friend. He was my landlord in the house before this. In fact, he helped find me this house. We were really close about a year and a half ago, then some stuff kicked off and I put a bit of distance between us. Anyway, I didn't have that app on my phone which stops you drunk texting, so we ended up meeting in a bar in town to catch up. 

This was the night before my interview. Back when I knew him before, I was a bit of a party animal. I'm completely not anymore, I'm home bunny certified. I woke with my face stuck to the pillow, eating my own hair, feeling like my brain was shattered glass being vacuumed out my nostrils.

It was such a good night.

Glad to say we're pals again, and that feels good.

Or, at least, it did once the Panadol kicked in.

On the lazy front, the same person who lent me Suits also lent me the first two seasons of The Wire. After all the cultural references to The Wire in Suits, and on Family Guy, I thought I'd better check it out. 

Another five days of my life disappeared. 

It took me a couple of episodes to get into it, but I am solidly hooked. Totally get why people rave about it. It's fabulous watching the incredibly British Idris Elba and Dominic West play American for all they're worth. Omar is such a brilliant character, I think my favourite, but when Elba took off his top in series two, I nearly fainted. There is something eminently watchable about that man, and he should absolutely be the next James Bond. If he can bring that much class to the streets of Baltimore, he can sure as hell rock a tuxedo. 

Anyway, time to tear my face away from the screen.

My friend Paul (from Corby, not Paul oop norf) is arriving 8am Saturday morning. I've been busy booking gorilla permits for the end of the month, arranging transport, scrubbing out reserve water buckets. I've had the garden manicured, and my new cleaner is in on Friday to make the place sparkle. 

My Beautiful House

Manicured Lawn

Trimmed Hedges

Vegetable Plot

Oh Dear God, Here We Go Again

  

His Room Awaits

Got a massive shop to do on Thursday. Going to stock up on lots of lovely things. Make a quiche, freeze some curry for emergencies, but I think we'll be eating out a bit. Only thing still bugging me is this beat up old gas can. I have two gas cans since getting back, which is great, because I can have one on reserve when my current can (as is likely to happen any day now) expires. But I want to change to a Safegas bottle, which is supposed to leak less and can't explode. I'm not entirely sure if it's even possible to swap cylinders, and the guys I'm contacting aren't responding. 

Beat Up Old Can

Safegas Cylinders

Well, that's about it for now. Just time for a bug pick. I'm about to ask on Reddit, but what are these? I find them on the walls. They look like tiny caterpillars inside a shell. I think they turn into something, but I'm not sure what.

UPDATE: Apparently clothes moths!