Fahim doesn’t want the kitties on the furniture. Is this where I mention that we had a peeing incident a week ago? Two separate incidents, actually. Two days in a row. Our mats that we were using as a couch were peed on. Both times, where I sit. The cats are sleeping outside at night now. Or maybe not sleeping. Oberon’s a man about the town now.
The point being that Fahim doesn’t want them on the furniture.
Cats don’t like lemon scents, so if you don’t want a cat going somewhere, scenting it with lemon can help deter them. Fahim looked for lemon scented air freshener and lemon scented leather cleaner and lemon scented furniture polish – no go. The closest he could find was citronella oil. Will it work? No idea. But at the very least, it may help keep the mosquitoes away from us.
So this morning, Fahim rubbed citronella all over the new furniture. In all fairness, you should know that Fahim did a patch test last night and there were no signs that it affected the material, whatever it may be, at all. So now, I sit down, I get up, I smell like citronella.
So I use the word "so" entirely much. Or so I’ve noticed. So, have you so noticed? So? So what.
So. I spent the morning catching up on this blog and writing email. If you want to receive email from me and you’re feeling jealous that you haven’t, then I suggest you email me so I know you’re still alive. And it’s also possible I may not have a current email addy on everyone, so there’s another point.
In another forty five minutes, Fahim will be home to go grocery shopping with me.
Fahim and I went television shopping today – at the Singer Store. We ended up picking out a 21" multisystem television – which basically means it can support NTSC (North American VHS), PAL (Asian videotapes), and his playstation stuff. Basically, Fahim has toys and he needs a tv that can support it. It’ll be delivered tomorrow morning before noon. In theory.
We went grocery shopping, and that is mainly a non-event. We bought seer fish (had I previously spelled it as sear fish? This is correct) and more red cuttlefish, as well as the typical vegetables.
We, Fahim and I, have discussed vegetable prices and menus and things like that. Cabbage here is really really cheap, as are tomatoes. So’s rice. So I had a bright idea – Cabbage Rolls. Couple of problems. One. No ground beef. If ya want ground beef, ya gotta grind yer own. Two. I’m lazy and I’d rather do the lazy version of cabbage rolls. Three. I don’t like the recipe I grew up on and need to improve it. Four. I don’t know the recipe of what I grew up on, except for the obvious. Maybe there’s nothing unobvious to it. Five. Nope. No five. So, not a couple of problems. A few problems.
We looked at the section that houses tomato ketchup and noticed a few interesting things. One. The local variety of ketchup is in a ketchup style bottle (small – 500mL at best) and is labelled Tomato Sauce. Then there are other bottles labelled American Style Tomato Ketchup. Then there’s Heinz. Yep, Heinz exists here. Oh, and tomato sauce and tomato ketchup and American style tomato ketchup are all exactly the same.
We opted for Chili Sauce. It’s tomato ketchup with a twist – added chili peppers. We both like hot food, so this seemed the most logical choice given us freaks.
But getting back to Modified Lazy Version Cabbage Rolls – what’s it gonna taste like? I don’t have a clue. It’s just one more thing to fake. I’ll let ya know.
We also got butterscotch nougat ice cream. Fahim loves ice cream. I like sugar rushes. It works. Mostly. The only problem is that I don’t do well with too much dairy, and I’m kinda wondering when (if?) it’s gonna bite me back. Well, my other allergies don’t bother me anymore – or, at least the ones that affect my sinuses. Yeah, Tony, my sinuses have never been clearer. Funny considering all the pollution and dust and whatnot.
I also saw more white people at the grocery store today – this time, a male and a female, both looking like they were in their twenties. Earlier, on our walk back from the Singer store, I saw another white guy, older, as in fifties, riding his mountain bike along with traffic. Um, well, he’s got way more guts than I do. The significance? My neighborhood has even more expats.
Marlene works with a Canadian couple at her school who live a hundred feet down my road. She’s told them about me and they’re eager to meet me. Her boss is also a Canadian from Toronto. She tells me that she works with a lot of Canadians.
