Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Home Sweet Home
March 31, 2007
Our house is of concrete construction with a corrugated tin roof. It has doors, front and back, and each has its own 8x8 patio and the front has a tin roof. We have only used the front door so far as that is the direction of everything we need so far. I suspect we may use the back patio as a place to relax if we stay in this house for long. (More on that later.) Inside the front door - locking with a skeleton key - is a 10x5-6 entry way with the kitchen to the left. The kitchen is a decent size, perhaps 10x12 or so with a double sink with cold and cold running water in each. There are large drying boards running in from each side. The gas stove has three of four burners that work, though these do work well, and an oven below. The fridge is a foreign design that I have not seen before. It is a bit slimmer than a typical Canadian fridge with a 30 inch tall fridge on top and an equal sized freezer below, both have a conventional fridge door. The cabinets are large and currently hold some of our meager provisions along with some mix and match plates and bowls. There are many tea cups, these all seem to match. There are a number of pots; most are simple stamped aluminum, there is one nice thick aluminum pot of medium size with handles, which I find convenient. There is a nice Norwegian sauce pot with a lid and a matching frying pan. Not much else to say about the kitchen other than it wouldn't pass muster in Canada, but it seems to work here.
Across the entry way from the kitchen is the bathroom. Again it works but is not ideal. There is, as I'm told, a rare bathtub, a super splash flush toilet and a sink with a faucet on each back corner. The tub is a bit worse for wear, it looks rather dirty but I suspect it is mainly due to the hard water which is amazingly hard. The tub has two taps that I have yet to try and a shower head with its own valve. When we were shown the house the Matron had turned this valve and said, "oh good, it runs warm so you should be alright." On my inspection this morning though, I could not figure out how it could possibly run warm as the pipe that feeds the shower also feeds the toilet. I pondered this a moment and shared my thoughts with Nik who was also puzzled. I thought what the heck let's try it and sure enough it was hot...how and why, you may ask. Well its not that they think the toilet should use hot water. As I looked for a reason for this heated water I noticed a wire that was taped to the pipe just behind the shower head. Apparently, there was a heating element of some kind either in the shower head or just north of it. I found out later that this is due to the hard water and the fact that if it is heated and then run through pipes the heat would speed the calcification process and the pipes would rapidly become closed. This made the sink's taps make sense as I had earlier tried to run hot water from the tap that had teased me with its red dot marked with "H" that when turned produced no result. But, this will do. The toilet is another story. It is, of course, old and has a separate tank which is set to the side and about 5 feet off the floor. There is a long run of 1 inch plastic pipe with many elbows connecting it to the bowl. This long run produces a great deal of pressure once the water actually hits the bowl and the result is the super power splash toilet. It doubles as a bidet if you are sitting when you flush, though this is not recommended.
The outside of the house is fine except for the Huge bees, and I mean huge bees. They are at least an inch and a half long, with a 3 inch wing span. A local man who helped me with the gas for the stove showed me where they have bored into the 2x4 that is the cross piece holding up our patio roof. I have watched as at least 3 of them have come and gone so the nest must be about 3-6 inches deep as when they have all come home I can't see them through the opening. When they take off from their home it sounds somewhat like a small helicopter leaping from its landing pad. One gave me quite a start this morning as I was trying to get a look at the nest.
We had come back from a light breakfast at the guest house, where Abby had tried Nutela for the first time, with predictable results. The girls went to the Olsen's house so Abby could play with their daughter Karina Neema and I made a cup of tea and brought a chair out to the front patio. I was watching the massive bees go about their business when I noticed what looked like light green huge bees on the patio under the nest. On closer inspection the moist looking things looked either like they were discarded exoskeletons or a couple of dead young huge bees. I brushed them off the patio with my shoe and as I was stooped over looking at them in the grass one of the bees emerged from the nest directly over my head with its helicopter sound. I jumped a bit...ok more than a bit and spilled my tea all over my sandal-clad feet. Not fun, so with my fear and the adrenalin charging through my veins I thought I'd sit and relax as I had planned. I wrote a bit and sipped my tea and noticed a small prickly looking beetle who had wandered onto the patio. I looked somewhat confused by the lack of dirt beneath its feet and after a brief stay it quickly made it's way back to the safety of the grass from whence it came.
April 2, 2007
To continue about our home and its description I will carry on to the living room and bedroom. The bedroom is simply that, a bedroom or a space with room for a bed. It would be nice if we could fit a bed for Abby, but all that fits is two single beds pushed together. So, where pray tell does Abby sleep? Well, in the bedroom with Nik for now and then where do I sleep you would ask. The dining room actually. There is a single bed with its mosquito net right beside the dinning room table. The dinning room and living room are one open area about 12-22, which is a nice space for relaxing and chowing down. That pretty much covers it other than the other residents or those who live next door.
There is a really nice Cricket with a home just outside the air vent in the bedroom. He plays beautiful courting music most of the night. In the tree just to the east of Cricket is the home of Dove who is also a terrific singer. My only wish is that he would branch out and try to learn a new song. His song is 6 notes long in, I believe, ¾ time with 4 short notes followed by 2 long ones. I do love his song in during the day but at night it somehow seems louder and out of tune. I already mentioned the huge bees who we now seem to have an agreement with. If we are on the porch they stay inside and when we stay inside, they get out and fly about.
Sorry if this is a bit disjointed it was adapted from an email and added to over a couple of days.
Our house is of concrete construction with a corrugated tin roof. It has doors, front and back, and each has its own 8x8 patio and the front has a tin roof. We have only used the front door so far as that is the direction of everything we need so far. I suspect we may use the back patio as a place to relax if we stay in this house for long. (More on that later.) Inside the front door - locking with a skeleton key - is a 10x5-6 entry way with the kitchen to the left. The kitchen is a decent size, perhaps 10x12 or so with a double sink with cold and cold running water in each. There are large drying boards running in from each side. The gas stove has three of four burners that work, though these do work well, and an oven below. The fridge is a foreign design that I have not seen before. It is a bit slimmer than a typical Canadian fridge with a 30 inch tall fridge on top and an equal sized freezer below, both have a conventional fridge door. The cabinets are large and currently hold some of our meager provisions along with some mix and match plates and bowls. There are many tea cups, these all seem to match. There are a number of pots; most are simple stamped aluminum, there is one nice thick aluminum pot of medium size with handles, which I find convenient. There is a nice Norwegian sauce pot with a lid and a matching frying pan. Not much else to say about the kitchen other than it wouldn't pass muster in Canada, but it seems to work here.
Across the entry way from the kitchen is the bathroom. Again it works but is not ideal. There is, as I'm told, a rare bathtub, a super splash flush toilet and a sink with a faucet on each back corner. The tub is a bit worse for wear, it looks rather dirty but I suspect it is mainly due to the hard water which is amazingly hard. The tub has two taps that I have yet to try and a shower head with its own valve. When we were shown the house the Matron had turned this valve and said, "oh good, it runs warm so you should be alright." On my inspection this morning though, I could not figure out how it could possibly run warm as the pipe that feeds the shower also feeds the toilet. I pondered this a moment and shared my thoughts with Nik who was also puzzled. I thought what the heck let's try it and sure enough it was hot...how and why, you may ask. Well its not that they think the toilet should use hot water. As I looked for a reason for this heated water I noticed a wire that was taped to the pipe just behind the shower head. Apparently, there was a heating element of some kind either in the shower head or just north of it. I found out later that this is due to the hard water and the fact that if it is heated and then run through pipes the heat would speed the calcification process and the pipes would rapidly become closed. This made the sink's taps make sense as I had earlier tried to run hot water from the tap that had teased me with its red dot marked with "H" that when turned produced no result. But, this will do. The toilet is another story. It is, of course, old and has a separate tank which is set to the side and about 5 feet off the floor. There is a long run of 1 inch plastic pipe with many elbows connecting it to the bowl. This long run produces a great deal of pressure once the water actually hits the bowl and the result is the super power splash toilet. It doubles as a bidet if you are sitting when you flush, though this is not recommended.
The outside of the house is fine except for the Huge bees, and I mean huge bees. They are at least an inch and a half long, with a 3 inch wing span. A local man who helped me with the gas for the stove showed me where they have bored into the 2x4 that is the cross piece holding up our patio roof. I have watched as at least 3 of them have come and gone so the nest must be about 3-6 inches deep as when they have all come home I can't see them through the opening. When they take off from their home it sounds somewhat like a small helicopter leaping from its landing pad. One gave me quite a start this morning as I was trying to get a look at the nest.
We had come back from a light breakfast at the guest house, where Abby had tried Nutela for the first time, with predictable results. The girls went to the Olsen's house so Abby could play with their daughter Karina Neema and I made a cup of tea and brought a chair out to the front patio. I was watching the massive bees go about their business when I noticed what looked like light green huge bees on the patio under the nest. On closer inspection the moist looking things looked either like they were discarded exoskeletons or a couple of dead young huge bees. I brushed them off the patio with my shoe and as I was stooped over looking at them in the grass one of the bees emerged from the nest directly over my head with its helicopter sound. I jumped a bit...ok more than a bit and spilled my tea all over my sandal-clad feet. Not fun, so with my fear and the adrenalin charging through my veins I thought I'd sit and relax as I had planned. I wrote a bit and sipped my tea and noticed a small prickly looking beetle who had wandered onto the patio. I looked somewhat confused by the lack of dirt beneath its feet and after a brief stay it quickly made it's way back to the safety of the grass from whence it came.
April 2, 2007
To continue about our home and its description I will carry on to the living room and bedroom. The bedroom is simply that, a bedroom or a space with room for a bed. It would be nice if we could fit a bed for Abby, but all that fits is two single beds pushed together. So, where pray tell does Abby sleep? Well, in the bedroom with Nik for now and then where do I sleep you would ask. The dining room actually. There is a single bed with its mosquito net right beside the dinning room table. The dinning room and living room are one open area about 12-22, which is a nice space for relaxing and chowing down. That pretty much covers it other than the other residents or those who live next door.
There is a really nice Cricket with a home just outside the air vent in the bedroom. He plays beautiful courting music most of the night. In the tree just to the east of Cricket is the home of Dove who is also a terrific singer. My only wish is that he would branch out and try to learn a new song. His song is 6 notes long in, I believe, ¾ time with 4 short notes followed by 2 long ones. I do love his song in during the day but at night it somehow seems louder and out of tune. I already mentioned the huge bees who we now seem to have an agreement with. If we are on the porch they stay inside and when we stay inside, they get out and fly about.
Sorry if this is a bit disjointed it was adapted from an email and added to over a couple of days.
