Getting to know things

Have had a very busy day, sewing a blind for the bathroom in between trying to keep the boys amused and doing typing for Nick for tonight’s bible study. To describe the house a bit, all the bedrooms, and the study and bathroom are upstairs. I have my own sewing/craft room now, one of the spare rooms. What a pleasure having my own table to work at, and my own space just for myself!! It’s a first. If we stepped out of the door in our bedroom, we would fall not quite onto the street, but into the garden just between the house and street. So we really should keep those doors closed. Apparently there used to be a porch built onto the front of the house, so that bedroom would have had a balcony. We haven’t bought, and won’t buy, a TV license. It is £16 per month, rather costly, so that’s an expense we can do without. I gather they get SABC though, which would be rather nice to have to feel like we were in touch, but we’ll be fine without it! There are quite a few hotels in Jamestown, the Consulate being one that we tend to walk past anytime we are in town. Haven’t seen the inside, but the outside looks fairly decent, same as any other building in town. Some of the buildings are painted quite nicely, like with blue or pink walls and white frames etc, and others, like ours, looks quite run-down. The St Helena Coffee Shop is just as you come in from the wharf through the tunnel, but we haven’t been to it yet. When we find a babysitter, we will go out on a date and likely patronize it! Not everyone lives in Jamestown, although it is where most of the shops are, but there are residences spread out all over the island. As yet I have only seen a few parts of it, and haven’t been to the Sandy Bay area yet. I wish you could be here to see what it’s like (yes, and to help, could use dad’s painting skills here!) The weather is still drizzly, we hardly saw the sun today although it didn’t really rain or drizzle much. More like just a fine cloud hangs around so if you walk outside it’s 100% humidity but no rain, if that makes sense. It was a bit cold today, though the boys were comfortable in shorts. So far they haven’t had any more scrapes or falls. Caleb has started eating bananas, which are smaller and tastier here, and enjoys them and is not vomiting on them. This evening I cooked a tuna fillet, a brand new experience for me (and on the gas cooker!) What a yummy meal. I’ve never seen a whole chunk of tuna like that, but someone had put it in the freezer for me, so I thought I had better overcome my dread of doing something with it, and took it out this morning to defrost. I just cut it up into slices (sort of like making steaks) and fried them with some lemon seasoning and marjoram. They cooked quickly, and were delicious. I had also parcooked some potatoes in the microwave, so fried those. The boys enjoyed them, so I’m glad that’s a meal easy to do and delicious and edible by all!

Tomorrow at 3.00 we have a meeting with a lady from the education department to discuss Caleb’s schooling. Will let you know the result of that tomorrow night.