I would have had a better night’s sleep had the rain not
been hammering down on the window seemingly all night long.
I got up and made toast and a cuppa… one major difference
between out holiday in Uzbekistan and home is that I can have toast with jam (as
opposed to some strange substance). And another is that I can have a proper
mug of coffee that isn’t all swallowed in one gulp.
For all that I really enjoyed our time away, the food did
leave a lot to be desired. If you like a selection of strange unidentified
things for brekkie, and salad followed by potato and carrot soup followed by
lumps of meat, with melon for dessert all with generous side orders of whole
tomatoes and cucumber for dinner, then Uzbekistan is the place to be.
Mind you in all fairness for all that I criticize the lack
of variety over there, if I can I always have the same thing for brekkie every
day.
The plan for today was to loads the dogs into the boot (they
love it!), drive to the garage and go for a walk whilst the car had its MOT
done. But it was hossing down. So I took the car to the garage and “er
indoors TM”
picked me up on her way home from collecting the shopping
from Asda.
We came home, and as the dogs snored I looked at our
holiday spending (I’m mean like that). Having been told that everywhere
in Uzbekistan would rather be paid in US dollars we found that the vast
majority of places flatly refuse to take them, and those that do take them
grudgingly and guess at what they think the exchange rate might be. So we came
home with quite a few US dollars.
The local branch of my bank is temporarily closed, and even
when is open they can’t take US dollars. Apparently the branch in Canterbury
can… that’s half a day’s mission for later in the week.
I’ve also got three hundred and fifty thousand Uzbek soms
which I doubt anyone is going to change up for me. But bearing in mind that’s
only worth about twenty quid I shall sit on them in the hope that someone will
be following in our footsteps, and I can give them a pressie.
With the rain showing no sign of easing up I sent out one
or two (over fifty!) messages about the upcoming geo-event I’m planning
for three weeks’ time. There’s quite a few people who seem to have started
hunting Tupperware relatively recently but haven’t quite been brave enough to
come to a meet. Admittedly it does take a bit of courage to meet new people…
some of them might come… you never know.
And then my phone rang. It was the garage. My car had
passed its MOT and there weren’t even any advisories. That was a result; I had
been worried that the pot-hole which took out a tyre a little while ago might
have done more damage. I had absolutely no reason to think that (other than
paranoia) but I was still expecting to have to shell out the thick end of a
thousand quid. That was a result.
The rain had eased up. I was all for walking the dogs over
to get the car, but “er indoors TM” said I should
take it easy; I was still on the mend. So she drove me over to get the car.
Bearing in mind I was under orders to take it easy I sat on
the sofa. It wasn’t long before Morgan cuddled up with me. Rather than wasting
time watching telly I made a little website of our recent holiday. You can see
it by clicking here.
I’m rather conscious that I’m not shutting up about our
holiday. For all that it was hard work, it was an adventure. But on thinking
about it, it was different. It was a change to my routine. I am a creature of
habit. I have friends who post holiday photos to Facebook every couple of
months. Some people I know really do go on foreign holidays at least once every
two months; if not more often.
“er indoors TM” went off bowling
as she does most Mondays. I ironed shirts and bandannas whilst watching an old
favourite film of mine. I’ve seen “Goodbye Mr Chips” so many times.
Tonight I watched the version from the ITV hub. I’m pretty sure quite a bit of
the film had been cut. I must watch my DVD version of it.
But first I must set up the DVD player we bought months ago
and is still sitting in its box…
