I’ve reread the last few posts and really they’ve become far too one-note in their effusiveness. The blog needs a little leavening...

So- I can think of at least three things that are wanting in my situation. Firstly I’ve become suddenly insomniac- I had about 3-4 hours sleep last night and the night before but this wakefulness is not abating. At least the sunrise is pretty- right now the sun is a luminescent Irn-Bru orange disc.

I’m struggling with the dried chickpeas they have here. They’re not all precooked and ready to chuck into your chana moshola- these are some tough busters I got. I soaked them for two days, boiled for about 3 hours in salt, and then cooked in the moshola for maybe another hour or two and still they’re not exactly soft... I wrote ‘masala’ at first instead of ‘moshola’ but it sounded alien to me. I also haven’t located tamarind or soy sauce here yet, and I don’t have to time to grow my own fresh coriander or green chillies so everything lacks its usual zing. My diet is mostly meatless now too which is probably healthier in many ways but I don’t much like getting my iron through pills.

I said three things right? Ok well the whole foreigner thing works a treat when everyone is treating you as a guest, but not so much when you haven’t paid your tram fare and the inspector makes a beeline for you and strongarms you into paying the fine. There’s only so long you can feign confusion..

And then of course there’s the fast-approaching prospect of a long summer of call centres or unemployment- I’m not sure which is worse.

That’s enough of the trivial sad stories now. Speaking of sad stories though I’m spending my lessons with one student having the Bosnian opera Hasanaginica translated. It’s so tragic, in a way that kind of parallels Othello, with the Iago-like mother-in-law playing cruel mind games to destroy her son’s marriage.