Falafels and an oops
uarter to seven, and I’m still at work. Don’t worry, I’m not actually working though – I’m not high enough up the food chain to be willing to do unpaid overtime! I was putting the final touches on my presentation on Bislama that we’re giving to the local Vanuatu community on Sunday, then I remembered that my favourite souvlaki food truck (I lived off his product after the earthquakes, when all the campus cafes were closed – well, I’d get lunch from him once a week, anyway – often enough that he’d recognise me and give me extra hummus 🙂 ) is on campus during the evenings over the exam period, catering to students who are spending long hours in the library and want food after the cafes have closed. So I decided that rather than go home and heat up some leftovers for dinner I’d stop off at his truck. It’s still just as good as I remembered (he makes the best falafels I’ve eaten outside the Middle East), and he even remembered me, so yep, I got extra hummus! Anyway, rather than spill it all over myself attempting to eat it while walking, or sitting outside in the cold, I brought it back up to my office where I could eat in comfort. So I’m just browsing the internet while I eat.
Had a bit of an oops moment last night. Now that all the study panic is over, I’ve started going back to Toastmasters again. The meetings are held in the church across the street from me, and last night just as I was about to leave the house, I looked out the window and noticed everyone was standing out on the steps of the church in the rain, which meant the person with the keys was running late. So I did a quick check that the house was tidy enough to invite everyone back to my place to shelter while we waited, walked across the street… and realised I’d just locked myself out. I’d been so busy thinking about whether the house was presentable I completely forgot to pick my keys up off the table where I’d just put them down!
So instead of being a hero providing a warm dry space for everyone to wait, I instead had to sheepishly ask for help breaking into my house… (I could have rung Harvestbird, who’s my emergency spare key keeper, but I didn’t really want to drag her out half way across town on a cold wet night, so I kept that as my back-up plan if the breaking in didn’t work). Luckily, one of the guys turned out to be very skilled at getting into locked houses (I’d be worried at how good he is at it, if I didn’t know him so well – I did joke to him though that if I ever get burgled, I’ll know who to send the police round to visit! 🙂 ), so we managed to get in and I could retrieve my keys. By that time the person with the church keys had arrived, so I wasn’t any help with keeping everyone dry, but at least I provided them with something to talk about while they waited…
It’s only the second time I’ve managed to lock myself out of the house (and the other was because I’d given my keys to mum when she was visiting, thinking she’d be home before me, but I got home first, so doesn’t really count), so it was pretty embarrassing to do it so publicly in front of my entire Toastmaster club. But I’m also kind of glad I did, because I had so many willing helpers. Don’t think I’ll live it down for quite some time, though…
Right, finished my dinner now, so I’m off home. I need to read my presentation to the cat a few dozen times before Sunday so I’m confident pronouncing all those Bislama words!