Saturday: I "Powered Down"

 This morning I slept in just a bit and then walked to the Tik-Tok for breakfast. It was 55 degrees and sunny.

This was the view from my seat at the Tik-Tok.

I ordered the Tik-Tok breakfast special along with a side order of two fried eggs and a black coffee. The special had french toast, but no butter or syrup. The baked beans seem to be some British influence on breakfast here. They aren't like canned baked beans in the U.S. These tasted like beans in ketchup. The "hammy" meat was edible. I did not even try the chicken sausage. The coffee was good -- not Nescafe. Breakfast cost me $5.50. I think I'll try something else there tomorrow. It CLOSELY RESEMBLES American breakfast.

From my seat, I watched this family waiting for a bus.

I saw these water buffalo on my walk home.

Crazily cabled telephone poles like this are evident everywhere.

I stopped at this fruit stand and bought some tangerines and bananas. The tangerines resemble the "Cuties" in the U.S., but these have seeds.

This coffee shop is on the hospital grounds near the primary care building. It is a big chain here that very closely resembles Starbucks. Their products are super expensive, and their coffee is too strong for my Nescafe-tamed  tastebuds. Today I treated myself with a chocolate muffin. I get a 10% discount with my hospital ID badge. It cost me $1.50.

Nearby they were pressure washing the portico.

Shortly after returning to my room, the power went out. 

And it stayed out...

And it stayed out...

I sat in the sun on my balcony and finished my murder mystery novel. This is the first in the author's series featuring a National Park Service Ranger who gets relocated from park to park. In each novel, she is a different national park... and she always encounters murder! In this book, she was at Guadalupe National Park in far West Texas. I have been to that park twice, and I have hiked to the highest point in Texas there -- Guadalupe Peak.

Surprising: despite the fact that the power was out -- I had one light that still worked. If you recall, this one didn't work for the first two months and then suddenly started working a few weeks ago. It must be on some other weird circuit -- because the entire rest of my building was dark.

Finally, after 3 hours, I called the building maintenance supervisor. He told me they were doing electrical maintenance and the power would be off for another 2 hours. Then, like clockwork, at 5 PM, the power came back on! 

In the US, I enjoy a morning shower to wake up. Here, I have become accustomed to late afternoon/evening showers since my water is solar-heated. I turn on the spigot and wait almost 20 minutes (so wasteful) for the hot water to get from the rooftop tank to my bathroom. At 5PM today I enjoyed a delightfully hot shower.

Today, I am remembering this quote from this very interesting book. FYI: no, this is NOT Elizabeth Taylor's Richard Burton... this is an old time silk-road adventurer.