An ordinary day

It was Keith’s first full day of work. He was up and at it by 7am, getting ready for an 8am meeting with his team in China. In Minnesota, he works at 9pm to meet with them first thing in their morning. Here, 8am is their 4pm, so it was upside down for everyone. I was up then, but after getting about 3 hours of sleep during the actual nighttime, I went back to sleep. He woke me at 10:15 to say that the band librarian had rung up to invite us to tea at 11. The current librarian, Gwyn Thomas, was the soprano player for over 30 years and he and his wife, Helen, live a block from us. We had an absolutely lovely visit with them. We shared stories of our families, but mostly stories of Cory Band. After looking at the upcoming schedule and talking with band members after Monday’s rehearsal, we were starting to get an idea of what a commitment being in the band is. It is truly a way of life. The band famously won the Nationals three years in a row in ’82, ’83, and ’84 – the “hat trick” – and the year after that they were on the road 39 weekends. They were once playing a live broadcast and the conductor died during the first march. Died! The principle cornet player grabbed the baton and the band kept going! What?!

We got a note that we had a parcel at the post office. I braved the elements and set off down the street. It was raining, but also really windy. Our wonderful friends Sheila and Steve who live on the west coast of Wales had sent us a beautiful bouquet as a welcome to Wales. One of our many glasses made a perfect vase.

I cleverly moved some of the glasses out of our only cupboard. I figured we would eventually get food to store and needed somewhere to put it. I considered using the box and packing from the flowers, but decided then I would have a box I didn’t know what to do with, so I have made an art installation on the mantel. I realize it is going to get dusty, but a quick wash before we leave will probably be fine.

I know I said we didn’t have a freezer, but I have to slightly amend that. The refrigerator, as set when we arrived, froze most of what we put in it. Somehow the green beans were fine. And ended up absolutely delicious. I think we were bean starved. The chicken was frozen, which lengthened the meal prep. Frozen cucumber is just gross. We have a 10″ fry pan which wasn’t big enough to hold 1kg of chicken. I tried to separate some into our 8″ fry pan, but the two cannot fit on the burners at the same time. The sauce pan (not the tiny one) has a loose handle, which was sort of like a game – wobbly pan – who can not get burned? Keith just kept saying, “I knew I should have brought a screwdriver.” As I cooked the chicken, it occurred to me that when I wrote thermometer on my Things to Take to Wales list it meant cooking thermometer, not people thermometer. I brought a people thermometer, in case we got sick. Both kinds would have been good. I overcooked the chicken, because I do that, because I am scared of squishy chicken, but the Tikka Masala sauce was delicious. I was supposed to cover the chicken and let it simmer in the sauce, but have no lids. I improvised with two oval wooden trivets. They don’t completely cover the pan and have to stack on each other, but it worked.

The dishwasher has no place designed to hold glasses, which is ironic since we have lots of glasses. The top rack is just a big open space with bumps down the middle. Sort of. The glasses just fall over. I got them kinda wedged in and then just stood and laughed at it, because they all fell over when I pushed the rack in. Please imagine me reaching my hand into the closed top rack, pushing glasses around and laugh 🙂