the daily grind

It's a hot hot day in July here. Very sunny and hot hot hot. I got up at 9 and started the laundry and Phet got up to help me. It's such a good feeling to get everything done and by 11 the work for the day is complete and then the house smells good, I'm all clean from doing the washing. I've discovered the trick is to do the laundry as soon as I get up and hang it and then shower and then have breakfast. The noodle place that opened up in honour of Phet's arrival is great - we had big bowls of khao biek (that sort of triple-spaghetti thickness semi-glutinous noodle) and then we also had nam van (like che in VN, those little wiggly jigglies with coconut milk). I also watched the shop lady make an iced coffee. Dad will LOVE it: cup filled HALF with condensed milk, two tablespoons of sugar, then topped off with super strong coffee and poured over ice. Whew! [October-2000]