A day in the life - - - -

Today's report is for everyone who is interested in the minutiae of life in Belize (judging by your emails, that seems to be most of you). Male readers might want to look away now. I'll try and include answers to all your questions so that you can decide whether to envy or pity me.



I've mentioned in earlier posts that I'm lucky enough to have a very comfortable apartment. Like most people in Belize City however, I don't have running hot water. Every morning I light a kettle of water on one ring of my stove for my Earl Grey, and on the other ring I light a big pan of water for my ablutions.



When my pan of water is hot I pour it into my big plastic bucket and place it inside my shower cubicle. I shampoo my hair, apply conditioner on top, then wash all over with the hot water. I then stand in my bucket like some hideous pot plant before bracing myself and turning on the cold shower to rinse away all my products. Brrr! When I come home hot and sticky (most days) I dispense with the hot water and go straight to the cold part.



So far I've not experienced any power cuts, so my state of the art torch has not yet been brought into play. I've been told power cuts are more common on the cayes, so I'll be packing my torch when I visit in the Christmas holidays.



I got my hair cut and my roots dipped at a salon "Bellissima" just around the corner from where I work. No disasters occurred, and it was cheaper than getting it done in Ollerton.



My self-catering efforts are lazy and unremarkable; yogurt and cereal at breakfast, omelettes, pasta, rice for dinner. I did make a pan of pigtail split pea soup one evening, although I couldn't put my hands on a pig's tail so I substituted a chicken stock cube to give it flavour.



Every street in Belize City has vendors peeling and selling all manner of lovely tropical fruits, and every day I buy bags of pineapple, mango, papaya, water melon etc for25 -50p a bag. An unprepared papaya the size of a rugby ball costs 25p, four bananas 50p. Delish.



Eating out at lunchtime can be very cheap. I avoid the staple diet of rice and beans if possible, just because I find it fairly bland and boring. Sometimes I get a cheese quesadilla and a cholli (frozen espresso with ice cream), and sometimes I go to Ma Ma Chen's, a Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant where all the family from grandma down to new baby are eating as well.



At weekends I eat like a tourist, shamelessly descending on the restaurants of the best hotels in Belize City. I usually choose Creole lobster, jerk shrimp, red snapper or the like, as fish is fresh, cheap and plentiful. This sort of food costs less than a tenner for a main course.So far I haven't tried local delicacies such as armadillo, iguana and gibnut (a large rodent) and actually I don't intend to.

That's enough trivia for today, more soon!

Viv

The locally brewed beer, Belikin, is better than Fosters, though wine is very expensive.