Page 80 - Gilbert & Me_Neat

removed, I unscrew the ceiling fixture – careful to avoid a collection of dead flies and other bugs
– and then disconnect the brown and blue wires from each other.

This is an old building, constructed when the Brits still had enough influence to determine
construction standards, so, I know that the brown and blue wires relate to British electrical code
and I’m careful about handling them. These days, Belizeans just use wires, they don’t particular
care or worry about which colour wire means it’s live, neutral or earth – one will give you a
shock, so you’ll figure it out.

Using special electrical connectors, about thirty minutes later, it’s all done. I now have a funky
LED blue-ring light working in the kitchen, and a bright square LED light working in the hall. I
have modern lights throughout the apartment now. The old fashioned light is safely stored with
all the other old fashioned lights I’ve replaced, so that, when I eventually move, the Landlord can
either put them back or keep the LEDs in place.

While I’m feeling energetic, I decide to go water the plants in the yard. They’re suffering as we
haven’t had any rain now for almost three months, and while those with deep roots can still
access moisture from the soil, those with shallow roots and in pots really getting distressed.
Yvonne has a nice collection of plants around the building, not all produce flowers, but most
have stunning variant leaf colours and it would be a pity to see these die for lack of water. I don’t
have a hose, and neither does Yvonne, so I resort to using a bucket. This is going to take a
while, but has to be done – plants need water as much as they need sunlight.

I water only those that look distressed, plus those around my steps because they have been
placed in boxed concrete areas, that don’t have a lot of space.

Now it’s lunch time. Today, I have some ham and mustard sandwiches. As you’ll have probably
worked out, I don’t eat excessively. I eat small amounts at irregular intervals. I’m never hungry,
and I don’t eat rubbish food, I don’t feel the need to eat big meals.

When I go out for dinner, which is a rare treat, I try going for Italian pasta dishes – Italian food is
my favourite eat-out food (reminds me of one of my favourite places in the world to visit –
Venice and Murano – where I spent two weeks immediately following my divorce. Stunning
place, absolutely stunning with so much history and mystery packed into such a small,
meandering, ancient place on the water). Or I’ll get a fish dish.

I have only one ‘bad’ habit – I love chocolate. I have one small bar every evening if possible,
that’s all. Sometimes, I’ll go crazy and get a bigger bar and consume the whole bar in one
evening. Then regret it the following day, but that’s a rare occurrence.

After lunch, and because I found an unused photo frame when I put away that old light fixtures
into a cupboard in the guest bedroom, I get to looking at which photo needs to be reframed. I
have a collection of photos and things on a feature wall, plus one on a shelf beneath the living
room window. Most of the frames are old, but only one can get reframed. Which one will it
be…