One can't party every day!

Thursday 20 September

Indeed, one can't party every day.  However, that doesn't mean that those days are downright boring, just a bit more quiet than the others....

Today was such a day.  I was just getting comfortable in bed by the time I had to get up, so I took my time.  After that it was a day of mundane tasks, like watering the garden, washing, drying, ironing and other menial tasks.  Doing it in someone else's house makes it more exciting though.  Like most American houses this one too has a basement and that's where you find the washing machine, tumble dryer (no hanging out your sheets in the sun and wind) and ironing board.

On the stairs down to the basement

A family with 10 children would probably love this set-up ;-)

It always takes time to work out how those machines, that vary so much between countries, do their job, but I got it right the first time!  Three loads done in no time and clean sheets on the beds......  I think I have used the correct detergent in the washing machine and discovered little sheets that you put in your dryer so that your clothes don't stick together.  Ever taken all your jumpers out with socks attached to the sleeves?  Well, no more of that! :-)

In the afternoon we had to go out for some groceries shopping and that was another eye opener.  We're so used to shopping at Aldi's that we honed in to their big sign on our first shopping day, but we wanted to venture out a bit more and had noticed the Wegmans label on most of Diane's items in the pantry, so we went in search of Wegmans.  Well, we were bowled over.  The supermarket section is big enough as it is, but their deli!!!!!  I have seen American Delis on TV before, but never realised they were so standard and would even be so big in a small town like this, but it was.  There is definitely no need to do your own complete cooking, because not only do they have heaps and heaps of fresh ingredients of all types, they do have lots of stuff oven-ready and if you really don't want to do anything at all you just go for the complete meals and take them home.  No need to heat them up either!  Unfortunately (or should I say, fortunately) we went shopping rather late in the day and were getting a bit peckish, otherwise we would probably have spent half a day on shopping only.  After all we'd seen we went for boring old spaghetti for our evening meal, but I couldn't help myself and had to get bagels and cream cheese for breakfast.  If you are interested in finding out about these kind of stores go to: http://www.wegmans.com.  Be warned, what you get to see is mouth watering.

Just a selection of the 'ready-to-eat' food

After dinner I checked my email and discovered a message with the subject: Congratulations.  Well, indeed, we were to be congratulated, because our campervan was finally sold and Stephen had the cheque ready to bank.  It hurt a little bit, because it means no more gallivanting around the country in our dear little camper.  On the other hand we knew we had to sell it eventually as it was getting on in years, so we were happy to be rid of it before it would start falling apart completely....

See, a day at home can still be a very interesting day in its own way. :-)