Today after 6 days away in Croatia, I came back unexpectedly to find my normally un-occupied (not since Tiff and ZW moved out) house, occupied by my landlord's handyman. He'd swopped my broken loo (complete with chopstick flushing mechanism that I rigged up) for a new one and was in the midst of changing the little ventilation fan that never worked since we moved it. He was also sweating buckets, given the current heatwave in Europe that seems to have hit the UK.
After he left, I still had to wait a few hours before I could shower off the grime of a sweaty Croatian night (how savage a life without air conditioning is!) and a Ryanair flight. Because apparently he put new putty around my bathtub. I had no idea why since the only thing wrong with the old putty was that it was starting to look a bit mold-ey. So anyway I finally JUST got to shower. It was then a noticed a few things: the new toilet bowl is far skinnier than the old one. The old cistern was a large model, which meant we could balance lots of stuff like multiple loo rolls and a bowl of potpourri on it. The new one is a skinny bitch.
I also realised George (the handyman) had gone and removed the two lights above the bathtub, making the bathroom much darker than before. This means no more reading while soaking in the bathtub, though to be fair since it's so warm I probably won't take warm baths like I used to in Winter and Spring. I also noted that the towel that I had been using as a bathmat on the floor was missing.
While pondering all these great, life-changing differences to my daily shower, I grabbed the conditioner bottle twice and started scrubbing my hair. I wondered why it wasn't foaming up like normal, and why my hair felt so awfully slick. It was then I realised I was trying to shampoo my hair with conditioner instead of shampoo. I also then realised the only difference between Aussie shampoo bottles and conditioner bottles is that one is cream and the other is white. This is unlike Tresemme where shampoo bottles are black and conditioner bottles white. This makes it highly unlikely for any sort of silly mix-up, like the one I had. As a side note I was also shampooing my hair with 8 fingers and 1 thumb, because I cut my right thumb pretty deep on some sea walls yesterday at the beach. I also manage to cut my left palm on another rock.
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I enjoyed my last 6 days in Croatia, especially with such kind and understanding company (Joaquin). I however did not enjoy almost constantly feeling sick from the heat (headaches) and getting tummy aches/bloating from the food. Also the apartment which I booked, which was in an awesome location, had no air conditioning - which meant many nights of shit sleep and insomnia as we struggled to rest. I also learned that Croatian sounds like Russian, Croatia will join the EU in 2013, and Croatia has a long way to go to properly develop its tourism industry.
We were mainly based in the city of Pula. Pula, a city on the Southern-most bit of the Istrian peninsular, has no beaches. Just rocky seafront. We learnt this the hard way. Pity because I have not seen such beautiful, clear, blue water in a long time. If it was Singapore, they'd have turned the whole place into an artificial sand beach (not sure if that's a good or bad thing though). We went to two beaches, Verudela (where I fell horribly sick from too much sun) which was mad crowded with both tourists and locals, and Valkane which was less crowded/built-up and far more nicer. It was also the place where we spent almost the whole of yesterday and where I cut myself.
Joaquin and I also visited the island of Brijuni, where Tito used to vacation. On the island there was a strange museum made of half Tito photos and half taxidermied animals. The tour we were on also took us to see a safari of animals left behind from old gifts to Tito (second-third generations), with an elephant and a Llama. LOL?
We also visited the towns of Rovinj and Fazana. Rovinj was beautiful, with an old city centre, cobbled alleyways and that sort of thing. Fazana was more like a smaller fishing/tourist town, that was charming in its own way. In Rovinj I had the best grilled squid, complete with lots of garlic and oil. In Fazana I had a short 30 minute Istrian massage which was immensely enjoyable. One memory of Rovinj stands out: sitting by the waterfront watching the seagulls float about just meters away, as a hobo fed them lots of bread. And watching little kids throw pebbles at the seagulls. And watching the seagulls fight among themselves. I felt so unbelievably calm and contented at that moment.
Yesterday I had another such moment at Valkane beach. I managed to stumble my way, falling once, (on a pebble beach) to where the sea was about thigh-high and sat on a rock for the longest time. I loved being able to feel the cold of the sea and the warmth of the sun at the same time. I sat there for the longest time, shifting to a side to lets some German kids play. During one of those moments when I was shifting about on the rock, I cut my palm, but was too chilled out to mind much. The young boy was collecting rocks with his older sisters, so I gathered rocks for him too. I liked yesterday.
After he left, I still had to wait a few hours before I could shower off the grime of a sweaty Croatian night (how savage a life without air conditioning is!) and a Ryanair flight. Because apparently he put new putty around my bathtub. I had no idea why since the only thing wrong with the old putty was that it was starting to look a bit mold-ey. So anyway I finally JUST got to shower. It was then a noticed a few things: the new toilet bowl is far skinnier than the old one. The old cistern was a large model, which meant we could balance lots of stuff like multiple loo rolls and a bowl of potpourri on it. The new one is a skinny bitch.
I also realised George (the handyman) had gone and removed the two lights above the bathtub, making the bathroom much darker than before. This means no more reading while soaking in the bathtub, though to be fair since it's so warm I probably won't take warm baths like I used to in Winter and Spring. I also noted that the towel that I had been using as a bathmat on the floor was missing.
While pondering all these great, life-changing differences to my daily shower, I grabbed the conditioner bottle twice and started scrubbing my hair. I wondered why it wasn't foaming up like normal, and why my hair felt so awfully slick. It was then I realised I was trying to shampoo my hair with conditioner instead of shampoo. I also then realised the only difference between Aussie shampoo bottles and conditioner bottles is that one is cream and the other is white. This is unlike Tresemme where shampoo bottles are black and conditioner bottles white. This makes it highly unlikely for any sort of silly mix-up, like the one I had. As a side note I was also shampooing my hair with 8 fingers and 1 thumb, because I cut my right thumb pretty deep on some sea walls yesterday at the beach. I also manage to cut my left palm on another rock.
-----
I enjoyed my last 6 days in Croatia, especially with such kind and understanding company (Joaquin). I however did not enjoy almost constantly feeling sick from the heat (headaches) and getting tummy aches/bloating from the food. Also the apartment which I booked, which was in an awesome location, had no air conditioning - which meant many nights of shit sleep and insomnia as we struggled to rest. I also learned that Croatian sounds like Russian, Croatia will join the EU in 2013, and Croatia has a long way to go to properly develop its tourism industry.
We were mainly based in the city of Pula. Pula, a city on the Southern-most bit of the Istrian peninsular, has no beaches. Just rocky seafront. We learnt this the hard way. Pity because I have not seen such beautiful, clear, blue water in a long time. If it was Singapore, they'd have turned the whole place into an artificial sand beach (not sure if that's a good or bad thing though). We went to two beaches, Verudela (where I fell horribly sick from too much sun) which was mad crowded with both tourists and locals, and Valkane which was less crowded/built-up and far more nicer. It was also the place where we spent almost the whole of yesterday and where I cut myself.
Joaquin and I also visited the island of Brijuni, where Tito used to vacation. On the island there was a strange museum made of half Tito photos and half taxidermied animals. The tour we were on also took us to see a safari of animals left behind from old gifts to Tito (second-third generations), with an elephant and a Llama. LOL?
We also visited the towns of Rovinj and Fazana. Rovinj was beautiful, with an old city centre, cobbled alleyways and that sort of thing. Fazana was more like a smaller fishing/tourist town, that was charming in its own way. In Rovinj I had the best grilled squid, complete with lots of garlic and oil. In Fazana I had a short 30 minute Istrian massage which was immensely enjoyable. One memory of Rovinj stands out: sitting by the waterfront watching the seagulls float about just meters away, as a hobo fed them lots of bread. And watching little kids throw pebbles at the seagulls. And watching the seagulls fight among themselves. I felt so unbelievably calm and contented at that moment.
Yesterday I had another such moment at Valkane beach. I managed to stumble my way, falling once, (on a pebble beach) to where the sea was about thigh-high and sat on a rock for the longest time. I loved being able to feel the cold of the sea and the warmth of the sun at the same time. I sat there for the longest time, shifting to a side to lets some German kids play. During one of those moments when I was shifting about on the rock, I cut my palm, but was too chilled out to mind much. The young boy was collecting rocks with his older sisters, so I gathered rocks for him too. I liked yesterday.
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