The new oven in the kitchen at Moni

After the storms we’ve been having lately, it’s become obvious that our roof is not going to stand up to the real rain when it arrives next month.
During February it rains so hard, that whole streets are turned into rivers and roofs and even houses regularly fall into the street.
With that in mind it was time for Abad and Victor to return, after all it had been a whole 14 hours since we last saw them.
Electricians they may be, but all Peruvian workmen have more than one string to their bow and they spent the day masquerading as roofers.
Broken tiles pinged down from above, reggaeton music (has to be heard to be believed, a mixture of reggae and Latino – very odd) blared from their stereo and Abad disappeared as usual, leaving Victor crouching on the roof for a couple of hours.
I spent the morning experimenting with dishes for the café and hearing about Tony Blair’s visit to Pinehurst on 5live.
I’m sure everyone is looking forward to the huge refugee camps that will develop as a result of chucking yobbo families out on the street.
One dish I tried out was Carrot & Coriander soup which I think will be a winner on our new menu.
Following Valerio’s offer of a game of football on Saturday I decided it would be a good idea to get myself some shorts.
A rather nice black pair tried on in a broom cupboard at the back of a shop fitted the bill perfectly.
A haircut too, could only add to my menace as I line up against the locals at the weekend.
When we arrived at the barbers, my usual man was slumped in his chair fast asleep, not a good start.
His assistant managed to rouse him and he rose like a child’s toy on the point of running out batteries and lifted his scissors aloft.
He smelt like he had been at the sterilising spirit but I needed a haircut so I left him to it.
He was even more ponderous than usual, finally causing Esther’s patience to snap,
‘Are you going to be much longer?’ she asked
‘No, no, it will be ready right now’ he replied before slowly cutting the hair at the back of my head for the forth time.
Five minutes later, just as he was about to start shaving my neck, I made my escape from under the polyester drape and we hit the road again.
I did point out to Esther that asking someone who has your head in one hand and something sharp in the other to hurry up is not a great idea.
As Abad regaled Esther with his rooftop discoveries (a cat ‘bathroom’ above our bedroom, with a few months of shit up there, ‘have a look, it’s just over there’ he said, we took his word for it), I quickly made a sign for the café and took the experimental soup down there.
When I went back after a trip to buy formula for Salvador, they had sold the lot, so I will be making more tomorrow.
By the way, it now looks like Tans are going to go bust, a terrible shame for our landlady as they rent the double fronted shop two doors down from Moni.
I am trying very hard not to weep into my Inca Kola over her potential loss of revenue.