Guess What? It's Sunday

Of course, that means it's time for another Sunday Morning Grab Bag.

Long-time readers will know that that means there's a pile of stuff that's gathered that just isn't long enough for a full posting, or that it's just a snippet I've found that I thought you might find interesting, like this one.

One of the things I had the most trouble adusting to down here in Paradise, is the tendancy for Belizeans to not form line. There is no line etiquette. They tend to just barge up to the counter and start talking to the person behind it as if no one else is there. There's also a very different concept of the personal space bubble. They kind of go hand-in-hand.

I'd never really thought about it as such, but being of primarily English and Scottish stock, waiting in line, or queuing up, as they say is so very English. As Dan Pardo, an Englishman with the BBC, said "I like a good queue - well formed, orderly, no doubting who's in front of you and who's behind."
Dan wrote an article about queuing up in Venesuela, of all places (The Surreal World of Venezuela's Queues, Daniel Pardo, 20 April, 2015, BBC). He said, "There are many countries that don't respect these fine, ancient traditions, and prefer the first-past-the-post system - involving pushing, shoving and grunting." This fits Belize to a T.

A Chinatown Conversation

or

Form an Orderly Queue to the Left

Here's an aside for you. 'Fit to a T.' A lot of folks think the 'T' should be 'Tee' as in golf. Being the inveterate dictionary reader that I am, I looked it up. It's a saying that's been around since at least the 1600's, so 'T' is correct.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. It took me quite a while to learn to swallow my English-based sense of propriety and just crowd in and hold my ground. Screw the personal space. I also found a voice to let people know I was there first and that I wasn't letting them crowd in front of me as if I wasn't even there.

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Just a quick heads-up. There might just be a cure no, that's not right. How about a treatment, that sounds right, for Doctor Flies. It involves 'blue balls'. No, not what you're thinking - blue beach balls, and sticky glue. Wilma, of the blog, South Englishtown Gazette, one of the blogs we follow, has a much larger Dr. Fly problem than we do (try 1,300 of 'em in a week) has come up with a novel way to stymie the little bastards. I'll be doing a posting on that very thing. I've ordered the glue and the balls. Stay tuned. Well, read Wilma's posting on blue balls too, and look around her blog. You'll like it.

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We might be having some papaya sometime. We have a couple of volunteer papaya starts growing in the yard. Actually, they just sprang up in a pile of black dire we had delivered some time back.

Our New Papaya Trees

I think they're keepers too. The flowers look like they're small (to me anyway), and according to our caretaker, Carlos, if they're small, we keep them, if they're large, we yank 'em out. I'm not sure what the difference is. I forgot to ask. I'll see if I can remember to do that.

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I thought I had written a post on this before, but checking the postings, I guess not. We had inherited some cushion foam from Vivien and Denis. I hung onto it for a bit, then took it down to Alec the Tailor for him to cut it and cover the resultant three pieces with fabric, thereby making three beds for the doggies. That would be much better than their raggedy blankets and bath towels they had used forever.

Bela and Chanel Check Out One of the New Mattresses

Here's a shot of the goods after I picked them up from Alec. They look really nice. Of course, there was the obligatory communications gap when I first went to pick them up. I had thought I was fairly clear that I wanted a fabric box for the foam matress to fit into, with a lid that folds over and is fastened with either Velcro or a zipper. Hmmm...

What Alec had done was make a box for the foam to fit in, with Velcro holding it together, but no lid, or bottom as he saw it. I had him attach the lid/bottom and everything is more or less copacetic.

But not according to Bela. The first night she promptly uncovered the mattress and proceeded to tear little chunks out of the mattress foam. I thought that after my severely scolding her, that shredding the foam would stop. Uh... no.

Almost every night since, there's been additional bits of foam all over the porch. So far, her modifications have been restricted to just the one mattress. But, we'll soon reach the point of no return with that, and she'll no doubt, start attacking the other two mattresses.

I'm thinking of possibly getting some more of the Naugahyde-like stuff I bought several years ago at Cinty's (that we use as a cover for the pool-cover reel) and having Kent Cattouse, the upholsterer, make new coverings for the three mattresses. That way, I'm pretty sure, she wouldn't be able to whittle those down to crumbs. At least for a while.

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Last little bit. There's a lot of photos, I've either taken or collected that some of you would probably like to see (like the one below). I think I mentioned before that I'm working on a photo gallery for the blog.

You Only Thought You Knew Everything That Was Used - Taken by an Anonymous Coastie

That's true. I am. Just as soon as I solve the font issue. To try to move that along, I've asked Steve Kelly to help with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Maybe we'll get it done. Steve, and his wife, Jane, are new arrivees to Corozal. You'll probably meet them sooner or later.

Ok, I guess that's enough for now. Time for a cuppa.

Cheers,