Evening Routines...
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 01/Dec/2009 05:57, 34 days ago
Recently I have developed quite a regimented but comfortable evening routine. After I’ve cooked, eaten and washed the dishes for the evening I set about squeezing fresh orange juice and boiling my milk. I have to boil my milk to make it safe and, if I don’t keep an eye on it, it makes such a horrible mess as it boils over. I have been on the search for while for an activity to do while boiling the milk which is a little bit more exciting than watching the milk boil but doesn’t let me get so distracted I forget about the milk. It seems squeezing oranges is perfect... it takes just about the same amount of time and I can do it right next to the hob. It obviously comes with the added bonus that each morning I now wake up to a lovely glass of cold (I am lucky enough to have a fridge) fresh orange juice! Once the milk has boiled my‘routine’ continues. I use about a third of it to make a mug of hot chocolate, a third to make yoghurt and a third for milk. As soon as the milk comes off the boil I can make my hot chocolate. I then enjoy the hot chocolate (until last week, when my external hard drive broke, this was often accompanied by an episode of scrubs) while I wait for the milk to cool. By the time I’ve finished my hot chocolate the milk is usually lukewarm. I have found this is the perfect temperature for starting the yoghurt off. I was shocked to find out how easy it is to make yoghurt... all I had to do was leave one jam jar full of unboiled milk on the side for a day. Since then I use a spoonful of the old yoghurt (to start off the culture) with boiled milk just to be on the safe side. I then wash up my‘juicer’ and my hot chocolate mug while I wait for the milk to cool just  a little bit more. I then put the remaining of the milk into an old‘Ambo’ bottle and into the fridge. I worry a little how much comfort I get from little routines like this. It seems a lovely way to pass the evening when I have no company. I worry perhaps I am getting a little too comfortable with my own company! I just had three days off (Friday was a Muslim holiday) and I barely spoke to anyone else for the whole weekend but I was totally content just pottering about by myself! Sadly this‘milk and orange’ routine may be coming to an end soon. I have managed to find a colleague who is willing to share my quota of milk which will hopefully mean I only get milk delivered 3 times a week (instead of every day). I have put on a bit of weight since arriving in Ethiopia and although I can’t blame it all on the milk (it is probably more due to a lack of exercise) I am sure drinking hot chocolate every night can’t help! No doubt I’ll find some other equally mundane way to pass my evenings to replace this routine soon enough! I am busy enough at work all day... it is really quite nice to just potter about in the evenings.