I now have a very nice daily routine but it'll only last until the weekend when the dentists start to arrive. I'm getting up around 6.30am and by 9am I've done my daily steps, washed the apartment floor and had a shower. After that I wander onto the balcony with my breakfast and my iPad to do Facebook birthdays and check my mail. I do get a bit fed up with the birthday business because so many times people tell me it's not their real birthday. Their excuse is that they want to keep some things secret from the Facebook public. I can't understand why people are so sensitive about birthdays.
On the other hand, I do get a bit fed up when people keep asking me how old I am. When I moved from Nigeria to the Canadian north I got fed up with people wanting to know about my marital status. I don't think anyone was asking me because they fancied me so I decided to lie. I told people I was married. When they asked for more details I told them I had three wives back in Kano and I also had children. Luckily, I had a photo of three fellow lady teachers and lots of photos of students. The main problem was keeping their names in my head. I was often asked why I didn't bring a wife over to Canada but my answer was that in Islam I have to treat all wives equally and, seeing as I couldn't afford to bring all three to Canada, I decided to leave them all back in Nigeria.
This story went on from 1984 to 1990 when I applied to move to Cambridge Bay. When I applied I thought it would be good to move as I could finally say goodbye to this story. Unfortunately, a fellow teacher had moved to Cambridge Bay the year before and he primed the staff about my story so they all knew about it when I arrived. It didn't bother the Inuit that I had multiple wives; they told me in the old days the Inuit women had multiple husbands. While one was away hunting the other would stay home to protect the family. It made a lot of sense.
I also got fed up of people asking me how old I was and so, when I moved to Fort McPherson from Nigeria, I decided to add 10 years to my age. It worked really well. People were amazed I looked so young. One student said I looked younger than his dad who was only 40; I was 47 at the time. I don't need this ruse in Cambodia as people always say I'm younger than I really am - whether they are saying it through politeness or being honest I don't know.
I'm watching a BBC programme called "The Face of Britain" and it's about where we came from - are we Celtic, Anglo Saxon, Norman etc. I'd love to know my background. The Welsh people were so upset at the thought they might be Anglo Saxon - they all wanted to be Celtic. I think my Dad's family came over from Ireland at some point; the Liverpool area is full of Heyeses but there are few on the other side of England which is where Dad moved to for work in Yorkshire. If I am Irish then I'm also a bit Celtic.
There was an interesting talk about John Lennon and his song, "Beautiful Boy", which I don't think I've ever heard in its entirety. It was linked to an American father whose son was a drug addict. The son finally pulled himself together and the father talked about how the song helped him. The programme producer said she read the comments about the Lennon video and she was in tears reading about the tragic lives of children on drugs. I'm a bad one for YouTube comments and it's amazing how much influence the comments have on my opinion of the programme. If the comments tell me it's a terrible movie then generally I don't watch it. I'm sure life would be easier if I ignored the comments and just watched the movie, judging it using my own opinions.
Samnang came over in the evening which meant I lost control of my iPad. Luckily, he's fascinated with "The Two Fat Ladies"; the large ladies who had a very successful cooking show. He used to complain they were slow but now he's fascinated with the way they cook and how much butter, oil etc they use. I think they are lovely and I would love to be on their motorbike.
After he left, I gave a final check of the mouse trap, which had been empty all day. Lo and behold, there was a mouse in it. I wonder which work shift he was on? I was ready for bed but I decided I'd better take him downstairs and let him go.
