pujjis

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the miracle overnight cure I was hoping for – not really a surprise, since I was up most of the night coughing and attempting to breathe.

I’d already stalled for a day on WWOOFing to see if I could get better – Jane had offered to pick me up the next day after receiving my email – so I didn’t want to call yesterday and put it off for another, but this morning I thought it would have been a good idea if I had. I ran to the chemist to get Dayquil & Nyquil, hoping they’d help – there goes another half-day’s salary on medicine!

When Jane arrived at the hostel, I told her it was her choice whether I came or not – since it’s a health retreat, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t drive business away! Turns out I didn’t pack my bag for nothing, though, and we were off to my new home by way of the supermarket on the way out of town.

I had somehow managed to screw up the medicine timing, and must have taken Robitussin too close to Dayquil, because I had trouble answering Jane’s questions, following her around the grocery store, and focusing on the road ahead of us. I was completely out of it.

Jane and her husband Arvind have a beautiful retreat in the mountains – you’d never know it’s only a few km from Nelson.

Today’s accomplishments, despite being in a fog from the medicine, included quite a bit of ironing, turning over two guest rooms, hanging up laundry, and helping out in the kitchen. Ironing was quite an achievement – my mother had a traumatic ironing incident in her childhood (so she claims), so I never learned to iron growing up, and then never really got motivated to do so after leaving home. I had to admit this to Jane halfway through on a particularly perplexing garment (a kimono), and she kindly gave me a crash-course without showing too much surprise, although she did ask me later what I did about wrinkly clothes (answer: hang them in the bathroom when taking a hot shower, and if that doesn’t work, dry cleaners). They (or, at the moment, I) even iron sheets here!

For dinner, I helped do prep work for Arvind’s famous pizza – he used to own a couple of pizza places in town, which locals apparently still talk about! We had an Indian twist –various pickles and chutneys as toppings - on the dish tonight for the family (4 generations!) who was joining us for dinner.