With Buttercup in Costa Rica, circa 1998
Brrrr – it’s cold outside here in Islamabad. Last week had some of the lowest temperatures they’ve had in 40+ years. We’re so lucky to have hot water, heat in our house, and usually enough gas to cook – Pakistan is now “load shedding” gas in addition to electricity. It’s sort of hit or miss if you can muster up enough gas to cook with these days. Don’t worry, though, we are certainly not starving by any means!
We had a fun New Year’s Eve. We technically got off from work two hours early, but by the time I finished my work and made the rounds to be sure all of our cat feeding stations were full, it was six or so before I got home. I also ran over during my lunch hour to pick up the Black Mama cat and brought her back to the compound.
John and I had NYE dinner with a nice group of folks from OBO (Overseas Building Operations) – he works a lot with them in his job. We had a good steak dinner, then went to one couple’s house for dessert (yummy key lime pie for me). Then we moved on to a dance party – a small group of folks with two fun guys playing guitar and keyboard. They played a lot of oldies and got everyone dancing. I was impressed that I could stay up past midnight!
New Years Day we stayed home all day to study Spanish. It was a good day, topped off by pizza for dinner.
We had fun Friday night at Konstantin and Carolyn’s – we had dinner up on their roof around their fire pit. Great food and fun! Carolyn has grown mustard greens in their yard – not sure how Konstantin cooked them, but they were delish.
We watched a good movie last night (good cast), “The Oranges.” Kind of a disturbing topic, but great acting.
John had our new treadmill delivered this week – it’s great. A fancy Nordic Track – it’s quite comfortable…and big! I told him when I step up on it, I feel like I am behind a big podium and should give a speech or something. I think we will enjoy having it. We’ve been sticking to our exercise regime – it’s great to have a workout done before starting work each day, but heavens, it’s hard to get up when it’s so dark and cold! Hopefully it will pay off in the end!
This morning, an acquaintance on Facebook posted a photo of herself with Buttercup, the famous sloth at Aviarios in Costa Rica – she is still alive and living at the sanctuary. It made me very nostalgic for the great times we had there, so I am posting this old photo to enjoy the memory of being there!