Day 34: Sunscreen and Tupperware parties
Balcony time and girlfriend time
Saturday. It was boiling, so I decided to be even more responsible (how much responsibility can one handle) and put on sunscreen as I spent my morning soaking up some sun from my famous balcony. I’m not sure what Nivea put in their products, but the smell of their sunscreen must be one of the world’s most euphoric legal highs.
My balcony is now such a point of interest that I was asked to share a photo of it with some of my colleagues. One said it looks like the Pope’s, although instead of St Peter’s Square and religious followers my view consists of the building’s empty garage below, some more balconies, and what I think is the uncovered window of a neighbour’s toilet, whom I often see in her underwear (maybe she’s just being frugal with her laundry). Sometimes Signora Pina passes by for her usual patrol.
Since (the first) Easter Sunday we shall be celebrating was fast-approaching, we realised the supermarkets would be closed and made a last-minute dash to buy survival supplies, namely water, bread, and wine, which I later realised are ironically aligned to the religious theme of these days.
We also went through the freezer where we dag out half a duck from 2018 and, via the excavation, a previously undiscovered food container. Fun fact: beyond calling vacuum cleaners ‘hoovers’ and cereal ‘cornflakes’, another brand name that has dominated colloquial language is ‘tupperware’, which is a much friendlier way to describe food containers. Back in the 50s and 60s, and slightly later in Cyprus (early 90s), the leisure time of ladies consisted of Tupperware parties, which were essentially tea parties combined with home Tupperware exhibitions and the guilt-induced purchasing of food container sets in various shapes and sizes (further reading for your enjoyment).
Not too dissimilar to the Tupperware parties, my afternoon was spent talking to my girlfriends on Zoom, with baby guest stars, who are definitely having the best time in the world right now together with doggies. The babies were largely uninterested in our conversation (who can blame though, our social skills probably died two weeks ago), although we did have some spontaneous clapping rounds and one display of nearly-unassisted walking, which were the highlights of the conversation. We all discussed the first thing we would do once the lockdown measures are lifted. For those of us who live away from home, visiting the parents was the obvious choice, although later I started thinking that a pedicure wouldn’t be bad either.
Meanwhile, the Tupperware I discovered in my freezer contained homemade mini olive pies and tahini pies, which my mum gave me at some point in 2019, and this was the happiest moment of the past thirty days, probably weeks. Or maybe I was still high from the sunscreen.
Lunch: Pasta with zucchini, cured pork loin, and pecorino cheese
Song of the day: The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun