I set aside Saturday morning to clean my house (yes, i do this sometimes) in preparation for amelia's arrival on Thursday. After about 30 minutes, I'd had enough and left to go for a swim at the school pool.
It was a ridiculously hot day and, dragging my feet down the scalding pavement, I was thinking how lovely it would be if some kind person would take pity and pull over to offer me a ride. Well lo and behold, just moments later a truck slowed, stopped beside me and the driver looked over and tapped his horn. the universal signal for "hop in, I'll give you a ride wherever you'd like to go!" right? this was my interpretation. so I jovially opened up the door and hopped up into the cab, grinning and bowing and thanking my new friend who, I was somewhat surprised to see, seemed a bit alarmed and confused. Ecstatic to be out of the heat and getting an air-conditioned ride, I told man (who was certainly acting strange, for someone who just volunteered to give me a free ride) where I was headed, he gave me another puzzled look and slowly pulled away from the curb.
It was only then that I noticed the bed of his truck. full of fruit and vegetables and hanging scales and price cards.
It quickly became obvious that this man had not, in fact, been offering a ride to the sodden girl on the curb. he was trying to sell me fruit. Unable to say "never mind" or "oops," let alone, "oh sorry, I thought you were offering me a ride because you stopped and honked and I was hot and wishing for a ride at that precise moment, but now I see you weren't so I'll get out right here, thank you," there wasn't much I could do, so I just sat next to this little man in his fruit truck, bumping down the road, smiling hugely at him when ever he glanced over perplexedly, until we got to the school. He let me out, I bowed and grinned some more, and he turned his truck around to continue with his day's work. In hindsight, I should have bought a big bag of fruit from him, but at that point I was so relieved to be getting out of this supremely uncomfortable situation, I all but ran down the street to the pool.
somewhat embarrassing but hey, free ride!
Well, on a foodier note, I've taken to eating a salad of slightly unripe mango, sliced, with shredded cabbage and red chilis and dressed with lime juice, fish sauce, sweet chili sauce. It's crunchy, cool (I normally put it in the freezer for a few minutes before eating), spicy, tart and slightly sweet (depending on the mango). Goes beautifully with a hot rice, curry or soup dish..
salad improvised from what was left in the fridge one day
