Uganda Day 24: Pancake Syrup
For only the second time since I've been working at FHRI, I ate the free lunch at the office today. The first time was on my first day, and every day between then and now I've purchased food elsewhere. It's become something of a routine, and you sort of get accustomed to it, but I really should try to eat at the office more. I need to curb my spending. Especially on food. But at the same time, it might be worth it just as an excuse to get out of the office for a while. Especially given the work I'm doing, which is sitting at a computer researching, the day tends to start dragging on even before noon hits. I guess I just need to find the right balance.
The point is, not even my lunch was exciting today. Each day this week I've spent as much time reading the news as I have researching, which sounds like I'm slacking, but I'm not. It's the internet. While I'm waiting half an hour for a PDF to load, I'll read some news. Actually, that's not even true. I tend to get two or three different tasks going at once, so while I'm waiting for one to load I'll go to a different one, then do the same when I need to load something on that one. It's the wifi equivalent of flipping the channel on commercials. But sometimes, the internet is so bad that even with multi-tasking, everything I need is loading (or more accurately, failing to load). I try to save offline tasks for when this happens, but in the Research Division, there's only so much you can do without researching. So I read the news, or fill out my weekly reports, or scroll though Twitter. Then I jump back in whenever something finally loads.
This is why it's taken me three days this week to do what should have taken me less than one, and why I now only have two days left to do what I should have been working on for four. And you can be sure it'll take eight. It's a wonder anything gets done.
Anyway, I'm just rambling about this stuff because there isn't much else happening on a Wednesday. After work I booked it down to the supermarket, since I had almost no real food left. I bought some peanut butter! I also noticed, for the first time, at the top of a shelf, they had pancake mix and syrup. More specifically, they had several brands of "pancake syrup", one of which boasted that it was made with 2% real maple syrup! I didn't buy any. When I get back to Canada, rest assured I'll be seeking out more than my fair share of big breakfasts. And brunch. I miss brunch.
On the way back I stopped in at that butcher shop and picked up a sandwich for dinner...and of course, because it's right next to La Patisserie, I got some dessert as well. So indulgent, but I needed something to help get me through this essay I had to write. And at the risk of confusing correlation with causation, I got the essay finished and submitted fairly quickly!
There you go, dessert is the key to success.
It's pretty late, but I think I may try to read a bit before bed. That is, if I can figure out a way to get some more light happening in here. The light in my bedroom might as well not exist, and the one in the kitchen isn't much better. Might have to use the flashlight on my phone!
Good night!