Poo

...is the first thought that comes to mind.

We arrived after a relatively peaceful journey, though two very early starts did make me a little less lively than usual. I musn't complain because my lovely man drove me to the airport before he went to work, which must have been hideous for him, particularly as we missed our turning and added a half hour onto our outbound journey.

(Thank you again, darling)

Anyway, like I said, we had a peaceful journey to the island and it had been lovely to see my aunt and cousins in Zagreb. I had a delightful chat with my cousin's kid about this and that - what he wants to be when he is older (a researcher, doctor, archeologist or miner, for some reason), what I will do now that I am no longer learning Croatian (find a job, a grant, a loan and study a course in how to make people happy - counselling) and how I learn new words. He asked me how I do this, if I am not studying in a classroom. I told him that I just ask, but it did make me wonder. How do we learn the accurate meanings of words, I wonder. I wonder, because I often don't and tend to make them up instead.

When we arrived in Veli Losinj, my first thought was how beautiful and overgrown the garden was and my second was "What's that smell?" I went to the bathroom and saw the floor covered in shit. Rather concerning. Mama had already discovered it and was busy shouting at the man who lives round the back. It turns out that he has the same outlet pipe as us and had managed to block it up, as he does every year, and never bothers cleaning because he is not on the ground floor, so it is no problem for him. Poor Mama drew the short straw (it being her house and her being used to cleaning five children's poo - my logic) and she mopped and cleaned with the bleach we bought especially for this purpose. Meanwhile, I hoovered the entire house of spiders (apologising to them as I hoovered them) and their cobwebs, bleached the kitchen and wiped down all the surfaces, doing a little tidying and focusing on my meditation while I worked.

As Mama continued to mop poo, the man from upstairs cleaned out the drains for us and I cooked a yummy vegetable dinner. Eventually, we were all done, the toilet, sink and shower could be used without forcing more poo out from under the floor and Mama and I sat down to eat a well-earned dinner. Then the thunder and rain started and it was so exciting!

We settled to do some internetting and discovered that Mama has lost her modem. Oh what a day! Thankfully, this village has come on a little in recent years and there are now places with free wifi in them. 10 Kuna (about £1) for a cup of tea, glass of mineral water and free wifi. There are silver linings to all situations.

Mama has returned from the butchers and I am off home with her. Day two almost over. Love to all. :-)