On foodstuff and fridges

I have been asked to give more detail about my day to day life at home - what it looks like, even what I eat.  You gluttons for minutiae!  So here, last Saturday's haul from the market minus the bread which I forgot to put in the photograph, and the yoghurt and juice which you will see further down.

The main thing is the water - I get through about 3 litres a day.  I filter and boil it and store it in old bottles.  The filter is a ceramic one, VSO standard issue, (large stainless steel object) and dominates the kitchen.  But the observant among you will also see rice, couscous, tins of fish, coffee, lentils, chick peas, pasta and all manner of good things.  And gold Marmite from my Christmas stocking. Note the bottles of water.

I have a wonderfully large fridge with a freezer;  power cuts mean that the freezer gets limited use - but I do freeze bottles of water to take to the office - there is no water there.  Imagine that - no loo, no coffee or tea, and we are there from 7am to 12.30pm and 3pm to 5.30pm. Obviously we go out from time to time .... there are water-buying runs, and trips into town 'for coffee'.  And trips to the bank.  And even the Library.  It is rare for all of us to be at the office all day.

Note:  more water in the fridge.  You really cannot have enough.  The little polythene bag contains grated manioc which is eaten like couscous, with a spicy tomato sauce I make myself - yum!  The mangoes are in season and I eat about three a day - lovely, but loads of flossing to be done.  The top shelf, to those familiar with my fridge Tetris, is of course where I store the cornichons, capers, mayonnaise, olives, jam and honey.

And lastly, water storage - you are seeing my 'chateaux d'eau' with the basin underneath;  which 'rings' and tells me the tanks are full when the mains water is turned on - usually twice a day, but not always.

And finally, the back-up supply - for washing only - I have 15 bottles of drinking water in reserve.  The ownership of the back-up supply is something of an issue between Leonie, who does my cleaning and washing and came with the house, and me.  She regards this as her water.  I think of it as ours.