I woke up this morning at 7am, to the sun giving the room a soft glow, and the sound of the panadero on his bike, beeping his horn and selling bread. After getting changed, Veronica the maid came to fetch me for breakfast. It was great to see her again. Abuelo and Mamamama were already downstairs, so we ate breakfast of fruit, toasted bread, and juice. After that, Mamamama and I went out with Veronica to the park and around the block, stopping at my favourite statue of the Virgin for a short prayer (there's a lot of veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary here).
When we got back, Tio Alejandro stopped by for a bit before heading off to the university where he lectures. Then I went on the computer for a while, watched novelas with Mamamama (kind of like TV soaps, but more romantic and dramatic), and did a few logic puzzles. It's nice having company while I do my puzzles - Mamamama watches her TV, I puzzle away in the chair next to her: it's brilliant. Mum phoned at one point, it was great speaking to her - it felt a little strange to speak English, though!
Lunch arrived sometime after - every day the food is ordered from a menu, and delivered. I had salad with rice and lentils (I do love lentils) followed by jelly, washed down with cold Hierba Luisa tea. Simply lovely. The rest of the afternoon passed watching TV and puzzling. My uncle Mañuco and my cousin Alvaro stopped by for a while - Alvaro's grown a lot (he's about the same age and height as Christopher), it was quite fun talking to him. Tio Mañuco stayed for a while talking to me and Mamamama, then he and Alvaro went back, and we stayed watching TV. Abuelo came back home in the afternoon, then the three of us had dinner (Veronica made me some pasta) and watched a game show where players had to manually push a car, have their hair cut, and pop balloons by putting them between a man and woman and thrusting. Very bizarre.
Just before 7pm, Tio Alejandro came to take me out. His girlfriend Jessica originally planned to join us, but she phoned to say that she was exhausted after a reunion earlier in the evening, and would be going straight home. We went to Plaza San Miguel, a nearby plaza with many shops - we wandered around, I mentally compared prices (I saw some cushion stuffing for 4 soles, roughly 1 pound, if I have some space in my suitcase I'll try and remember to buy some), and Tio and I played with the ipads in the Apple store. We bought a sim card for my phone - there was a bit of hassle since I had to first register the card, which involved giving the operator my passport number since I don't have a DNI number (a DNI card is an ID card). Eventually we got it working though, and now I have a working phone to use in Peru. Then Tio and I stopped off in the Zugatti ice cream parlour - Mum and I had a tradition of going there whenever we were in the Plaza. It was wonderful having lucuma ice cream again - I love lucuma, it's kind of like peach, unfortunately I don't think we have it back in the UK.
Tio took me back to my grandparent's house at 10pm, by which point I was absolutely exhausted and wanted nothing more but to sleep. So that is exactly what I did.
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