UPDATE (OCTOBER 2017): Alas, Café Mexicho has closed down. It had a good run though. Fortunately there are several good alternatives around town — read here.

I’m kind of sick today. I won’t go into detail but it seems that Café Mexicho hasn’t finished with me just yet. I’m subsisting on small quantities of bland food, rooibos tea, and Energade – a South African energy drink that I find much more palatable than Gatorade.

It’s too bad that I’m not feeling well because it’s ridiculously beautiful today. Sun shining, birds singing, trees flowering, etc. But the greatest thing about this house is that you’re never too sick to sit on the deck and stare at the garden. The jasmine blooming along the wall smells intoxicating.

Jasmine flowers. They smell even better than they look.

I guess it’s not surprising that my stomach in going through an adjustment. I’ve been here three weeks and the euphoria of newness is dying down. My body is starting to realize that the hemispheric switch is permanent.

There’s a lot of illness around here this week. Lucky is sick with the flu. The commune has been fussing over him and plying him with food. Lucky works too hard and we worry about him.

I’m going to lay low for the next couple of days because Joe and I have a big trip coming up. We’re going to Lesotho on Monday for a work project. I really need to get my stomach sorted out; rural Lesotho is not a place where you want to be looking for a bathroom every five minutes.

In other news, there was an earthquake after dinner last night. Okay, I called it an earthquake but Joe says it was just a tremor. Maybe 4.5 on the Richter scale. But the earth definitely trembled – it felt like a giant gust of wind shaking the house. Then we heard a few dogs barking and that was the end of that. Seismic activity is common here.

Since I’m not doing much today and don’t have any exciting pictures, here are a couple from the garden.

This is a dietes grandiflora. We have several of them blooming now.

Lemons.

Potted lavender bush on the deck.

Also, here are a couple more of my favorite Melville house numbers.

I don’t think the plant is there on purpose but it works.

Interesting juxtaposition of quaint mosaic and garish security sign.

I just like this one for no particular reason.