I drove down to town today to stock up on my miserably empty freezers ( the one that comes with a fridge and an industrial size one that the good people who own this apartment have installed).
Salim (my friendly, neighbourhood butcher who's very likely the richest Tanzanian person I know) was in his shop and we had a friendly little chat whilst I collected my 2 deboned chickens, 1 cut n skinned chicken, pork fillet and lamb.
On the way home, I decided to hop over to the best Lebanese place I've ever eaten at for a take away sandwich. The restaurant is called Ali Basha. Granted, I've only ever eaten Lebanese food one other time in my life so I may not be qualified to judge but this place is SO GOOD that The Engineer and I catch ourselves thinking of what we're going to have for lunch at the place during dinner the night before!
I realized that I was in a bit of a dilemma when I arrived at the restaurant and placed my order. I hadn't brought anything to read while waiting!!! Now, this might not sound like much of an emergency to most but I have never EVER sat down at a restaurant by myself without some sort of reading material. Even at home, I'm always in front of the TV when I eat (this sounds a bit sad, I know but it's nevertheless true).
I'm always under the impression that people who see me eating by myself would think that I'm some sort of sorry person who doesn't have any friends and has no choice but to eat by herself.
Well, today, I just HAD to sit there while I waited for the food and I was suddenly overcome by a courageous thought. What if I ordered a cappuccino (really, really fattening creamy stuff absolutely WONDERFUL stuff that you can only get at this restaurant) and just sat there drinking it? No book, no magazine, no nothing.
I was suprised to discover that:
1) people didn't notice me sitting there by myself much less judge me and
2) I genuinely enjoyed just people-watching
No one batted an eye, even when I surreptitiously took my camera out of my bag to snap this picture of my fabulous cappuccino:
In other words, I've been worrying about what people were thinking of me when I should have been enjoying countless cappuccinos for one over the years. You learn something new everyday.
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