Ever since we arrived in La Paz he who hums has had his daily tasks to achieve and I have mine. Some items sit in the middle where we both aim to cross it off the list. So my list covers off the creature comforts ++, while his is covering the mechanical and operating systems +++. That includes Banks of batteries... generator... steal work, water maker, solar panels and so on it goes. Space and weight are an integral part of setting up the vessel. Each day I come back, I think I see the water line getting lower. He has an equally wonderful man helping him, who has a passion to have us set up with everything that one could ever need should one be living in Underwater World. Brilliant as he, is I hear he who hums stop humming as he "only suggests' we get yet another backup item on board (in case).
I leave him to it, and head off with my own tasks at hand, and before you all sniff that I am out "shopping" - it isn't that easy. You have to know behind which small dark doorway items lurk. But as the time ticks on I am becoming more and more aware of our surrounds and what it has that we may need. I have been tracking down fresh herbs forever; I now pick my own basil from a footpath enroute. After failing to find the right home wares in the city centre and still needing bed linen (ones where you won't lose your own body weight in sweat) I surrendered to that old beautiful Singer (because I loved her). So making sheets are now added to mending sails should that need arise. Nevertheless the drapery stores are plentiful. I roam in and out of isles of 2.4mt tall rolls of distracting colour seeking the word 'Algodon' meaning cotton. I leave with the material I need after being passed around to 4 different dispensaries to process the one sale. The patient Mexican boy has to come find me again and again because I am yet to understand where the 4 different sectioned off tellers I need to find to achieve 'the ticket' (receipt) to exit the store. This experience takes me back to Bayard's haberdashery where flinging out the exact yardage of fabric in one whoosh and thud always did impress me.
Underway and happy with my achievements for the day, I came across a real treasure trove. I saw the word "Antiguedades" - must stop. He who hums knows it was only a matter of time before I merchandised our living quarters. Oh bless this antique hoarding woman who has collected anything and everything over time. Claiming me like her daughter, just for fancying her collectables. She soon ushered me into her home to show me her dolls from around the world, and when I sign languaged that I really needed glass for the oil lamp on board, I was quickly lead into another hidden cove where I could see her big eyes pivot, reflecting every form and colour of glass from old oil lamps. By now I have to make a note of where this store was located so I could come back to collect the stockpile of things I accidently caressed and she bustled up. However, I left with a perfect vase for my herbs that by now are wilting in the bike outside and some coloured flowers that she insisted and stuffed them in around the bundle of fabric sitting in the basket.
Thinking more often as time is closing in, how much we have both loved our days 'working' here. However it will be a cloudy day when I pass this bike on to the next transient cruiser. I toss the day's list into the bin and return to see what he who hums has achieved above the waterline. It's 2pm all Mexican workers have headed for siesta, we sit and do lunch in the silent confines of our saloon... I imagining ....... he calculating.