A haircut and a heavenly ride

The little person returns to school on Monday so De decided that it was time for him to have a haircut. He was not particularly enthusiastic so to show solidarity the tall person announced he would have a haircut as well. To be fair, the tall person has been complaining about unruly hair for a couple of days now but I couldn’t see which of his 10 hairs he was talking about.

Anyway, De, the tall person and the little person walked down to the main road to catch the number 126 minibus to the hairdresser, which is in Marjanishvili Street. Lots of people use mini buses to travel around the city. Unlike municipal buses they will stop anywhere along their routes to pick up and drop off passengers. They are also very cheap. The number 126 mini bus which goes to Marjanishvili Street and then on to the centre of the city has a flat fare of 60 tetri, which is about 36 US cents.

The tall person took this picture when they were in the mini bus. Above the windscreen the driver has put pictures of religious icons. There is also the symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church on the dashboard.

People in Georgia are very religious and you can see evidence of this wherever you go. When the minibus passed a church on the way to Marjanishvili Street, the driver and many of the passengers crossed themselves.

Marjanishvili Street is still being refurbished but the shops and the hairdresser and the street are still open to shoppers and cars, which is amazing because it is essentially one big building site. De, the tall person and the little person had to be very careful on their way to the hairdresser.

Don’t worry, they got to the hairdresser safely and the little person had his cut cut and the tall person had his unruly 10 hairs trimmed!

Like a venomous machine gun!

The tall person told me that Georgia has some of the largest bees and wasps he has ever seen and he has seen some big ones in his travels. I swatted a wasp yesterday and was about to eat it when the tall person stopped me. He said I would be hurt if it stung my mouth. Hmm, how can something much smaller than me hurt me? The tall person could see that I had my doubts so he promised to catch one and show me how dangerous they can be.

Sure enough, two wasps came into the house this morning and the tall person caught them and released one outside but kept the other in a wine glass so I could safely see it.

The wasp buzzed angrily as it tried to find a way out. The tall person explained that a wasp can sting many times, like a venomous machine gun, and people can die if they have an allergic reaction to the venom. He said it is important to keep calm when you see one. If you do it will probably go away but if you try to swat it and you kill or injure it a scent is released that will bring other wasps racing to the rescue.

Hmm, it appears that I have greatly underestimated these tiger-striped devils.

The tall person carefully picked up the wine glass and I followed him to the balcony and watched him release the wasp into the air. As he did, he told me that wasps eat a lot of insects and because of this we should see them as friends and not enemies.

Ok, I know one thing for sure – I won’t be putting one of these friends in my mouth!

There are some things we can choose to share but…….

The tall person told me that the ancient Egyptians greeted the sun each morning with a ritual, part of which included the words, ‘May your rays illuminate the earth’. That sounds nice. I have my own ritual each morning. I usually wake before dawn and alert my pre-dawn companion (the tall person) that it is time to get up and let me outside so that I can ‘water the earth’. I then go to the toy room balcony and watch the sunrise. I usually perform this part of the ritual alone because the tall person has his own dawn ritual that involves a cup of strong black coffee.

Today was a little different. I waited on the balcony and watched as the sky got lighter but I couldn’t see the sunrise because the sky was cloudy.

The tall person assured me that the sun did rise but we couldn’t see it because of the clouds. He told me that the sun is always shining but sometimes we can’t see it because of the clouds. Ok, I have seen a cloud cover the sun during the day and noticed it was still there when the cloud drifted away but where does the sun go at night? The tall person smiled and told me that at night the Earth has its back to the sun. He explained that all the people and plants and animals in our world have to share the sun’s light and warmth so the Earth turns slowly and when it is dawn for us it is sunset for people and plants and animals on the other side of the world.

Ah, I think I understand. There are some things that we can choose to share but darkness and light is shared by everyone. ‘Yes’ he replied, ‘if you understand this you will accept that the sun cannot always shine for you and you have to share the darkness but you will also know that darkness will turn to light’.

Hmm, I think there was a deeper message here but it’s time for a nap!