Suzy2, We Love You

There's a new addition to our household. She's called Suzy2 and she's a garlic crusher. I'm not really sure why she is called Suzy2, but that is her brand name or something, and so I cannot be blamed for it.

Reto and I have some sort of bizarre deprivation thing going on in our flat. There's a lot of stuff we don't have (like measuring cups or spoons, or mixing bowls, or a wooden spoon, or more than one chopping board, or a proper tin opener, or a toaster, or a bed that is big enough for my feet not to fall off the end). Some of it sort of makes sense, I suppose (our flat is so small that we couldn't really fit a larger bed in it. Plus we are so unemployed and theoretically impoverished that buying a new bed would be an insane plan at the moment), but to have to do all the cooking by guesswork because we have somehow not got around to shelling out 10 francs on measuring devices is completely nonsensical and annoying.

And yet also sort of charming. It makes me feel somehow virtuous to not have enough stuff, as though I am saving the environment or saying no to relentless consumerism or something, every time I mangle my fingers trying to use a stupid Swiss Army Knife to open a tin, or whenever I chop things up in old breadcrumb and tomato residue (because the chopping board is in such constant use that it doesn't get washed often enough. Good thing I have relatively low standards of hygiene). It also means that actually buying something that we really do need (oh Suzy2!) is fantastic and brings far more happiness than it really should. How I am looking forward to properly crushed garlic, really flavoursome garlic bread (although a toaster would be handy for that), repelling strangers and vampires and coughs and colds with my pungent garlicky breath!