Pickpockets and Spiders

Well, I can finally cross something off my 'gadgets' list on Pinterest as something that I've acquired and find super useful. It's popularly called a Chinese spider (because of the metal basket which looks like a spider web) and can be used for taking food out of hot oil, as it drains off the excess oil effortlessly, or for draining pasta. In case you don't know by now which gadget hanging up there is the Chinese spider, it's the one with the metal basket and the bamboo handle. I initially was going to order mine from Amazon, but I checked prices on the internet and saw that it was 2 dollars cheaper at Bed Bath & Beyond. It always pays to compare prices as we all know.

One day this past week I got a phone call from my neighbour (the one I'm always happy not to see) saying her handbag had been stolen from inside her flat and she had to go to the police station to report it. She owns two flats in the building - one on my floor and she lives in one on the first floor. At the moment the one on my floor is empty although she's just told me there's a possibility that she was going to rent it out soon. Anyway, she's always going up and down from one flat to the other and she leaves the doors open in both places. Although I think she left her bag downstairs with her bag of art supplies, she thinks she left it upstairs. I suppose it was someone from the building who took it, because later that same evening she told me she had found her bag minus her wallet hanging on the door downstairs.

Last week I posted on facebook a story about a wallet that was hindering a door of one of the trains from closing properly. Inside the wallet the mechanic, whose job it was to repair the door, found a check for $2 million written out to someone from California. So far they haven't been claimed, which makes me wonder. Yesterday morning, I was again helping my friends from the language institute, only this time it was to unpack the books we'd put into boxes in July. As soon as we got into the underground station afterwards, we were warned about pickpockets by a guard. That's life in a big city!

My first week back to work was hard. I'm adjusting to the time change and routine more or less and sleeping better. Hope everyone's week is a good one.