Yesterday: shopped for material with Sachiko and gave advice on what I thought would work and not work. Bought cheap pants that could be worn to an office. Cut my (own) hair. Met Salome and Angela but they went to a pena that cost €5 for a student dancer that I didn't care about seeing so I left and went home to listen to George Michaels and Duran Duran and Eurythmics and wonder if there were any 80s nights at clubs here. I worked on my teaching certificate.

Today I worked on the blouse pattern for Sachiko, which has a serious flaw and I need to re-do it. Besides she asked for a design change. Had a frigid shower in a cold house. Was completely unhappy and ranted on facebook about leaving a sensible 9-5 job in a country that never runs out of hot water to live in a place where the stable temperature of my body is seriously at stake.

The last few days have been really cold - about how Vancouver was when I was home. It felt like 2 degrees, and apparently went below zero last night. This is not normal here. I stopped for a coffee after my practice session today. I try not to spend money on things like that but sometimes it is the only way to get sun and I need to do it. I read in the paper that Andalucia has gotten only 63% of the precipitation it normally gets, and it has not been this dry since the 60s. In fact, it is as sunny as summer, every day.

Well, for the last two days Rocio and I have been both having the hot water cut out after only showering a few minutes - not long enough to get your body temperature up enough to cope with the water going cool. Today it was COLD the whole time. The gas "box" on the wall that is responsible for the heating is new; there should be no problems like a year ago when the pressure went so low you couldn't actually shower unless it was lukewarm. Our "bonbon" was getting low - we still had gas though - enough to make several cups of tea and fry some food, yet it refused to allow me hot water.

I don't mind a bit of the "starving artist" thing. I knew I was getting myself in for a different life without some stuff; having to be careful. But this is not much of a step above being homeless - (fine, I'm exaggerating, but shivering to me is like a kind of terrible suffering - I think I might rather go without food).

The problem is this is the norm, in middle class apartments. Even the poor (as long as they are not homeless) have a better standard of living in Canada. If a person in Canada has a roof over their head, there is always (to my knowledge) a hot water tank that stands as tall as a grown adult, and only runs out of water when several people take long showers and do the dishes too. You have to be really extravagant at home, to run out of hot water, and you have to be homeless to not have an enormous hot water tank.

Even Sachiko's really lovely apartment all stylishly built only lets you have 5 minutes of hot water (I counted). This is only barely enough to satisfactorily shower. It is not quite enough to warm up a cold body in a building less insulated than an igloo.

I can live with dirt, without toilet paper, with a bedroom disconnected from the house where you have to go outside to the toilet. But I cannot live without heat. Homayoun's place was a drastic improvement above most Sevillan apartments; the main living space was generally heated! I couldn't care less that the shower floor was full of mud - the hot water didn't run out unless the water itself got disconnected and ruined the solar panel.

My hands are full of chilblains - swollen and cracking. That is because you do not have hot water on demand, the moment you want it here. And because I have not adjusted my use of water. At home, it would be necessary to turn on the water in the sink before you sit on the toilet. By the time you get up, the water might have run warm enough to use, depending on how long you sat there. Same goes in the kitchen. If you need to rinse off your hand quickly - sorry. When you are using a washroom elsewhere - a bar or cafe, the studio - they usually only have cold water. That's why you get chilblains. If you think it doesn't matter using cold water every time you wash your hands in winter, try it - while having the thermostat in your house turned off and having to go around the house in a puffy coat.

Okay. I have complained enough. It's great here.

Fine, my place is nice and has 12 foot ceilings.