29.5.2015

Elina: 9.00-10.00 AM; on the porch of my room, Hideaway Guesthouse, Funafuti

Guess what I had for breakfast?

• bread with peanut butter
• 1 orange
• tea

At least I have (also) something else to blame for these monotonous breakfasts than my own laziness: the acute lack of products in Tuvaluan convenience stores. Besides coconuts, and a weird fruit that is extremely challenging to chew and tastes a bit like a bubblegum, almost nothing grows here, and thus the stores sell mostly imported, canned food. The largest of the stores has imported oranges, sometimes apples, and there is a bakery that sells the one kind of bread they make – either sliced or in a loaf – and buns that taste the same as the bread. During my time in Tuvalu eggs haven't been available at all, neither in the stores nor at the restaurants. Drinking water is available only in some stores, and the few shops close to my guesthouse in the north end of the island, have not had any beverages for sale for some days now. Makes me think of the hassle that emerges in Finland during Christmas time when the shops run out of mustard or cloves...

Mikko: 5.20-5.30 AM; waiting lounge, Nadi airport

• oats & dark chocolate snack
• tea

Thirty-four hours later I had breakfast again, and, thanks to the wacky 19 hour time difference, it was still the same day.

15.05-15.45 PM; on the porch of my Airbnb lodging, Koreatown, Los Angeles

• Greek yoghurt with mysli
• 1 orange
• water