I poached two eggs for breakfast this morning. A stove! Finally! I bought a bag of grits and bacon. I bought yoghurts, and bread, butter and jam. Breakfast has to be the best meal. What’s more fun than poaching eggs? Or hard boiling them? Or frying bacon? (Danish streaky bacon! $2.25 per 100 grams.) I think I would be happy with just a shelf of books and a stove to cook on. The place I am living now is a manufactured paradise with a swimming pool, koi ponds, a gym, hardwood floors, security, and maids. But I can take no pride in it: I’ve built none of it. I hope one day to have a place where I can build a stone oven, or a chicken coop, or set aside land for a prairie to maintain. Animals of my own to keep. Reptiles of all sorts, small mammals. Children.

But for now I am at sea.