Fragola

It's been a while since Rihanna Gaga and I last had brunch together. Or at least, since I last wrote about it. A lot has happened since then. We left Dubai, spent a week in the Netherlands, moved back to Tunisia, found a new appartment and are now living in La Marsa, near Sidi Bou Said where we used to live.

We also had to deal with a rather severe flu my girlfriend picked up at Dubai airport, getting back to work and, In Rihanna Gaga's case, getting used to a new nursery. She had some trouble adapting. Of course, she was used to going to a nursery three times a week when we still lived in the Netherlands, but since then she has spent almost all her time with either me or her mother - apart from the weeks we were in the Netherlands, when her grandparents were looking after her most of the time. She is, however, slowly adapting and seems to be enjoying the hours spent at this new nursery, as well as the company of her new playmates. At first, however, she would break our hearts with her tears and her crying when we left her in the care of the women of the nursery. And then, we also had to deal with a crazy landlord who made settling into our - admittedly, very nice and large appartment only five minutes walking from the sea - more difficult than it could have been. It was quite a taxing time for all of us.

These are busy times anyway: I now work for three universities on two continents. Every Sunday I fly to the Netherlands to teach there on Monday, and on Tuesday I fly back to Tunisia where I teach every Friday. Rihanna Gaga is often restless when I'm not at home: again, she's gotten so used to always being with the three of us, that she finds it hard to accept my absence. And, of course, I miss her and her mother terribly when I'm in the Netherlands.

This also means we're not going out on Mondays anymore. We still have to settle for a new day, but this will most likely be on Thursday. In any case, I don't always have to go to the Netherlands, so there are still plenty of Mondays to come. For now, we've picked Thursday to have a look around our new neighbourhood. Again, we live very close to the sea. Basically around the corner from our new house is La Marsa's corniche, a lively seafront boulevard with plenty of cafés and eateries. They all seem to be rather similar: juices and hot drinks are served alongside pancakes and sandwiches.

We settle for Fragola, a smaller café squeezed in between the more imposing Café l'Opera and Café Route 66. Usually, most cafés have an outdoor terrace that is covered and heated during colder days, but today all outdoor terraces have been removed. We will have to sit inside, which is rather tricky in Tunisia, as indoor smoking is still the norm. However, we only share the small eatery with an older man and a younger woman - I suspect father and daughter - having lunch together. We order a pancake with chocolate and banana, an orange juice and a tea.

La Marsa is a seaside resort, much like Scheveningen where we used to live in the Netherlands. This means it has the same out of season feel. In the rain and wind of the Tunisian winter, the place has an atmosphere that is decidedly faded glory. Although most of the buildings are well kept - this is where Tunisia's beau monde lives - La Marsa also has crumbling remnants of French colonial time and empty oriental palaces being slowly consumed by the passing time. When the sun is not there to gloss things over, these charming but depricated buildings tend to be more present.

Fragola is, like I said before, quite small, especially without its outdoor terrace. Inside, there is just room for three tables in between the counter and the installation on which the pancakes are prepared with great care by the friendly waiter. The decoration is mainly red, pink and white and features a large number of pictures of strawberries. On the radio, Arab pop music is playing loudly.

Rihanna Gaga has been here before and she is clearly looking forward to the pancake, repeatedly saying 'hammm!' - her way of making clear she's ready to eat. The pancake is a chocolate bomb: generous quantities of nutella are heated in the folded pancake, which is then covered in banana slices and even more chocolate. Rihanna Gaga rarely gets sweets, so this is a special occasion for her. I rip of small parts of the pancake and she devours them gleefully. She is less interested in the orange juice, which is remarkable because she normally loves it. Tunisian orange juice is rather sweet and we never really found out why this is. Either the Tunisian oranges are rather sweet, or they add sugar. However, I've never seen them do this and even when we specifically ask for an orange juice with no added sugar, the taste is remarkably sweet. Of course, it is possible that the oranges are injected with sugar before being sold - my girlfriend once saw this happening in Dubai - but for now I will just assume that Tunisian oranges are indeed of a sweet variety. I suspect, however, that because of the sweetness of the chocolate pancake, it doesn't taste so sweet to Rihanna Gaga right now and that this is why she is less charmed by the juice today. At least, it tastes much more sour to me because of the chocolate.

Rihanna Gaga is not the easiest of toddlers today. It's understandable why: she's had a rough night, because of a cold she caught recently. She's not very ill, but her nose is running, which makes breathing at night, when she's laying down for a long time, difficult. Last night, I had to move into her bedroom and sleep on a mattrass with her because she was continuously crying softly because of this. My presence comforted her and in the end she did sleep soundly, but she still missed a few hours of sleep. Thus, she is grumpy. She has little patience for the time it takes me to drink my tea and slides from my lap to the floor to take my hand and attempt to pull me away from my seat. When I refuse, she starts crying, so I hurry up. I pay, pick up the take away pancake I ordered for my girlfriend and we leave to go shopping at the covered flower, vegetables and fruit market around the corner.