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Carol, our first visitor (her on the left) |
So what kind of bike is that? |
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Our first visitor!
It's Sunday evening, 9.05 p.m., and I'm reclining on the sofa typing my next journal entry while keeping half an eye on the Sky Sports live match - Chelsea v Arsenal. Yes, we finally cracked and bought a TV. Purely coincidental that the purchase coincided with the kick-off of the football season. (Chelsea have just scored - bad mistake by Seaman). There's more live English football on TV here than in the UK, but it suffers from two problems. First, because of the time difference (four and a half hours now, five and a half after the clocks go back in the UK), the evening matches kick off at 12.30 a.m. (soon to be 1.30 a.m.). Secondly, they show lots of matches, but don't really give you the overall picture. So, for example, yesterday we had Sunderland v Man United live (3.00 kick off, 7.30 here), followed immediately by the full Man City v Everton game from earlier in the afternoon. But no other match reports or even results, so I still don't know how Liverpool got on. I'm listening to the Sunday match commentary for a hint or a mention.
More exciting even than getting a TV in time to watch Liverpool beat Southampton was - our first visitor! Carol Leadbetter arrived right in the middle of our Independence Day morning snacks - the quad full of students and staff in their best Indian clothes, and a bedraggled traveller arrives fresh from a 24-hour car-train-taxi journey from Rupaidiha on the Nepal border. At last the house feels like a home, with the spare room in use. We saw plenty of the spare room, since Carol spent most of Saturday in bed with what was probably exhaustion after a hard five weeks work on the Nepal border. Apart from that, it was a great week, ending with a meal and shopping in the bazaar on the Wednesday before she set off on Thursday back to the UK. We also managed to fit in the Indian culture night (Thursday), our first dinner party (Friday), a dance and snacks party (Sunday), our first Beatles jam session and karaoke (Monday) and house group (Tuesday). Honest, it's not always so busy. Why, last week we ate at home .. once. Enough. What other things can I tell you about?
Transport
We're more or less decided on buying a motorised shopping trolley, otherwise known as a scooter. It seems to be the thing - low-powered, but geared for carrying weight up hills, cheap, easily-maintained and reliable. The other choice - the classic Enfield 350 c.c. - seems to be for people who enjoy tinkering and mending as much as riding. And apparently the gearing is all wrong - fast(ish) on the flat (of which there isn't much around here - certainly bits you'd want to go fast on), but hard to get up the hills. I think it's true: I saw a couple on one in the bazaar, stalled on a hill - couldn't get going at all. There's one other alternative - a real local specialty. This is really for my brother in law, Andrew, who, as something of a bike mechanic, was well puzzled by a photo I sent him from the local mechanic's shop in the bazaar. To put him out of his misery, it was: an Enfield frame; an Enfield gearbox moved back a bit to make way for a Maruti-Suzuki car engine, cut down from a three-cylinder to a two-cylinder. I think I'll stick with a little Bajaj Chetal 150 c.c.
Housekeeping - and more about food
We've decided to go for the eating main meal at home lark, starting tomorrow. It's going to be a bit of a hassle when we get home - heating up what the ayah has cooked for us. We employ Umilla for a couple of hours a day to do cleaning, laundry and ironing, but she's also a good cook, so two or three days a week she'll be making our evening meal. Her understanding of English is fine for everyday purposes, but we don't see her, because we're out at work, so had to figure out how to communicate our requests. It turns out that, unusually for local women here, she can read - so all I've got to do is leave her a note. In Hindi. I knew those lessons would come in useful. Once I've learned all the letters of the alphabet, the variety of food we can commission should go right up.
Work
Oh, not on Sunday night. Some other time.