Buying a Blender

Last week I bought a food mixer from a lady who was leaving Chennai to go back to the States. We agreed that I would pick it up from her house (where Penri and I have been once before).

We set off at 11 a.m. to head to Erin's house. Penri was driving (as I still haven't risked the roads here yet) so that left me navigating. If I've told Penri once, I've told him a hundred times 'I cannot map read', but he just told me to follow from here to here and tell him which roads to take in between - sounds simple!

Erin told me they lived on 2nd Avenue in Alwapet so I found it on the map and led Penri towards it. We missed a few roads on the way (which was probably my fault) and had to double back a few times. Eventually we got to 2nd Avenue in Alwapet which was the tiniest little backstreet I have ever seen. There were fruit stalls down both sides and small shops behind the stalls and there were people everywhere. Penri literally had to drive down the street with his hand on the horn to get people to move out of the way.

We got to the end of the road and I said to Penri that it didn't look at all familiar. So he snatched the map off me and said 'Let me look'. I phoned Erin in the meantime to ask here where on earth we were. She said they lived in 2nd Avenue, Venus Colony in Alwapet. So, there are TWO 2nd Avenues in Alwapet. While Penri was trying to read the map to figure out where we were, I spotted a shop called 'The Museum Company' and remembered that Erin lived on the road to the left of it, which I told Penri. He argued that there was no way they could live on the left as we were in completely the wrong place. I told him to just drive down the road on the left and he would see. I was right - even if I can't map read, I have a good memory.

So, I ran inside to get the blender/food mixer while Penri waited in the car. He was then going to drop me at my friend's house to play Mah Jong before going to work. Here we had another dilemma - I had to direct him to my friend's house. I'd only been once or twice before but both times I'd been with Megan's driver so I hadn't really paid much attention. So, we got lost again. By the time we finally got there it was just after 1 o'clock.