Temples, Catfish and Autos

Some random photos from India (that I haven't yet put on my blogsite).

Firstly, Mylapore Temple - a well known landmark in Chennai. The second picture shows the catfish at the back of Mylapore Temple. Someone told me they were eels and I was all excited and couldn't wait to see them, but they're only catfish (albeit hundreds of them). And finally, an autorick being repaired. You see this quite frequently around Chennai - you just have to pray you're not in one when they decide they need to change a tyre or something!

Do you like what you see?

Fancy a massage and then a holiday at the Santana beach resort? Photos taken at Mamallapuram when we were last there. Fancy putting a sign up for the hotel beach resort when it's not even built? It's like the Carry on Abroad film!

Another year over

Christmas is over and now we can look forward to the New Year, making lots of resolutions that we will never keep and working our way through 2007 as quickly as we have through this year. Isn’t it amazing how time flies?! If you’d asked me a year ago where I thought I would be in a year’s time, my reply would’ve been – ‘still teaching at Patchway, still living in Bristol’ … who’d have thought I’d be here in India?! Speaking of resolutions – I must think of some before January 1st.

Christmas Day was lovely. We woke up at 7 a.m. and opened our presents. Santa was very kind to me this year (and so was Penri). We spent the morning together and then set off to Stephanie and Richard’s house for lunch. We had delicious chilli (I know Chilli on Christmas day) but it truly was lovely. She’s such a good cook. Sophia (their 2 year old daughter) was so cute and wouldn’t go to sleep cause she was too excited with people at her house and new toys and everything. I will come back to this and attach a picture of her playing her keyboard (that we bought her) when I get home (I’m typing this from Penri’s work). She’s so adorable. Anyway, we sat and chatted for the afternoon and set off home at around 5 p.m. Driving down the ECR on Christmas Day you wouldn’t have a clue it was Christmas. All the shops were open and people everywhere going about their daily routines. Can you imagine trying to go to Asda or Tesco on Christmas Day? No chance! In the afternoon we played computer games and I added our new DVDs into our collection and we just relaxed. It was lovely.

On Boxing Day I got up at about 11 a.m. and started preparing lunch. We decided that we were going to have a roast dinner on Boxing Day so we had been out on Sunday to get all the vegetables and chicken etc. Would you believe that our “Christmas dinner” cost us £3.50? That was for all the veg and trimmings! So, back to where I was …. Boxing day morning I started preparing all the food – you know the deal – peeling potatoes (with the new peeler Penri bought me for Christmas), chopping veg and even making stuffing and Yorkshire puddings from scratch. I also got to use my food mixer (again), which Penri said I would never use (just had to throw that in there)! Penri came downstairs at about 1 o’clock just as I was finishing things off. He helped to make the stuffing and mash the potatoes (which I hate doing)! We sat down to eat at 1.30 and listened to some Christmas carols … it kind of felt like Christmas.

So, today is the 27th and Penri is already back to work. I decided to join him in the office and take the opportunity of updating my blog site as I was having trouble attaching pictures from home. I was in working with him last week (sending invoices and stuff) so he could finish his month end.

What else have we been up to? Well, I played piano for the Children’s Christmas Brunch on Sunday 10th December. It was certainly interesting. We (Sarah and I) arrived at the hotel at 7.30 a.m. to find that the room hadn’t been set up and was still in a mess from the Christmas do the night before. There were 120 people arriving between 9 and 9.30 expecting to see Santa Claus. The people at the hotel didn’t quite grasp the urgency of how much work there was to be done. However, credit given where due, after Sarah had words with the manager (and cried) they pulled their fingers out and actually did some work! I have some photos (again at home), which I will attach to the blog later. I got to play carols on a lovely black baby grand piano! It is always fun with kids and quite a lot happened while I was playing … just a few examples … when I started playing (when Santa Claus was coming in), there was a young girl (who can’t have been more than 2 years old) sat next to me who started crying. She was not happy about Santa being there! Also, when I was playing the carols, this little boy came up to me half way through a song and said ‘hello’. I smiled at him and he smiled back and said ‘hello’ again so I said hello back to him and then he just stood next to me and watched me. Next thing I got poked in the bum by a little girl leaning on the piano stool; I missed a cue cause I was blinded by a Japanese lady taking my photo, and everyone sang ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ wrong even though I’d been through it that morning to make sure my music matched the words they were using. It didn’t matter though – everyone had fun and all the kids seemed happy enough.

I also played the piano for the OWC (Overseas Women’s Club) OAP lunch which was even more interesting as this time the piano was very old and dodgy and some of the notes were way out of tune. We sang through a few carols and they kept requesting things I didn’t have so I just had to make it up as we went along. Again, it was ok … I couldn’t hear them singing because of the size of the room we were in, but Sarah was stood behind me singing and we were in time with each other and it sounded ok from where I was sitting. Although afterwards my friend Yvonne told me that the singing from where she was standing was awful (I’m just glad she said singing and not playing!) Then the OAPs were coming up in pairs and requesting songs which I would play for them so they could sing to all the others. It was only when a dear little old couple asked me to play ‘C is for Christ and H is for Herald’ that I had no clue what they were talking about. Luckily the hotel/club pianist seemed to know it and he played for them and then I didn’t have to play anymore. I had a good time (even if the piano was out of tune).

On January 31st I am playing for the OWC Garden Party, which should be nice. My friend Stephanie (who we spent Christmas with) is a trained singer (she has an amazing voice) so she’s singing and I’ll accompany her. Quite looking forward to it actually although we seriously need to get some practice in beforehand. Also, Penri’s mum arrives on the 30th January, which is really exciting, so she’ll be able to come and watch. It’ll make me more nervous, but I hope she’ll enjoy it.

Not much other news to write about now but I will be more active in updating my blog more frequently … there’s my New Year’s Resolution right there!

Fisherman's Cove 24.11.06

On Friday we went down to Fisherman’s Cove again for lunch and then we visited Mallamapuram. We went to the Shore Temple and Arujuna’s Penance and looked at all the carvings in the rocks. Again, there are people trying to sell you things everywhere you went. My dad bought some carvings (two sets) for 600 rupees. David (who is great at bartering) then bought two sets for 100 rupees. My dad was annoyed cause he thought he’d got a good deal. It’s amazing how much they try to rip you off here. There’s always room for negotiation – another example is I bought six moonstones for 200 rupees. David then bought five moonstones for 100 rupees. My dad then (trying to get one up on Dave because he’d bought the same as him with the carvings for six times the price) bought six moonstones for 100 rupees. They started off asking for 250 rupees for two moonstones (just to give you an idea of how much you can barter with them). The only problem is once you’ve bought something they continue to follow you and hassle you and try to get you to buy more! Here is a classic photo of my dad – trying to get rid of the three men (who knew he’d paid 600 rupees for two sets of carvings) trying to sell him postcards and paintings.

I've included some pictures of us at Temple Bay and a picture of a group of women cutting the grass. It's not like in England where they use a lawnmower - here they have tiny scissors (which look like nail scissors)!!

Marina

On Monday we decided to head over to Chennai Marina to see about hiring a boat. I’ve never been that far north of Chennai. We had a look around the marina but they were all commercial fishing boats. After that I took my dad and Dave to Santhome Cathedral, Fort St George and then Spencer’s Plaza for some shopping. Another long day, but it was really good. I took lots of photos on my new camera – here are a few.

Bird Sanctuary

On Sunday we had decided we were going to set off at lunchtime and head over to the Bird Sanctuary as my dad wanted to take photos of the birds (his favourite pastime). We set off at 1.30 p.m. and followed the map down past Mallamapuram. We drove and drove down the East Coast Road and after a couple of hours driving, stopped for petrol to find out where on earth we were. The guys in the petrol station told us we had gone too far and the Bird Sanctuary was about 30 kms back the way we had come. So, we turned around and drove back the way we came. We stopped and asked someone else who hadn’t a clue what we were talking about so we kept driving until we came to a little village. We stopped to ask some guys who were sitting under a shade listening to some music. When my dad opened the door, the smell that wafted in was definitely not cigarettes. The guys were high on whatever it was they were smoking so I told my dad to get back into the car and we’d ask someone else. We finally found someone who seemed to know the place we were talking about and he told us to keep driving until we came to a crossroads then we should turn left and head down that road. So, that’s what we did. We ended up driving through this tiny village and out the other side. We spent the next 40 minutes driving down the road pictured below. Penri was dodging potholes and buses (which kept coming towards us) as well as crazy people walking down the middle of the road.

The most hilarious thing was when we stopped to ask someone who was walking down the road for directions. He obviously spoke no English so Dave tried to explain where we were going by bending his arms and flapping like a bird …. Well, you should have seen this guys face! His jaw dropped open and he just stared at the four of us as we cracked up laughing and drove off.

At this point my dad kept saying ‘we should turn back’ – there was no way we were going to give up after we’d come so far (even if no-one knew where we were going). We finally found someone at a petrol station who knew the way exactly. He directed us right to the town where the sanctuary is. When we got there it was 5.30 p.m. and we had been driving for four hours! The sun was just about to set so we thought we’d check out the bird sanctuary anyway. My dad took a couple of photos although we didn’t have much time before it was too dark.

The idea was that we would find a place to stay near the Bird Sanctuary so that we could get there first thing the next morning (before sunrise) so my dad could take photos. We checked out the only hotel nearby and it was a dump! We drove into the entrance, took one look at the building and decided it was worth heading back to Chennai. Once we left the sanctuary we came out on a massive dual carriageway! A road, funnily enough, that leads straight back to Chennai – the map we were reading was completely wrong! So, coming home wasn’t half as bad as going as it was motorway all the way. We were all tired and starving so we stopped at Cedar’s (a Lebanese restaurant) for dinner on the way home! When we got back to the house we all crashed out. It had been such a long day.

Croc Bank 18.11.06

On Saturday we took a drive over to Fisherman’s Cove (a beach resort south of Chennai) as my dad and Dave wanted to hire a boat to go fishing. The only boat available to hire was a small, very basic boat with a little engine on the back and the fishing wasn’t with rods but with a net, so they decided to think about it (and see if there was somewhere else they could hire something better). We had the buffet lunch at the restaurant there (which was very nice) and then decided to head over to Crocodile Bank (which was only about 10 km away). It was starting to rain but we decided to go over there anyway. By the time we got to the Crocodile place the rain was minimal and it seemed to be stopping so we decided to go in. We had a good walk round and took some nice photos and this time I was brave enough to hold the baby crocodile! Penri wouldn’t hold him and there was no way my dad or Dave was going to. It was quite scary as I kept thinking he was going to turn round and snap at me so I probably held his neck a little too tightly (see picture). I also took some pictures including one of two street children with a monkey (unfortunately it’s not a great picture as it’s a bit too dark).