What's Up Doc?

We've all been a bit sick. N got the worst of it, we saw the doctor on Tuesday, another ear infection. This evening the doctor called me to see how he was doing and if I had any questions. How cool is that?

Open the Wallet

Incredible India. We did some shopping. Maybe we'll stay here a while...

I already introduced the prompt tailor. Last night we schlepped on over to the framers hut. We wanted to have our family photo (taken in Dallas just before we left) framed. We picked out the wide frame and double matting that we wanted and then asked the price. 1400 Rupees. "Yeah, okay, well, we'll leave these individual photos of the boys to get framed as well."

I ordered some baskets made for our closets, since we had no drawers. They were finally delivered last week (This was a study in the way things work here, 10 days became 35). Yeah, custom made baskets, priced well within the Blackburn tightwaded comfort zone.

Finally, we are currently auditioning carpets. We brought three home and now we have to decide which one we like best. Any votes?

This one is the smallest, about 9 x 6.

Next, about 8 x 11. The spot in the middle is a water drop on my camera lens, not actually on the carpet. Oh, and Phil and S are watching Return of the Jedi in this one. What started out as S's star wars initiation/family movie night degenerated. The rental place didn't have the original Star Wars in stock, so we had to go straight to Return of the Jedi. Then it wouldn't play on our DVD player, wrong region (who's genius idea was the whole region thing anyway). S was not going to be deterred. So earphones and computer screen it was.

Biggest, about 10x16. It fills up our whole room. Sorry the angle isn't the same on this one.

This post is sort of in direct contradiction to all those posts I've seen lately about not spending any extra cash.

What did you do for Republic Day?

Today was Republic Day, which meant a much needed three day weekend. Unfortunately today Phil and N were feeling a little under the weather so they headed home after a picnic in the park. S and I went to a friends place, where they'd hired an elephant to keep the kiddos (and Mom) entertained.

Quote of the Week

Punctuality is a gift from God. I love to be on time.
- The tailor, in response to Phil's urging that he be on time to an appointment they were scheduling.

N is for Nursery

N enjoying his PB&J


On Sunday they called a nursery leader in our branch. During the sustaining, when they asked if anyone was opposed N raised his hand high, right on cue. Not good.

Oh and sorry about the last post. Reading it now it sounds far more depressing than I'd intended. The effects of the strikes were really very minor. No shortages now, well, except all the regular, quite depressing, ones.

You Really Should Get Some Food Storage

No milk at the store yesterday. There's been a truckers strike. It ended on Monday, but we're still a little short on things here. There was also an oil workers strike that lasted a few days last week. That one we felt sooner. Our driver (okay, so our driver felt it sooner) waited for three hours for fuel last Thursday. On Friday the stations were all either shut down or had REALLY long lines. We also had some power issues the end of last week, I think that was because of the oil workers strike as well. By Saturday the government had broken the oil strike.
So, add food storage to the things to do list.

Mormories

I have to speak in church tomorrow, which means right now is a great time to aimlessly surf the net. Look what I stumbled across: Snide Remarks
Now if that don't bring back the memories....

Fast Street Food

Wouldn't let me load this in the last post, but this guy should have been on the memorable list as well. He was slowed down thinking we were taking a photo.

More from Southern India

(There are captions, if they aren't showing up click on the speach bubble at the bottom left of the slideshow)

The memorable stuff:

- Leeches, Phil and I got leeches while hiking in Northern Kerala. At least the boys didn't. Makes you feel like a better parent.

- Sunset over the Indian Ocean

- Floating the backwaters for a day in Kerala

- The slums of Mumbai, for right up in your space poverty.

- N's overflowing diaper contents all over my lap at dinner one night. Makes you wonder why you bother to ever leave home.

- Getting basically chased down the street by a beggar/vendor trying to sell us balloons, which she kept hitting us with.

- The replacement car and driver we lined up in a wink in Bangalore. The guy was a madman, we're all grateful to have survived.

- A teeny tiny branch/home group in Mumbai, the only one in the third largest city in the world.

- A week and a half away from our apartment; just what we needed to make it start to feel like home.

Southern India Trip

The Saturday after Christmas we left for a trip to Kerala in Southern India, and then Bombay. Think of the following as an appetizer, with more to come later.

This is the first time we've every used a travel agent to arrange a trip. Yeah, pretty sure I could be a travel agent. This was the car that was awaiting us at the airport:




And the bottom two are my view after we'd squeezed in. That's going to be a comfortable 600km. The guy in the middle one is the driver, hard to get a car here without a driver.