Yes this is rather sad but I just read on the BBC entertainment page the last ever contestant of Big Brother has just won! I am guessing that was maybe at the weekend but have kind of lost track of the days! I did think it was refreshing that she is giving maybe 20 percent of her winnings to a cancer charity. Some may say she should give it all but some is better than none.
Just booked my ticket to Dubai to visit a good friend on route back to the UK. We actually met each other at University when we were working in the Admissions office so that's 10 years ago! We always seem to miss each other back in the UK. I think it may be 5 years since we have seen each other, I think possibly before we moved to Belgium! It was in London and we went for sausage and mash which is funny because I will come to that again later in this blog.
Today was Yoga day number 2 but I have woken up with a cold and a runny nose-just great! So I have decided that not only could I not manage the positions without having to blow my nose but that the other ladies would not appreciated me sneezing in the middle of an om! I guess I could try a few moves/ positions at home with my new Yoga mat that I have not opened. I thought buying one would encourage me to go. However, I did make it to the gym on Tuesday, did 40 mins on the tread mill and it did make me feel better-hooray!
So its a bit gloomy here again today in terms of the weather. Kind of overcast and almost a dampness in the air. The minaret should sound in an hour or so. You can hear it calling at certain points of the day. It calls at about 4:30 am, that's when I seem to wake up. Its quite atmospheric in the evening too as it starts to get dark. Its like this loud but muffled sound of deep singing through a poor quality speaker and it transcends through the air as the light begins to fade.
Just need to go and blow my nose and then I 'll be back.......
Muhan and I went to find the dentist yesterday but I had got the directions wrong. Anyway, it was quite exciting venturing up the the wrong road as I got to see shops and stores I had not seen before.
There were shops selling materials to make saris, chickens sitting in their squashed up cages, mutton freshly killed and hanging up to be purchased, coconut sellers, jewellery shops, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, horns beeping, rubbish that had been dumped in tidy piles of mess and lots of people waling up and down the road and of course the staring! Rose just told me to pretend we are celebrities to deal with the looks!
It was good to go out because I feel like a bit of a hermit at times. I think its maybe still the knock on effect of the dog and the bag incident plus the weather has been rather pants. Its not quite so intimidating walking about with Muhan because there are two of you. Its a bit more of an exciting adventure and there is time to look and appreciate your surroundings rather than just hurry along to where you want to get to.
We failed in the attempt to find the dentist but Kumar did take us later and show us and he laughed that we could not find it. We had gone down the road with the bakery on the corner that sells yummy looking Indian sweets rather than the next road. I think I have a picture of it so will try and find for today's visual installment.
I did think that we might get soaked as one of the motorbikes went by and drove through the muddy puddles left after the rain in the early hours of the morning. But we were fine and just ended up with wet, dirty feet again. Also I had just washed my shoes, well they are kind of like partly open toe trainers in the washing machine and put them on clean. Should have known they would not stay clean for long!
We went to a little local cafe but could not decide on anything. I had ordered some tea and humous, slightly odd combination I know but some would say I am a little odd at times! I felt bad canceling my order and also bad because there never seems to be any one in there. I think its just in the wrong spot. It's off Whitefield Main Road as you go down to the post office, that's how I discovered it. I am not sure its a hot spot for the locals especially too when its just opposite the hut where people line up for their rice rations.
We called Kumar to see if he was around to take us to the mall as there is a whole floor of different eateries. Muhan seems to have a thing for dosas at the moment which are kind of like pancakes I guess. There are two types, papery thin ones and then ones that are a bit more like American style pancakes. We had the paper thin Massala dosa . We could not eat with our hands because I had forgotten the anti bacterial hand wash and I would see my hands were grubby.
It was odd not to use our hands to eat, well the right one, and to be using a fork and spoon to eat, there were not any knives! Is that strange that now there are some things I just expect to use my hand to eat? My mum always said that she had difficulty getting me to actually use cutlery to eat when I was a child. Should have just brought me up in India or told people that she was embracing Indian culture! I am guessing it was probably rather embarrassing to have a child who insisted on using their hands to eat when out in public. I think she was worried what would happen when I started school and maybe made friends and was invited for tea at their houses! By tea I mean evening dinner here rather than a cup of tea.
Bought some courgettes and peppers in the supermarket to add to the rice for dinner. My rice making skills have actually improved and I am no longer cooking rice that is more akin to mashed potato than to rice! I did but some potatoes thinking I would make mashed potato and maybe sausages, comfort food I guess, but then I remembered MT is vegetarian and actually I don't think I have seen any sausages for sale here.
Oh and on the subject of meat, they are trying to make beef illegal here in Bangalore. I read it in the paper at the weekend. I am not sure how the law quite works here and I am not sure how it will take to be implemented. I wondered if It would start some kind of a black market. I think there are enough rich folks here who might still indulge. Would there be a meat police?
Lots of people have told us that it is all very corrupt here but that's here say rather than knowing for sure. There are lots of places that are corrupt, I mean we paid the police officer in Egypt to be allowed through the hole in the fence to ride a horse across the desert by the Pyramids! Gosh can we be had for that now?!
I just thought he was part of the organizers. Kind of a look out post to make sure that everything was okay with the horses and riders. I thought it was a little strange having to pay again but didn't question it, too excited about riding a horse to see the Pyramids. MT later told me the reality of the situation-sooo naive at times! And to be honest sometimes its better not to know.
Oh and this really did make me chuckle-when we went past a McDonald's the other day there was a cow stood right outside the entrance! Would have been a genius camera moment! You'll just have to picture it!
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