Doctor daughter has just phoned to say she has a post in Scotland. An 8 year paediatrics post, 3 years at Dundee and 5 at Edinburgh. We are all ecstatic, she is even allowed to accept it... but... Which means that if one she ranked higher comes up, she will be offered it and can change to that.
She applied for and really wanted a paediatrics consultancy training post and preferably in Edinburgh, she's been at Sick Children's for the last 4 months and has really enjoyed it, so this is just the answer to prayers.
Alleluia!

We have had a good day too, school was quieter than yesterday, Santosh and Buneswari were in first thing working with Maggie and I and Joel the physio. He has decided that having completed his 'bond' 2 year period, he wants to continue working in the school, he has really enjoyed working alongside me and wants to do more work with the early years children, he's a really good physio and very good with both children and parents and also has good background knowledge which he happily shares with the teachers when my Tamil and pigeon English give up (after about 3 words!) I had a short time with Subbaiah before lunch, then only half a session with Mariam as we had to meet with the Bishop who is being really supportive of what I am doing.
When we left the Bishop, we hit the road to Kanya Kumari, the Southern tip of India in time to catch a glorious sunset, paddle in the Tri-Sea (Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean), gather some shells in the Arabian sea shore then have dinner and back here for around 10.00pm in time for the call giving Doctor daughter's news.
Glorious sunset as you can see. The first picture is of people bathing in the sea which is a holy place for Hindus. As you can see, they had a lot of fun and bathe fully dressed! We almost did too, the waves come in a circular motion at times so the water was coming down from the shore. As you can see from some of the pics, the water was wild and beautiful. We are looking due west (obviously as the sun is going down Sally!) across the Arabian Sea with nothing between us and Africa.

We're off to Chennai tomorrow night for the weekend, staying with Carrie's brother. Sleeper overnight in 2nd class AC. Only two levels of bunks not 3 thank goodness, climbing the ladders on a moving train in the dark is fairly hairy! I don't have Easter holidays as school closes on the 18th April, but I have permission to take a day off! We get back 8.30am Monday morning so straight to school.

Hallo Sarah-Jane I hear you are reading my blog at home with your mum over the Easter holidays clever Mum for finding it! (Sarah Jane is one of my pupils at RBS).
That's a very apposite title isn't it, it is one of the things that made our 1997 trip so memorable, that I actually knew someone called Lazarus who lived in Nazareth. Yesterday we went to Nazareth after school, a small town around 45 minutes away, and met up with Lazarus (one of our 1997 visit drivers) and his wife Benedicte, I go to see them every time I come to India. That makes it an 11 year friendship - it is just so unheard for local people, that a driver should have links with a white visitor. The main purpose of our visit to Nazareth though was to meet up with the family of Jeya (the other driver) who died in 2006. His eldest daughter is named Sally after me and will be 10 next month, his younger daughter is Jessy who is 6. Sadly the message that Sugurna would be in and ready to see us was incorrect, she now has a teaching job in Tuticorin, 20 miles away and does not get home till 9.00pm. We had to leave at 6.30. We saw the girls though and the picture below shows Lazarus and Benedicte, Maggie and I and Sally and Jessy... who looks just like her Dad! I'll go back again and hopefully see her then, time here though is running away from me.
the sunset was taken on the road back from Nazareth... Wow!
It has been suggested I mention again that if you click on one of the pictures, it will open up as a full page pop-up window... I may have said that already recently but there you go that's what happens when you get older.!
By the way, it has stopped raining! You may also notice in the pics that I gave into pressure and wore UK clothes to school today, it felt very strange, the first time since November, I kept trying to pull my blouse down lower like my suits. People were generally complimentary though.

We've had a busy couple of days in school and out! Unlike the UK we don't have Easter holidays, but we had Good Friday off. Yesterday, Monday, Buneshwari & Santhosh were in first thing and then Anand after break. The two little ones are doing well and the two mums are giving each other support which as I have said before was one of the aims of my project to develop a support system for parents. Anand is just coming on hand over fist. When he came he sat with support and did next to nothing,his parents said they really wanted him to begin to respond to his name. Now, he is walking a few hesitant steps, 5 today to get to me blowing bubbles! He is playing on his own with objects, exploring them visually and tactually. I am not claiming credit for teaching him to walk, I haven't. I have though helped to motivate him so that walking is a useful thing for him to do and thus he wants to do it! He actually had a temper tantrum today when it was time to finish... what more could I ask for.
Maggie took around 100 pics today, so I am only going to put a few up, but you can just see the sheer joy in his face. I know the pic of him laughing at the bubbles is shaky, but he was rocking back and forth with laughter and didn't stay still for a moment as he tried to catch the bubbles. The little boy in school uniform is called Viki (short for Viknesh) and he just loved the bumble ball. I've never heard him speak before, but he came into my room today and said 'Thank you madam' (- that he had been asked to come) I couldn't believe it. then later I am almost sure ... and Maggie heard it too... that Subbaiah said my name and he does not say any words, only makes sounds (and no Mike, that is not because I do not recognise the sounds and words as Tamil.

The parents keep looking at the equipment I am using and asking if I brought it from the UK. The only things I brought were a small red hand held light and a Mathmos rechargable coloured light ball. I've found everything else in local shops! Yesterday I found a bumble ball, but as well as moving around, it plays a tune (not a fisher price type nursery rhyme but an Indian pop-type tune and lights up...I may bring it home, what do you think customs would say! Methilda even asked if I had brought the tubes of bubble mix from the UK as she had never seen them before. I just don't think that people look or see the potential for what they have available. I have bought hair tassles which are made of shiny foil type stuff, light weight bells and a ball which lights up if you pull a string with just a touch of your finger, all to hang for Buneshwari who has not strength in her arms and can't move my heavier noisy things. I have to say I am having such fun shopping and hunting things down. Sometimes though, as you can see in the picture of Mariam laughing, you don't need anything else, you can have fun when two people interact with each other.

Happy Easter to everyone. We were up for our 7.45am service in time this morning and our auto appeared as requested. The service was just over an hour long, the church was simply decked out with garlands of fabulously fragrant jasmine flowers.

We got back home at around 9.30 and had bacon rolls then boiled a couple of eggs and decorated them!  Chocolate doesn't do too well in India even when it is raining - although it is available, I haven't seen any Easter eggs! The item behind the eggs is a palm cross, made from local palm leaves, quite amazing and very simple. The egg decoration was a bit limited as we only had a permanent blue felt pen and a red white board marker!

That out of the way, and eggs eaten, we had a rest then out to Lydia's for lunch... chicken biryani... followed by fruit. Very tasty. Our auto came to pick us up in time to come back here to change, Lydia could not believe it when he came early, she said she knows of no autos that come even on time let alone early, so I told her I could actually offer her two separate ones who are prompt! Here we are post-lunch looking very well fed!

We came home, finalised our preparation for this evening and our next auto arrived sharp, this was Raja who was going to come to church with us. He looked amazing, had on brand new 'Easter' clothes, like Christmas, local Christians have a new outfit for Easter. He even had on a baseball cap to keep off the 'still continuing' rain. He said he was very proud to be with us! We two middle aged ladies were delighted to have such a dapper young escort!

All went well at the cathedral, more beautiful jasmine garlands and a very fulsome introduction from Frederick. We were given personalised plaques as a memento of the occasion. Lydia who thought she had slipped quietly into church with us for her first visit to the cathedral for over two years was called on to present them!  Maggie's music was well received as was my 'Easter message' . The evensong service turned out to be another Eucharist, in Tamil this time, we increased the congregation by 6 though, ourselves, Lydia and Enoch, and Nancy and her husband, and there sitting in the front pews grinning, were children from Bishop Sargent school who were delighted to see us in the places of honour! After the service, we went for a cup of coffee and then back home to phone the family and relax. Maggie playing her flute as we travelled in the auto to the delight and amusement of Raja and at great personal risk as we went over a more bumpy than usual road thanks to the heavy rain breaking up the surface.Back to school tomorrow and hopefully to Nazareth afterwards to see Jeya's widow Sugurna and her children Jessie aged 6 and Sally who will be 10 in June.

Up late this morning which was rather nice, we went first to Frederick and Susie's house to hand over my piece for the Cathedral so Frederick could prepare a translation. I was pleased when he said 'Oh good you have used Matthew's Gospel, I have used John.' he seemed happy with what I had done which is a relief. Maggie then went over a song to teach tomorrow. The rain continues! The picture of a cow and her calf is outside our house, she seems to like lying in the centre of the crossroads of which we stand on one corner. the calf is the smallest I have ever seen here or in the UK. It has been about for a week now and the cow is just so loving towards it, tending it really carefully. She enjoyed the apple core I took to her yesterday and hand fed her she is very placid. I know the second picture is not great, but you can see the size of the calf next to one of the local dogs which are much smaller than a lab. We were home in time to get ready to go out with our auto boy, Raja, he is an English speaker which is great and has recently (10 months ago) become Christian, he is extremely nice and I had arranged that he take us out for the afternoon in his Auto to show Maggie all the sights of Tirunelvelli. The river is in flood again and even higher than last time, even the locals are commenting on it. Those temples are almost fully under water now.. The weather was not really suitable for sight seeing though and so we went shopping.Maggie had a great time in Pothy's, the picture shows the entrance hall and a statue of Ganesh. A reminder that if you click on the pictures, a full screen version will open in a separate window.

I bought some fabric to have made into blouses for back home. We next went to the Temple and spent 2 hours wandering around, no guide which actually made it easier to enjoy the atmosphere. We wandered very freely, the Temple here covers 14 acres It is not as majestic as Madurai, but very old. Sadly no photos allowed. We bumped into the German group we met at Bishop Sargent the other day too. We were blessed by the elephant, then when we rounded a corner it was having its feed, a man was positioned underneath the elephant with a bucket and was catching its pee. Another man then transferred some of the urine to a utensil, put on the lid and left the building. We didn't have the nerve to ask what he was going to do with it! As the elephant was there though as an earthly representation of Ganesh, I presume that the stuff has some special qualities. The whole temple was a very worshipful place today, every so often we would hear chants from speakers which filled the place with sound. There were worshippers of all ages making Puja and showing respect to various images and statues. We met a proud grandmother bearing her 20 day old grandson accompanied by grandfather and the proud parents, taking the baby to be presented for the first time, young girls and boys with newly shaven heads and several monks and priests. One hall had musical pillars, if you rapped on the pillars with your knuckles, and put your ear to them, they had a musical note, there were enough of them to make a pipe organ. We were heading for the entrance, when we heard some wonderful music, a man beckoned us and we were allowed into Siva's shrine which is normally closed to non-Hindus. The sound came from a drummer and a player of a reed wind instrument which had wonderful tone. After the obligatory anointing with scented ash...which closely resembled talcum powder, we left. Because of the rain, the temple was ankle deep in water in places, by the time we got back to our shoes which were left outside our feet were filthy! Back to the auto - a quick visit to the tank to see the pelicans. The pictures are a view of the temple entrance from the road into town and then a beautiful cloud formation over the town tank, which is a lake sadly beginning to fill with water hyacinth. If you look closely in the enlarged version you'll see a pelican gliding on the water.

On next to the government shop which sells local made craft goods and is infested with mosquitoes as I soon found out. A little shopping then back home, we had been out for 6 and a half hours. When we asked Raja how much we owed him, he asked for 250 rupees, about £3. We doubled that and thanked him very much. He is coming to pick us up for Church tomorrow evening and I asked him if he would like to come to the service, I offered to pay for his waiting time in the auto, so that he didn't feel he was losing money. Waiting time is 35 paise (100 paise to the rupee) per 10 minutes. To which he replied that he had already planned to come with us to the service which was nice. He'll have to sit on the mens side of the church, while we will be the honoured guests at the front I'm afraid.
We have an early Easter service tomorrow at 7.45am so it's an early night for us tonight we hope.

Well Maggie and I were up at 6.30am for our Good Friday service at 7.45, auto came on time too so that was good. We had 3 hours with 7 different people speaking on the last words, each a little longer than the one before although the pastor at the end thanked them for staying within their allotted time slots. One of the difficult things here is that when Indian people are speaking English, or reading from a script then punctuation goes out of the window... in fact any sort of pause and that combined with the dodgy, high volume sound system distorted by the constant whirr of ceiling fans (there are about 50 in church) can make them virtually unintelligible! Some were good and clear others less so. We got back home through the continuing torrential rain, not much fun in an open sided auto when the puddles come up almost to the edge of the doors.
This afternoon we went to visit Revd Frederick at the Cathedral,he is the new provost. He has asked us if we will go to evensong on Easter Sunday at the cathedral and has asked Maggie to play her flute and me to give the Easter message (preach) which is an incredible honour and rather daunting they expect 3-400 people. Frederick will do a simultaneous translation into Tamil, which will probably take at least half as much time again as the English version as Tamil is rather a long winded language.
From the Cathedral we braved the weather again and went into Junction for our dinner to MH restaurant, we had Biryani which was very nice too! Coming home the rain picked up again and our usual auto was busy so we got one from by the bus stand. A very young boy who didn't seem to know the way to where we were going - it is rather a long way out to Perumalpuram!
All went well till we got just over half way, the rain was very bad and visibility poor. The road surface is breaking up badly under the weather conditions and huge pot holes appearing. All of a sudden there was a loud bang and the auto swayed from side to side and came to a halt in the middle of the road. I thought at first we had hit a vehicle, but it had been a pot hole, as autos have a single front wheel, when it had gone into the hole (about 10 inches deep), it had damaged the axle, our speed had taken us out of the hole again. The auto had rocked violently side to side and the boy did really well to have kept control and stopped it rolling over which would have been really serious form our point of view, as it was we were just shaken. The boy hopped out and tried to push us to the side of the road, he was really unhappy about us getting out in the traffic, but we actually felt safer once we had got ourselves out of the auto and to the side of the road. A 4 by 4 pulled along side and the driver wound down his window to get a better look, so I asked him if he would help and he said 'No' and drove off! Obviously disappointed that there were no casualties we thought. Another auto came and helped get ours to the verge, he then managed to start up again and tried to drive but it was obvious all was not well so we asked him to stop, gave him double the fare and got into an auto which was passing. I felt so very sorry for the boy, he was only young and did really well, but obviously was going to have a hefty repair bill as well as being at the wrong end of town. I think he was ready to cry. We made it home safely and after a cup of tea, I spent the evening writing my message for the cathedral service.

Well that's the first week of Maggie's visit over, today was a strange day in school as there was a parents' gathering so normal classes were cancelled however my new girl B came.
A picture below, she is already showing some responses and recognition which is nice. She appears to have had no therapy input apart from a few weeks a couple of years ago. Her lower limbs are very curled, so we have to work on them at the beginning of each session. She is showing no visual responses, however if I lie her prone over a roll, she appears to have some residual vision or at least be able to make use of it better. It was nice to see her taking hold of a small ball, previously she had not managed to grip or reach out to anything.
We joined the parents for their meeting, there was a Tamil singer and drummer as a warm up act. There is a video here, can someone tell me if you can see it please? Put your speakers on and press the play arrow. You can see how much the kids are getting into the music, it was fantastic to watch them.

Far more interesting than the District rehabilitation Officer. Next it was time for coffee and vadai. I was asked to say a little about what I was doing and Maggie gave them a tune on her flute too. Today the DRO did 30 mins then 45 minutes in response to a follow up question! These meetings can sometimes become a little dramatic at the end after the speakers have finished,when the floor is opened and people put their cases, often in tears and today was no different!
We left at lunchtime, and walked along to the market area where Maggie revelled in the fresh fruit and veg stalls and bought a large bag of chillis, 100g for 5 rupees! We went for lunch at Rajan's restaurant and had a veg meal. Cafes have signs outside saying " meals ready" and what you get is a banana leaf, rice, veg dishes, popadum, vadai, chutney and pickle, white rice, curd, buttermilk and as much more of these as you wish include then there is Paysam to follow which is a rice pudding type thing. All for 20 rupees each.

You've guessed it, it is raining again, thunder and lightning like you have never heard is here again. The poor farmers, their crops are being absolutely battered, normally the rainfall in March is minimal less than 1 cm and by last Friday (they have had 5 days rain since then) it had been over 5cm, the dams are all full to capacity too. We went out for dinner tonight and coming back in our auto, even with the rain covers down, got soaked! When we got back home to the gate, I just gave up and strolled to the door to open it, knowing that the wood would have swollen and it would take ages both to draw the bolt and then push open the door. I then had to go back out to lock the gate, so just accepted it and got soaked through, at least the rain is not too cold.
Maggie says she has never been so cold in India though!
I've put another road sign up, signs of the times! I also had to have a word with one of our physios today as he took off on his motor bike with his mobile wedged on his shoulder under his ear. You remember the sign " Don't use cell phone while
on riding!"
We've been having fun in school with my pupils. I have another new girl B. who is just under 3, many of my children are that age, I have not yet been able to detect any useful vision in her. She's gorgeous and comes in the most beautiful clothes for physio and a session with me. I'm going to have to keep an eye on Maggie, some of my pupil admirers are transferring their affections to her!
One of the staff came in today and presented us both with beautiful roses for our hair. The scent is just gorgeous so that that, combined with the scents from the garlands we received yesterday is keeping our house smelling very sweet. Yesterday there were some visitors from Germany, so while they were welcoming and giving them garlands,. they welcomed Maggie and 'honoured' me too.... jasmine, lily heads, marigolds and roses - the garlands are about 3foot long and hang around our necks and weigh an absolute ton!
A picture below is of a woman weaving palm leaves to make fence panels or shades for a roof at the beach in Kovalum, the man is carving coconut shell into a vase/pot type ornament. when he has finished they are highly polished and look gorgeous.

For Mike's info, no not out on the town, just working our socks off! Still editing the Bishop Jason book too.

It's really nice to have Maggie here with me in class, someone to run ideas past and provide some helpful suggestions. Today was her first day in school and we had S first thing with his mum, full of smiles and so much more lively when he first started about 6 weeks ago. We ended up with quite a bunch of professionals in the room - five plus mum! Joel the Physio, Dr Arun from the hospital, me, Maggie and the school principal all with one 2 year old boy! Next I had a session with Su. who was my first ever pupil here. He had been really upset all morning then came through to me and basically needed a good cuddle which he got. For a child who when I first met him avoided all physical contact that too was real sign of success. The rest of the morning was taken up with a presentation by students of John's College who also roped Maggie and I into singing with them. The fact that one of them was Rev'd Frederick's son who knows me well may have had something to do with it. We had fun, hope the kids did too. At one point, I saw a little boy in front of me making all the movement's to the Pray for India dance that some of our students do, in time with them. The morning finished with a delicious chicken biryani for lunch, paid for by the students. Very nice!
This evening, having eaten so well we decided that poached egg was enough for dinner. Here are some pics from Kovalum, the first is of a fish selection including shark! He looks a bit cute and as if he has fallen out of Finding Nemo or something! The next is an elephant, unfortunately disappearing into the distance and the third of the lighthouse in the rain. There was torrential rain for most of the time I was there however I did manage a couple of quick dips in between thunder showers!

Well Maggie arrived here on Thursday night in the midst of a 3 hour long thunder storm. The lightning was fantastic from the ground anyway! sheet, fork and vertical sheet too! The sound of the thunder was deafening. We had organised a garland for her so she got a taste of India at once and the scent from the jasmine was amazing. Back to the Rockholm for a cup of tea then bed. Yesterday morning, we went for a swim first off then for a wander round the shops, today we booked for an Ayurdevic massage each at11.00 so decided not to swim first... big mistake as it has been tipping it down ever since. Not that that has put some people off, they have swum anyway. I've got a lovely pic of the lifeguards under their umbrella on the beach, surrounded by sea water (the waves are enormous!), in front of an empty ocean with the rain pouring down around them. A quick trip to the shops this afternoon and the internet cafe then this evening we are going to Fusion for dinner. very chilled after the massage. back home to Tirunelvelli tomorrow afternoon.

It's one of those days here where were you shop really matters... you know do you walk about with an RMKV (posh) carrier bag on your head or one from the local grocers which has no name on it? That's right folks it's raining again. It really makes me smile to see men in suits wearing carrier bags on their heads, some roll them down so they are at least short, others wear them full height like a chefs hat or something.
I just wish folk would stop telling me how much I must be enjoying this nice cool weather... nice cool is fine (it's not though) wet is horrible! I hate having open 'Jesus' type sandals on for those of us of a certain age, and walking through yucky muddy puddles! I got to Kovalum tomorrow to pick up Maggie, Mrs Lydia was warning me yesterday that I should be careful as there had been something on the news last week to say the sea was rough and Enoch them chipped in with the fact that a girl had been murdered in Goa and that I should be careful of that too. I promised I would but not sure how to keep that promise!
I had a busy day at school today and for once Metilda was with me all morning and when the morning break bell went at 11.20 was shocked at how quickly the morning had gone. For once everyone had turned up on time so we had fitted in 3 kids, sometimes only one gets done. After break it was time for water play again... a prediction of the rain to come as it turns out. We used washing up liquid again, I just pour it in without telling them and watch as they discover that splashing fills the bowl with bubbles and foam!
I'm having a fairly quiet night in tonight getting organised for going to Kovalum after school tomorrow. Enoch is coming round with the last 2 articles for the book and then that is all done... hurray!
I ma rapidly going off the physio who told me today that when he was old like me he too would need to take a rest more often.... just 'cos I'm twice his age doesn't mean I'm old does it?

I've spent the last two evenings with Mrs Lydia trying to to finish off the work on the book on Bishop Jason. the articles which were sent in English are fine, they went straight to the press for final edit, it's the ones which were in Tamil or Hindi originally which have been translated by somebody local. Some of the expressions are really rather strange and as the main audience is non-Indian, it has needed some juggling. Some of them were already done, but I have done a huge number or so it seems. Now I find out that they are not going to use all of them... ah well!
Last night I went straight from school and got home around 9.30pm and had forgotten to do any shopping so ended up having 2 bowls of cornflakes... lucky I had some milk. You have to remember to buy milk in advance and boil it. If you forget and don't have time to let it cool you end up with hot milk on your cornflakes... not an Egon Ronay speciality I can assure you. Tonight it looked like the same thing was going to happen so on the way back I asked Enoch who is Lydia's eldest son, to stop at the food stall nearby and bought a tandoori chicken leg and some Parotta. Parotta is a round, bread type thing which is cooked on the stove top in a flat pan.
I had a new pupil again yesterday, another youngster who had been recommended by Joel (physio)... he's doing a great job at referrals and he has been in my class working with me so I guess he approves of what he sees! This boy came with his Dad who said that he knew me, sometimes I bought tea from his tea stall in Perumalpuram... small world huh! Joel's another sudoku fan, so we periodically fight over the Hindu paper of one of the teachers to see who can get to the puzzle first.
I'm off for an early night, all this brain work is too much for me!
Well I was just about to go for a cold shower and hot 'bucket bath' when the power went off so I'm off to bed dirty! Trying to carry water through the house in the dark then showering in a dark bathroom is beyond my desire to get clean! So may of the things I will be glad to leave behind me in India have to do with water... not having any hot running water, cold showers, filling the downstairs tank, pumping the water from the downstairs tank to the upstairs one, having to drink bottled water all the time, I even boil it for my tea and wash veg in it which may be excessive but I prefer to be safe than sorry. A large can of water, the same as the plastic bottles we get on office water machines in the UK only costs me 35 rupees, less than 50p and lasts me over a week so I'm obviously not being too extravagant. the problem is too, many people have expensive water filters fitted in their homes, but I have been told that filtration does not actually remove the bugs which cause the upsets, it is UV and other treatments which do that. Having seen the water in my tank which is what is then filtered I don't fancy it I can tell you. which brings me to the next thing I won't miss, cleaning out that said tank once a week!
This is a pic of Ida, Metilda and I with a baby who came to visit with a family the other day and was just too cute. As you can see the difference in skin colour between me and the Indian teachers is reducing! The other pic is of a gorgeous young man in Class 1, one of the brightest buttons there. He comes to me most days and just runs into the class room with a big grin and sits down! He was all sad because he had been home for the weekend... he only goes once a term, he's 6, so I took his picture to make him smile. To my amazement he then looked at the pic on my camera and pointed to himself and grinned... he doesn't talk!

I hear we, well Scotland, won the rugby yesterday and I wasn't even there to cheer them on. Still I'm sure David and Penny and Andrew used their lungs to make up for my lack. Not that we Scots are a proud nation or anything! WE just like winning... anything will do we do pretty well for such a small country really! I remember getting to lay hands on the Calcutta Cup a few years ago when it was at Murrayfield. I was there for a training course and they brought it out to show us. Remarkably impressive it was too.
Today being Sunday has been lazy, I got loads of paperwork done and very little else. went to Church to Evensong and to make my apologies for next Sunday as we shall be on route back from Kovalum. Turns out there is no evensong anyway but a concert, if we get back in time we can go to that.
I'm back at Lydia's tomorrow to help with editing again. I'll go after school with the laptop then with luck we can get lots done.
One or two pictures I thought were worth a look.
The lady carrying the big bag on her head has hotel laundry in it. It reminds me a bit of those overloaded lorries I saw on the road to Kovalum. The brick factory is amazing, a lady was sitting shaping mud into metal brick shaped frames, they then left them to dry in the sun, took them out of the frames when dry, stacked them in this big heap, filled the centre and around the outside with palm leaves, logs and coconut shells and set fire to them After the fire had died out (a day or so later) they unpacked them all and voila... bricks! The brush makers use straight twigs which are quite flexible, bind them with twine and sell them everywhere. You can get stiff ones for sweeping the water off the floor after washing it. Softer ones for dusting. Long and short ones depending on how big a job it is and they are so efficient. You can see the stiff ones and the softer green ones here.

Saturday today so I had a very lazy morning then worked on my month 4 report... can't really believe that 4 months have gone already. I went out to the local shops to pick up some milk and chat with the local population, it generally goes something like this:
Me: smile
Local: hallo how are you?
Me: Very well thank you, How are you?
Local Fine. What is you good/sweet/given name?
Me My name is Sally, what is your name?
Local: What is your native place?
Me I am from Scotland, UK.
Local: Ah I have heard of Scotland. Scotland Yard is very famous. (at which point generally smile and give up having tried to explain for 4 months that Scotland Yard is actually in London which is not in Scotland and that Scotland is not the same as England.)
Local: Why are you here? / How do you find the climate? / How do you manage to eat?/ Why have you come here?
The conversation continues in this vein around three or four times a day and I do try to appreciate that for each person it is the first time they have asked and that they are very proud of their English, are actually interested and mean well.
I caught this family out this morning with their umbrellas up to shade them from the sun, I rather liked the range of sizes and particularly that it is the Mum's which has the cartoon character on it! The pile of boulders is outside our house and will be attacked by coolies (hourly paid labourers)with mallets, to break it into gravel sized pieces. I presume it will then add hard standing along the side of the road.

This afternoon I decided to hit the town. I phoned a new auto boy I have found who speaks English... the first I have found who has more than a few words and it is just wonderful. The only thing is that the two autos which I use regularly get quite ratty if they do not get a call from me. Even though I have said that I will not promise to phone them always as I often just pick up an auto when I have had enough of walking! The thing is I actually like travelling with different drivers as they all have a different range of limited English and all have their own interests and things they like to point out to me. Anyway, I set off in the auto to do various things and ended up spending 3 hours out and about.
First stop was the computer shop to get some print cartridges... that was a quick and easy. Next stop was to the opticians to choose some new frames as I have a new prescription. That took about 40 minutes which was actually fairly fast! I discovered that the bright white marble I stepped out onto with dilated pupils was in fact grey. I was also very glad I terminated the glasses selecting when I did after having my eyes tested. She shone a torch into my eyes to find the correct positions for the varifocals... that would not have been fun with fully dilated pupils!
After that I paid a visit to a shop called Nalli Silks (Nellai is the local name for Tirunelvelli and I am not sure whether this is another version or not). I have often heard of it but this auto boy was able to take me. For those of you who are interested they also have a branch at 281 Kings Road, Chelsea! I bet you can't buy fabric for a Salwar Cemise for 250 rupees(£3.50)in that branch though. When I came out with the fabric, there was a lot of loud drumming going on. I asked what was going on and apparently the shop two up was celebrating its 100th day of business. I can't believe it is 100 days, I remember it opening! A government visitor was in the shop so there were a posse of police cars around it and a band playing and dancing. the dancers (female looked pretty scarey as you can see. the next purchase was sewing thread, I have been looking for it for weeks and at last I was able to explain to the driver what I wanted and he took me to a shop which sold it - Hurray! We then set off again into town. Tirunelvelli town is mainly in a large square surrounding the Hindu temple. The four streets surrounding it are called North, South, East and west Car streets. Also called Velli sometimes instead of car sometimes. They are named this after the ceremony which involves carrying a deity around the temple on various festivals. I asked the driver if we could stop at a restaurant I had often noticed, the only one of any significance in Town. When I went in, it was really rather nice, I had a puri (fried puffed bread thing) with masala and potato. Outside I bought a bag of mix (Bombay type but there are actually around 20 different combinations!) and some cake/sweets. We carried on around the temple perimeter... you can't actually see it is the temple perimeter as it is around 3 deep in shops including the vegetable market. On the third side of the square, there was another drumming spectacular going on this time to celebrate a new shop. They were playing some amazing instruments, unfortunately I moved the camera to the wrong setting so only got a couple of pics. Those longbow shaped instruments are actually wind instruments.

Back again into the auto and heading for home, on the way stopped at a shop which has a chicken rotisserie cabinet, tandoori flavoured chicken of course, again I have often wanted to stop but never got around to it. Bought half a cooked chicken for 65 rupees... around 80p. We had a while to wait so the auto driver went to buy us a cup of tea each at my request, 5 rupees for the two. A final stop at the ATM, I still consider it a bit of a miracle when my card goes in and rupees come out and even more so when I get my card back too!
I popped into the tailors to give them the fabric, my suit will be ready at 6.00pm on Monday (under 48 hours) and will cost 70 rupees to have it made to measure. I came home and had my dinner then popped back out to visit Revd Frederick and Susie, he was on Cursillo 1 and spiritual director for Cursillo in Tirunelvelli. We had a wonderful time catching up. I again had been meaning to call in for ages but had never got around to it. he has been Diocesan Director for Mission and Evangelism for the past few years and told me today that he has been appointed Pastor of the Cathedral Church in Palayamkottai, the one which was extended during and after our 1997 visit. He immediately asked me if I would come and 'give the message' in the cathedral evening service. That will be a challenge, he will simultaneously translate for me.
Back home now at last and after this I am off to bed. I do find that I get tired now, not sure if it is the heat or old age catching up with me! Sadly in spite of being tired I frequently do not sleep well. It is not a very quiet environment. In India some drivers drive with their hand on the horn, some only toot whenever they are about drive straight out in front of another car at a junction, some only when they approach a junction some only if they are near another vehicle, some if there is an unsuspecting pedestrian walking nicely along the road edge with their back to them, (perhaps to see if they can make them jump in front of them in surprise?)and some only if they have not sounded it for a while. I am glad to say airhorns have largely been outlawed in urban areas. then there are the dogs, people were told a few years ago (apparently) that having a dog was good for security. they let the dogs out at night and they spend the time meeting up with their doggy pals and having an hourly howl at street corners throughout the night. Just to add to the peace of the night, there are owls, frogs, the odd cat being chased by the afore mentioned dogs and the night watchman who cycles round his area all night blowing his whistle. When I finally do get to sleep, Nancy and Raja get up at around 5.00am and start sweeping the paths and watering the garden as well as filling the water tank in my tank room while the water is flowing form the district water tank, before going out for their dawn walk. Sometimes even earplugs are not enough. Living on Queensferry road will be like the depths of the country when I get back.

I've been busy the last couple of days editing the memorial book in tribute of Bishop Jason. I've actually been trying to make sense of the very flowery Indian English so that it is understandable to the rest of the world! For example... "He had a great burden for souls" means he was passionate about evangelism.
I spent two evenings and then another 3 hours tonight on it, tonight was with Mrs Lydia, explaining my explanations!
Nancy has had to go to Chennai where her cousin's husband is critically ill and I think unlikely to be with us much longer. One lung has given up and the other operating At 11%... not a smoker either he's in his 30s.
Selene, Carrie's sister in law, also in Chennai and also believe it or not a cousin of Nancy, has managed to get me the two bird books I have been trying for 6 weeks to get here in Tirunelvelli, the bookshop has kept promising and failing to deliver, I wish I'd asked Selene and Augustine weeks ago!
No news yet on doctor jobs, hopefully by this time next week she should here something. A has a part time job in St Andrews helping to paint rooms for a small scale property developer. She can do whatever hours suit her, so that is good and he could be a useful contact if she wants a flat in a couple of years. She is hoping to be back in halls next year.
Ruth's car story reminded me of K. the previous day. J her husband had been driving back from being energetic in the Lake District and the car, which had been ailing for a few weeks died about Abington. After 3 hours he was towed to our garage in Edinburgh but they thought that the green N registered golf (used to be mum-in-laws this time Mike!) had bitten the dust and had agreed not to shell out more than £500 to repair it. Depression had set in, how would they get the cat - mine and elderly, to the vet, K had hired a car to get her to her interview in Falkirk for Scottish jobs.
They went for the verdict to Bill only to find they had burned out the clutch completely... they've had the car 5 years so that's not bad as it was already fairly elderly. Just over 200 to repair and it is now good as new. She cancelled the hire car!
I bought two Tibetan Singing bowls in Kovalum in December, one for me and one for school here. The tone is fantastic, but they were made of very elderly distressed brass. I had a go at polishing them but to no avail so I asked Nancy if she knew of anyone who could do it without damaging the metal. Her husband contacted a friend in the Police offices and they gave him the contact details for the person who does police brasswork, the upshot is I have 1, and am waiting for the other, incredibly shiny brass bowl back, tone perfect, and have had to shell out £1.50 for the privilege. it took less than a day too.

There is a bit of an iron wars going on here! The man who brings his ironing trolley... a bit like the one in the pic but with an iron not scales!... and sets up opposite the house every day, last week went to return clothes to one of the local houses and discovered when he came back that his iron and his charcoal had been stolen. The poor guy is devastated as he has family to support. I suggested we had a whip-round to buy him a new iron which met with mixed approval. One person said what if the new one is stolen too... which is hardly the guys fault I thought I suggested maybe we could buy him a padlock and chain too. That way if he has to leave his trolley he can first make it secure. The whole area is buzzing, things like this do not happen in Perumalpuram!!I can't help wondering if it is one of the other travelling ironing men who wants some more trade... watch this space!
I have discovered that I am known to all and sundry as 'The foreign lady' still I suppose I am at least described as a lady! A friend came to Perumalpuram and didn't know where I lived so went to one of the shops and asked for me giving that description and ended up very quickly at the right house!

I've had a good couple of days in school this week. The mother of S, the little boy who comes in the morning twice a week for physio and then time with me, told Joel that she is thrilled with the progress he is showing. He is more interested in what is going on around him, is reaching out and exploring more and is generally more content. So all of that was nice to hear. Even taking into account the fact that until now he has had absolutely no input or therapy of any sort and so was bound to respond well initially. M. who comes in the afternoon has also been doing well. She really needs movement communication and interaction and I've been having lots of sessions where she ends up in fits of giggles which is nice. Today I got outt eh water play stuff for A. in the morning and decided to try it with M. in the afternoon... I needed a complete change afterwards, but she had a ball! I had added washing up liquid tot eh water, so A. managed his wish to catch the water and had great fun, he was very clean afterwards!
You may rememberer I mentioned that I bought a foam covered mat (pink!) last week and some sandbags to place alongside children's legs to help position them correctly - they have both been a godsend... the physio has his covetous eye on my sandbags, perhaps because they are covered in maroon goretex type fabric! Very good for cleaning and wiping up any spills of body fluids!
I went to see Bishop Amma, Lydia Dhamaraj, on Monday night, she has asked me to cast an eye over some of the English translations fir the tribute book to her husband which she hopes to release on the2nd anniversary of his death, 23rd April. Some of the terminology is really strange and I hope I have managed it ok. Most people did a side or two of A4, one guy did that then wrote a 20 page academic essay as a memorial to the Bishop. I think that may be published elsewhere!
Today I went out for dinner to my usual restaurant they don't serve tea or coffee, however there is a coffee shop downstairs so I went in there for a cup. To my pleasure, I found Metilda and her husband Samuel there with their daughter Janeksha. It was really nice to be greeted so warmly and we all had coffee together. today is Samuel's 36th birthday, Metilda is 36 next month... I thought she was about 30 or 31!

The two pictures are of the Ganesh hardware store, and the staff - who think I am hilarious as I go in and buy things for all the wrong reasons! I take a spoon and strike all the stainless steel cups till I find one which plays the note I want! I have a tumbler trio in class, which is a bit like a small version of a bottle orchestra I suppose! The other picture is the one I mentioned a couple of days ago of the flower decorated table in the Fusion restaurant in Kovalum which Colin kindly forwarded to me.
Panic is beginning to set in now, as I have only six weeks of school left and 7 in India, the time is flying by now as I thought it would. Aargh Paperwork!

Sunday was nice and relaxing, I spent the day doing end of month reports and things and then in the evening went to Evensong at Christchurch which, to my delight, turned out to be a communion service. I had a chat with various people at home through Skype which is an absolute godsend, even those without it on their computer cost just over 1p per minute, while to mobiles it is a little dearer at 16p per minute. Having said that though, I don't have to leave my nice warm house and go out into the unbearably hot outdoors to make a call. Having said that my family are probably fed up of hearing from me... it's maybe a little too easy, but it has made being here much more bearable.
I had a look at my kitchen shelf today and just thought that some of my friends would approve... picture below. From left to right we have: washing powder and soap, three mosquito killer refills, toilet cleaner, bleach, scrubbing brush, lizol - antiseptic surface cleaner with bleach, dettol, Colin (see yesterday), washing up liquid, HIT Mosquito killer spray, Mortein all insect killer spray, HIT cockroach killer spray, mosquito coil (for burning)! Not that I don't like insects you understand! Just not in my house!! I am not normally that houseproud either, but any spills instantly attract ants, so I clean up asap.

Today was my promised day off for a government declared public holiday or so one version goes. Anyway I didn't go to school! This morning, Nancy and I went to the local market, I was glad to have company as language in the market is always a problem as the sellers tend not to have much English. Nancy was glad of the company as she had not been for ages and couldn't remember how to get there!!!! I directed her car via the back roads to her great amusement! The fruit and veg are as usual amazing there, we bought fresh mint at a stall which only sold bunches of fresh picked mint, coriander and curry leaf! the smell of the fresh mint was fantastic. This pic is of Nancy buying coriander.

We then walked along to Rajan's (Cursillo 3 and Lay Rector 8)restaurant which is just by the market and had a chat. The restaurant is called Rathna restaurant after his wife.I first met them in 1998 when we went on a Cursillo picnic to some nearby falls. His daughter, Renee spent the entire bus journey on my knee, she was about 6 at the time and is now 17. He wants me to go and speak to some Law Students he runs a fellowship group for. he is involved in about 3 different groups like this, good apostolic action. Nancy is very intrigued at the number and range of people that I know. Having lived in Dubai for 26 years and only returned last year to India, she does not know many people, even though she was born and brought up here. She had told me this but today I realised it was true as I was greeted by people I knew in many shops and as we walked.
We came back home in time for lunch which Nancy made for me and served up on a banana leaf. After lunch down to do some more work then to Mrs Lydia's house. I had promised to proof read the book she is producing in English as a tribute/memorial to her husband Bishop Jason who died 2 years ago on 23rd April. That was a bad spell for us. Jeya died on 15th April, Mary our deacon on 16th April and Bishop Jason on the 23rd. I have about 50 assorted tributes which have been translated from Tamil to English and have to try and make the English better... by Wednesday! Lydia is gradually coming back to life after a period of withdrawal after her husband's death.
After that it was back home for tea, then to Junction to pick up a 6 foot by 3 foot pink, plastic covered, foam mat I had commissioned to allow me to work with some of the more fragile children on something more comfortable (for them) than a stone floor. I also picked up 4 sandbags I had had made which I want to use to help with positioning. It was a new concept to the shop, so I hoped they had understood me. Sure enough, there they were, the auto driver carried them into the auto for me. They weighed a ton. They had got very enthusiastic when filling them with sand. They are for laying alongside a child's leg, to help him to keep it straight... please note alongside, not on top of the leg!
Doctor daughter had an interview in Manchester today, where I hear it was snowing.