I seem to have fallen a bit behind with the blog writing! It's Thursday and I'm going to try to do Monday now! On Monday, resplendent in my uniform saree, the pic has methi, Ida and I. Having met the Bishop, it was then back to school and on the way Jeyakodi told me there had been a bomb threat in one of the local primary schools so all schools were to close immediately, however as today was the day of K&J's anniversary lunch which I was paying for, and as we have a residential school which cannot just close at the drop of a hat, we would carry on and day pupils could be picked up by parents when and if required.
Lunch was lovely, chicken soup... soup in 35 degrees I ask you... chicken 65, white rice, chicken in gravy, onion pickle, sambar, popadum, banana and ice cream, a veritable feast!

Today, Santosh was in school for teh first time what a wonderful surprise and he greeted me with such a fabulous smile. He's only 2 and I really hadn't expected him to remember me. It's great to see the progress he and Blessie have made over the last 3 months of regular physio and school input.

On Monday evening, I booked Raja for the duration and did a tour of Tirunelvelli doing all sorts of bits and pieces! I also went round to Carrie's and passed on some of the pics Colin and I took in North India for her to use at some date in her films. I went around to the tailors to get some fabric and other odds and ends too. Having things made up here is so cheap, less than the cost of the fabric, which is already incredibly cheap, 50-70 rupees for a shirt or blouse. I walk past 'Dan's Den' in up-market Perumalpuram regularly, and it always makes me smile, so here is a pic! Anything less like a den is hard to imagine!

Well it was a busy weekend all told, having been suitably beautified on Saturday morning, I was well fed at lunch time, with Joshua, Rachel and extended family. Rachel made me biryani for lunch, to the recipe she first gave me in about 2000 and which I try hard to replicate for Indian visitors and occasionally my own family at home in Edinburgh. I should say that Joshua and Rachel arrived at our church in Edinburgh, Holy Cross in 1996, 6 weeks before I came out to India for the first time and the God-incidence of them coming from this small town in South India, the same on to which I was going was extraordinary. They were with us for over 4 years as Joshua acted as assistant priest at the church while he completed his MTh so we saw their first daughter Angeline grow from a 6 month old baby to a5 year old ready to start school back in India. It was lovely to see them and to be made to feel part of the family, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Jessie the secretary from UTC after whom Jessica was named and who is the other god mother.
I then went to Kiruba Victor's in the evening. The girls were all waiting for me on the house roof - people spend a lot of time here in the roofs of their houses as there is sometimes a breeze there. We had a wee catch up with me telling them about life in Scotland, silly things like there being long days in the summer and going to bed in daylight which does not happen in equatorial regions, about the different seasons and what they mean to us. We then played a couple of Simon Said type games... why does your mind go blank when someone says "I told the girls you would teach them a game?". They sang me Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in Tamil which I had taught them in April. Kiruba had offered me dinner last week when she invited me, so while there, on the roof, cake and veg puffs were handed out so I tucked in, we then had a cup of tea. After a while we went back down to the main house and to my horror Kiruba seated me at a dining table positively groaning with food! 3 kinds of rice, chappatti, 3 types of chicken in sauce and a deep fried drumstick each... don't know where they found chickens with legs like that! they were huge.
Sunday was the day of baptism conducted entirely in Tamil except when they asked me if I believed in the Holy Trinity... it was OK though, Jessie speaks Karnatakan as she is from Mangalore so she didn't make out much either, however I made my own promises and hope they were similar! We of course had the obligatory video made with red hot halogen lights attached to the videographer and dazzling the rest of us! By the way as you can maybe tell from the pics, Angeline is taking after her dad when it comes to height, remember she is only 12! She is looking more and more like Rachel facially though. When I was here in 2005, and visiting them in Bangalore, Rachel had just discovered she was pregnant and apart from a brief meeting last January 2007 in Leicester, at Chrispal Anand's wedding when she was almost a year old, this is the first time I have really seen them since then!

Next to the church hall for a lovely meal and then Kiruba and Victor sang to Jessica. They are professional singers.

Victor gave me a lift along to Military Lines Church in time to hear Reggie doing the sermon.
As a hectic finish to the day, Raja took Carrie and I to RMKV to do some shopping, it is 'Sale' month and the place was absolutely mobbed, almost as busy as it was on opening night, the 16th March, which was also a Sunday. What made it worse was that the AC was not working so they had about 1 fan per floor which was making no difference at all to the tropical humidity we were all creating!
This morning I met Bishop Jeyapaul and Violet who to my amusement told me that they had not been able to sleep for 3 nights at Lambeth because of the heat.
Talk about coincidences by the way, I've often said that Carrie is like another sister to me and we often find we have done things simultaneously, well I found out today she had a crown fitted on Friday!

Sorry should have said that all went well at the dentist yesterday. I feel like I've a mouthful of alien marbles in my mouth. I've been re-assured that this feeling will pass. Yesterday I had a fairly quiet day having reached school at about 11 instead of 9.30! We used the new classroom with some of the kids today and the floor tiles are really nice to work on. The fish tank comes back on Monday so that will be nice too.
I had dinner with Lydias and enoch yetserday, vegetarian as it was Friday then came home and had an early night which I decided to enhance with a sleeping tablet to stop me exploring my teeth with my tongue while I slept!
This morning was hectic but nice, off to the beauticians and invested £2.50 in an hour long pedicure. Raja then picked me up and took me to track down literally the only Christening card in Tirunelvelli! I then went to have lunch with Joshua and Rachel, Angeline and Jessica at Joshua's house. Jessica is to be baptised tomorrow at 5pm which is 12.30 UK time and I will be one of the Godmothers. My first God child. One of the otehr God-mothers is Jessie, the receptionist at UTC in Bangalore so I'll be sending a letter with her to Sham and family. I'll pass on regards from Holy Cross in it. Amazingly enough considering this is a town of half a million, Joshua's family home is in walking distance from where I live, in Perumalpuram.
I am going to visit Kiruba Victor this evening, she is the lady who runs an orphanage with her husband Victor and who was the other person singing at Bishop Jason's memorial service in April. She lives just along the road too.
Time for an afternoon siesta now, I'll put some baptism pics up after tomorrow.

The classroom is looking amazing-ish! today, the tiles went down overnight and look fab, however there are large steel bars sticking out of the wall which will become shelf supports. For Maggie, here is a picture of Jasmine one of the classroom assistants who is just great, left school at 16 with no qualifications and is now doing them at college on day release. Her sister is a former pupil and she wanted to come and work to help others like her so has real insight.
The third picture is a view from my auto this morning, two guys wearing lunghis, one is hoicked up ready to ride his motor bike. Talking of motor bikes, I showed Joel, physio some pics of Harley Davidsons which happened to be in a beach scene I had taken while on holiday down south of England last week and he immediately wanted them blue toothed to his phone so he could drool over them,. he then announced he was going to convert his prized Royal Enfield Bullet into a Harley Davidson, I couldn't really follow how he was going achieve this and think it may rather be pie in the sky! Still talk about boys and their toys, at least he is happy!

I took several photos around school today, the first two are of adult former pupils working in the bakery, one is making egg puffs (with curried veg) and the other is sugar basting soft bread rolls.
The next two are of the vocational class, one set making brushes and the otehr weaving phone mats.

The school is surrounded on 3 sides by paddy fields, I thought you might like to see a close up of rice growing, this lot are a view to the East, towards Turichendur, Tuiticorin and Nazareth, the opposite direction to Junction and the Cathedral for those who have an idea of their bearings in Tirunelvelli. The rice is in thick mud about 12 inches deep... I know 'cos I slipped into a field in 2002 and it was not a pleasant experience as I went up to my calf in thick black mud with who knows what living in it! These plants are about 10 inches high now, they were 5 inches last week.

For those of you of a mind to be sympathetic towards me, at 10.00am tomorrow, I am going to have the bridge and crown fitted at the dentist, I'm not suggesting you get up early, but a few prayers for quick, effective and gentle hands on the dentist would be much appreciated around 5.30-6.30am! Thanks!!!

It's been a bit of an odd week, as I said there is lots of work going on in the classroom, see
below, yesterday they took a sledge hammer to the floor, today they removed all the rubble and put down sand. The odd looking pic is of the method they have of sieving things, they balance a series of wire netting frames against a wall and throw bucket loads of sandy grit against it until they have only fine sand left. Apparently tomorrow the floor tiles will go down - a nice shade of blue, and the shelves be put up.

I thought you might like to see some pics of kids, here is Blessie with Joel, I perch on the other end of the table and we work together at keeping her distracted and interested while he carries out her passive movements and stretches. He gets the hazardous job at the moment. She poo-ed on him yesterday! The next is Tamil-Selvan, who came back on Monday after an extra weeks holiday, then me with Viki in the dining room, he delighted me the first time I saw him again by saying Sally Auntie and just grins-as does Tamil-Selvan-from ear to ear when he sees me!

All went well in Kovalum and amazingly, it didn't rain... it's the monsoon so I had expected to get very wet. I travelled by a Tata Indica which is a small Tata car, it has AC available but it was ok without and just the windows open. Last I mentioned, I had had an ayurvedic massage which was so good that I went back on Sunday and had another, the only problem is the oil which they use which enhances one's sun tan or colour anyway! You need a good shower afterwards to stop it getting all over your clothes. I had grilled tiger prawns for dinner, yummy and huge, I had a portion of 4 which filled me nicely!
On Sunday as I said I had a massage and a relaxing morning in the German Bakery before heading back to Tirunelvelli at around 1.30, I got back around 4.45 and unpacked and had a shower before heading to evensong at 6.00pm. I had forgotten that they have a communion service on the first Sunday of the month so that was nice. Saw people I knew too who stopped for a chat. Went out for dinner with Carrie, Reggie and Cyrus to Selsil restaurant, one of my old haunts, sadly though most of the waiters that I knew have moved on leaving only the cashier from the
old staff, but who was very friendly when we arrived.
I started the week with a visit tot eh dentist, Christine you said I was sanguine about it... definitely not, my blood runs cold every time the word dentist is mentioned, like most pre-fluoride and post war kids my teeth were messed up badly as a child and so I have an absolute horror of the profession! However my tooth broke two weeks ago, my dentist fixed it at great expense... twice and each time the repair broke again so I felt I might just as well go for it while here, the dentist and medical facilities in Tirunelvelli are really good. Today it was grind down the tooth the bridge is to be fixed to and remove the temporary filling to expose the post again then take moulds... I can tell I'm in India, the mould material was mango flavoured... I believe in the UK it is usually strawberry. The dentist was late arriving, I then discovered they had been at Bishop Sargent, for the monthly flag hoisting ceremony! I could have gone to school and come back with them and saved a long wait.
I think the principal has been waiting for me to come back as things have galloped along since I arrived, we have planned the room layout. and today we went and chose ceramic floor tiles for the room, pale blue if you are interested! The fish tank is all up and running again although awaiting new occupants a shelf has been commissioned from a joiner who is also going to fit a room length mirror below the window to allow us to observe children while working with them! Apparently it will all be done this week... watch this space!
I thought you'd like to see some pics of children after all that is why I'm here so....
here are Blessie, now 9 months, Subbaiah and Class 1A with Methilda, doing songs and rhymes which was not the style of education they used to follow.

By the way I guess I'm part of the team here as today I got my uniform sari! I'll get the blouse made up and wear it to school next Monday... uniform day is Monday.
The next pics are from the newspaper for Colin and other TinTin fans.

Well I'm in Kovalum for the weekend to see what it is like during the monsoon, to allow Colin, Ali and I to plan our trip next summer. The answer? It's fine, most of the shops are open and the restaurants. The beach is out of use though as the sea is very rough and waves are breaking right up to the wall of the walkway.
I'm staying in the Rockholm as usual and the price is half that of high season, which is great news. I went along to the Sea Face hotel this afternoon and used their swimming pool for the outrageous sum of 300 rupees, around 3pounds 50. This may be where we will stay next summer as it is rather more up-market than the Rockholm and then we wouldn't have to pay extra to use the swimming pool.
Luckily the exchange rate is good just now. I cashed the travellers cheques for this years grant to the school - going to the bank in Tirunelvelli is a real marathon you may remember, it took over an hour last time. It took less than 5 minutes here where they are more geared up to dealing with tourists... and I got 7 rupees more to the pound than I had been offered at the airport on Monday, so that makes almost 10% difference.
I've just been for an Ayurvedic massage, very nice so am feeling particularly chilled.
I mentioned the high waves, when I was walking along this afternoon, one came so high that I was completely soaked even though I was right up against the shop window, had to buy myself a wrap around skirt to keep myself decent! Damn! Cost me all of 250 rupees... cheaper than my swim.
I'm heading back to Tirunelvelli mid afternoon tomorrow and may be back in time for evensong at Military Lines Church which would be nice.
I forgot to mention that I went to RMKV looking for fabric on Thursday and met two white girls, on asking where they were from and what they were doing... as one does! I found they were from Manchester and working as volunteers for 3 months at the nursing home just around the corner from my house in Perumalpuram. They have been here a week and said it was strange to see another white person... I knew what they meant.