Who said Mondays were Bad?

Well they are.

Today we did a story about a pair of serial killers in Delhi with a penchant for killing poor children & young women. Not to mention the cannibalism, selling organs, and then leaving the remain in the drains outside their house. When locals asked the police to investigate - they did nothing - who cares about poor people. At one stage they even arrested one of the men but he paid a massive bribe and got let off. Anyway they are now in custody, being subjected to doses of truth serum and brain mapping - what ever that is. They aren’t goping to be free anytime soon thats for sure.

Having fed that story and tiding a few things up before I leave the office at about 7pm I get a call asking for some pictures for another story London is doing as they don’t have them. We do, but they are not qood enough quality. I have to get them dubbed off again, load them into the computer and send them to London. Wonderfull - Pizza Hut for tea!By the time this is all done its just after 11pm. I check they are at work safe and sound - but the audio is out of sync at the end. Bugger but its late and I’m going home, so I tell the desk that they will have to fix it. It would take another two hours to for me to correct and feed what they can do in seconds.

After 9pm trucks are allowed to use the roads in Delhi so there is another rush hour for all the lorries that have been waiting all day to get from one side of the city to the other. The main north south road passes our estate of course. And there are road works too as they make the road, NH8, into a proper motorway type thing - not that anyone drives in lanes. Faced with a huge queue through three bottle necks I decide to go the local way - on an as yet unmade road to the side. Checked it with the kids last week and it was fine.

Clever Phil gets stuck 200 yards from the turning to home when trying to drive over / past/ through a huge lorry load of gravel that has just been dumped and waiting to be rolled out. I got over one at least. After 20 mins of trying to dig out the wheels all alone, front and back, I of course end up digging myself in deeper. I give up and walk home. I’ll get the other car and pull it out.

Hmm, how do I drive two cars at the same time. So I phone Shiv at 12.05 wake him up and ask him to come and help. Thankfully he only lives 10 mins away. On the way home I walk pass a huge statue and see some handy rope acting as a cordon around the temple.

Back at the site with Shiv the mounds have gone - they have been flattened and a poor white Qualis remains stuck in the middle of the road. We tied them together using some cable that I had picked up that was lying around at home. Slowly backing off and boing its breaks. Bugger back to plan b and go back and I cut a portion of rope from the temple.

This time it works - and I even used the Endeavour in 4x4 mode. Probably the only time it will be. Safely out Shiv takes the Qualis home and I carry on my chores of getting diesel for the generator - again. Its on for about 10 hours a day at the moment. I seem to be endlessly going to fill up the jerry cans.

So technically its not Monday any more but it hasn’t been a good one. Oh yes I forgot - bugger once more - my talking head is broken - yet again - the thingy we use for lives. This means we are very kind of stuck in our capability to do stuff. getting a replacement is also a nightmare.
What a day. I guess its time to finish my beer - at least we had some in the fridge - and head off to bed. - Its 2.10am which gives be a whole 4 hours 20 mins before getting up and sorting out the kids for school.

Tuesday had better be good.

Small Things To Look Forward To

In no particular order:

• Electricty - or not having to get up at 6.00am to find out why the generator isn’t working properly
• Hot showers in winter
• Fresh Milk - not UHT yuk
• Bacon
• Beef
• Pork
• Spare Ribs
• Food shopping in one place - and with choice
• Eating a variety of food rather than just chicken
• Not watching BBC food and salivating
• Shreddies
• Walking Lucy in/by - the canal, woods, sea, sun, rain…
• Cycling
• The Radio - and in the right time zone
• TV
• British sense of humour
• Education
• No constant fear of walking in human shit
• Politeness
• Cleanliness
• Rule of Law
• Driving with out fear of being hit by a bus, lorry, car, motorbike, cow, ox & cart
• People giving way & giving way
• Challenges for the kids
• Going (window) shopping with out getting in a plane
• Savoury snacks
• Watching Aaron play competative football
• Going fishing with Ben
• Taking Jess to a place with rocks
• Family
• One set of prices and standards for everyone
• Not driving 20 mins to drop kids at friends
• Having a timetabled life with time off
• Bitter (Beer)
• Starbucks decaf latte
• Walking

Cold Windy & Wet

When you don’t have weather like that you do miss it honestly. Anyway I was back in the UK for a visit before Christmas to work out the timescales for coming back and to get kit fixed.

A quick visit around the all family and most importantly to meet Brian, Mutti’s new husband. I say new at least 10 or 11 months old but as I hadn’t met him it was a must. All I can say is that it is wonderful to see Mutti really happy after many many yeasr fo being alone. A great Christmas present.

Back to work - for those who don’t see it very often here is the studio.

And overseeing that it stays on air - or stuffing their faces its Lew and Andy.

After that and having a great fish and chips at Harry Ramsdens it was off for a quiet weekend in Walses with Steph before flying back on the Sunday night. It wouldn’t be right with out seeing Benj. It will be great when we are back for Jess to have some proper riding lessons from Steph on him.

Turned out, he stands and waits.

Then all his freinds come to say hello!!

Christmas Assembly

From last years antics as an elf this year was a lot better. I wasn’t in it. Yet again the school surpassed itself and put on a great show.

The choir sang wonderfully and helped keep things on time too.

Ben and Jess were on the instruments - Jessica paying more attention to me and Ben looking distinctly board - but ringing his dinky bell on time.

In the centre here, behind Jessica’s head is her best friend - Alisar dancing her heart out. Looks like the tweety song but its not - promise.

Staying with us, and attending the festivities are Paul and Sarah, one of Kathys’ friend from college and her fiance.

Lastly after its all over is time to tidy up. What a chore but some wee poor thing has to do it.

Ben The Hero And Other Matters

Imagine its Bonfire night and you are at a party. Its sunny and warm (at least 36C), kids are runing mayhem around the garden, and some are playing in and around the pool. Yes if you are mad you can still swim in November here.

“Scream - Ahhh - Neal’s fallen in the pool - and hasn’t come up". Whilst Chavi, Neal’s mum (Nevilles wife), Alex and I run down the garden to the pool, Ben calmly, standing next to the pool reaches down and pulls Neal (6) out. Neal had fallen over a drain cover but thankfully Ben was by the side. Neal was a bit shocked by the cold water but otherwise alright. To Ben it was all very matter of fact.

The Hero with his Lego.

The rest of the night went off fine, the fireworks went bang and I didn’t manage to blow myself up - again. Though it looked close.

Home life in the latter part of the year hasn’t been as exciting mind you. Just the usual which includes doing all those things that you need to like having to go to school - if you can get your socks on that is.

And then its Crazy Hair Day - and foggy as well. They call it smoke here - not sure why - perhaps its a fancy word for pollution. Don’t tell anyone but Jess looks like that most of the time.

After school there are the guitar lessons. Here Aaron is with his teacher Joseph. He’s not bad at all really. He has also taught himself quite a lot on the keyboard they got a couple of years ago. It has got keys that light up and you follow the lights to learn tunes - very ingenious. It works too.

Now while that racket is going on some have to do homework - and without colour as well.

Then lastly you have to read before bed. In the pink of course. What is she reading? A book about witches - run before — too lat… “Croak!”

Quake - Part 3: Faiza

This part of our journey was the quest for Faiza. Faiza was a little two year old girl who had lost her parents in the quake the previous year.

Together with Ashish we had found her living with her grandfather in a simple lean-to near her families graves. The orginal blog is here. Remembering the name of the village - Hangrai - we set out to see if she was still there… even alive.

We reached late afternoon with the sun just about to go down behind the foothills. Walking up to where she used to live - we couldn’t contact her beforehand as there was just no way - a boy very much took over - and led us the way. Very self assured and confident he could easily end up being one of the village elders.

Of course before we could do anything we had to meet the village elder. Very much in charge because of the stick I think. It seems to be a common theme.

We were asked to wait - apparantly Faiza was still around though her Grandfather was in town. He went most days just to get out of the valley - to forget. In the mean time we were treated to the power of the stick.

This stick is obviously the source of great power and mirth as it did have the desired affect - eventually. Despite being still in hardship - it is good to see that the Kashmiri’s haven’t lost their sense of humour.

Faiza eventually emerged and looked well. The other girls in the village all played with her and made sure that she was OK - part of the South Asian family ethos. She seemed to be very happy and healthy. Also looking after her now was her great Aunt who had broken her leg in the quake but had now returned to the village.

Faiza still hasn’t been told what happend to her family. Whenever she asks, the answer is that they have gone away for work - which is sad. When her Grandfather returned is was fantastic to see that they are still very close. They depend so much on each other for strength. Still the real concern is for her future. What will happen when her Grandfather dies? In the mean time she is happy and healthy.