From the ridiculous to the sublime

I think the title sums up very well the start of this next story.

On Sunday a few of the volunteers and myself negotiated a price and set off for the Gateway Hotel on the outskirts of the city and supposedly the best hotel in town.

 Our driver was so keen for the business ,got us all in the auto only for us to "pull in " to the side of the road for him to phone someone. He then handed me the phone but of course I hadn't a clue what the guy was saying .By this time I began to suspect he was looking for directions.

I phoned Anita and handed her the phone , so a few nods and shakes of heads later and we were back on track.

The view going up the hill to the hotel and the 5 pillars of the Meenakshi  temple in the background.

A real oasis of calm

It's cool and breezy and so so quiet. Most volunteers head up here for some R &R . It costs £5.50 to use the pool for the day and there are hot showers as well. You don't get hot water in the local houses but in actual fact I don't miss it as a cold one is much more refreshing in this heat.

Plenty peacocks wandering around as well.

So that was Sunday taken care of.

It's quite tricky knowing what to do with your time if you are not away for the weekend. I am so used to   walking, the gym, cooking doing household chores etc. none of which I am able to do here. I do a wee exercise regimen every day but that is such an effort in this heat.Enjoy the break I can hear you all say but there is a limit to how much you can read , blog , hand wash ....I can't even do my knitting because I brought everything but the needles with me ,although I found a stall today that sells some so I may well pay him another visit. I would say that interestingly the free time and filling it are my biggest challenges. The orphanage challenges I quite enjoy and so far emotionally for the most part I am  dealing with pretty well .

I also forgot to mention that another mature volunteer was due to arrive last week but unfortunately she had a fall and was advised not to fly which was a real  blow to me as we had spoken before I left and were looking forward to being company for each other .So then two young teachers arrived last Friday but one for personal reasons had to return home yesterday, which left her friend understandably a bit lost . Anyway she is only here for another 3 weeks and is doing fine and will join in with whatever I am doing at the weekends.

Now come some random pictures .

I keep seeing these big cars around and about , any men reading this might like to enlighten me as to the make . I think they are "posh taxis "

This was sitting outside the house next door..

Last night ( Wednesday ) a few of us arranged to meet at the travel agent to pay for our overnight trip this Saturday  ( blog to follow )

which we did , and on our way to another rooftop restaurant this is what we came across

A  group of office workers having a game of badminton on the office courtyard at 7.30 pm.There is never a dull moment when you are out and about here .

And this is my latest acquisition, but what you can't see is the odd shaped sleeve , it's twisted and it's a bit tight to be truthfull but it only cost £3.50 . Anita thinks I should take it to the tailor up the road and get the sleeves taken off, not sure if it's worth the effort , nice colour though.

And these daft calves were sitting right where I am standing in the last picture when we got back from the orphanage today.

That's all for now folks , but a short blog to follow on a few interesting happenings in the orphanage 

Thurs / Fri .