Friday 21^st December

Accolades for No. #1 Grandson Hamish Wakefield (aka Hummer) this week.  In his proud mother’s words:

As for Hummer's news as you may know he has been participating in a skill acquisition program (SAP) with two sessions per week for 10 weeks.  This was selection based.  Last week they had trials for the next stage which is the U13 Southern Side.  Hummer was selected as one of 16 boys to be in this squad.  We are very proud of him, though we are wondering how we are going to juggle getting him to training etc.  Anyway we'll work it out.

Today’s BirthdayBoy is – Martin Headlam!  38 today (I think) and going strong.  Loving husband of one, proud father of two, hardworking self-employed electrician.  He spent many hours yesterday scrubbing the interior surfaces of 2XS within an inch of its life – he is having a floating party this afternoon and wants the boat to be spotless.  Martin is extremely neat and tidy and has great skills in neatening, tidying and cleaning.  I am slightly in awe of this…

21^st December is supposed to be The End of the World.

If so I will be mighty annoyed that I spent the days leading up to it laboriously trying to re-format the Miscellaneous Workers (Public Sector) Award!

Jeff told me that something like one third of the population of the United States think that our recent cataclysmic weather events (floods, fires, volcanoes, tsunamis and the like) are precursors of Doomsday.

Oh goody…

As far as I am concerned…it was ever thus.  There are always cataclysmic weather events.  And yes one day the sky will fall but…with a bit of luck, not on 21/12/12…

India #48

On our last day in Jabalpur we took an autorickshaw to the Jain Temple on top of a steep hill.  It was lovely walking up to the top in spite of the fierce heat, because the path was lined with shady trees.  All of the monkeys were fast asleep.  We had to take our shoes off to go into the temple – ouch ouch across the burning marble…

We had already checked out of the hotel, but the elderly supervisor, the one who had let me use the internet, said we could still use all of the facilities – “You are our honoured guests!” he said, when we tried to thank him.  Mary had thought to herself, early in our stay, “What this place needs is a swimming pool.”  Well what noodles we were, because there, not many metres from the manager’s desk, where we had spent lots of time bantering about Mr Osama, was a BEAUTIFUL cool blue pool!  So from 2-4 we spent a very happy time swimming around and drinking Kingfisher.  We took photos of ourselves drinking beer in the pool, and we knew that if we showed anyone those photos they would not believe we had been in holiday in India at all.  It all was too Club Med for words!  A very nice way to spend time before getting back on a train….

Something I must mention about Jabalpur.  It is not a particularly prosperous city at all, in fact it is probably as poor as anywhere else.  But…during our stay there we were not approached for money, not once.  We went into the Hare Krishna temple, where they gave us some little coconut cakes, and we gave them some money as an offering.  Pete pointed out how there were no beggars at all.  This is more than likely because very few westerners go there… So we are the ones who create the beggars… A chastening thought….

We had dinner with some Indian friends a year or so after our return. They were horrified that we had spent time in Jabalpur… It is, they said, a hotbed of Communist discontent and many outsiders have been kidnapped and very much ill-treated there…Well golly and gosh, we had NO idea!