The month of May

Hello! Wow, the past few weeks just flew by.

 

Well, a few days after my last post we had the most amazing monsoon rains. It's very unusual to rain at this time of year, sometimes there are summer monsoon rains in June but never this early. The temperature has been creeping up since the beginning of the year and it's had been about 4 months since our last rain. It's a very interesting concept for me as a British person to feel such elation at the sound, smell and feel of rain but there you go. Nearly 10 months of scorching heat and roughly 10 days of rain can do that to a person. Anyway, we had a good 4-5 days of proper rain and it has done so much good. I mentioned in my last post about the water shortage worries here so as you can imagine, there were a good many smiling faces beneath raincoats over those days.

 

I took K to the Drs for a test after his dodgy tummy didn't settle down, he's now taking some medicine after both worms and amoebas were detected. It's a standard complaint though, it's wise to deworm yourelf here every 6 months or so just to be sure. Since K enjoys digging and playing in the dirt where these kind of things can be caught, it was only a matter of time. Still, he's been a good patient.

 

K in his carefully chosen 'rain outfit'

 



 

 

A soggy rest after our trip to the Drs

 

There is a big dipped area of ground in front of our neighbour's house which filled with rain creating a pool for all the kids. They all stripped off and spent hours splashing, making mud pies and just having proper messy fun. I was careful to keep a bucket of fresh water outside to prevent muddy footprints all over the house!

 

Mud beast

 

I've also started a temporary summer job at the Freestore (in their words "A place of free exchange for clothing, and some other useful items" as well as a tailoring service for repairs and alterations). I basically sort through the donations and makes sure items are put in the right place, are not too dirty, ripped etc. It is so much fun. I always loved scouring charity shops in the UK and this place is just like one except everything is free. It's very sociable (as you can imagine, it's a very popular place to visit) and I'm allowed to take things if I like them. The good thing is that I might take a few items of clothing, try them on at home and bring them back if they're not quite fitting right or bring other items that just aren't worn anymore. It encourages the spirit of sharing and most people who use the Freestore make sure to bring donations as and when they can.

 

It's just until the end of June, then I must find something else. I still have 2 possibilities but have a couple other ideas too. We'll see what happens but for now I am enjoying my summer job. The Tamil lady I work with even henna'd my foot (the beautiful rug is also from the Freestore).

 

 

 

I've left my camera at home the few times we've been out and about so don't have so many photos to share. We took a trip to Sri Ma (a community up the coast) and had a dip in the sea, lunch and a swim in the pool last weekend. I found this wonderfully spikey specimen which I added to my collection on the balcony.

 

 

We've also been over to the playground at Certitude for climbing etc.

 

 

We're off on a day trip next Tues to Vandalur Zoo (http://www.aazoopark.in/) and Dizzee World (http://www.mgmdizzeeworld.com/). It's being organised by the mum of one of K's classmates so there will be a bus load of us going up towards Chennai for the day. Should be fun although nothing is ever how you imagine it'll be here in India. Anyway, be back soon with more on that.

 

Other than that things have been much the same. The heat has increased the population of tiny-red-ants-that-bite which makes things a bit annoying. A plate with crumb on it will attract hundreds of them in seconds, so have to wash up more frequently and they seem to like towels so have had too many refreshing cold showers followed by frantically trying to brush nasty tiny-red-ants-that-bite off myself. Just so you didn't think it was all fun and games, haha!

 

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Laura x