Parents and Parades; the countdown to the end of the course begins!

After the hectic week Louise and the girls had with JP and Doris we didn’t have to wait too long before our next visitors when Neil’s Mum and Dad came to visit for 2 weeks.  Daisy and Ava were very excited to see their Nana and Bampa and had made a ‘Countdown Wallchart’ to count off the days till our visitors arrived.  Daisy enjoyed crossing of the days with ‘sticky stars’, just like counting down the days with an advent calendar but without the chocolate; much to Daisy’s disappointment. 

Nana and bampa with Daisy and Ava

Out and about at Lambs Rock

Carole and Len arrived on Sunday 04th Feb, and Neil and Anandh headed down the hill at 5am to meet them as they landed at 0730 in the morning.  Despite the long journey they were both full of beans and Neil and his Mum and dad talked all the way up the mountain, making the 2 ½ hour journey fly by.  During their visit Louise and the girls kept them both entertained, as Neil’s time off was quite limited due to a busy exercise period on the course.  All the local sights of the area were covered, Upper Coonoor, Lower Coonoor, Ooty, Dolphins Nose, the ‘Toy Train’ from Wellington, Tea Plantations, Lambs Rock, local parks and a wide variety of playgrounds; much to the enjoyment of Daisy and Ava. 

Family photo at Lambs Rock

Tea tasting at Tranqilitea!

Just missing a cow on the toy train to Ooty!!

We also had a busy social time in the evening, with us heading out for various meals and parties with Indian officers on the course.  Mum and Dad’s visit was non-stop and they certainly enjoyed themselves and had a hectic if relaxing time during their 2 weeks in Wellington.  They were made to feel very welcome wherever they went, and were treated wonderfully by all our friends.  They also took full advantage of the great clothes shopping in Coonoor, with Dad buying 3 pairs of trousers and 4 shirts; more than he would normally buy for himself in a year.  One pair of trousers and all the shirts were hand-made-to-measure and he was very happy with the end result.  Mum also caught the Indian shopping bug, and went home with a beautifully woven, lace pattern Indian top. 

Nana in her new Indian outfit

Bamapa and Ava

Nana, Daisy and Louise

All aboard the Toy Train

Nana reading stories at bedtime

All-in-all, a very fruitful trip on the shopping front.  The time that Mum and Dad spent here flew by and just after they’d arrived, or so it seemed, it was time for them to head back.  Thankfully there were no tearful goodbyes as it’ll only be 2 months before we are heading down the hill to Coimbatore to travel back home. 

During the final few days of Neil’s parents visit the final College level exercise, Ex KURUKSHETRA got underway.  The exercise involved all 3 wings of the college and the entire student body taking up the roles of 2 warring countries, Agar and Multan.  Neil was appointed as the Air Vice Marshal in charge of administration and so was given the rank to wear; something he enjoyed very much, although after 2 ½ into the 3 ½ week exercise the novelty had worn off!  As well as being in charge of all administrative aspects, Neil also took responsibility for all the press reporting for his assigned forces. 

Playing a 2-Star - Neil as an Air Vice Marshal!

His most important role, however, was ordering the Samosas, Jalebi and Chicken patties for the 6 o-clock tea break every evening.  As we write this blog, the exercise has 3 days left to run, and whilst it has been enjoyable and given good learning vale, the whole thing is starting to drag and could have been completed in around 2 weeks.  That said, this is the last major assessed phase of the course with the 6^th Tutorial, which starts in 2 weeks time, consisting of mainly briefings and guest lectures.

During the exercise Neil celebrated his 43^rd Birthday, or 50^th as a number of the Officers on the Air Wing congratulated him on.  Birthday and anniversary celebrations are really big in India, and each Officer took it upon themselves to personally wish Neil ‘Many happy Returns of the Day’.  Some even rang him late into the evening if they’d missed him during the day.  As the working hours of the College are quite long during the exercise, the birthday celebrations were quite low key.  Thankfully, Neil’s AOC let him finish at 6pm, so he and Louise could head out for dinner.  They were joined by Prashant and Aparna, a naval officer and his wife, with whom Louise and Neil have become good friends.  Dinner was nice and relaxed in the Kingscliff restaurant in Ooty.  A few beers, some wine and a well cooked plate of fish and chips allowed us all to celebrate Neil’s happy day and make his first Indian birthday a memorable one.

Earlier in the course Neil had visited the Madras Regimental Centre (MRC), an Infantry Regiments basic training unit for its cadets.  The Regiment has a long and illustrious history both under the British and as part of the Indian Army since Independence. 

At the beginning of March, the International Officers were invited back to the Regimental centre to be guests at the ‘Pass-Out’ parade of some 100 cadets who had been undergoing basic recruit training for the last 6-months.  As ever, the weather was beautiful as we paraded in our No1 uniform, before being ushered into the front row for a great view of the proceedings.  The MRC parade square is an impressive setting with the classrooms, offices and accommodation blocks of the Regiment framing the parade round and really adding a wonderful resonance to the words of command as they are barked out and the slamming of boots into the concrete as each drill movement was executed immaculately on the words of command. 

The eldest cadets were only 18, with most of them being 17 to 17 ½.  Their drill was outstanding with the discipline, uniformity and precision extremely impressive.  The parade was reviewed by a 3-Star General who had travelled up form Chennai; a particularly impressive man who wanted to meet all the international students and was very engaging with us all.  

We were very hosted by the Madras Regiment after the parade, and as all the cadets headed off to their various units to commence their trade training, we were treated to samosas, cake chai and coffee.  The whole event had only lasted a couple of hours, but it was a real experience to attend.  Louise had also been invited and we both thought it was a really fantastic occasion; Neil also enjoyed the 3 hours off from Ex KURUKSHETRA. 

As the exercise continues, so does the course.  In fact things are really happening at a pace now.  There are only 8 weeks of the course left.  We still don’t know where we will be living when we get back to the UK, as Neil is awaiting the results of an In-Command Board which is due to sit sometime late March.  That said, we have provisionally booked our removals and the British High Commission have booked our return flights to the UK; so we arrive back at London Heathrow on 29 April 2013.  That said, 8 weeks is still a long time and we still have a lot to do.  In the next 10 days we are travelling to Delhi and Agra to visit the sights of the capital and, of course, the Taj Mahal; we’ll tell  you all about it in the next blog!

Daisy looking thoughtful

Ava keeps an eye out!

Louise and Ava enjoy the sunshine

Visitors, Cats and Carnivals

Louise and the girls had a fairly quiet 2 weeks whilst Neil was away, but managed to have a few socials and dinners with the other wives.  At the end of the 2 weeks, Louise took the girls to stay in a hotel in Coimbatore for 2 nights for some shopping and swimming, with the Navy and Australian families, before picking Neil up from the airport and bringing him home.  This caused a few issues with the College though, who weren’t too happy about students making their own arrangements to go home, even if everyone had been informed.  In fact, at the last minute, they changed their minds, but we’d already left the airport by then, and weren’t turning back to put Neil on a slow bus up the hill.  The Naval officer got in even more trouble and had to go and see his senior officer on their first day back in work!

But the main event, so far, of the new year has been JP and Doris’ visit.  They had booked a 2-week holiday in India, and spent the first week visiting the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, something we’ve yet to do, and then flew down to Coimbatore for the 2^nd week of their holiday.  It was lovely to see them and we wished they could have stayed longer.  The girls, in particular, had a great time playing with them, but it’s only another 3 months now until we’ll be home again to see everyone.  We can’t quite believe how quickly the year is going!

JP and Doris

Hairdresser at Work

Time for those long locks to have a trim

Apart from cutting everyone's hair whilst she was here, we also showed JP and Doris around Coonoor, the market, Ooty and some local look-out points, which were unfortunately very cloudy the day that we went!  We also took a ride on the ‘Toy Train’ (not really a ‘toy’, but a steam train!) in the second class section (!) and visited a tea lounge for some tea-tasting.  We were also invited to a couple of parties whilst they were here, including a great one at the Australian house for Australia Day, and we also had a BBQ ourselves, for some of our friends, in their honour.  All in all, we had a great week with them and we are now fully up-to-date on all the RAF and Logistics Branch gossip!  Thanks JP!

Daisy's fans on the Toy Train

Ooty Train Station

Tea Tasting

Tranquilitea Tea Lounge

We’ve only got one planned set of visitors left now, before we go home, who are Carole and Len, or Nana and Bampa, and they arrive this Sunday for 2 weeks.  We’re all really looking forward to their arrival and the girls even have a countdown chart on the wall!  Fathima is planning meals already that will keep everyone happy, although cooking for JP last week gave her a good practice run, and as long as she makes lots of cake, I’m sure everyone will be happy!

BBQ



Gangnam Style!

 Since Christmas, Louise has also taken up golf lessons.  It was always a game that never really interested her – hitting a small, white ball, walking after it and then hitting it again etc etc, always seemed like a bit of a silly waste of time to her, but the lessons are so cheap here, and as Neil plays already, it seemed like a good opportunity to try it out for herself, and she’s already had about 6 lessons and is a bit hooked, although she probably wouldn’t admit it!!  She’s even played a few holes with Neil and not embarrassed herself too much.  And she certainly hasn’t hit any cows arses yet, unlike some other people…!

We’ve had a bit of a ‘small world’ moment since Christmas too and met some new friends.  Whilst Neil was away on the IDT, Louise had a call from an Indian couple, Ram and Sunita Shahaney, who first met her parents almost 40 years ago when they lived in Chennai, or Madras as it was then.  They’ve stayed in touch ever since, and it turns out that they have a house in Wellington, which we can see from our road – it’s on the next hill and is about a 15-minute walk from our house!!  It is a beautiful home with lovely gardens and an amazing view, which they’ve built themselves over the last 22 years.  Louise and Ava went to meet them for coffee soon after they called, and Neil and Louise went round for dinner when he came back from the IDT.  Sunita is the Chilean Consul for India (although she’s only been to Chile once, after she was asked to take on the role!), so they provided a Chilean meal of empanadas and a fantastic Chilean soup, that reminded Neil of his Mum’s home-made soup, accompanied by Chilean wine.  And smoked salmon and foie gras for hors d’oeuvres too – we don’t know where they got all the food from, but we hadn’t seen anything like it for months!!  There were an eclectic mix of guests at the dinner party – friends, writers and photographers from Goa, Hampstead, Chile and New York, a Tetley Tea plantation manager and even a Pulitzer Prize finalist!!  Not quite sure what we were doing there, but it was definitely a pleasure to meet some different people from different walks of life, rather than the mostly military families that we usually spend our time with.  We also found out that Louise’s Dad is still on the invoice for Ram and Sunita’s gas deliveries in Chennai; although not as Ron Hancock but as Rohan Cock…..an interesting take on the name!

Since arriving back from the December break, Louise, Elaine, Nicola and Chelsea (the 3 British wives and the Australian wife) have produced a calendar of the “Wonderful Women of Wellington” for charity.  Each page features a picture of some the wives here doing one of the many different activities that are available to us (fully clothed of course, just in case you were thinking otherwise!) – golf, tennis, amateur dramatics, horse-riding, sailing etc etc.  They booked a stall at the recent Winter Carnival (in very un-wintery temperatures of mid-20s) and started selling them.  They sold well, but there’s still a way to go before they’ll actually be giving any money to charity!

The Calendar Girls

DSSC "Winter" Carnival

And our final piece of news is that Fathima and Anandh have just got 2 new kittens to try and help them get over the sad deaths of Hannah and Wellington.  Once again, we got the sexes wrong, but after taking them to the vet, we now know that we have one boy and one girl, Billy and Lily.  They are still very nervous, but are getting stronger and happier by the day and will soon be chasing all the rats off and making the garden their territory.  Unfortunately, they have arrived whilst there is a fair amount of construction work going on, so keeping them safe and contented has been a constant worry.  We have finally had our laundry room moved into our garage, giving Fathima and Anandh some much needed extra space in their house, but this has involved knocking down 3 walls and building a new one at the same time as we are having our patio extended and tiled – apparently the previous RAF students have been asking for this work for the last 4 years.  Anyone would think we were approaching the end of the financial year or something!!

Lily

Not much to see at Lamb's Rock

Our extended family this year

Christmas Holiday - Part II - Alleppey, Kovalam and Goa

Alleppey

Our final few days at the Taj Vivanta in Cochin were fantastic.  The staff couldn’t do enough for us, and Daisy and Ava continued to be mini-celebrities the whole time.  When we finally left the hotel, the whole front office and hotel management, as well as the security guards and door valets, around 12 people, turned out to wave us off...at least that’s what it looked like to us; or maybe they were just making sure we left.  We had planned to visit the Cochin Naval Base, as they were having a Public Visiting Open Weekend.  However, when they discovered that we were Internationals, we were told that the security clearances were not available and we couldn’t attend; even though Neil is at Staff College and would have had a wide range of clearances and a whole lot more than any of the Indian general public who attended.  So we just smiled and accepted the rejection; it’s part of the fun of living in India.

On our holiday

Our next stop on our Christmas Holiday Extravaganza was Alleppey.  It is a small coastal town, some one hour south of Cochin.  Alleppey is famous for a wide range of backwaters that have been described as a mini-Venice; although this is a very loose comparison.  Our accommodation for two nights was a Home Stay, the Indian equivalent of a B&B.  Our hosts for the stay were Zac and Marie, who have a son in the Indian Navy.  In fact it turns out their son is the XO, or second-in-command, of the ship that we took a photo of in our Cochin Blog; it’s a small world.  Zac and Marie looked after us really well, and, as we experienced everywhere, really spoilt Daisy and Ava.  Their house was big and spacious, and we took 2 rooms on the first floor.  We also ate all our meals with Zac and Marie, enjoying the local Keralan cuisine and they looked after Daisy and Ava with a range of bananas, parathas, idli, chicken and fruit.  They also organised a fantastic boat trip for us on the Keralan backwaters.  Normally, you could take a House Boat to cruise around for 24 hours with a night stop included. 

Alleppey House Boats

Daisy on our boat

However, with this being high season, the operators were charging more than a central London hotel to stay on board, so we decided to cruise the backwaters for 3 hours.  This turned out to be a perfect time for the girls, as 3 hours is just the right amount of time to keep them occupied.  It was also a good decision as there seemed to be thousands of house boats on the backwaters, making some of the rest areas look like a water-borne equivalent of a really bad maritime caravan park!  So we cruised around, relaxing, eating a wonderful picnic packed by Marie, and relaxed on our own private little boat as we pushed through the reeds and saw the sights. 

The backwaters of Alleppey

Everything is transported by the river

In the afternoon we headed to Alleppey Beach.  Zac had membership of a club that allowed us to use a relatively quiet part of the beach, although two blonde haired children attract attention wherever you go.  Both girls enjoyed splashing about on the shoreline; the currents were a little too strong to get fully into the water, but they still enjoyed themselves as the water crashed in from the Arabian Sea.  Daisy also got to grips with her first sandcastle making, with Neil overseeing the construction.  Whilst the final castle was limited in design and complexity, Neil was more than happy with it for a first attempt.  Our stay in Alleppey was short, but sweet, made all the more memorable by the great hospitality afforded to us by Zac and Marie.

Queen of the Castle

Kovalam

Our next stop on our holiday was Kovalam and Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram as the Indian’s call it.  This was our southern most stay in the whole of India.  The drive from Alleppey was a little longer, taking just over 3 hours, but the girls seem to be getting used to the driving and either slept, ate, or listened to children’s stories the whole way south.  Although Neil can now recite Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Rapunzel in his sleep!  Our hotel resort was a lovely sleepy location right on the coast. It was set back on a small hillside with amazing views of the Arabian Sea and wonderful secluded rooms and villas.  As with everywhere else, the staff were very friendly and the room we had was very spacious with a great view of the sea. 

Our private beach in Kovalam

Our view in Kovalam

There was plenty to do, and Daisy and Ava really enjoyed the pool and paddling in the sea.  The actual resort was an Ayurvedic Therapy resort , where guests normally come to cleanse themselves of worldly impurities,  both in body and mind.  Neil decided to have a massage here, and was a little disappointed and surprised when he was met by two moustachioed men who gave him ‘ the rub down of his life!’  It may be a male fantasy to have two pairs of hands caressing his body, but Neil didn’t think it would come true with two men named Koshi and Sachin!  Having got over the trauma of his massage, we all headed to Trivandarum Zoo, which is the capital of Kerala, the state we were visiting, and some 30 minutes from our hotel,  The Zoo was a good visit, with the cages, pens and animal holding areas seeming to be larger and more spacious than the zoo we visited in Mysore.  It was a very hot day when we visited the zoo, so we didn’t hang around too long as most of the animals were snoozing and Daisy was demanding payment in ice cream for being dragged away from the swimming pool.  That night we visited Ian and Elaine, the British Army couple, who were staying in the centre of Kovalam, which was only 20 minutes from us. 

Daisy about to make a splash

Coming back from the pool

After a couple of G&Ts we headed out for a meal and had the most fantastic sea food platter which included squid, mussels, crab and a selection of lobster.  We all ate far too much and headed back to our hotel to try and sleep off the extra weight we were all gaining on the holiday. 

Our seafood feast

With only one day left at Kovalam, Air India informed us that our flight to Goa had been cancelled and we had been moved to an earlier flight...some 9 hours earlier!!  This meant that we now had to leave the hotel at 0400, as well has have a 10-hour stopover in Chennai as we waited for our connection to Goa.  As you can imagine, the thought of imposing this wonderful travel plan on Daisy and Ava filled us full of joy, but Air India offered us nothing; not even an apology for the major inconvenience.  Luckily, Louise sorted a great day stop at a fantastic hotel in Chennai, so we all had some additional pool time and an afternoon sleep.  But it did cost us an additional day’s hotel bill; again Air India weren’t interested in offering even a part contribution toward the cost caused by their poor planning.  As far as they were concerned, subjecting a 3yr and 18 month old to a 16 hour trip, instead of the original 6 hour planned itinerary is totally acceptable!  My advice would be , if you can, avoid travelling with Air India; they are rubbish in every regard.  When we finally got on board the flight, they gave us our boarding cards and had Daisy sat on her own 3 seats away from Neil and 11 rows away from Louise and they couldn’t see what the issue was with leaving a 3-yr old unsupervised.  Neil was looking forward to handing over the toilet, feeding and colouring book duties over to a random individual, but eventually persuaded the check-in staff that it may be in their interests to sit Daisy next to one of her parents.  Added to this, when we eventually got on the aircraft, they sat us in a seat row that only had 3 oxygen masks and didn’t have an infant lap strap for Ava.  Thankfully, they moved us to a row with enough masks for the 4 of us, but gave the advice ‘to hold on tightly to Ava’ if we hit turbulence!  Thankfully, the Air India experience was over relatively quickly, and after our day stop in Chennai, we finally landed in Goa, and got ourselves ready for the final part of our holiday to spend Christmas in the sun.

Louise and her girls

Goa

Having finally made it to Goa we were not disappointed.  We stayed in the Park Hyatt Resort, which was right on the beach in South Goa and was fantastic.  There was a huge pool, lots of grassy cultivated areas and an amazing white sandy beach that led down to a pale blue sea that always seemed to be at bath temperature.  We met up with Ian and Elaine again and Ashley, the US Army Major who is studying on the course with Neil.  The facilities at the hotel were amazing, with staff everywhere, and lots to do in the day and night.  The hotel had 5 different restaurants with plenty of choice for all tastes.  Daisy really enjoyed the swimming and it was great to see her really get her confidence in the water back, as it has diminished since she arrived in India, due to the lack of swimming opportunities at Wellington. 

Neil tries his hand at pottery, whilst Ava looks on enthralled

Louise enjoys the surf

Ava after a swim

We spent the majority of our time relaxing here, taking nice walks in the grounds, or making sandcastles on the beach.  There was a huge party in the hotel on Christmas Eve, but we decided to head out as a group to one of the local restaurants, known as Martins Corner, which is quite famous in South Goa.  One of the other reasons that we decided to miss the hotel party was the fact that they wanted £120 per person to attend the party, which we thought a little excessive, particularly as we were already paying a nice sum to actually stay in the hotel.  The choice to go out proved to be a good one, as the location, food and entertainment at Martins Corner was excellent, and so we headed back to the hotel very contented and ready to celebrate Christmas Day. 

The sea on Christmas Eve

The big day itself went well, with us all swapping presents, and then going to lie by the pool and beach and enjoy the sunshine.  Daisy and Ava loved the attention and all the gifts they received.  We did manage to eat some turkey on Christmas Day evening, but it didn’t quite seem the same in 25 degree heat!

Christmas morning

Ava unwraps her presents with Ian

The next few days saw Louise visit old Goa, and we were all invited to visit Ian’s sponsor DS’s house, as he was staying in his apartment in South Goa and we bumped into him in Martins Corner.  It was at this stage that we heard some bad news; DSSC had decided to cull the wild dogs at Gorkha Hill during our time away.  But it seems they were a little indiscriminate with the poison they laid out for the wild dogs.  Unfortunately, both Hannah and Wellington, the RAF dog and cat, ate the poison and died.  There’s not much more to say on this crass and unsupervised method of animal regulation and the approach of the College in this regard has left us a little dumbfounded.  Needless to say, both Hannah and Wellington will be sorely missed and are now buried in the back garden of 41/1 Gorkha Hill.  Whilst a sad end to our holiday, we all had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed our travels.  We arrived back in Gorkha Hill on 28 Dec, just in time to have 3 days break before New Year; this will also give Neil the chance to shave off the beard he’s cultivated over the last 3 weeks.  Neil is then off on his travels on the 2^nd Jan for 2 weeks as he travels India on the College Industrial Demonstration Tour.  So he’ll be writing the blog entries from his travels over the next few weeks.  A Happy New Year to you all. xx

Daisy watches the sunset

Evening waves roll in at Goa

Playing in the sand

Christmas Holiday - Part I - Cochin

And so after 6 months in College the Mid-Term break finally arrived.  Unfortunately for the Indian Officers they had to continue studying till the 18^th of December as the course took a classified twist.  However, all the International Students broke for the Christmas holidays on the 8^th of December.  This saw all the International Students bomb-burst away from Wellington; some chose to go home such as the Maldives and USA, some opted to travel within the Indian Ocean Region, such as Singapore and Sri Lanka and some decided to stay to explore India.  We chose the Indian option, partially put off by the mountain of paperwork required to leave the country, but also attracted to the idea of such a wonderful country to explore.  Louise had spent the best part of 4 months planning our adventure and we headed off, via Coimbatore, to the west Coast of India for an 18-day extravaganza in Cochin, Allepey, Kovalam and finally South Goa.  We didn’t set off straight away and spent 3 days relaxing at Wellington.  Neil played as much golf as he could as the course was really quiet with all of the Indian officers still in College.  We were also invited to parties every night before we left; life at Wellington really is becoming a social whirl; we even managed to watch tje new james Bond movie, Skyfall, which was shown in the College cinema. The weather at Wellington is lovely at the moment, with the temperature normally around the 25 Degree mark in the day, with it becoming a little chilly in the evening; just like a UK summers day. 

So we set off on 11 December to the Taj Vivanta in Coimbatore, where we relaxed by the pool and had a nice cosy meal in the evening.  The following day we set course for Cochin, a Portuguese, Dutch and British old haunt that has lots of culture and history.  Our Hotel was another Taj Vivanta, right on the headland of Willingdon Island. 

The hotel is an old 1930s cruise passenger hostel, which is now a fantastic hotel.  The greeting we received on arrival was incredible, with Daisy and Ava, once again being treated as superstars.  In fact the attention they received enabled us to get an upgrade to a Heritage Room with a fabulous sea-view.  From now on we will be deploying Daisy and Ava on a charm offensive to enable us to get upgrades at any opportunity; how’s that for exploiting your kids!  They were showered with gifts and Daisy was enchanted by the huge Christmas Tree in the foyer.  This is the first Christmas decoration we’ve really seen this December, but with the warm temperature and sunshine it still doesn’t feel too Christmassy.

Daisy with the morning catch

A rare moment ashore

Our first full day in Cochin saw us visit the Cochin Fort; it’s not a real fort, but just an area of Old Cochin.  We wandered around the sea front, whilst Anandh looked after Ava snoozing in the car and this allowed us to visit one of the real icons of Cochin; the Chinese fishing nets.  These are huge cantilever contraptions that jut out over the estuary some 20 feet and are raised and lowered by a team of 10 men to catch passing fish. 



Fishing the old fashioned way



The Chinese Fishing Nets

They used to be the mainstay of the Cochin fishing industry but are now mainly a tourist attraction.  There are 10 to 20 of these nets along the shoreline and they are so large they seem to resemble some ancient creature of the past reaching into the sea to gather its daily feed.  We also drove around Old Cochin which was bustling with life and visited the Dutch Palace which had an excellent museum of the old Maharajas’ rein.  After lunch we headed to the pool, where both Daisy and Ava had a great time splashing and swimming.  In fact, Daisy loved it so much we couldn’t get her out of the water; this will be a theme for the duration of the holiday we think. 

Daisy's Second Home

At 5pm we all headed down for the hotel tea and tiffin and watched the ships cruise past the hotel.  The place where they serve the tea has everything.  Waiters, hosts, security guards with catapults to keep away the crows and even a pest control man with an electric tennis racket to zap the flies that dare to fly to close to the sandwiches and cake delights! 

Catapult at the ready for the crows

Ready to zap the any wandering fly

After our tea we went for a cruise around the Cochin headland and had a seaborne view of the Chinese Fishing Nets and watched a very red Indian sun set over the ocean; very pretty although Daisy wasn't too chuffed with the cruise or the life jacket! 

'Do I have to wear this Daddy?'

The nets catch the setting sun!

After all our travelling, touring and swimming we all settled in for a family night on the big bed watching Monsters Inc on the DVD.  However, Daisy, Ava and Neil all fell asleep before the end of the film, leaving Louise to tuck them all in for the night!

Flower Girl

The next day, Neil headed off to the Cochin Naval Base, as one of his colleagues on DSSC had arranged for him to play 18 holes of golf.  In fact it was better than that.  Neil was met by one of the station officers and shown to the course, where the resident professional and a young caddie were waiting to accompany Neil on his 18 holes.  Whilst the weather was much hotter than Wellington, the golf was good and Neil thoroughly enjoyed himself on what is a short, but very narrow and tight course.  Unsurprisingly, there were also a lot of water hazards which Neil did well to avoid; well most of them! 

Teeing off on the 18th.

The Golf Course atthe Naval Base in Cochin

When Neil got back to the hotel, he met with Loluise and the girls, who were enjoying the pool once again.  Today, Daisy managed just the 6 hrs constant swimming, jumping and splashing in the pool.  Anandh babysat in the evening, allowing Neil and Louise to head into Cochin to enjoy some of the local cuisine.  The next few days will be spent lounging around the pool, before head off to Allepey and a cruise around the Backwaters on a House Boats.  Let’s hope Daisy enjoys it more than the harbour cruise!

Sunset over Cochin