Rain and Rats

Well the monsoon rains that we had been told so much about finally arrived in earnest this week.  The days normally start with bright warm sunshine, or a few low clouds hanging in the valley; a lot of the time we’re actually sat above the cloud.  But by around lunchtime the heat steadily builds and then the clouds grow darker.  Then around 1ish the heavens open and it just rains.  Not your normal rain, we’re talking absolutely deluges.  Within minutes there are fast flowing streams everywhere and the storm drains struggle to cope; after an hour or so, the rain eases and its sets into a steady patter for another hour, before clearing in the evening to normally give a lovely sunset.  It’s good that we’ve had rain as they use it to directly feed our water supply.  In fact, the rains started a little late this year, so they were talking about restricting our daily water supply, but thankfully this hasn’t happened so far.  As well as water restrictions, we also get limited on our electricity.  Power cuts are a regular occurrence, both planned and unplanned.  Luckily, we have an industrial sized generator that kicks in after a 30-second power cut to keep our needs supplied, but in a 7-day week, we’ll be running off the generator for at least 2 days.

Rain at the Golf Club

One of the other factors we’ve had in the last week is the wildlife.  I know we mentioned the spiders, monkeys and rats last week, so we thought we’d give you a running total of our ‘War against the Rats’.  In the last week we’ve caught 8, but living in a jungle hill station, it could be a continuous battle.  Neil was outside on Friday night, it was pitch dark and he was collecting Daisy’s toys.  He could hear no animal sounds, but right next to him one of the traps activated with a loud whoosh and a snap!  He came racing in, and he said it was the fastest he’d ever moved; even faster than when he used to play football!!  Anandh has said there is a King Rat out there somewhere who appears too smart to be caught so far, the victims we have caught are merely the foot soldiers; so we’ll keep trying.

The course has started for real this week, with Neil being joined by all the Indian Officers; the course now totals 447 officers, which is 1/3 bigger than the UK course.  Time has been short for Neil this week, with lots of lectures, in differing classrooms, with no time to get between them, so invariably the timetable slips.  Normally, Neil leaves the house at 0745, and lectures commence at 0830.  He has 10 mins for coffee at 1000, then comes home at 1400 for lunch.  Whilst not onerous, it is a challenge for the Western officers, pushing from 0800 to 1400 hrs with no food, as they are not allowed to snack or drink anything during lectures at all.  After lunch, beautifully prepared by Fatima, the college then expects each officer to spend 5-6 hours in the afternoon carrying out OTW or Own Time Work; this they do as well as complete various exercises, prep for presentations, dissertations etc.  It’s no more difficult, or time consuming than the UK course, but they do compress the time out here, and the power cuts make it more of a challenge, especially when trying to submit work via the Internet!  On top of this, a lot of work has to be submitted in hard copy, and quite a lot of it has to be hand written.  So again time is tight, to get the work completed, in the right format, in the right colour ink, in the right folder, with the staples in the right place and then drive the 10 miles to college to deliver it on time!   For those of you reading this that thinks that the UK military are sticklers for formatted writing, the UK has nothing on India!!

Daisy has also started nursery now and seems to be enjoying herself and making friends.  The nursery is quite similar to the ones she’s been to in the UK and English is the first language used there!  There’s lots of outdoor play, stories, singing and activities and she’s settling in well and looks forward to it each day.  Which gives Louise time to go for a tennis lesson every morning and then have a cup of tea with Elaine on the verandah at the tennis/golf club.  Meanwhile, Ava is at home being spoilt by Fatima and Vassa.

Daisy and her friend, Lujaine, at nursery

And talking of Daisy and Ava, of course we celebrated Father’s Day last weekend.  We had planned to take the Miniature Train (a UNESCO World Heritage attraction) to Ooty, but unfortunately it was fully booked so we had to drive there.  Anandh gave us a windscreen tour of the town, it’s lake and the race course (horse-racing) and then we had a bit of a Western day having a latte at ‘Coffee Day’, shopping for Heinz tomato ketchup and Schweppes Indian Tonic Water in ‘Modern Stores’, and finishing off with pizza at Dominos – the only Western fast-food outlet for miles around.  It’s got to be done every now and again!

The social life continues with a “Free Lindy (the dingos really DID take my baby)” party at the Australian house on Saturday night and another cocktail party at the Officers’ Mess earlier in the week.  The only major downer of the week was that Felicity, the 7-year old daughter of the Royal Navy family, had to spend 3 nights in hospital after she picked up an infection from somewhere which seriously affected her diabetes.  Thankfully, she is completely recovered now and back at school again today – although I think it might take her poor Mum a bit longer to get over the stress of it all!