Mumbai and a Hike to Ralliah Dam

Neil is a third of the way through the course and we had a long weekend last weekend to mark the end of the 2^nd Tutorial.  We had decided to go to Mumbai with our friends, Elaine and Ian, and left for Coimbatore airport on Thursday afternoon, after Neil finished work at lunchtime.  The girls were great on the flight and we got to the airport later that evening and eventually made it to the hotel after a few transport difficulties (our booked taxi couldn’t find us, nor we him).  We stayed in a hotel just north of the city, and the staff were great as soon as we arrived, although having Daisy and Ava with us is certainly a help!  The receptionist who showed us to our room kept asking Daisy if she liked chocolate, to which, of course, the answer was “Yes”, and 5 minutes later they’d sent up a tray of brownies and ice cream with her name iced on the plate!!  Unfortunately, the brownies were too rich for Daisy, so we had to eat them, but she did enjoy the ice cream!  We finally got 2 hyper girls to bed at about 11pm and ordered 2 ridiculously expensive G&Ts, over £30, from room service.

Daisy and her Brownies and Ice-cream

The area we were staying in was about 30 minutes away from the city centre over the Bandra Worli Sealink bridge, but it was a very cosmopolitan area with lots of shops and restaurants and our hotel was right by the sea.  It also turned out to be the area where most of Bollywood’s stars live.  We even saw one in our hotel – a very glamorous lady in a red dress and with a large entourage – we can’t remember her name now unfortunately, though!

On the first of our 2 days in Mumbai we all did a driving tour of Mumbai, saw all the sights, had a walk around the Gandhi Museum, the Gateway to India and the infamous Taj Mahal hotel where 32 people were killed during the terrorist attacks of 2008.  We also had lunch in Leopold Cafe, where Neil and Ian were able to order a pitcher of beer (something you’d never get in Tamil Nadu) and the staff kindly pointed out the bullet holes in the wall and grenade hole in the floor – somewhat unnerving! 

Cheers!  Neil and Ian with their Pitcher of Beer

The following day was a bit wet in the morning, so we did a bit of shopping whilst Ava slept soundly in the backpack and most of the rest of the weekend was spent swimming with Daisy in the hotel pool.  We also got a baby-sitter for the 2 nights we were there, so that we were able to go out for dinner and drinks with Ian and Elaine – once in the hotel and once in a super cool Chinese restaurant close to the hotel. 

Ava sleeping through all the shopping

During our stay in the hotel the girls were also given toys and Belgian chocolates by the hotel staff and they became celebrities at breakfast, as usual.  We did have some competition from another family with 2 young, cute, blonde kids, but we think we won overall!

Louise is still taking part in the Institutionalised Training for Officers’ Wives course, which is up and down in the quality of its speakers and their subject matter.  However, the poorer speakers are made up for by the opportunity to go for lunch with some of the other wives afterwards.  Last Friday, we went to the Taj Gateway, a hotel in Coonoor, for cocktails and chicken burgers, and all came home a bit tipsy, but still able to make yoga later in the afternoon.

We had an addition to the family this week in the form of a kitten.  Neil heard Anandh and Fatima’s dog, Hannah, barking last Sunday night and went to the front door.  There was Hannah lying prone, looking straight ahead at a little kitten that was sat in the middle of our doorstep, crying for all it was worth; it couldn’t have been more than a week old.  Neil spoke to Anandh and asked what could be done.  Anandh was quite frank and said if the cat was left outside either the dogs or monkeys would eat it!  So what could we do?  We took her in.  She was underfed, cold and had a gammy eye.  So we gave her some milk and a warm bed in our laundry room.  To be fair to Hannah, we think she found the kitten, carried her to our doorstep and barked till Neil went to see what was going on; very Lassie like.  If Hannah had wanted to hurt the kitten, she could have done it at any time.  We’re glad to report that Lily, as she’s now called, is doing well.  Louise wanted to call her Lucky (boring), Neil wanted to call her Doorstep (even worse!).  She is growing fast, is being spoiled by all of us and her eye has cleared up.  We’ve even taken her for a check-up in the local animal hospital.  Long term, Lily will be a great addition to the family and is the ultimate rat repellent!!  However, one footnote.  After her visit to the hospital we found there is one major problem with Lily...it turns out she’s a HE.  So a re-think is needed on the name.  Grateful for any suggestions.

"Lily" the Cat sleeping in Anandh's shoe

This weekend we went on our first College-organised hike to a Toda village – the Toda are an indigenous tribe that still live in the Nilgiris hills.  It was a 12km hike through the jungle, interspersed with tea stops, shopping and a “cultural display” (dancing and a demonstration of marriageable eligibility by picking up huge boulders) at the Toda village.  It was a beautiful walk and very sociable – there must have been about 200 adults and children taking part, all strung along the path.  We didn’t take Daisy and Ava with us as we knew we’d end up carrying them, but there were plenty of small children on the walk.  The hike ended up back at the Officers’ Mess for lunch and beer on the lawns, and Anandh brought Daisy down for ice-cream, which she found very exciting!

In the Jungle

On Saturday night, after a bit of an afternoon snooze after the hike (it’s the Indian way apparently), we went to a new restaurant that we’d heard about in Ooty for dinner.  It’s called Kings Cliff and is very British Colonial in style, lots of dark panelling, open fireplaces and beautiful, old furniture, and serves very good continental as well as Indian food, so we had steaks and brownies to follow – it was lovely!!  And now that our wine delivery has arrived from the US officers (from their Embassy) we were able to take some nice wine with us for dinner too!

Sunday night was another dinner party at someone’s house, so it seems to have been a non-stop eat-a-thon this weekend!  Unfortunately the tummy troubles Neil has been facing are turning into a tale of woe.  Having been to the Doc’s again, it seems that he has a mild parasitic infection; Neil has named him Percy the parasite.  Hopefully after another set of antibiotics Neil will be rid of Percy once and for all and his stay in the family will be short lived!  The one thing that this has curtailed is Neil’s eating, as hasn’t been eating as much as Louise and is now 7 kgs lighter than when he arrived in India.

So it’s time to start planning the next Tutorial Break and the long Christmas holiday now, but before that Neil’s got another 8 weeks of hard toil and 2 trips away with the Course.  It’s a hard life for some!

And before we go, Neil's been doing a lot of face painting with Daisy recently, so here's one of his artworks...

Daisy the Tiger, with Daddy