Kumar & The Chef

I can't believe that I forgot to mention this, but Kumar and his friend Suresh had a rather nasty motorbike accident a couple of weeks ago and we have been without him for the last 10 days, they're both much better now but I must admit that their injuries really gave me the shivers. Thankfully he is fit and well again and has returned to us today and DS was so pleased to see his best friend again...and so was I, first stop Farm Fresh for some 'good' fruit n veg. The relief driver was never going to find it and I decided it was best to avoid the frustration!

Mr Fixit Does Ice-Cream

My kids love Ice-cream and it's always a handy stop-gap to have some in the freezer. Some shops here have freezers with lots of the stuff inside them but with all the power cuts you wonder how safe it is to buy and eat so tend to give it a wide berth.

Ice-cream parlours are also quite common and it was as we passed a rather downbeat looking Baskin Robbins (others look great, it was just that this one prompted my thought!) that I asked a question...'Kumar, do you know of a good place to take the children out for Ice-Cream?'

'Madam, my brother's son works in an Ice-Cream factory, anything you want I will get for you.' He makes a phone call. 'Madam, my brother's son has told me to come this afternoon and he will take care of you.' Ok then I think, let me see, some vanilla and some chocolate would be good to help maintain my 'Best Mum In the World Status' in the eyes of DD (she's 4 and will realise one day that I'm really not that good!), and give him my freezer bag, ice-packs and some Rupees.

We sat, we waited. The kids had dinner and ate it ALL up on the bribe that Ice-Cream was on it's way, and still we waited. Bath time was looming and DD begins to get agitated, I call Kumar and he tells me the traffic is very bad, and it is, ALWAYS.

Five minutes later he screeches up the drive and deposits not only a box of vanilla and chocolate but a huge array of ice-lollies, tubs, screwball type things without the bubblegum and tells me these are all free samples and anything else we order will be given with a hefty discount and that any Ice-Cream will be freshly made and frozen on the day we buy. He read my mind.

DD was so impressed that she even gave Kumar an ice-cream as a thank you, I didn't like to tell him that it was because she grabbed the first thing she saw and then saw something better and quick thinking as she is, found a way to off-load the less interesting one! She then redeemed herself by giving our new maid, who started this week, a choc-ice for her two year old son.

Snap BANG Crackle & Pop

The fireworks continue. Although we had a rest from them today they began again in earnest this evening, the kids are so unphased by them now they even sleep through them. How they do that?!

I thought after yesterday that would be it, there couldn't possibly be any more fireworks left in the whole of India, but someone found a whole lot more somewhere on a shelf in the corner. Now, I don't know if I've got this right or whether something got lost in translation but Kumar told me that today is the day that non-vegetarians celebrate with their fireworks, yesterday it was the vegetarians. If that is the case then our neighbours on all sides can't make their minds up whether they eat meat or not!

Kumar also told me of his firework experiences last night. Two stray rockets entered his home at different times while he and his family were watching TV and started fires.
'Coconut roofs is a BIG problem Madam'.