Christmas Day and things seen along the roads

The Z's are resting now, so they are not adding anything now. There are many interesting sites along the roads around Bangalore. In one picture you can see a palm tree that has been somehow incorporated into the front of a building. We are told that Palm trees are treated liked gods by many people- they don't like to cut them down, so they find ways to keep them around.
We also have a little Christmas tree on our balcony. Janet has been busy building gardens on two balconies. This little tree has a few little ornaments to make it into a Christmas tree.


For Christmas Day we mainly relaxed. Most people are working so there is a lot of hustle and bustle about the city. We went for a very fine American style Christmas dinner at "Sunny's". Excellent turkey and dressing along with several other courses and dessert. We went with a neighbor who is flying off to vacation in Australia for a bout 10 days.
The last picture is one of a Hindu temple. At least we assume that is what it is, because it is similar to others. This one seems unusual because of the huge green Parrot above the front entrance. From other temples we've seen- and there are many- the figure above the entrance appears to be the god to whom the temple is dedicated. We recognize "Ganesha" on many- the 4 armed elephant headed god. This is the only temple we've noticed with a Parrot. We often see green Parrots flying around outside the apartment building, so we assume there is a relationship, to this temple. Over the next year we'll have to educate ourselves about things like this. Most of the temples we see have numerous brightly painted figures all over the outside- they can be quite spectacular! Ziggy and Zoe have awakened and want to write a little now.
We have these really neato plants all over the balconys on the front and back of our home now! We get to go out there sometimes and sniff all over and we eat some of them too- when no one is looking! Its like being back home in our jungle there! Our human companions don't let us go out on one balcony by ourselves for very long. They claim that the Monkeys that are sometimes around can be dangerous for us and might hurt us, but we think we can whip those guys if we need to!
Merry Christmas! Z. and Z.

Soft things and Art and Christmas Eve

We have these new soft things to lie on and sharpen or claws now! Verrrrry Nice! Then there is this really pretty thing hanging up where we can't reach it too easily. We really like that too! We are thinking about jumping up and hanging from it, but sometimes our claws don't come out so easily and its a little embarrassing to be hanging around and having to depend on our human companions to help! Maybe one day we'll do it. They can write some now.


Christmas Eve was a cool evening by Bangalore standards but it was probably in the upper 60's F. We had a very good dinner at an an Italian restaurant at one of the hotels. Italia seems like one of the best places we have eaten here and we have had excellent meals there. Christmas Day is a holiday here at a number of companies and many people take other days off around this time too. We are trying to do likewise and relax a bit. The strain of the move and settling in period still being a noticeable factor, though it is getting better.
Ziggy and Zoe say that they want to write some more now about when a guy named "tailor" came to the house.
That is right! A few days ago this guy called "tailor" came to our house and he brought some cloth and a machine and a long string thing to play with! He sat on the floor by a chair the humans brought from our other home and used the string thing to measure around the chair. We really had fun playing with the other end of the string thing! Tailor didn't seem to mind us using his string thing for fun. He measured all around and then started cutting pieces of the cloth with all sorts of pieces flying around that we got to play with. Tailor then used his machine thing to put a lot of the pieces back together again! These humans are very strange. First they take things apart with one kind of too, then they put them back together with another kind of tool! In the end, they have something different from what they started with. Why they do this sort of thing rather than play with the string thing and or the cloth pieces is a real mystery to us. They just don't seem to understand. Anyway, the chair looks different now and we have to agree that it is very comfortable. They seem to want to write something more now.
Yes, that was a brief story about how a stitcher or tailor came to the apartment to make a new slipcover for a chair we brought from home. It had a fabric that didn't really look so good here. While looking for drapes we found that the place also did furniture coverings. We assumed the guy would take measurements and come back in a couple weeks with a slipcover, but instead he came and did all the work right in the living room. The fabric was ordered previously. It took about 3 weeks from the time the fabric was ordered to the time he did the cover, so, the total time involved was not all that fast, but it did get done.

The Sidewalks of Bangalore?

We had a fun day today! There are some new soft things on the floors to play on and claw! We can really have fun at night rearranging where they sit. Fun! They can write some less interesting stuff now.
As Ziggy and Zoe suggest, we got some rugs for the apartment. The floors here are marble or tile in most places and quite hard. They are easier to keep clean, but really hard on the feet and knees if you walk around a lot. So we decided to get some interesting rugs for some parts. People tell us that rugs are not so practical because of the dirt in the air, but we've gone ahead and done it anyway. Janet has also bought a number of plants to put on the balconies here- that was a strenuous effort, but some of the building staff and one of the drivers for another tenant were a big help. We walked to have lunch nearby and on the way home Jim took a few photos of the sidewalks, which are quite a wonder! In the span of about 100 feet you can see why it is questionable whether Bangalore even has sidewalks. There are trenches by the sides of the road and the trenches are covered by large stones to make a sort of sidewalk. The stones might be made of cement, but often they are large thick slabs of granite. You can see that many of the slabs are broken- probably by heavy trucks- and many are missing altogether. In some places- this may not show well in the pictures- the replacement slabs are 2 inches thicker than the older stones and they form a very nice tripping hazard. Of course, all these stones were put in place by manual labor. The picture actually show a fairly good section of sidewalk- most are much worse. The other aspect of sidewalks here is the danger of wires that hang down from above or that simply lie on the ground. There are all sorts of dangling wires and lying wires too. One has no idea whether the wires are "live" or not. Most are certainly not live, but how do you know? You have to be careful.
Flowers are relatively inexpensive here. Janet had some in a vase and as they got a little older she placed them in a copper bowl we bought and they look very nice! So far, Ziggy and Zoe have not been playing with them or drinking the water either!
We were at the "Leela Palace" late yesterday and took a picture of some of the lights. There are more Christmas decorations around than we expected to see, though much less than at home. The Hotel is meant to mimic a palace from the days of the Maharaja's and is quite amazing and expensive.

"Everything is just a little crooked here"

Ziggy and Zoe have taken the day off, so we humans are writing now.
We bought some colorful wall hangings to decorate some walls. A couple are framed and others are cloth that needs to hang from rods. We found a very nice handy man who did some tasks for us- like putting insect netting over some gaping holes around vent pipes and fans. Malaria does exist and we didn't see a good reason to encourage the mosquitoes. We had the same fellow put up some of the hangings. After the first one was done we saw that it was hanging in a slightly odd way. It is because the material is hand made and not exactly rectangular, so it hangs as a parallelogram. The same guy put up another hanging and, when finished, he asked how we liked it. One side was noticeably lower than the other, which he initially denied, but then measured and agreed. After fixing it, the low side is now a little high. This fabric is also hand made and not exactly square either. We also have an entry - way table made of very nice wood and a marble top. It has only two legs and is meant to be attached to the wall. It looks very nice with a mirror above it, but if you look closely, you can see it is slightly slanted from horizontal. So, it is the case that "everything is just a little crooked here"... This seems to be the rule.
On other matters, Janet finished 2 weeks of daily physical therapy sessions on her injured right arm. She says it is still hurting, but is better each week. We also joined a Spa/Health Club so Janet can swim a few times a week. Our Apartment building has a small gym, but no pool. We live near the "Bangalore Club", which is said to have a great pool, but they are not currently taking new members, So, Janet has to go further afield.
Jim got quite sick the past week. It started with a sore throat Sunday evening, by mid day Monday he was ready to fall into bed and did so after returning home in the evening and participating in several teleconferences. He went to bed about 9:30PM Monday and was up for no more than 5 hours out of the next 36 hours when he started to feel a little better. He saw a doctor that afternoon and got antibiotics to take. He is feeling a little bit better each day, but it is slow progress.
On Saturday the 13th we visited an art exhibition where there were some wonderful carvings in wood and various kinds of stone. They were all either Hindu religious figures or Buddhist and the quality was very high. The pieces are for sale, and the prices seemed quite reasonable.
The quality was so good that NOT everything is just a little crooked- these are one exception to the rule above.
We managed to meet the other neighbors in the building this weekend. They are also here from other countries and seem quite nice. We met one for lunch at a very nice restaurant

An interloper and the feather

Today was a good day! We saw another person like us lying on a wall outside, but it is a different color and smaller. It was far away so we didn't get to hiss or yowel or anything at it.
Later our humans took us outside on the strange ground here. We sniffed all around for quite awhile. It still seems strange and we can't figure out what this place is. We went back to our familiar ground and rested awhile and then we got to play "Feather"! This is a lot of fun for a little while anyway. We pretend like we really love chasing the feather around- it seems to make our humans SO happy! After awhile they get tired of it and we pretend to lose interest too.

Beggars

The Z's don't have much to say today. They are watching the birds outside and wishing to chase them- something they only dream about doing back home too.
There are a large number of people begging for money around the city. It is difficult to say what percentage it is, compared to, say New York City, but it is a large number of people. In any case, it is difficult to ignore them. Most people say to just ignore them. There are statements in books and from some people saying that many of the beggars are controlled by some sort of syndicate who get part of whatever money they are able to get. That would be particularly reprehensible. We have generally tried to ignore the beggars, but sometimes that is extremely difficult to do. About a week ago, Jim was waiting for our car to pick him up after he purchased a transformer to use with one of our 110 volt machines when a beggar came up asking for money. At first, he tried to ignore the guy, but then he saw that the guy had no arms! One arm was missing and the other was missing above the elbow. So, it was not possible to think "go get a job". He got a small amount of money. The fellow's story is unknown. He may have been born that way or he may have been in a horrible accident sometime in the past, but his options seem pretty limited here.
In general, labor is so plentiful that it is cheap here. We see people working very hard every day doing manual labor for very little money. The jobs are often dangerous and when they get seriously hurt the consequences seem dire for the whole family. There may only be one person bringing in money.

Good flowers! and things seen on the streets

We got some really good flowers a few days back when Janet had her birthday! Um ! Um! Good! But now our humans have taken them away from us so we can't eat them! They sit outside through the glass we look through to see the squirrels and birds. Too bad, they were tasty!
We get to go outside on the other side of this place sometimes now, but its really high up- it looks almost too high for us to jump down to the ground where we really want to be. Our humans also seem to be playing tricks on us in our litter box. One day there is one kind of scratchy - smelly stuff in there and another day there is something different. Why can't they just stay with the stuff we know? They can explain.
It has been a very busy week. Last Sunday we relaxed as much as we could and then went out for a walk to have brunch. We took a new and longer route back to the apartment to explore the area some more. The brunch was very good and we found our way back without too much difficulty, though we did not recognize the roads from where we stood on the side walks. We walked about 2.25 miles which seemed like a lot considering the rough shape of many of the side walks and the attention needed to cross any road, though Sunday traffic is light compared to other days. It was good to see the more of the area. We also visited a small park that is quite close. In walking about we saw an old home that looks abandoned - see picture. There is an old car sitting out front under the roof as if it was parked there 40 years ago and never moved since! There is a big pit dug in the ground in front of the house! Very odd. On another part of our walk we saw a palm tree with a diaper. There is a large net around the tree to catch coconuts so they won't injure anyone below. We later learned from our driver that Palm trees are considered to be like gods to some people, so they don't cut them down. They just grow and grow.
On Monday, it was Janet's birthday and she got a large group of lillies that look very nice, but we found Ziggy and oe constantly jumping on the counter to munch on the flower stems and other greenery in the vase. We later realized that Lilies might be poisonous to cats and Janet put them out on one of the balconeys at the apartment. She later read that they are, indeed, poisonous and can cause kidney failure! We've been concerned about them ever since, but they seem to be fine five days later.
Janet has been going for physical therapy for her arm and shoulder every day this week and and she continues for another week. She says her arm is feeling better and she thinks it will be ok. The therapy appointments are just late enough in the afternoon so that it is difficult for the driver to take her back home and pickup Jim from work and bring him home for teleconferences with people in the US. Its been tricky. The infamous Bangalore traffic makes it difficult to plan on being anywhere at a particular time. One just has to do the best you can to leave early. Most people understand the traffic problem and people are generally forgiven.
We have gotten a few more pieces of furniture and decorative items, but we await delivery of a sofa and chairs we ordered about 3 weeks ago. It may come this week. We have also hired a maid who seems to cook well too. Her english is not great, but she is studying and she has been good during a trial period.
Yesterday, Jim got a text message on his mobile phone saying that the bill for the DSL service is due in a couple weeks. He then got a call saying it was due in a couple weeks. Then, today, a guy came to the door to collect payment! He came and asked for a cheque, but our new account has not delivered checks or anything else so far, so we paid cash. Cash is used a lot and people seem pretty honest about delivering things that are paid for. We later got a call asking is someone came to collect our bill. Jim had the receipt for it in his pocket so he was able to give the guy the invoice number . Seems that they don't fully trust the employees.
We also had a visit from the DSL people last night. The guy was supposed to come about 6PM and leave by 7PM when Jim had a telecon, but he arrived after 8PM and left about 9PM on a Friday night! He was supposed to connect the DSL in another room and add encryption to our wireless router, but he explained that he could not connect the other room because the wiring needs alteration, so we have to have the building electrician do that. He did the encryption.
Today is Dec. 6. There are a number of alerts about possible terrorism about, but we decided to go about things normally and had no problems all day out. We went to a furniture fair at the Palace Grounds (Bangalore Palace was built around 1890 and is interesting, but not in good shape). We found s couple smaller items we can use. There are fairs of various kinds at this locale. A couple weeks back we missed the book fair which would have been very interesting, but we had so much else to do that we couldn't go even though it ran for more than a week.
So, we continue to settle in, but there is still a lot to do! Soon we will do battle with the mobile phone people again- they are supposed to send us a bill that we have to take in to pay at a store, but we have not received anything from them and we doubt they have the email address correctly recorded.