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.
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