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.