Mad Dogs and Americans

There is a quote from someone about "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun!" Here it applies to us, but a lot of other people too, really. Last weekend started with a holiday on Friday May 1. Our agreement with our driver is that he gets holidays off, unless we want him to work, in which case we pay him extra. He also has Sundays off unless we want him to work. He would normally want to work for the extra money, but we normally don't have him work on Sunday. Friday the 1st was a day off for him. Jim decided to walk to some book shops while Janet had some place to go with a friend. It was quite hot and unpleasant. Temperatures have been in the low to mid 90'sF lately, which is considered "relatively cool" compared to most of India. Bangalore is at about 3000 ft elevation, which helps. The coastal areas are hot and humid now. The inland areas in the north- like Delhi have temps in the 100's now. Jim went to the book shops and found what he was looking for, but its was still hot and very tiring. There were a lot of other people out- not just the Americans.
On Saturday the 2nd we did some errands in our A/C'd car and then went to dinner at a good Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese restaurant where we met up with an Indian couple we have come to know. The dinner was good, but due to possible rain we had our driver work late in order to drive us home. It has been raining periodically the past two weeks while it practically never rained in Dec., Jan., Feb. or Mar. We are told that Bangalore does not normally have rains that continue for hours and hours like many areas do during monsoon season (starting in June), but it probably will rain every evening around 5 -7 PM.
We mostly relaxed on Sunday the 3rd- our anniversary. Janet has had a sore throat off and on over the past week or so and did not feel that well last weekend. Plus it was hot outside. Our apartment has A/C and the electricity has generally been reliable (except during rain storms), so we have been very comfortable inside, though the electric bill this past month is 2x the previous months! Jim walked to a nearby hotel to get pizza for dinner for us. The better hotels have good restaurants. Most are rather expensive, but some are more reasonably priced.
The past work week was very hectic for Jim with Telecons with the US every night, so this weekend is meant to be a time to relax some.
Joseph, our driver, was sick the latter part of the week, but he seemed well enough and he came each day to take Jim to work and Janet on some errands and to a pool. But Thursday he seemed worse so we told him to go to a doctor. On Friday he still seemed sick- he said the doctor was away, but he would go during the day. Later on Friday he said he went and got some medications, but was not yet feeling better, so we told him to see the doctor again if he did not feel better in the morning. We also told him to take the day to rest- along with Sunday unless he felt much better. So, we did not have a driver today.
We decided to walk to a market about 20 minutes away, but we were able to touch base with Linn, one of the neighbors, who also wanted to go to the market, so she said she would give use a ride home. We walked to a hotel to have lunch and then to some shops before meeting Linn and then we went to 3 food shops. We have found several good grocery stores around Bangalore, but it is still very difficult to find everything you want in just one of them. We end up stopping at different places a few times a week to get all we are looking for. In addition, Joseph sometimes goes to a large market called "Russell Market" to get fish for us. He has a pretty good eye for fish. With the 3 stops we managed to get all we need for several days.
The walk over to the market and other shops was rather tiring- the sun is intense in a way that is unfamiliar. Perhaps it is the heat, humidity and the pollutants that make it seem more tiring.
The A/C in one bedroom leaked water all over a cabinet and the floor with generally only slight damage, but it took a week to arrange to have it fixed. Our landlord was away, but he received our SMS (text message which costs about 1 cent to send) and he called the repair people. However they did not call us until Tuesday to schedule a time (they rarely show up on time- usually much later, but sometimes not at all or earlier than planned). However, Janet later remembered another appointment at that time so we called to change the time. It seemed set, but we later found out that the repair guy needed to have the landlord call in again! Apparently, since we had to change the time that had already been scheduled, that required an whole new request for someone to come- this triggers some sort of system to issue a number. We told the landlord two possible times when we expected someone to be home. We did not hear when someone would come, but on Friday someone wanted to come when no one was home! We have cleaning women who is here most days, but she took the week off to go to her home village. She was to return Friday, but she only told us Thursday night that she wanted to stay away until Monday. So this made matters more complicated. Joseph spoke to the repair guy and he came later on Friday without need for another service request. He seems to have fixed the water problem, though the fan in the unit now makes a little noise that it did not previously! This experience is pretty typical. There is some bureaucratic silliness, the guy eventually shows up and does most of the work, but not all or else he does not clean up afterword. The latter seems common- we presume that division of labor has something to do with it- they assume someone else will clean up- usually the maid, but sometimes the messes can be big. When the Landlord had A/C installed in the living room we did some of the clean up. The guys were going to leave the boxes and packing materials just sitting on our balcony until we insisted that they take them into the hallway. They said that they thought the building electrician would take them away the next day. He may have done that, but we were not so sure. Tonight we are tired from the walk in the hot sun.
On the subject of the mobile phones- the service is pretty good in and around Bangalore and when we were up north- now 2 months ago- it costs about $11 a month for the 2 phones.
Ziggy and Zoe seem fine, and like to go outside on the balconey and watch the birds and try to ctach the little lizards that live off bugs on the walls out there.