We returned from a trip of 2 weeks to the Seychelles, Tanzania and Kenya. We locked the computer away so Ziggy and Zoe were not able to write any thing while we were away. We took the keys and they have not yet learned how to pick locks. They want to add something later here. We will be adding some pages and pictures from our trip as time permits. As a sort of teaser, we can say that the Seychelles were wonderful and Africa is amazing!
We left early in the morning of July 11. We were supposed to leave a day earlier, but Janet was sick and we were starting to worry that we'd have to cancel and hope that our trip insurance actually paid off (such places are infamous for not paying). However, Janet started to feel better on the 10th, so we went. We pretty much stayed up until we left about 1:15AM for the airport. A lot of international flights come and go here between midnight and 6AM. Joseph, our driver agreed to come and take us- he said he was afraid he'd oversleep, so he came about 10PM and simply stayed. We paid him extra for the overtime, though he did not ask for it. He took most of the following 2 weeks off, though one of our neighbors needed a driver one day and she paid him to work for her. It was part of his 1 month of vacation he is entitled to from us. He, his wife and son went to Kerala and Mangalore where they have family and friends to visit. His son, who is only a little over 1 year old has gotten quick sick in Mangalore- he got sick there in March also- some sort of intestinal bug that has him on antibiotics and intravenous fluids! They are bringing him back to Bangalore because they think the doctor here is better. Janet read that diarhea is the leading cause of death in children worldwide- due to fluid and electrolyte loss.
Our Housekeeper and a neighbor- Linn- checked on the cats while we were away. When we arrived Joseph said that Zoe was sick one day so he took her to the vet who gave her an injection and some medication for some sort of injury. We can't figure out what happened, but she seems OK- a little thinner, but OK. Maybe she will tell us when she writes later. Ziggy seems fine. He seems to have the fewest difficulties with living in India. It may be that he injured Zoe- they do play a little rough at times!
We have be getting big bottles of water delivered periodically- Renu, the housekeeper- normally orders replacements, but we we have to leave money for her to do so. When we returned on Tuesday, July 28 she had left a note on the water bottle saying "this is the last battle". We wondered if she was expressing something subtle- for example- there is bath mat in one bathroom that we move close to the shower each morning and EVERY day she moves it away from the shower and turns it 90 degrees. This seems to be a small battle we are fighting. Housekeeper's all seem to have their opinions about how things should be. In the case of the water bottle it is probably because her english is not so good, rather than an expression of a darker side. It is the last full bottle of water, so that is probably her meaning.
Zoe and Ziggy want to take over now.
We were very unhappy that our humans went away without us. The members of our extended pride are ok substitutes, but not the same! We are not going to expalin what happened to Zoe. They can just stew about that and wonder! However, we are glad they are back anyway. We knew something was happening when they put a lot of their outer skins into those boxes with handles that they take away when they abandon us for periods of time. they have been away from us for longer periods in the past, but this was the longest time since we arrived in this strange place where the little human - like creatures come up to the outside windows. Oh! We are learning how to open the doors and locks, so next time we might be able to write when they are away, but they are sneaky- this black box has something they call "passwords" and they keep changing them! That may be a real problem!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Around the Horns of India - part 2
We have been having a wonderful time watching the flying things out of all our windows! However, these humans won't let us catch any of them! This really isn't fair. We let them go around swinging tennis rackets that go "pop" and "bang" at bugs that fly around! We hate that noise, but we let them have their fun, so why don't they let us catch some of those flying things? Or how about some of the smaller things that run around in the trees and on the walls out there? Or even the smaller little things that climb all around the walls by the kitchen? How come huh? They can try to explain, but we doubt it will be much of an excuse.
We (the humans here) don't think Ziggy and Zoe will accept our reasoning, as they have their own program to follow. However, we might clarify. They do seem to love to watch all the birds outside. Unfortunately, there are a lot of pigeons around too and some have taken up nesting in some nooks and crannies of the building, so the Z's get to see them a lot and wish they could chase them. Pigeons are somewhat cute, but very messy too. We see whole buildings that are quite a mess from all the droppings- it can't be very healthy for the people and pets either. We should add a picture sometime of an example or two. There are also some chipmunks and squirrels out on the trees and they like watching them a lot too. Janet had one balconey made into a place where the cats can go outside safely. It is away from where the monkeys come and it also houses the washing machine and cooking gas cylinder. They like to sit out there for hours at a time. At night Zoe loves to sit out there and watch the lizards run around on the walls. The little lizards, presumably, eat bugs, so they are probably good. As far as we know they seem to be wise enough to stay up high and away from Zoe.
A couple more observations on car and motor bike horns. Many motor bike shave rather meek sounding horns- proportional to their size. However, there seem to be a lot with louder horns. This might be to make sure they are heard as they squeeze through the traffic, but It seems more aimed at intimidation in the sense of making the other drivers Think there is a car or van there that they didn't see.
We also notice that when drivers toot their horns to warn pedestrians that they are coming, that a lot of pedestrians take the opportunity to step out in the road anyway. It seems as if they hear the horn as a signal that the driver sees them, so it is then OK to step out because the drivers will try to avoid hitting them. (As mentioned previously, people really try Not to hit anyone or anything else, though they seem to brush against our car a lot and leave scratches.)
One of the neighbors in the building does not like all the horn honking and tooting, so she tells her driver not to use the horn. The drivers consider this a real handicap. Our driver, who has Sundays off drove for her one Sunday to get extra money when her driver could not come. He said he felt handicapped by not being able to use the horn- like driving with one arm!
Using the horn does seem to help in many situations, but sometimes there are so many vehicles blooking the left turn or right turn lane, who are going straight, that it does not good, though maybe it helps make them realize that they are impeding the flow of other vehicles. More likely, they think that it is people who are just trying to get in front of them.
On the subject of queues... people generally do not see the purpose. It is not unusual to be standing in a line at a store checkout and someone will wlak right up to the cashier and start to hand them money for what they want to purchase. Often the cashiers will tell the person to wait, which is good. Some of the bigger stores have better organized lines and people seems to follow them rather than jump ahead. Jim once was second in line to buy some tickets to go into a museum when somone came up and put money in the window and told the person how many tickets he wanted. Since Jim is a big guy he gave the guy a nasty look and then moved to completely block him from the ticket window until we had our tickets. Fortunately, the guy did not have a gun or knife, or he realized it was not worth violence. We hope the message starts to make sense, but it seems unlikely that a few instances will change a few thousand years of custom.
In a post a few weeks ago we mention our experience with getting a yellow fever vaccination. Just this week we saw an article in the newspaper about a "scandal" over yellow fever vaccinations. It seems that some one reported their experience to the newspaper. They bought their own vaccine at a pharmacy ( we would have done that if we knew where to get the stuff) and took it to the Public Health office to get the injection. They are the only ones who can legally do the injection and stamp the booklet showing it was done. The person was charged a high price for the injection even though they brought their own vaccine and they were not happy. The newspaper story writer had trouble focusing on what might have been going on, but it mentioned that there was a shortage of vaccine now in Bangalore- for the past couple weeks or so- after we got our injections. They wonder where the vaccine went. A lot of people got injections to go to South Africa to see cricket matches, but they reported that some vaccine seemed to be missing. Probably little will come of the story, but the newspapers do seem to be doing their part in reporting these kinds of things freely. It does give one cause for optimism that somethings might change over time.
Janet's knee was giving her lots of pain, but she has been getting physical therapy that seems to be helping.
We (the humans here) don't think Ziggy and Zoe will accept our reasoning, as they have their own program to follow. However, we might clarify. They do seem to love to watch all the birds outside. Unfortunately, there are a lot of pigeons around too and some have taken up nesting in some nooks and crannies of the building, so the Z's get to see them a lot and wish they could chase them. Pigeons are somewhat cute, but very messy too. We see whole buildings that are quite a mess from all the droppings- it can't be very healthy for the people and pets either. We should add a picture sometime of an example or two. There are also some chipmunks and squirrels out on the trees and they like watching them a lot too. Janet had one balconey made into a place where the cats can go outside safely. It is away from where the monkeys come and it also houses the washing machine and cooking gas cylinder. They like to sit out there for hours at a time. At night Zoe loves to sit out there and watch the lizards run around on the walls. The little lizards, presumably, eat bugs, so they are probably good. As far as we know they seem to be wise enough to stay up high and away from Zoe.
A couple more observations on car and motor bike horns. Many motor bike shave rather meek sounding horns- proportional to their size. However, there seem to be a lot with louder horns. This might be to make sure they are heard as they squeeze through the traffic, but It seems more aimed at intimidation in the sense of making the other drivers Think there is a car or van there that they didn't see.
We also notice that when drivers toot their horns to warn pedestrians that they are coming, that a lot of pedestrians take the opportunity to step out in the road anyway. It seems as if they hear the horn as a signal that the driver sees them, so it is then OK to step out because the drivers will try to avoid hitting them. (As mentioned previously, people really try Not to hit anyone or anything else, though they seem to brush against our car a lot and leave scratches.)
One of the neighbors in the building does not like all the horn honking and tooting, so she tells her driver not to use the horn. The drivers consider this a real handicap. Our driver, who has Sundays off drove for her one Sunday to get extra money when her driver could not come. He said he felt handicapped by not being able to use the horn- like driving with one arm!
Using the horn does seem to help in many situations, but sometimes there are so many vehicles blooking the left turn or right turn lane, who are going straight, that it does not good, though maybe it helps make them realize that they are impeding the flow of other vehicles. More likely, they think that it is people who are just trying to get in front of them.
On the subject of queues... people generally do not see the purpose. It is not unusual to be standing in a line at a store checkout and someone will wlak right up to the cashier and start to hand them money for what they want to purchase. Often the cashiers will tell the person to wait, which is good. Some of the bigger stores have better organized lines and people seems to follow them rather than jump ahead. Jim once was second in line to buy some tickets to go into a museum when somone came up and put money in the window and told the person how many tickets he wanted. Since Jim is a big guy he gave the guy a nasty look and then moved to completely block him from the ticket window until we had our tickets. Fortunately, the guy did not have a gun or knife, or he realized it was not worth violence. We hope the message starts to make sense, but it seems unlikely that a few instances will change a few thousand years of custom.
In a post a few weeks ago we mention our experience with getting a yellow fever vaccination. Just this week we saw an article in the newspaper about a "scandal" over yellow fever vaccinations. It seems that some one reported their experience to the newspaper. They bought their own vaccine at a pharmacy ( we would have done that if we knew where to get the stuff) and took it to the Public Health office to get the injection. They are the only ones who can legally do the injection and stamp the booklet showing it was done. The person was charged a high price for the injection even though they brought their own vaccine and they were not happy. The newspaper story writer had trouble focusing on what might have been going on, but it mentioned that there was a shortage of vaccine now in Bangalore- for the past couple weeks or so- after we got our injections. They wonder where the vaccine went. A lot of people got injections to go to South Africa to see cricket matches, but they reported that some vaccine seemed to be missing. Probably little will come of the story, but the newspapers do seem to be doing their part in reporting these kinds of things freely. It does give one cause for optimism that somethings might change over time.
Janet's knee was giving her lots of pain, but she has been getting physical therapy that seems to be helping.
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