On Saturday it was driech and miserable and we were kicked out of our room at 10am because the Powers That Be at the ISI had decided the hostel needed decorating. Well, I say we were kicked out at 10am, we were woken up at 10am by a troupe of hopeful looking blokes splattered with paint, who didn't look so hopeful when they were told to piss off and come back in an hour. We had to pack up the entire room and put it into the wardrobes (this was a wise move, more on that later...), get breakfast and a shower. I wasn't about to hang about Ollie's office all flipping day in my PJ's and bedhead. At 11am we headed over to Ollie's office, spent 3 hours trying to fix my internet then went to Gopalan for lunch.
We were told to come back at 5pm, when our room would be ready. This being India it was 6pm before we could get back into the room, and 7pm by the time we'd cleaned the paint off the counter, desk, bathroom floor and everywhere else they'd liberally spread it.
Once we'd cleaned up and unpacked we were able to watch Evil Dead 2 (after watching the first one on Friday night) which popcorn and beer and an evilly grinning pumpkin watching over us!).
Sunday I finally cast off the back of my kidsilk cardi and shuddered at the thought that I still needed to do two fronts and two sleeves before I can wear this thing. I am NEVER knitting in anything thinner than a DK weight again.
Monday we mostly puttered about. The weather took a turn for the worst so we chilled out in our room and then headed to Commercial street to pick up our suits! Dapper is not the word, but I didn't take any photos (retard) so you'll just have to imagine Ollie and I looking super-smart in some hand-tailored goodness. We also popped along to Church Street and Hong Kong Hustle (Ollie's been doing his research) for tea, I had the yummiest Chinese food - mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and tofu in a chilli-plum sauce, and Ollie had Thai green chicken curry which smelled just fantastic (and tasted pretty good by all accounts).Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we didn't do an awful lot but work and cook and knit. I made a slouchy beret (thank you Ravelry free patterns!) in 3 film-watching sessions and remembered how much I love knitting in the round, Aran weight wool (Artesano Aran - 50/50 alpaca/wool in "Lombard" for those who give a damn) and big massive needles. I am SO happy with this bunnet, I'm going to need to sew some elastic through it to stop it flying away in an Lancastrian winter, but it's soft and warm and a frickin' fantastic colour.
Friday was Diwali, and I had yet another day off work. We'd been told that the city pretty much shuts down for Diwali, apart from the fireworks, so we laid in some food and drink and duff films and had a lovely, quiet day. After it got dark we wandered down to the main road to try and spy some fireworks and stretch our legs. Everyone was wishing everyone else Happy Diwali (a bit like at Christmas) and we were invited to a puja (blessings and prayers) at the hostel. It's traditional to wear new clothes at Diwali, so Ollie donned one of his tailored shirts and I popped on my salwar kameez (not paying enough attention to notice that we looked a little over-co-ordinated, both of us in turquoise-y blue) and it seemed like we'd done the right thing. A few of the girls were wearing beautiful sarees or intricately embroidered salwar kameez and looked stunning. The guys had risen to the occasion too though, with brand new kurtas still with creases in them!We had a few hymn-y songs, lots of clapping and were encouraged to waft our hands vigorously over a small oil lamp to be blessed by Lakshmi, and made a small offering of flowers to Ganesha in return for a wish. After that you're given a handful of fruit and sugar crystals to eat.
Then it was time for dinner at the canteen which had been specially prepared with sugary, syrupy gulab jamun for pudding, and finally onto the noisiest part of the evening, fireworks!
Man, Indian people love their fireworks. And aren't huge fans of health and safety! The fireworks were set off left, right and centre with huge bangs and puffs of smoke. Roman candles are lit and admired from a couple of feet away and no-one thinks twice of lighting them near bare feet or long, flowing sarees. The fireworks have been going off pretty much non-stop since Friday morning, and it's quite normal for huge bangs to suddenly go off at 3am.
Everything looks just gorgeous, with fairy lights everywhere, unfortunately this is also putting a bit of a strain on the old power so we've had a LOT of power cuts the last few days.
We were going to go to Lalbagh Park on Saturday, but the weather was a bit miserable so we did some cooking and film watching and went out to Church Street and a restaurant called 20ft High. The food was a pretty passable attempt at Mexican (Ollie was dubious about ordering a steak, but went for it and was quite happy) but with a traditionally Indian approach to serving the food. I ordered a side of french fries to go with my quesadilla, but they arrived half-an-hour before the very, very spicy quesadilla so I struggled a bit with it, having nothing else to dilute the chilli with.
Yesterday (Sunday) we had grand plans to finally go to Lalbagh, but the weather had other plans. It rained all day without a single let up. On top of that, I've managed to catch some bug (possibly from the nursery) so I've been feeling pretty grim. It's no fun being ill when you're away from home. I miss my duvet and comfy bed most of all. The mattresses in India appear to mostly be filled with bricks and are way too solid to really get comfortable when your joints ache.
Boo hiss to this, and I now need to convince Ollie to go to Gopalan because we've only got one teabag left!
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