New Year's Eve Snapshot

Mood Lighting:  Plastic bags filled with sand create make shift candle holders in the Tibetan Market.

Festive drummers pause on the helipad for a moment as they realize that they all forgot to put on shirts before they left the house.

Blue marlin in the display in front of Sunset Restaurant finally admits to himself that he may have been able to escape from the fisherman's net if he hadn't been so obsessed with juggling tomatoes

it's a bird, it's a plane....

Shawn has been featured on the blog before as a local merchant, street barber and cat mother.  I was alarmed to discover that he is also an amateur roofer when I spotted him like this on Friday afternoon. He was easy to spot actually as we were almost the only two people on the street with all of the men at mosque.

With a little questioning I learned that he visited hospital emergency rooms during Friday prayers several times as a child seeking medical treatment for injuries due to misadventure- or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "injuries resulting from poor supervision during weekly prayers". He has promised me that he will not undertake any more areal projects on Friday afternoons while I am in the country.

Ever the salesman, Shawn also tried to sell magic carpet rides to any tourists who looked up and noticed him sitting on the roof line above.  Fortunately for everyone, there were no takers.

A Christmas Miracle

I forgot to tell people that we had a huge school of dolphins close to shore in front of our cafe on Christmas Day.  All of the local fisherman were out on their boats having drunken parties, so I think that the dolphins were closer than usual in their attempt to avoid the drunk drivers. I myself never drive on Christmas or New Years if I can help it for the very same reason.

Anyway, the miracle was not the dolphins themselves (other people spot them quite regularly), it was the fact that we actually saw them.  Yeah!

leftovers

Santa brought Simon a bag of candy (most of which I ate), a wireless mouse and an online video game that he should have downloaded by Easter if he focuses on the task (I hope that the Easter Bunny is more tech savvy).

Santa brought me a stainless steel food carrier with three layers that snap together called a tiffin.  It is very nice and was convenient for storing Christmas leftovers, but I still could not make a turkey and dill pickle sandwich from the leftover banana curry.

not your average turkey dinner....

I found a lovely Indian woman named Kumari to cook Thali for our Christmas dinner.  She was very reluctant because she does not like to package all of the small dishes required for a Thali feast and cousin Arshid insisted on having the meal in the family's hotel.

This is Kumari's house where she prepared the meal.  She does not like to have her picture taken, so this is a shot of her husband helping in the kitchen.  If Simon wants to express his colourful opinion on naked men cooking, he can do a blog post of his own. 

This is the food packed ready for us to take back to the hotel.

This is a photo of the baker at the restaurant down the street.  He baked the chocolate cake we had for desert (at least he was wearing a tank top).  All of the staff crowded in to the first several photos before I got this one with the head waiter.

This is the second cake I bought in town at the bakery that has been approved by both of the German women I know here.  It is a White Forest cake with Christmas teddy bears(?).

I bought some Christmas lights, some Christmas balls and three white paper stars to decorate the courtyard of the hotel, but it was the boys that developed and executed the plan for the tree.  They ripped two papaya trees out of the ground (Simon swears that one of them had a $40.00 price tag on it) and a frond from a palm tree in the yard and stuck it in a pot of gravel.  They decorated the wilting branches with some of the balls and paper mache decorations borrowed from the shop. They were very excited by their ingenuity and made me come over to admire the masterpiece before the event.

This is people serving themselves at the front desk/buffet table.  

mmmmmmmm-good

We invited a a Swedish tourist, and several neighbours.  David looked after the shop for us and ate after we returned.

The Birth of Jesus

I used a wicker basket purchased from a street vendor, a wooden electrical box from Indian Hardwares and a plastic nativity scene purchased in the state capital. 

( Because of the hyper realistic treatment of the physical anatomy of the baby Jesus, Simon felt compelled to re-dress him in a smock made from blue electrical tape altering the scene from the original artistic vision of the plastic craftsmen).

Resolving the age old question: Which members of the cast of Star Wars really were at the birth of Christ?

Waiting for Christmas

I have been making arrangements for Christmas dinner. Now I discover that Moon Dance (the dance club two doors down from us) is offering a turkey BBQ for the tourists.  They have tethered the bird of honor out the front of their restaurant with electrical wire for people to view in advance of the big feast.  He really is creating a buzz on the street (and a lot of poop).

I have already ordered chicken for Christmas, but I have not been given the opportunity to see the bird in advance.  Maybe I should cancel (?). 

How much is that kitty in the window?

Jenny has become the new window cat in our shop.

One of the original basket cats has been seen in a paper mache boat- I think he is threatened by Jenny. Perhaps making a break for a professional situation with more opportunities?

Cats are Friends, Not Food

So the other day our neighbor's dog, Robert, killed the mother cat living behind Shaun's shop. Now there has been a baby wandering around looking for its mother- which is currently Shaun.

                                                                "Jenny's" first bath

                                                                   Jenny all dried off

                                                          Robert, hates cats because as a
                                                       pup they picked on him and wouldn't
                                                        let him play any reindeer games

                                             Shaun introducing "Jenny" to his "friend" via  Skype
                                        (he Skype's this friend every day- it happens to be a girl named Jenny)

Becker Choclates

Recipe

1 cup cream, 
2 cups sugar 
1 tbsp. corn syrup.

boiled to softball stage and cooled in the pot (you must be able to put your hand on the bottom.  
Beaten until creamy

Garry's photo shoot

Gary was beside Simon one evening while Simon was working at the computer.  He also watches me while I shower, but I have never encouraged him by turning it in to a photo shoot.

We also have a tiny little Spotted Owlet that watches us walk home at night.  Gary is a weirdo, but the owl is too cute to be creepy.

and then....

So we get up on Wednesday morning ready to turn on our electric machine and make coffee only to discover that there is a prolonged power outage scheduled- an 8 hour long power outage.  

The longest 8 hours of our lives I think.

Another shot of Simon's baby.

The coffee grinder.

The blender.

The selection of coffee purchased from various suppliers.  It is all grown here in Kerala in an area called the Western Ghats.

The kit.

The head barista 

(unfortunately, he is not always patient when teaching his mother how to make coffee).

OMG

So we get the thing unpacked- and it won't turn on! 

 We contact the company via online chat and "Olga" says that she thinks that the pump may have been jarred in transit.  She kindly offers to bring her camera to work (in Italy obviously) the following morning, so that she can take pictures of how the inner working should look, so we can see if anything is wonky.  This means another 36 hour delay which is maddening.

Simon gets the brilliant idea that we should just send her pictures of ours for her to look at.  Our electrician walks in in the middle of this and fiddles around a while.  He says a relay was loose and he fixed it maybe- I am not sure exactly what happened- only that Simon almost vomited at the sight of the electrician working on the machine and that it works beautifully now.

Christmas in December

So the package finally arrived on Tuesday afternoon in this tiny yellow truck.  I could not believe that two grown men fit in to the cab of the vehicle.

This event taught us that the term "COD" means pay with a certified bank draft only in India.  Eventually, with the entire street supervising, we got the issue sorted out and were able to have the boxes (there were 2) unloaded off of the truck.

This is the first Christmas morning part.  Simon was a little miffed that he had so much help unpacking the boxes.

This is the second Christmas morning part- empty boxes.

The next part of the story will be told by the head barista at Simon Cafe.

IT HAS ARRIVED!

Our coffee machine, coffee bean grinder and blender have arrived!  It was an exciting event on the street.

I will leave the details for tomorrow's post as I do not have permission from my head barista to publish on the topic.  In the mean time- here is a stock photo of the coffee machine.

deck the halls

Christmas has arrived!  All of the local "Fancy" shops (stationary-ish stores) and grocery stores have pop-up shops selling neon paper Christmas decorations.

The good people who mounted this display do not use a plastic clip on every second light like they do in Peterborough

Simon has gotten in to the spirit of things and has decorated the cafe. 

 I think we will add more in the next few days.

He seems happy reading in this winter wonderland.

Just a note for those of you asking if we have air con in the cafe-  as you can see, we don't even have walls.

dog days

When we moved in to our house it was immediately obvious that there were 3 little cream coloured dogs living in the yard.  They bolted at the site of humans and although we would see them on the street regularly, they no longer entered our yard.

Life is hard for street dogs and now there are only 2 (and one of the remaining dogs has a serious leg injury).

About a month ago they began meeting us on our way home from work, throwing themselves in front of us and wriggling on the ground- obviously an instinctive maneuver to make themselves more attractive to us.  Unfortunately, it worked on me-I am now feeding them nightly much to Simon's dismay.

They are now living in our yard all of the time despite the fact that they can crawl out under the gate. They would prefer to live in the house and try to sneak through the door every time it opened- much to Simon's dismay.  They are too dirty to make this an option even if Simon was not refusing to acknowledge their existence.

I have named them Chico and La la, because that is what Simon calls every dog here anyway. La las's leg has improved dramatically and they seem healthier now than before. I hope to have then placed in a local puppy shelter before they become too old to be cute.

This is a picture of La la (the one with the injured leg.  She likes to lay on my feet to prevent me from walking away.

While I was taking the picture of La la, Chico grabbed my camera bag and headed in to the yard.

I took quite a number of photos, but they are all fuzzy shots of fur and teeth.  I will try to get them to behave for better photos.

road trip

I have been looking after a friend's dogs while she is home in France for the Christmas season (she is married to one of the relatives as I am sure you suspected).  She had the dogs fixed in early November and they have had many related medical issues since.  How do you get a dog to the vet?

First, you talk the boy who works for the family hotel to help you.

Then you find a Tuk-tuk driver who is willing to stop (when I only had one dog to take a Tuk-tuk was enough).  This part is a little difficult.

 It is not so difficult getting the dog to settle in for the ride.  She even fell asleep on the way home.

My next vet trip (with my neighbour this time) was with two dogs and required a larger vehicle.  It is quite an impressive little thing and made almost as much of a splash at the vet as we did.  The women with the truck full of chickens in cages and the man with the goat thought the fact that we were bringing two dogs on leashes to an animal doctor was HILARIOUS!

Luckily there were no animals using the horse and cow stalls, so we were allowed to tie them up right away and the crowd lost interest.  Apparently dogs tied to posts are not so fascinating.

getting around

Simon and I have so far refused to buy a scooter to get around and rely on tuk tuks (autorickshaws) despite the horrific expense ($2.10 for a round trip to town).  Below is a photo of a line of tuk-tuks on the helipad waiting for tourists.

There is a disco Tuk-tuk that drives on to the helipad regularly at night- or maybe I just notice it at night.  It is festooned with flashing LED lights and plays loud Bollywood tracks.  It is really something special.

This is a typical Tuk-tuk with garlands of flowers.  Since being in Kerala I have had to abandon my long held resolution to never ride in vehicles operated by drivers who believe in reincarnation.

The most expensive taxis are Ambasadors.  They are large, impressive cars in a variety of colours (black and white). We have never been inside one, but intend to one day spend the money to find out just how fancy they are.

A final word:  One morning on our way to Varkala for breakfast we had a guy in a large car stop and announce he was a taxi.  Simon and I had been waiting by the side of the road for some time for a Tuk-tuk, but we were hesitant to accept the offer at first.  It seemed improbable that his car was a taxi as it was neither white nor black and it certainly was not an  Ambassador.    The ride to town was relatively uneventful despite my initial reservations and eventual observation that the driver was not very sober.