Our day
usually starts around 6.00am when the sun rises and the local birds, scooters,
rickshaws and dogs start to make their presence known. It is a nice cool time
of day and Wi-Fi is strong so a good time to check email and catch up with Face
Book over a cup of tea. If the previous day’s weather has been cloud free and
hot we can enjoy a hot shower – or a cooler one if not enough sun to heat the
solar water tank.
Breakfast is
normally coffee and toast with either honey, marmalade or marmite. As an
alternative we may have cereal or yoghurt. We have not been brave enough to try
to make the typical Keralan breakfast of Idli (savoury rice cakes), Puttu (steamed
rice and coconut) or Idiyappam (steamed rice noodles) each served with some
form of curry.
Stella is a habitual house
cleaner so goes round ensuring everything is in order (washing, beds, floors)
while Bill writes up the diary or this blog. If there has been heavy rain the
day before Bill has to bail out water from the upstairs balcony - due to the
leaking roof.
If we are going out we try
not to leave before 10.00am to miss the rush (work here starts at 10.00). Even
so it is slow going in the traffic and it can take over 30 minutes to travel
just a couple of miles.
If we are not going out it
is often because we are waiting for something or someone to come to the house. As
time has no real significance this can be at any time - or not at all.
Lunch at home may be a sandwich,
cheese and biscuits or Indian snacks - samosa or battered ‘something’ such as
banana, green chilli or potato. The snacks may result from a walk up the road
to buy milk or bananas.
Generally the shops close to
us are small, often just kiosks. Buying local is a tradition in these parts and
most things required for a Keralan family can be found here. Later in the day street
stalls open up for fresh vegetables and fish (mostly small ‘dabs’ or prawns).
As we have not yet got into Keralan
style cooking our food shopping is done in large hypermarkets such as Lulu or
Ashis. These stock grocery items that we are familiar with and fresh meat which
we can freeze. It does mean arranging a car to take us but we are going to try
online shopping which delivers!
On those days we go out we
tend to stop at a restaurant for lunch. Menus are pretty similar so we might go
for chapatti, paratha, fried rice or noodles with either a meat, prawn or
vegetable ‘gravy’ or dry fried chicken or beef. The staple lunchtime meal is
biryani which may be all that is on offer at some places. On occasions we have
bought this as a take away to eat later. There are lots of bakers that sell
dried snacks and cakes but also filled rolls and small spicy pizzas (definitely
not Italian!).
Our afternoons may be spent
reading or writing and, in Stella’s case, ironing! By 5.30pm the insects and
mosquitoes are starting to emerge so the doors are closed (by 6.30pm it is dark
anyway).
Around 7.00pm it is time for
a beer which we buy by the box full at the government controlled beer and
liquor outlets. Stella has tried the cheap local white wine but is not
impressed and misses her glass of French or even Chilean. On the other hand a
cold Kingfisher Ultra is most acceptable after a hot day.
We haven’t really got into
evening meals yet. We have had biryani and made chilli con carne, chicken
curry, beef patties but nothing really adventurous. Strangely neither of us has
much of an appetite due to the heat. In fact some evenings we have existed on
beer and crisps!
If the power stays on we read
or listen to the radio or CDs in the evening. If not we sit in the dark with
our torches waiting for the lights and fans to be restored – not the most comfortable
way to spend time and certainly not conducive for sitting down to a big meal!
And so our day ends at about
10.30pm.
