A DAY IN THE LIFE OF .....

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.