This was a really hard book for most people in the book club to get through. The only other person that actually finished it was Tina, and she was out for recovering from surgery.
The discussion wasn’t as deep as it could have been because the book itself was a bit off. It had issues of continuity, fact vs. what was made up, and the ambiguity of who the narrator is. I found it really hard to fully understand and pay attention when it was going.
I also found it interesting that when he completely broke down he was describing insanity and nirvana at the same time.
We got to Kochi pretty late and just went straight to the hotel. It was New Years Eve, so we had planned on staying up late and partying. We got there and Lindsay was able to get us into the roof party, despite one woman insisting that it was sold out. Lindsay even got us a discount because the package deal of a room and the party wasn’t on the website.
We had a pretty good night. Lindsay won a dance contest.
The only stop we made was to get some bootlegged alcohol, made from coconut juice. It wasn’t that great and wasn’t from the cleanest of places
I didn’t feel too unsafe because the fermentation process was proceeding cleanly.
We saw a fantastic sunset, and got some much needed sleep in the well sealed cabins. I only got a half dozen bites from the mosquitos, but that is why I was taking anti-malaria pills.
The next morning we went back to Kochi and got a hotel for the time before the flight. We walked along the beach some and got to see them take in the Chinese fishing nets.
Lindsay left at 4pm, so Steph and I grabbed some dinner and a nap before heading off to our flight at 1am.
The flights were really long, and not too bad. Steph and I switched seats halfway through the long flight, and she really didn’t like the middle seat with the broken recliner. I can’t blame her since it was really uncomfortable. I wasn’t able to sleep in it very much, but the window seat she gave me got me a decent amount of sleep. Her parents were there to pick us up when we got back and it was nice of them to make us some soup for dinner. Steph was completely gone the whole ride back, but she managed to stay up until a decently late time.
It took four flights to get me from Atlanta to Bangalore. I went through Chicago, over the North Pole, through Delhi, through Chennai, and then to Bangalore. I had to go through security at every airport and customs in Chennai. Lindsay met me at the airport and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. A few hours later we went back to pick up Steph as she got in. We had a short night’s sleep, and slept in quite a bit. We eventually checked out an hour late, and grabbed a quick bit of food at the close by McDonalds. We got the Indian versions, made of Aloo and Paneer.
We made it to the next hotel, which was about an hour and change away. We checked in then went to see the town, and get some much needed coffee. We walked a bit around one of the nicer areas and found a Cafe Coffee Day that Lindsay liked. We got our much needed caffeine and then talked through what our plan for the trip was going to be. While walking along the streets we noticed cows just wandering around and standing in the middle of the road. Everyone just went around them. With as crazy as the traffic was, cows weren’t even close to the biggest hazard.
We then went for some really oily massages called ‘Ayurveda’ massage. It was a very interesting and unique experience that I would not want to repeat. The massage wasn’t that unpleasant, but the constant oily feeling afterwards wasn’t great. They do let you shower, but it isn’t western standards. We had a nice Indian meal after that and called it a pretty early night.
The next day we went on a tour of the city, with a really amazing guide. In the morning we went to a snake temple that was built to appease all the snakes that were displaced from the filling in of lakes in Bangalore. They served the most delicious meal we had while we were in India.
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Near the snake temple were sari looms, and they were incredibly loud
Just down the street from there was a well known coffee/tea house, so we stopped by to get a drink
After that we went to the central marketplace. It was very loud with people going everywhere. There were large piles of trash around because someone had not been bribed to take it away. There were so many flowers in the lower area, and Steph got some Saffron, which I was dubious about.
We then went to a Sikh temple and learned a little bit about the Sikh traditions of taking care of the community, which I strongly approve of. Their meals, housing, and education social policies are very good, and are done on a scale that is mostly sustainable. Their religious practices aren’t for me, but the social policies are nice.
We had lunch hosted by a local family that was distantly related to the royal family that once ruled the Bangalore area. They were very nice, and cooked a dish ‘Kofta’ that was delicious. We liked it so much we decided that in the cooking class we were going to be taking later we would have to have that included.
We then headed to the temple to Kali, which was pretty disturbing. They had animal sacrifices, locks to cast curses, and a black cat owned by a transvestite. The whole place wasn’t that scary, just really creepy.
The nexts stop was Pottery Town. This was an area that was known for making pottery, and consisted entirely of a labor caste that converted to Christianity to get out of the caste system. They had a lot of pots everywhere, as well as all sorts of clay figures. We found one room full of nativity characters.
A short drive away was one of the slum areas, which the guide referred to as the nicest slums. The area was mostly buildings with a few tarps here and there. We stopped by an area for women who take trash and weave it into usable products. Lindsay got a day bag there, with Steph and I just donating for a tour of the facility. It was a very interesting area.
Lastly we stopped by Washerman’s Valley an area in almost all Indian cities that has the old style of cleaning clothes. They wring water out of the clothes and beat them against rocks to force out the dirt and oil. This is a very cheap way of getting laundry done, but destroys the clothes pretty quickly.
We called it a night and went to an interesting Mexican restaurant, which was decently good tex-mex.
The next day we headed to the park, followed by a nice cooking class.
I haven’t updated in quite a while, and that is mainly because I was travelling a ton and when I got back there was just too much to do.
Here is a quick summary of the hollidays with the family.
I got home on Tuesday Morning, but needed to get some work done that day. I unfortunately had just worked out how to use a new system at work, and wasn’t proficient at it, so most of my work that day was for naught, and some of it was simply bad. I was able to figure out some of the things to not do, which helped in the long run. I had lunch with my dad at the club, and it was rather nice.
That night we went to a painting class, but didn’t pay attention to the teacher at all, and got way ahead of her. I added in the kitties, and a snowman to the painting.
My painting with Jeff in the background
Jeff’s painting
Dad’s painting
Mom’s painting
The next day I went with my mom to Birmingham to see Nana. Fred, Tila, and Cindy managed to make it as well. Mom had made some really delicious soup, her version of the butternut squash soup. It was different and really tasty. I still think garlic is needed of course.
We went to the Christmas Eve service, and it was OK. It was the same as we had seen before. I really enjoyed being with the family.
Christmas morning we all came down to open presents. Katie showed up a little bit later, and we opened a lot of candy. The largest share was my fault, but there was plenty of candy there that I didn’t bring.
My mom took me to the airport the next day for the flight to India, and the line for security was way out past the concourse.
I saw it with Jeremy, Steph, BTD, Kate, and two of their friends. It was enjoyable, I really like the Rey character. It had great parallels with Episode 4, but other than that I won’t talk about it in detail.
I went back home on a random Thursday for Grandaddy’s funeral. It was a really nice affair, and I got to learn about all the drama that had happened in our family over the years. It was really nice to see all the relatives together, and the ones I missed I’m hoping to see over christmas.
Steph and I had a few really nice date nights, both of which happen to go to Burma Ruby, which I don’t mind at all. We got some really tasty salads, and one we went to San Carlos, got some tasty sesame oil and white vinegar, then after dinner went to the Cidery that just opened up there. The cider they are serving is so good and not too sweet, I really love it.
It was pretty neat to have a restaurant/bar closed for a private event that I’m a major part of. They had a few games set up, including two table games (blackjack and 3 card poker). I did really well at 3 card poker. The dealer didn’t really know what she was doing and I was able to take advantage of it with some more extreme bets. I won a ton, but then decided I was done with the gambling style games and put it all down until I lost.
I got to play some connect four and jenga, but I was a little to drunk for the jenga to go well. I was in a mood where I really wanted it to be one block layers starting at the bottom. The connect four went surprisingly well for me, mainly because I knew the few tricks to it that the others playing didn’t know. Steph wasn’t feeling too well that night so she didn’t end up joining, which was sad.
We did another Latkes party at Adam’s this year and it was fantastic as always. The gifts were actually pretty good this year. I got Adam’s set of poker chips that he got from Dropbox. It was funny because they actually said ‘Adam’ ‘Dropbox’ on them. I couldn’t fault him since all of his efforts went into the event prep. My gift hadn’t made it in from order, so I took the one that was meant for the Rocket Games white elephant. I think pretty much everyone got something they liked or was useful.
It's an Exciting World 