Wayanad

We’ve returned to Varnam homestay

Introduced to us by previous guests (there’s been a bit of to and fro, with guests visiting both here and Mysore Bed and Breakfast.) and especially Antoinette (aka the Queen, who’s retained her head) it’s our second visit this school holiday.

Ready to go.
On the way

I didn’t want to risk driving the radical red so far so Anjum drove us in his taxi.

There’s plenty of entertainment.

Including self-made

BUT ITS BEEN A SHOCK

This morning Lucie and I went for a walk on the other side of the lake but it didn’t go to plan.

Lucie slipped down a bank, touched the electric fence and ended up on the other side. It was a joke, an episode of ‘Laurel and Hardy’.

Comedy from silent movie days.

I created a barrier with palm leaf and hauled her back through the fence, with a ‘thank you’ nip for my trouble.

The girls have now found the beginning of the next day.

Summer Camp four 2024

Just to ensure you got it….. the following activities have formed this year’s camp for Kaveri …

Swimming, skating, trying out new things…

and dropping into the summer camp organised by Manjesh of Chirayu Dance Institute here in Siddarthalayout.

That’s not to mention, watching movies, walking Lucie, visitors to Aroma for treats, pestering for one thing or another, especially screen time.

Making me a bracelet as last years is about to fall off.

Predominantly staying at Mysore Bed and Breakfast with auntie — sorry sister — Radhika, but what is the old git doing?

Apparently traditionally thanking the guests for joining the final celebration of Chirayu’s Summer Camp.

Visiting Leela vet hospital as Lucie, the old dear has developed a limp. Dodgy Joints? not to mention it’s too hot for her!!

Tomorrow is someone’s tenth birthday.

A formidable team

No time for photos

I tentatively opened the garage door into kat planet.

B-A-Do was lying parallel to the limen, I thought relaxing until I noticed a quivering rat by her mouth. She half done the job but seemed to be frozen. As she pulled away I found a stick and finished the task

It’s then in noticed all eyes from the kits, mesmerisingly proud of mum, watching from their raised wooden cushioned castle. I passed the dead cat on a shovel for their approval.

Later as they were all turning and jumping in seemingly choreographed mayhem in the yard, I realised one was leading the chase of a cockroach. I followed and finished it off

We were a formidable team.

We miss the kats but mum (Queen) stays with us.

missing them ..

Summer Camp 2024 two

Our fun activities since returning to Mysore include:

Skating

Kaveri has progressed to new skates and uniform, again with the Elite Roller Skating Academy

Swimming

classes again at our local pool.

and a local dance centre has organised their very own summer camp.

With a day out

Metamorphosis footnote

In India nothing ever seems to go to plan.

Delivered yesterday, there’s one or two places that need attention: bodywork, internals, indicators etc. but it’s over 89% there which is good.

So …. Sowbaghya, Antoinette and I went to the Lalith Mahal for a little celebration …

Samuella whose team did the work seems quite busy renovating other ambassadors.

He’s been working in them all his life.

Sowbaghya, with the support of Vasanth and Satish was leading from our end, the problem solving project manager.

Next morning Sowbaghya had arranged for us to take the car for Ganesh puja and the nearby Temple.

Unfortunately the battery was flat. As I said, nothing quite goes to plan.

So, a day later, the deed was done.

Metamorphosis Seven

The beauty arrives

Manjula’s Car rises again.

I bought it for her ten years ago.

Satish and I had searched Karnataka and eventually found it in Mandya District (near Srirangapatnam).

We needed it, as due to her health Manjula couldn’t safely and comfortably continue to ride pillion on my two wheelers.

We joked that not unlike the Bollywood movie — ‘Driving Miss Daisy” there was a chauffeur ( in our case a white old, not a black guy) and not an aged white woman as passenger but a brown ageless Indian beauty — my MAnjula.

It’s arrived at our house now….

Who’d have believed it…

Four years ago, Lucie is scrounging. Nowadays her access to street food is severely restricted as she’s getting on and sometimes had digestive issues. But this is the beginning of another story.

It was to be another two years before I met another light in my life.