Bats at Kovalam Junction

I went up to Kovalam Junction at dusk today, around 18:15, and saw the massive bats again. Their wingspan must be around 4ft, or 125cm, HUGE! They were roosting in a colony in one large tree at the junction itself and actually making quite a racket, unperturbed by the people and vehicles beneath. A few were flying around and landing back in the tree - I imagine they were just about to set off to feed somewhere. These monsters could be the "Indian Flying Fox" which is the largest of all bats and feeds exclusively on fruit. There was also one little bat - 15cm or so. It looked minute in comparison but would probably be considered large in the UK!

Lorry and Lightning

On the way to work a lorry had broken down on the busy road to Vizhinjam on a near-blind bend. There were a few bits of branch at the front and the rear to indicate that it was going nowhere - no cones, of course. It was a metre or so out from the side of the road and a few motorbikes were passing on the inside, and the other side was just wide enough for cars to pass yet they were trying to squeeze through two-abreast with pedestrians on the road too! Drivers could see one end of the lorry or the other from some distance yet they were still trying to overtake just before it. I saw a bus miss a 4x4 literally by an inch. The lorry has been there two days and an axle has been removed, presumably for repair. No tow-trucks here! There was a guy watching over it but that was all he could do - watch. It would need two people to coordinate the traffic. Madness!

Outside, right now, it is night time, with rain pouring down and thunder and lightning overhead. There's been thunder for much of the day and, as usual, it's been hot and very humid, but the rain only started this evening. As I write this there was a hell of a bang and flash overhead and I jumped out of my chair. I've now disconnected my laptop from the mains and from the cable modem, just in case! Christ!! Two more hellishly close cracks - I thought the ceiling was about to come down! And now the power's failed. Think I'd better call it quits for tonight!

Updating the Blog

A fair number of hours were spent today in getting my Blog up to date. Without an Internet connection I had just been keeping notes which I have now copied to the blog and fiddled the post dates to make them look as if they were posted without delay.

I do wonder if any if this will be of interest to anyone!

Catching Up with Friends and Family

The last few evenings have been spent catching up with friends by email. I have been able to connect to JET, read my old Inbox, and deal with a few problems there.

I've just had an hour-long Skype chat with my daughter. It was great to hear her voice again, hear her news, tell her mine and to "connect". I was also able to order some CDs from Amazon for my son's birthday which is imminent. Isn't technology wonderful? It can also be very time-consuming. Dealing with the backlog of emails has meant that I'm feeling quite tired as a result because I'm not getting to bed as early as I'd like.

Went for a walk and discovered just how inaccurate Indian maps can be. Incorrectly named beaches, wrongly drawn roads - all very confusing. The online maps aren't much better. Still, it meant that I chatted to a few people to get directions. I'm trying to find the best way to Samudra beach, where Phil and Jackie, friends of mine, will be staying briefly at the end of next week. Looks like one of us will have to use an autorickshaw if we're to meet up - just too far otherwise.

Discovered fresh pineapple today - absolutely delicious! 22Rs for a medium-sized one, that's about 28pence. I cut it all up and ate half, and put the other half in the fridge. It was as much as I could do to restrain myself from eating it all!

Internet At Last

Asianet came and fixed the fault today so now I have an Internet connection. It feels great! Now I can email friends and deal with the many emails in my Inbox ...

Modem Arrives - Doesn't Work

At the school today I seemed to do little other than help the youngest write their numbers over and over again. I suppose this allowed the teacher to focus on the more able kids - getting them up to an equal standard she said - but I have to say this part of the work is becoming repetitive. The spectrum of ability in this bottom group makes it tricky to set work that challenges them all. I will just have to try to be a bit more inventive I suppose...

The modem arrived today, Monday. I found it connected when I got home, though I'm not convinced it wasn't the boy next door who'd undone the box and wired it up. The packaging lay strewn around the place. Needless to say the connection didn't work and customer support seemed to comprise a guy reading from a fault-finding flow chart. After getting me to try the web address of the modem, which worked but reported no connection, he then asked if the modem was powered up! Of course it bloody well was - the web address had worked, hadn't it?! I'm getting a bit impatient with all this - it seems to have taken ages to get the Internet connection, and every job takes several people. On the other hand, I was impressed that the help line told me where I was in the queue and how long each complaint was taking to process. However, if processing a job consists of forwarding a fault to another person rather than fixing it, then who know how long a fix takes? In my case I was told it must be a cable fault and someone would look into it.

Much as there was evidence that someone had ripped the modem's packaging open, there were signs that someone had been fiddling with wires and insulation tape for the fan. I later found that the electrician had visited and confirmed the fan's demise. The neighbours had returned it to the shop for a replacement after the original was proven dead in the shop. So much for Quality Control! It was later attached to the ceiling, wired up, and thankfully it worked. I felt a bit guilty about all this - a lot of effort for something that's just for my comfort. Still, it's nice to work in a cooler kitchen.

Trip to Police Commissioner

I set off early by bus to Trivandrum today to visit the Police Commissioner's Office to register with them because my visa is longer than 6 months which means you should register within 14 days of arrival in India (making the deadline a couple of days ago). Using my map and asking a few people en route I managed to navigate my way from East Fort to the Office without too much difficulty, though the map was wrong in many places. Amazingly, the guy told me that because my visa is marked "Special Endorsement" I don't need to register with them! I don't know whether I caught him on a good day, whether he didn't fancy the paperwork, or if it was true that I didn't need it - whatever, I was mightily relieved!

The rest of my time in TRV was spent buying a second sheet for my bed, to replace the fleece blanket which really is too hot, and buying various bits and bobs for my kitchen. I had a look at the bikes in a cycle shop. They sold Hercules cycles, some of which have the ancient rod brakes! Even the modern ones are still pretty ancient technology with heavy frames and single speed. I wasn't too inspired. And I'm not sure I need one anyway - I seem to be managing pretty well on foot and bus.

When I got home I found that the Asianet folk had been and extended the cable, so now I have a neat coil of cable sitting on the dining table in the hall of my pad! I phoned them about the modem - they said either later today or tomorrow. Well, it's not going to be "today" now. Tomorrow will be great - but did they really mean that? It is, after all, a Sunday.