An Emotional Rollercoaster (That's Not Finished Yet)

The last week has been an up and down affair to say the least...

Last Friday night seems an eternity ago, but it feels only right to begin there. Achutha took us to a bar called H20, which was pretty flash. White lights, glass tables, white leather seats, no imported wine though. They also had a pool table and a wii! Oh and big TVs with the cricket on. While the girls knocked back a couple of muched needed drinks I knocked off Achutha at pool. I beat him 2 games to 1, testing long black, beautifully cut in to seal it (no sniggering Mike it did happen!).

We had a fabby time, chatting, a few drinks, some strange vegetarian food, a really lovely end to the working week. And like all these places it wasn't on the ground floor, this time we were on the 3rd floor! Getting a lift to a "pub" seems very strange to me. We were the last people out, we literally were holding the cleaners up!

Saturday was an "early" start (10ish!) as we went off to MG Road to do some shopping while out wonderful cab driver went in search of IPL tickets for the crunch match between Mumbai and Bangalore. We wandered round some amusing shops. Jay bought a couple of spinning tops for her lil ones; this is important because 4 different people were involved in the transaction of the purchase. The man who "sold" the goods. The man who wrote the receipt. The man who took the cash. The man who handed over the goods. Amazing. They know how to create jobs! I ended up with a Maccy Ds for breakfast, 121 rupees (about £1.80). The ladies found "Boots", we found a small clothes boutique where we purchased a couple of shirts to say thank you to our driver. Jacqui bought some more books from Crossworld.

We then had lunch at the 13th Floor restaurant (thanks Vishal for the heads up on this one!). And it was thirteen floors up, we ate inside because I don't particularly like heights. I hear the view was spectacular but I cannot really confirm this, sorry. The ladies partook of the buffet which was by all accounts gorgeous, apart from the black salt and ginger drink served (minging!). I had beer and naan bread on account of Maccy Ds still resting in my satisfied belly. Sadly as all meal times go it had to end and we ran across a very very busy road to meet our driver. Ok we took the lift down the 13 floors first if you want to be pedantic but anyways. At this point the driver informed us he was unable to get tickets (they'd actually be sold out for about 2 weeks), we were gutted but understanding.

Back at the hotel we saw lots of people milling around, upon investigation we found something going on. There was a small stall selling hand made crafts, we purchased, all in aid of educating poor people. The next stall was actually a drinks stall, so we partook of free alcoholic beverages. We then discovered the big hall which had lots of smartly dressed people, loud music and dancing. At this point we deduced we'd stumbled into someones birthday party! Oops! We even got a free goody bag with biscuits and a cd and stuff in it!

Sometime later we discovered the IPL game had been delayed. A little bit later still after Bangalore's batting line up had collapsed we all met up for dinner, Jay had found out that the delay was due to a bomb blast. At this point we were rather relieved to have not made it to the game. During dinner the heavens opened up, meaning insane amounts of traffic. It would have been a nightmare to get home from the match. We did smile though, in the UK a bomb scare would have led to match abandoned, here it's delayed by an hour. Mumbai won. They now face Bangalore again this evening (Weds) in the semi finals. A bomb blast also happened at MG Road about half hour after we left. After a lowkey meal we went our separate ways to sleep.

Sunday, our day of rest involved the three Ss - sun, swimming and sunburn! And a rather amusing, extremely delicious and minorly embarrassing evening meal. It would appear that one of the restaurant managers kinda likes me. Jac's gaydar had been going off for a while. When he started complimenting me on my attire, then giving me his card and asking me to email him it pretty much confirmed it. Oh dear! The cuisine though was amazing; rice and daals and curries and vegetables, so beautifully prepared, succulent, enticing, tender, so very tasty. We retired to our beds in a rather high spirits after the wonderful food and randomness of it all.

Monday morning sobered us up, then soured us off and generally left this week feeling disappointing. The volcanic ash has meant that Jason is unable to make it out of the UK to Bangalore, thus Jacqui and Jason can't travel to Goa for a beautiful get away. What has made it harder has been the fact that the last three days has been no hope, tiny slender piece of hope, no hope, tiny piece followed by none at all. As I type the planes are once more in the skies and the peace and quiet is gone. But the vast backlog leaves us wondering and hoping. Jay is supposed to fly home on Saturday, while it looks like Jacqui will be catching the same flight home as me next Wednesday.

A strange ole week, up and down emotionally, and this rollercoaster ride isn't over yet...

And to everyone who has sought to encourage, help in whatever way they can or say a prayer or two, you have our thanks.