Saturday morning

Waking up this morning to news from Mumbai and from here in America.  The taxi driver who brought us from the airport was from New Delhi and as soon as he heard our English accents, was eager to talk about the events in Mumbai, too.

Black Friday here when we arrived and though the discounts offered by the shops are staggering - generally between 20 and 30% off a complete purchase, in addition to any discounts already offered - thankfully the crowds we encountered were good natured.  We did our usual thing and went out into the fresh air for as long as we could before caving in, exhausted, for supper at Legal Seafoods at 6.45pm.

This morning, we are up early and ready and raring to go and hoping to stay awake at the Symphony tonight!

Sitting

Today I will mostly be sitting down, currently in T5 Heathrow and soon (I hope) on a plane bound for Boston, Massachusetts.  For the time being, my entertainment is some great artwork around the place, a free wifi connection and eavesdropping in oh so many languages (few of which I understand).

I'm trying to work out what language the chaps sitting behind me are speaking - current vote is for Icelandic but I need to take a closer look at them and see if they fit my image of Icelanders!!

Of course, my anti-boredom kit is in my bag alongside - Nintendo DS, knitting, ipod, book, laptop, two magazines, about a dozen crosswords and sudoku puzzles gleaned from newspapers in readiness for a journey and paper for Christmas letters to write.

Well, there might not be a film I want to watch.

Update on Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 1:38PM by Gill Thomas

Icelanders?  With Iberia luggage tags?  Hmmm.  Though I suppose they could have been en route home from business in Spain or South America, I suspect my guess was far from the truth.

As for being bored?  Me?  During the 6 and a half hour flight, I giggled through Mamma Mia as dinner was served, settled down to watch Miss Pettigrew lives for a Day, dozing for the odd five minutes or so without losing the plot and and got most of the way through Brideshead Revisited before we began our decent and the entertainment was switched off.

Thinking

We didn't turn the TV on until late last night, so it came as a shock to hear of the terrorist activity in Mumbai.  Having stayed in the Taj hotel so recently, the accounts of events gave both of us shivers as we pictured the bustling foyer, the lively bars and restaurants, the bright and well stocked shops which attracted tourists and locals alike.  We recalled a wonderful afternoon, spent drinking tea in the afternoon heat but in the shade of a cool verandah in a quiet garden, imagining it to be anything but quiet today.

Most of my thoughts turned to the delightful people.  I wonder how the charming young reception clerks are, what's happened to the three amazing concierges who somehow remembered not only everyone's name but even knew which was our luggage in the melee that is so typically Indian.

I pictured the scene in the ground floor restaurant, where we enjoyed a delicious "Bombay Tiffin"one evening.  The dark furnishings and subdued lighting created a wonderful atmosphere and we received first class service from the many young waiters who were anxious to ensure everything was to our liking.

I wonder what's happened to the Joy shoe shop on the ground floor at the front of the hotel, with the funny little details and the dozen or so young men who brought out almost every twinkly shoe in their store so willingly for picky women like me.

But most of all, I thought of the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Mumbai residents, passing through the station, along the street or in the cinema, going about their ordinary, everyday business and caught up in such terrible events.

Where is the man who runs the tiny office supplies store on the road by the station, who fulfilled my wish for glue sticks and paper punch (How many holes, madam?  What size hole, Madam?) Hard to imagine that a one-man operated cupboard of a shop could offer more of a selection of goods than the large, flashy store here. Incomparable service, too.

Mumbai is such an amazing city, full of life and colour.  There must be so many people like us, with fond memories and family links to the city who are watching the events unfold with sadness this morning.  Packing a suitcase to go off on another trip, we question whether it would be preferable to stay at home.  Any doubts are soon dismissed when experiences such as being in Mumbai for a couple of days are recalled, though.

It's such a privilege to travel, to see and experience far away places but most of all, to meet people and learn a little about their lives.  I find my thoughts keep returning to the people in Mumbai this morning.

Stirring it up

Weighing ingredients, preparing baking tins and getting everything ready for making the Christmas cakes this year, I thought of my Nan.  Doing this was a huge event in her household, involving quite a few days of getting things together and I remember her feeling very pleased with herself when she'd got all the tins prepared and everything ready to go.

I don't give the gathering of all the good things a second thought and simply take a list down to Waitrose and put bags of dried fruit, almonds, boxes of eggs, butter, citrus fruits, the tin of black treacle and bottle of brandy in the trolley along with the normal weekly shop.  But these things must have been so precious to a housewife such as her, managing on a meagre weekly budget. 

No room for any risk of failure, every precaution must be taken to get all steps right to ensure the best possible outcome.

Not only that, it must have been such tiring work.  Creaming the butter and sugar is hard work even with electrical help, and folding in of the flour and the fruit which had soaked overnight left me with an aching arm and huge admiration for women like my Nan who did it all without a thought.

I wonder what she wished for?

Satisfaction

 Reading my profile, you may have caught the bit about "wanting to do everything perfectly, preferably in the next five minutes".  That's a pretty accurate statement about me but not 100% honest, perhaps.

Expecting to do everything perfectly is probably nearer the mark.

However, don't underestimate the immense satisfaction when, once in a Sheffield Flood*, a half hour diversion resulting from a fun (and well written) website tutorial leaves me with a little heap of paper goodness in front of me.

Perhaps later, my photo of the day will reveal the finished object?

*"Once in a Sheffield Flood" = Yorkshire way of describing something that doesn't happen very often.