Adventures in the Ordinary: Walking the Dog

It's already melting hot by 7:30am, my usual time to walk the dog.  David has an actual office he needs to get to, so I get the morning shift.  As soon as I jingle the dog collar, Millie's at the door and ready to go.

And because I have stopped to take a picture on this particular day, she looks as me, wondering why I'm stopping when it's time for a walk.

There are a surprising number of other dogs on our block, all pretty noisy when we pass by.  We started calling it "running the gauntlet", because the other neighborhood dogs jump out at you right and left as you pass by.

Turning right today, we head up the next block.

And see the garbage men, as usual.  They collect the trash here every single day.

We live in a pretty nice neighborhood, and there are lots of great houses to look at, both traditional and modern.

A few blocks up there is a little business area, and Millie stops to sniff this particular doorway every single time.  It's the dog grooming place, which she hates, but still it still seems to hold enough interesting smells for her to want to stop.

Next is O'Riordan's Irish Pub, where there are always last night's empties sitting outside and the menu "specials" never change.

Now past the Indian place I really like, and the Japanese Dining Bar that's always packed after 8pm.

Crossing the street, there are even more dining options to consider.  The Burger Shack...

Starbucks, Hong Kong Cafe...

And on to the next block, which has even more eating choices.  French Cafe, German Market, Spanish Restaurant and another Irish Pub (I haven't actually been to any of these) and an Organic grocery store fill this little block, next to the ever-present 7-11.

This guy was hanging out around the corner, reading his Chinese newspaper.

Here's a common sight - using an umbrella as protection from the sun instead of rain.  I just wear a hat, it's just one less thing to hold.

More yappy dogs protecting their gated territories...

This house is new, I can't decide if I like the architecture or not.  Pretty cool, but not exactly warm and welcoming.

I get to check myself out in this mirror when I pass by, it's usually not a pretty sight.

This is one of the biggest houses along the walk, and they seem to have a huge yard - a rare commodity around here.

Almost finished with our walk, I always gaze longingly at this house with the big pool as I pass by.  If we had one, I would jump in it every single day after our walks.  (I checked the temperature when I got back to the house, it was an actual temperature of 91 and a "feels like" of 97.  It was 8:15am.)

Millie sniffs everything along the way.

We live right by a kindergarden, which creates a traffic jam twice a day because everybody drives their kids to school.  Oh, there are buses, but they just don't seem to be very popular.

This little girl kept trying to turn around to see Millie but her mom really wasn't having any of it.

Another couple of surprise bark attacks...

And as we reach our block again, there's Charlie Brown the neighbor dog, but I couldn't catch up to say hi.

And there you have it, a day in the life of walking the dog!

Time for a much-needed shower.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Beginnings

I saw a guy the other day taking pictures of a sale in a mall, and I thought "Why are you taking a picture of that?" and mentally rolled my eyes at him.  Then I thought, well I suppose it's a pretty big sale, it's not too often you come across a football sized field of shoes for 50 - 70% off.

There's not a lot that goes on here that can be defined as exciting, it's mostly just... mildly entertaining.  But I have to remember that the things that have become normal to me may be fascinating to someone who doesn't live here.  So bear with me, I'm going to meander a bit for the next few weeks...

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I was looking at some old pictures, and found these.

Back in April 2008 (when I still thought Singapore was in China), a couple of Davids' Singaporean co-workers came to the US to visit.  They met Millie, we went to the Mall of America, they came over to watch American Idol (live!), and they enthusiastically invited David and I to come and visit them in Singapore.  "Of course, we'll try!" I replied, at the same time thinking, "If I had that much time and money to travel, why in the world would I go there?"

Less than six months later, David and I were in Singapore, and David was being offered a job.

Less than three months after that, we were living there.

I remember visiting the American neighborhood on that first visit to Singapore, and seeing this amazing house.

Turns out that's where my cooking classes were to be, and now I go there once a month and am friends with the girl who lives there.  One day you're sitting on the couch thinking that the furthest you're going to travel in the next year is probably St. Louis, and then *bam!*, you're sitting in Singapore trying to remember what is normal.

"feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out just to be life going absolutely perfectly" - brian andreas

Slap on a little Neosporin, you'll be fine.

Singapore Experience of the Day

My plan for my lunch break was this:  Bike 5km to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to buy a new Nalgene bottle, bike home while stopping for Thai food along the way.  Easy peasy, right?

The first bad decision of the day was to bike on the sidewalk against traffic.  (No, biking on the sidewalk is not illegal here, I'd even say it's downright advisable because of the aggressive drivers.)  Because of this, I was forced off the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic not only once, but twice.  The first was because an older Chinese lady refused to move even six inches out of the way to let me pass.  I could see her annoyed glare from 50 feet away, so I was at least ready for it.  I wanted to tell her, "Don't get mad at me, lady, it's not my fault this country has no bike paths!", but of course I did nothing and instead apologized to her.  I swear if you could bottle the power of the Old Chinese Lady Stare you could fuel the world.  Or solve world hunger, all you would have to do is have them stand over anyone with a full plate of food and they would be so intimidated they'd hand deliver their meal to whatever hungry country was closest.  No wonder all the kids here are so well behaved.  The second time was because there was a motorcycle coming straight at me (did I mention that I was on the sidewalk?) and I  thought I'd better give that guy the right of way.

The second bad decision of the day was not carrying cash.  I keep $5 in change and a credit card in my backpack, but this was no match for the older gentleman at the register who could not figure out how to work the credit card machine.  *Sigh*  Back on my bike, carrying it up and down the overpass stairs to the mall a few blocks away to find an ATM.  But no bike racks.  I wasn't about to leave my bike unattended so before giving up and heading home, I tried the smaller mall next door.  Score, an outdoor ATM!  Cash in hand, I headed back to the park (carrying my bike up and down the overpass again) to buy my Nalgene.  The cashier was surprised to see me, he gave me a 10% discount for my trouble.  Sweating profusely in the heat and ready to leave, we were interrupted in our third attempt at a transaction (I have no idea what happened to the second, for some mysterious reason he had to cancel the whole thing and hand me my $20 back) by the following conversation by a woman behind me holding a few items:

Lady:  "Is all this okay?  I'll pay when I return.  Two hours."
Cashier:  "Okay, no problem."

Lady, stopping by the shoe rack at the exit:  "I need shoes!  What size have?"

Cashier:  "Thirty-eight, thirty nine and forty two."

Lady, grabbing a random pair:  "Here, find my size."

Cashier:  "Sorry?"

Lady:  "Is this my size?"

Cashier:  "What size shoe you wear?"

Lady:  "I don't know.  Find my size"

Cashier, giving a blank stare.  I laugh.  She glares at me.

Lady:  "Find my size so I can get them when I get back."

Cashier, shrugging:  "Okay."

Slightly cheered by this random conversation and knowing that I'm not the only one intimidated by the Chinese ladies, I hop on my bike and head to the Thai place to get my take-out.  Loading up my back pack with Pad Thai and spring rolls, I head to the safety of the side streets.  And within one minute crash my bike on the sidewalk after I catch my front tire on the side of a curb.  Farging clipless pedals!  Elbow and knee scraped but otherwise unharmed, I get up and assure the gathered, staring, Indian workers that I'm fine, and get back on my bike.  And promptly clothesline myself on a tree branch, falling again.  Assuring the people again that I am fine, I turn away from the crowd and burst into tears behind my sunglasses.  Bleeding and smelling of Thai food, I walk the few blocks home.  And then realized I forgot my Nalgene bottle on the counter at the store.

This time, I took a cab to go get it back.

And a quick two weeks later...

Here's the rug!

Haitus

I'll be on "vacation" (working back in the states) until April 19th - be back soon after with a picture of the rug!

India, Day 7: "Because clearly, if there's one thing we don't appear to be, it's tourists..."

India, Day 7.  The last day.

What should you do when you've just lost a really nice hand-knotted rug from India?  Go rug shopping again, of course!  Our trip leader, Kay, knew a few people in the rug business, and a couple of us went over to his showroom to take a look at what he had.  No, I didn't buy another one, I was still holding out hope that my first rug would magically re-appear.  But looking is free, right?

In case you're curious, these rugs are hand-knotted pure silk and cost about $6000, with the same kind of rug in the US costing at least $20,000.  One of the ladies in our group bought three.  (Apparently she just found out that she was moving from Singapore to New Jersey and her consolation was decorating the new place any way she wanted.  The rugs were definitely a good start.)

Here are some workers machining a huge contemporary wool rug, it was being sold to a palace, I think.  Or a hotel.  Or a palace that got turned into a hotel.  Once of the two.

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From rug shopping to the Gandhi Museum in Dehli.  This is the place where Gandhi was gunned down by a religious fanatic in 1948.  Was he really assassinated that long ago?  His words are so timeless...

This is the room where he spent the last 144 days of his life.  Inside is a cot and a chair.  That's it.

On the day he was shot, Gandhi went to the Prayer Meeting through this path.

"I will give you a talisman.  Whenever you are in doubt or the self becomes too much with you apply the following test:  

Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.  Will he gain anything by it?  Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?  In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away."

- M.K. Gandhi

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We hit the shopping markets once more before heading out to dinner.  While waiting for some of the others to load up on pashminas and hand-made shoes, Vikram called me over.  "I have called the hotel in Dehli, I have called the guide from the other group, who had gone to Agra, I have called their hotel in Agra and spoken to the manager there, and... I can tell you we have found your rug."  I couldn't believe it, I really thought it was gone.  I promptly burst into tears and hugged Vikram.  Turns out that the rug had been loaded onto the wrong bus and sat there unclaimed in Agra.  It would be sent on a train back to Dehli and I would have my rug by the time we left for the airport at 6:00am.  Sweet relief.

 My planned conversation with David would now have to change from "I'm sorry, but..." to "You have no idea what I went through with this rug and you'd better love it."  I practically danced my way back to the bus, and not even an hour long monster traffic jam could ruin my good mood.  Vikram was getting a great tip from me.

Last on the agenda was a nice dinner and drinks at our hotel.  (The previous plan of going out to a famous local restaurant nixed because we were way too tired, and the place sounded "too touristy".)  Indian food all around!

And thus ends the India Trip of 2010.  I know it won't take me another 12 years to go back, this is the kind of place that gets in your blood.  Until next time, Namaste!

P.S.  I took my rug (that had now seen more of India than I had) as carry on luggage on the plane, I knew I wouldn't be able to relax if I left it out of my sight again.  And when I got it home, David really did love it.  : )

India, Day 6: "Wait, where's my rug?"

We all got up bright and early this morning to get a head start on our drive back to Dehli, plenty of shopping still to do you know.  It was a bit chaotic checking out of the hotel at 6:00am, turns out the big Portuguese group had the same idea that we did and there were two mountains of luggage waiting to be loaded onto buses.  I saw my rug bag sitting right on top of my suitcase and then made sure the whole pile made it on the bus.  And were were off!

And ran straight into a monster traffic jam right less than 15 minutes outside of Jaipur.  We sat there for quite a while, enough time for the driver's assistant to run out and report back that the traffic jam was "only one kilometer or so" long, nothing to worry about.

Let's see if you can see something not-quite-right with these pictures.

This is a divided highway.  But because this is India, when there is traffic, people just hop over the median and drive along the other side of the road.  Basically its four lanes of traffic with people driving right at each other.

This entire trip, people have stared at our bus like it was decorated like the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine or something.  They would almost immediately swarm as soon as it stopped, and I always wondered how they know we are tourists.  There are lots of other white buses on the road, why do they only stare at ours?  Then at our rest stop I finally noticed the front of the bus:

Ah, now it makes more sense.

At one of our pit stops Vikram collected our spare food and snacks to give to a family that was living along the road side.  Again, beautiful women who look way to young to have families.

Another unplanned stop along the way was to take pictures of these ladies walking along the highway.  We thought they might be upset with us taking pictures of them without asking, but if you look closely, they are laughing at us.

We made to the hotel, where I did not take pictures of my four hour nap.

When I was getting ready for dinner, I realized that I was missing something.  My rug bag.  Somewhere else in the room?  Nope.  In the lobby?  Nope.  Still on the bus?  Uh-uh.  "Um, so Vikram?  My rug didn't make it to my room."  But it had to be close, I saw it go on the bus.  He assured me it was somewhere, and would check.  And oh, by the way, did I ask Wendy?  She has the same bag as me.  Wait, what?  Turns out Wendy has the exact same suitcase and rug bag as I did, and it was probably her bag I saw getting loaded on the bus, not mine.  Crap.

Assuring me that he would start making phone calls to track it down right away, the other ladies talked me into hitting the local disco with them.  Other than getting the usual slightly-unsettling-but-usually-harmless stares from the Indian men, we had a great time.

Bar of choice that night?  The Last Chance Saloon.  Nothing like a pseudo-cowboy bar in northern India.  No, no country music, it was all techno, but still a lot of fun.

Back at the hotel, I remembered about my rug again and was up all night trying to figure out how to tell David I had just spent hundreds of dollars and would now have nothing to show for it.  Double crap.

India, Day 5, Part 2: "I've got too much India between my toes."

One of my main regrets from my last trip to India was that I didn't bring enough money to buy a rug.  Did you know that it's cheaper to fly to India, buy a rug, and fly home than to buy an oriental rug in the US?  A nice rug, I mean, not those Pottery Barn ones that look cool but shed all over the place.  Our first shopping stop in Jaipur?  A rug factory, of course.

First they hand knot it, which can take weeks, months or years depending on the quality of the rug.

Then they burn the backside to get all the stray fluff off...

...they take a scissors to it to get it the right length...

...they wash it...

...and finally, the fringed ends.

And then the buying frenzy began.  The sales guys brought out food and refreshments, which today included veggie samosas and rum-and-cokes, not the best combo on the tummy but great for impulse buying.  I bought one rug, some people didn't get any, and some bought three or four.  Several made emergency phone calls to the husbands to making sure the purchase was okay.  I did not, as David trusts me completely.  Right, honey?  : )

I packed my rug up in a carry-on size bag and took it with me (this detail will become relevant later), but you can have it shipped anywhere in the world, too.

The next stop was a jewelry place, but they didn't do as well with our group, we were already starting to suffer the effects of a shopping hangover.  I did manage to find a ring that I wanted, and... aces!  They were able to re-cast it in gold instead of silver, and promised it to be delivered to my hotel first thing the next morning.  What service.

Next, McDonald's.  It's cheap, safe (if you don't forget to ask for no ice with your coke), and we needed energy.

But this being India, this was the scene right across the shiny new mall that housed the McDonald's.

I'd guess about 40 people or so lived here.

Afterward, we entered the walled part of Jaipur, the reason that this place is called The Pink City.  It's more of a terra cotta, really, but you get the idea.

Here, we loaded up on copper pots, which may not seem that exciting, but at a mere $5 a pot, the cooks among us were thrilled.  We'd figure out how to get around the 20kg baggage limit later.

Wherever we went, we were always being watched.  "Indian men have a staring problem." was the first quote of the day from Kay.

This is a common sight:  A two-year-old riding between her parents as their motorcycle dodged through traffic.  FYI, it's only required by the law that the drivers to wear helmets, not the passengers, even if they're little kids.

We had to cross the street to get to our next destination.  Which doesn't seem like it would be a big deal in itself, but this is India.  Turn up the volume to get the full effect, and double points if you spot the cow at the end.

The only thing missing from this video is Smell-O-Vision: the roadside food, the cow and camel poo, the exhaust.

After a rickshaw ride back to the bus, several of the ladies from our group stopped again when they spotted a place that sold old cricket bats, and starting loading up. "More shopping, oh my god..." was the next quote of the day from Vikram. Dusty and tired, we headed back to our hotel.  "I've got too much India between my toes." was the last quote from someone else in our group.  We had to be up bright and early at 5:30am the next day, enough time to get back to Dehli and have time enough for shopping there, too.  Believe it or not, I was actually almost shopped out.  Almost.