Easter fun in Delhi

Well I managed to survive the karaoke night (mostly because apparently I didn’t sing loud enough!) and had loads of fun, except that I never want to hear Metallica again.
Robin called yesterday from the middle of nowhere to report that they were STILL about 12 hours drive away from Tuting, their first destination where they can start walking.They have been caught by landslides caused by heavy night time rains, and were hoping that the road would be cleared by 2pm. Fortunately the people in the village where they were stuck were extremely photogenic and hospitable, and yesterday morning they put on a fashion show. One of Robin’s boys, Nawang from Tawang, showed them how to pose and strut the catwalk, much to everyone’s delight.They are mostly animist people who live in bamboo and palm huts, and for dinner Robin and the gang had fish head curry. MMM may I please have seconds?
So what is on the telly? Well, this morning I can choose between stories about Hanuman the monkey god or Ganesha the elephant headed god – both involve grown men dressed up in gold headdresses, way too much makeup, ‘pearls’ and ‘rubies’ and appalling superimposed backdrops. Fabulous. There is also news/TV in: English, Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, Bangla, Marathi, Oriya, Gujerati, and possibly my favourite: "Topper TV”. Topper TV is currently educating me on the comparison of different types of crystalline solids – I have no idea what it is talking about. Earnest professor types present all sorts of educational programmes, with a test at the end, so that the kids will become class ‘toppers’ (as they are called here). Oh look, the molecular arrangement in glass! Way too scientific for me, think I’ll go back to Hanuman and Ganesha.
The resident cat here, Hydra, has loads of thick fur and now that summer has come (it was 39 the last few days) she is struggling to stay cool. So I have appointed myself in charge of combing her regularly to get rid of her excess fur. In the interests of ‘fitting in’ I have given myself a title(everyone in India has a catchy title with acronym): District In Charge of Keeping Hydra nEat And tiDy. Yes I know what it spells.
Have had some more pool time which is a nice bit of sanity and coolness – don’t know why there aren’t more people there but I guess they are all working or shopping.
The rest of the house has gone to church for Easter Sunday, and I am here lying in wait for the cat to appear. Then I'll head to the pool when the driver comes back, then us girls are off to the golf club for lunch followed by a spot of shopping in a market. Life goes on.