Friday 22 Jan

Today is the last session of phase 1 of the Ayurveda treatment. I get to wash my hair - this is SO exciting! The doctor has added an extra treatment called JANUVASTI to help my sore knee joint. This involves a ring of dough into which is poured very warm oil which sits there for 30 minutes to soak into the joint with the therapist removing the coling oil and topping up with hot. The picture gives you a pretty good idea! Looks a bit like treacle tart!

I fetch up spending nearly 5 hours there... How do I have time for all this?

The afternoon sees me at Sr. Mercy's for a couple of hours. I think it is mostly to hold her hand and discuss what strategy to use next. I urge her to make two particular calls which produce some good results so now we know what to do next.

On the way home I pop into my tailor lady and have a frustrating time with her and my churidars. She has made the bottoms huge (and said that's the way they need to be - I didn't argue) and the tops way too tight across the bust and in the sleeves. I can hardly get them on, let alone breathe in them so insist they be altered. She is not very adept at getting them to be looser and hang right. After several attempts at ripping out seams and re-sewing, I suggest that I bring one of my tops that fits comfortably from home, as a model. So walk all the way home (10 minutes), walk all the way back, drop it off and then back home again! There are a lot of men just sitting and hanging out on the road side as I walk by and the looks on their faces as they see me cross their bows not once but THREE times, is something to behold!

I tell her NOT to hurry this but to take her time to get it right. She really wants to get it right and fix it so I leave it with her. But I take away the bag containing material for yet another two sets of churidars. I will find someone else for those - a rather frustrating and disappointing early evening!

I get home exhausted and frazzled and hide in my room. But an hour later I have some visitors, Babu informs me!

Manju, an Indian lady from next door and her husband. They are emigrating to Canada in June, and she wants to practice her English and also pick my brain about life in Canada, what to do and how to do it. Manju has a skilled professional visa as a Theatre nurse and is thinking about possible jobs. I promised I would source a list of hospitals in Vancouver for her and send by email. After supper, I take care of that for her. Time flies!

I am feeling slightly caged in these days and long to get away. It's interesting that when I first arrived, I imagined I would want a break after a month and thought I might go to Sri Lanka at that point. But wiser heads suggested I wait till the end and I was swayed by that. The flights are now booked and it's too late to change. In truth this weekend would have been a good time to go if only because Tuesday is a national holiday.... Though what that means is still not quite clear. Maybe I am just thoroughly fed up...... and nothing would make a difference!