Bangalore Weekend

Well it was with great sadness that I said goodbye to Billie on Thursday as I knew I would be alone for the next couple of weekends. And I thought what the heck am I going to do?
Honestly I think I was still so exhausted from all the traveling the fact I pretty much did nothing was a good one.
Saturday I spent the day by the pool and then a couple of hours at the gym. Now one of the things I really enjoy when I'm here on the weekends it sitting on my balcony reading my book, drinking a diet pepsi and having some peanut butter crackers. My balcony looks out over the garden so if block out the horns honking it's actually fairly peaceful. I finished my book just as started getting too dark to read and decided since Duffy had given me the American Gangster DVD I would set my laptop up on the balcony and watch the movie. Like being at the drive-in except I could pause when I had to go to the bathroom :)
So I set everything up and am happily watching when all of a sudden there are flashes of lightning followed by huge claps of thunder and then the deluge. Of course I was completely protected on the balcony so I just stayed there and after a couple of hours it was over. I love thunderstorms so this was a real treat for me. First off we rarely get thunderstorms in San Francisco and it's not like it's nice outside so I have no place to watch them from anway. That's what I thought was so great - I was outside but protected and got to watch everything.
Sunday was hot and humid - very unusual weather this time of year. I was told there was a tropical depression somewhere in India that was causing this weather. No matter - it was nice enough for the pool and then of course gym.
Later in the day I met Nicole and she was thrilled because I brought her back her favorite chocolate from Trader Joe's as well as Mac and Cheese. She's been here since August so she really appreciated the goodies. We hung out and had dinner at the Asian restaurant called Zen in the hotel. They have great soup - you can actually identify the chicken as chicken and it tastes like chicken - what a concept. And the vegetarian spring rolls are pretty tasty. Being that it's in the Leela the prices are a little on the high side but like I said at least you can identify the food. Always a big plus in my opinion.
This coming weekend my driver and I are going to OOTY which is also known as the Scotland of the East. It's way up in the mountains and is the centre point of the Niligiri Range. It will take us about 8 hours to drive and apparently at one point you take the Kalhatti Ghat Road. This road has been described as the closest you can get to the stairway to heaven. It's supposed to give you the heebie jeebies but as my driver is from the OOTY region I have ever confidence in abilities to deliver us both there safe and sound. So at long last some new pictures will be added to the blog. Hopefully they will be of elephants, flying squirrels and other assorted critters.
Back to work for now - damn how that interferes with everything!!!!