New House

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Wednesday - Day 14

As my bag was packed and I'd had an early night, I woke up naturally at 7am and got to my new place at 8.30am! A new recod for me! Maybe it was because I was excited about the FRIDGE! Cold drinks, fruit, milk for cereal - what a grand idea! Because I was early, Vijander wasn't there as he'd got up at 6am to go to Mapusa! I sat and waited and whilst doing so, met two people who worked at the guest house for 'Uncle', one woman who swept up all the leaves and dust nearby, plus her husband. Some birds in the trees caught my ears. They made the weirdest bird song I've ever heard, which sounded like a sample of some computer bleeps! They also did a little jump when they made the sound and i was intrigued by them most of the time I sat there, promising to record their sounds on my sound recorder before I moved on again. I'd used the recorder a few time now, mostly for night time dog barking reasons - the dogs go mental in the night here! Vijander arrived just on time and invited me into his room so I could fill in some paperwork. He made me a cup of black tea, gave me some biscuits (for breakfast) and we watched a little TV whilst smoking a cigarette! How nice.

I landed at IAR at around 9.45am and met Denis who had been introduced to the other volunteers, of which there were lots, on his second day. All of the dogs had been walked, with the exception of the shy or scared ones that didn't want to come out, within two hours! This gave me time to have a good play with the two sets of puppies in the outside runs. They were so cute and this was also noticed by a man and his wife, who enthusiastically picked up three of the puppies, a boisterous boy and a quiet little girl from one set and a boy from the other and took them home! The owner of Denis' guest house also come by to pick an older puppy we later named Lucky. FOUR DOGS REHOMED IN AROUND HALF AN HOUR - PROPER RESULT!!!!!

So, after eating with our hands again, we drove to Denis', parked our bikes, said hello to Lucky, the dog with the new home and then walked the twenty minutes or so to Anjuna's Wednesday market. I had to exchange the silver chain I bought from a Nepalese man because it had a slight kink in it and I didn't want to risk it breaking and me losing my pendants - One of them is a quartz mounted in silver which Ondine gave me for protection and the other is an amazing engraving of LadyBoots done by my talented silversmith little sister Miriam with an enscription on the back.
He exchanged the chain no problem and we then went on to buy some leather for Denis' jewellery making business and change a dress Kelly had bought last week - it was the week of not buying, but exchanging, although I did buy a lovely silver spiral to go in my ear! Lily, from Anjuna beach was there with her shop and she made me quite angry by grabbing my arm and telling me I 'had' to come look her shop. There were lots of women doing this sort of thing and quite aggressively today (because the season hasn't really picked up yet and people aren't buying lots), so I quickly became frustrated and just wanted to get out of the market. We did pass Jan, Nigel and Jean Pierre at the IAR stand so chatted to them for a few minutes. Luckily, everyone moved quite quickly, so as arranged, we eventually arrived on the beach and sat in Tantra with some soft drinks.
Anjuna on Wednesdays attracts begging, so there were quite a few people around asking for food for money. They seem to carry small children with them, I guess to get more sympathy from people. It worked for me so I gave to one girl with a baby.

After we'd been to the beach and also after seeing an amazing sand sculpture of a fairy tale castle by a guy called Simon Smith, we decided to visit a nice place called the German bakery. It's not really a German bakery as such, but they do sell baked items which is quite rare here. They had chocolate cakes and mousses, croissants, cookies, nice food and a lovely atmosphere and raised floor seating areas with cushions and low lighting. It took me ages to decide what to have so I just went for a few small things, including the best mango lassi I've tasted so far :-)

When I got home to my new place, I put the telly on! It was great! It took me a while to find a channel I could understand and after flicking through the one hundred or so channels and after seeing various genres of Indian music videos, news channels and cheesey soap operas, I stuck on an American film about a woman who lost her memory of the past seven days... it was a bit rubbish, but telly generally is anywhere.


Thursday - Day 15

Yesterday at the market, Jean Pierre had mentioned he was taking a motorcycle ride to Panjim - a city around an hour's drive away. He was going there to change the date of his flight and I'd thought about going to Panjim at some point to talk to the airline (as that was the nearest office) to ask about changing mine to a later date. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Basically, Panjim isn't that difficult to get to and i could have taken myself there, but to ride a scooter on a main highway, the driver of the scooter needs to wear a helmet - i don't have one. Plus the roads here are mental and I have no idea about how to get around once in Panjim. I blagged a lift to Panjim with Jean Pierre and this is how it went...

I met JP at Laxmi's tea shop in Vagator and realised why he'd said to meet there... it was so he could have a crafty beer before we left.
I knew what was coming next... I'm used to driving a motorbike or scooter and have very rarely, in fact never, been on the back of a motorbike that I can remember, ever. I trusted JP's driving, as Kelly had ridden pillion with him lots of times before, but nothing prepared me for the experience I had on the back of that bike for the first hour or so...

*please excuse the bad language in the next line of text*

I was scared fucking shitless!

I held on to the back of the bike so tight, I'm sure my fingers were white. My legs ached from being so tense and clinging onto the footplates so hard. It was horrendous for me! I hated not being in control basically!
JP didn't go fast. He didn't drive like a looney. He didn't lean the bike over too far. He didn't overtake much, but I was still crapping myself. I knew that if I was to stay on the bike all the way there and not give myself a heart attack every time someone beeped, that I had to chill out. At the time, it was the only thing I could think to do to put ALL my trust in JP with no hesitation... so, I closed my eyes.
It was amazing! The sound of the wind in my ears, feeling it sweeping underneath my sunglasses and around my head was something I've never been able to appreciate fully and so intently. Either I'm inside a white van or on a bike would have a helmet on so would not be able to hear the roar of the wind. I loved it. i did it a few times on the way there to test my faith in JP. It worked though. It made me a lot calmer about being on the back knowing there was nothing I could do if anything was to happen (which would have been unlikely) so I needed to go with it and enjoy it if anything.
I didn't have the balls to take my hands off the handle and take any photos while going along though I saw lots of people not holding on to anything at all! Many of the Indian ladies ride 'side saddle' and don't look as though they're holding on at all! JP said it's very difficult to ride with an Indian lady as the weight is uneven on the back...

Anyway, we got to Panjim and found JP's airline office - Swiss Air. He paid 100 euros to change his flight to Febuary instead of December. We moved on and found the Kingfisher Airlines office after asking lots of people where it was. I asked about changing the destination of my flight and was told I couldn't do that, so I asked how much it would cost to change the date so i could go somewhere else before having to fly back to the UK.
The first date change was FREE!!!!!! Imagine that!! Free!!!! The second date change was £25 - pretty damn good! I like Kingfisher a lot!
I didn't make any changes, but got a telephone number to call when I'd made up my mind what the plan was... possibly go to Thailand and then go home via India using my return ticket as long as it was within a year of my first flight with Kingfisher out of the UK. So, I have to use my return before 29th November 2011.

Just before leaving Panjim, JP and I sat on a kerb, smoked a cigarette and ate little biscuity cake things from a bakery nearby. JP had a beer... we get back on the bike... oh my god. Actually, it wasn't too bad a return journey. Possibly, the idea of not having to pay to change my flight, coupled with gradually getting used to being on the back of a bike made me feel more relaxed. My bum was so numb when we arrived back in Vagator though.
I had a little nap and then Kelly popped round. We thought about going to the beach, but ended up at JP's house meeting his wife Isabelle and her friends. They talked in French, which reminded me of Garance whilst JP fed his dog with some beef he'd cooked and cooled especially and lots of rice - rice alone is the typical diet for a dog in Goa.
I popped into Mango Tree later on to upload some photos and order a hard drive for my music collection at Carl's in the UK (I was just in time on Amazon for the last Christmas mail!) before Kelly came to meet me and we drove to Denis' to go out for dinner.

He'd chosen a place right near his house called La Lunas, renowned for the quality of the fish. I had golden fried (battered) prawns with chips and the most amazing salad I've seen. It was lovely and the best food I've eaten so far. While we were there, the police turned up outside in a four wheel drive. The owner of the restaurant asked us to hide our ashtrays and cigarettes in case they came in. They didn't, but it struck up conversation and we had a good chat with a guy called Dave that Kelly had met before. He told us a story of when he lived in Leeds and someone broke into the back of his house while he was at home! He said he got into his car and chased them in theirs knowing they'd taken two wallets and two mobile phones. Apparently they went straight to the police station to report him for dangerous driving and because he had no evidence that they'd stolen anything from him (they'd rid themselves of any wallets or phones), they got away with it.

It also turned out he'd had a stall at Strawberry fair in the past and had really enjoyed it.

I got home and attached my mosquito net to the only thing I could find in vaguely the right place - generally, the area above the bed on the ceiling is occupied by a ceiling fan - not the sort of thing you want to go tying mosquito nets to, so you have to be imaginative. I attached mine, with a piece of string, around a picture frame on the wall above my head as I sleep. As I moved the picture to drop the string down behind it, I got a huge shock as a small lizard ran out, across the wall and into the tops of the curtains on the window! It made me jump and I was a little bit scared until I realised it was only a lizard, They're totally harmless and very cute.

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