Rob about to leave

---

Hi all

I'm almost finished here in Kanji (by the way, this is being written in Kanji, there is an internet cafe here now that does my head in it's so bad, but I had to e-mail Eileen in the off chance that she uses the net between now and meeting us tommorow.) Tommorow Maria will pick us up from the hostel and we'll get a bus from Tiru to Bangalore at about 9am, where we'll meet Nicole and Eileen. From there it's Sri Lanka!

I'm ready to leave now. I've packed my rucksack up, and since the chain lock thing we bought in a rush on New Years Eve once again drew blood from my hand as I tried to do it up, just as it did in Chennai, I have managed to find a way of locking the main section of the bag with just the padlock, which is good. I've also got a bike lock with me to chain it to places when I'm gone. Someone with a knife could cut their way inside, but when someone's determined enough to cut your rucksack up there's not much you can do other than carry it about all the time, which is too much in the heat. India's a safe country anyway, it's just a precaution. If anyone opens some of the un-gaurded parts of the bag they'll be delighted to find things such as sun cream and insect repellant and other such items that can be replaced on the cheap.

So now I just have to burn time. I've said goodbye to my classes this week. I bought them all sweets and wrote messages for all of them which I stuck on the wall. I was a bit sad, but I held it together okay, even when leaving 9th. One of the 8th standard pupils Vivek had to correct my English when I said "Me and Colin sir are leaving on Sunday", which was quite funny. Other than that no particular moments of amusement or emotion, although one of the teachers Nelson gave us a nice leaving speach at a staff meeting.

The real test comes tommorow morning at about 8 o'clock, which will be closer to 9 knowing Maria. Me + Colin (sorry, Colin + I) will have to leave the kids at the hostel and despite the fact they can annoy us, we're very close to them and it will be very upsetting. They've been asking us for a few days to stay and not go home, but unfortunately we can't.

We said goodbye to Rose for the third time this week by the way, I think that really is the last though. We invented a three player version of bridge that was pretty effective. Colin and I are now resolved to teach Nicole and Eileen this amazing card game that does not deserve it's reputation of being an old people's game. It will be useful when the heat is too much, we can return to the fans of our hotel rooms or dorms and play. That could well be an issue, April and May are meant to be the hottest months in the South, and we're travelling with the heat as it moves north to Delhi. Today I haven't been able to take more than an hour outside, but as we're travelling around coasts a swim in the sea could solve many problems.

Anyway, I'm very excited. Oh one more thing, I have a new mobile number because the old SIMcard had an awful deal for roaming. The number is 00919940722403. Don't try me whilst I'm in Sri Lanka, but before then and then from 19th May it will be fine for you to ring me. I'm currently trying to tell other South Indians via facebook and hotmail and it's taking all day, they hae brought the internet out here but it's nothing like what they have in Tiru. I get the impression from facebook that I could even chat to Kim + Gemma over MSN at the moment if they had it, which they don't. Grrrrr.

Keep well.

Rob.

---