Some Random Updates

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Some random updates:

One of my dreads has nearly fallen out. It's one that sits in the middle of one pf my ponytails before I tie them up into a massive dread heap on my head. It's hanging on by a few strands of hair now and is going to fall out at some point. I shall sew it back in to my hair with my crochet hook when I get the chance and can be bothered to remember.

I have been 'bitten' by mosquitoes approximately twnety times since being in India. It's inevitable that one will get 'bitten' even whilst using insect repellant. I use 95% deet and although they don't come near me when i have it on, it is quite toxic. I accidentally got a tiny droplet of spray on my lip once and it burned like hell! I try not to wear it every evening. I also had a slight skin reation on my upper arm which I think was either down to the deet, or down to the hot sun shining down on my arm when i ride the scooter, giving me heat rash... possibly.

The mosquitoes come out when the sun goes down. they don't like flying through smoke so people burn coconuts and grass to make smoke to keep them away at that time. They go away when it's quite dark although there are always one or two lurking. I've started to use my mosquito net for extra protection, even though I have mesh up at the windows and I keep the door firmly shut when I'm inside. One night, without my mosquito net, there must have been one in the room and my leg must have been out from under the covers, as I woke up to an itching leg and five mosquito bites in a row! Why don't they just stay in one place? Hopefully no chance of getting Malaria though, as I'm taking Malerone and it isn't upsetting me in any way, which is what a lot of people warned me about.

I can hear the sea from my room when the fan isn't going full pelt.

All of the 'bathrooms' I've been in so far have been walk in wet-rooms with toilet, sink and shower all in one room. The shower water runs into a drain in the floor. There is even a tap lower down on the wall which is used to fill a jug which you then wash your bum with! I have only used two out of loads and loads of toilets which have been a hole in the ground. I get the impression that most toilets outside of Goa are holes in the ground but that Goa is more westernised and has mostly western toilets.

I have had rather bad skin since arriving in India. My skin isn't used to the sticky, humid heat and the dust so I get more spots than usual and am more greasy-faced.

There are SO many Russian people here. So, so many! The local Indian people have taken to learning Russian so they can communicate with them as most of the Russians can't speak English. Everyone here speaks English enough to get by... apart from the Russians.

I have an Indian sim card in my phone. My network is Airtel and I am charged 1 rupee a minute to call other indian phones, 6rs a minute to call a UK landline and 12rs a minute to a UK mobile. I have also been using my Orange UK mobile as I was assured by one of the representatives at oange that I would not get charged outside my pyment plan for sending texts to the UK from India, as I was entitled to unlimited texts for the last month of my contract sort of thing as long as i was only texting UK mobiles. I have only been doing this, apart from the odd one to my Dad's mobile in Pakistan, so if Orange try and charge me extra for those texts, I shall go mental! It stops and reverts to normal pay as you go on 29th December so I shan't really be sending texts from my UK number any more after that.

In the coke-on-laptop scenario, I must have unplugged the ipod before it had synced properly and now it says there is no music on it! The drive is still full but I just can't access it! Apparently (for all geeks out there), the ipod touch does not show up as a drive like other ipod so at the moment, it doesn't look like there is any way I can get the music to show - i've tried re-connecting it to the computer too - so I'll ither have to somehow get my hard drive back from Lorraine possibly via wilski... or go without my music! Boooooooooooo!

My typing might sometimes be bad and look like I can’t spell or my grammar is incorect... well, it’s not that. It’s just that my keyboard on my netbook is so small and I miss the keys every so often, plus i dont think spilling coke on it really helped it at all. I shall endeavour, from now on, to proof read everything before publishing. Thank you and good night.

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Comments

[mum]

great reading, keep it up. Lovely to hear all the news, love you. mooooose