Wouldn't you know it?

Whenever I travel to India, I always come down with something. On this trip, it's been a slight viral fever ... until this morning.

This morning, my upper right wisdom tooth took it upon itself to cosy up to my lower gums. I had to part ways with it later. Now the question is whether or not I can travel back as planned tomorrow night. Doc says today's going to be a bit of a bother, but I should be back to normal tomorrow.

The extraction affair was interesting, to say the least. Very different from the American experience. It was a numb-and-yank job, taking all of 15 minutes. 15 conscious minutes. I don't think I'll soon forget the grinding noise of bone being pulled out anytime soon. No stitches either ... just a big gaping hole where there was once none.

The anesthesia's just worn off. What joy.

Lunch!

Had a big lunch party at home yesterday, with about 25 or 30 people showing up. Officially it was to "welcome me home", unofficially to introduce the Lady's parents to the family. I'm not exactly sure how much of that happened, seeing as a lot of folk left within a couple of hours!

Lunch was on our terrace, and it was mostly Mom's cooking (the deserts were purchased) ... poori, chole, potato saag, pulao, daal, all mouthwateringly yummy.

Nonetheless, it was good fun to meet up with my uncles, aunts & cousins. I hadn't had a chance to meet anyone yet, as I've been busy ... er, planning ... and er, shopping. What's being planned and shopped might be an open secret (Gods, I hate that phrase! It's like your boss saying "My door is always open"), but it's a secret to some, and so it shall remain until the appropriate time!

Ahem.

Anyway, I apologize for the quality of the photographs. There was some pretty strong sunshine and shade on the terrace and so a lot of the photographs came out darkened. I tried to fix them with Picasa but they ended up looking a little washed out.

Cutting Edge Apparel

This is quite close to my heart ... and most of those who read this blog!

Chuckletime

A couple of interesting links ...

1. You know, I never quite thought of KITT in any other way until I read this strip.

2. So true, so true. It's just more fuel to the fire (har!) to get me to buy a new Alienware PC (or should I go Dell?)

Hello from Heathrow

Well, this is an ... er, I'd say "auspicious" were I superstitious in any way, but I'm not ... but yeah, er an auspicious start to my journey to India.

My flight out of JFK was delayed by about 1.5 hours, and the connecting flight out of Heathrow, by about 3.5 hours. Blame was cast on the storms that have swept through the UK leaving a trail of death & destruction in its wake ... but I can safely say they seem to have all blown over. There was a bit of turbulence on the way in this morning, but the sky outside seems to be quite azure, with a few spotty white clouds hanging about.

You know, American terminals are boring almost to the point of tears, when compared to Heathrow ... terminal 7 at JFK had all of 3 stores including an Altitunes, a duty-free store, and one other unimaginative store. Heathrow's Terminal floor is a bloody mall by comparison ... Harrods, Pink, Borders, Swarovski, a ton of fashion boutiques, restaurants (horribly overpriced BTW - a breakfast and tea cost me £7+). Of course, the thing preventing me from buying anything is the insane exchange rate being offered by the Shylockian moneychangers ... including commission (£3), $40 netted me just under £16! I might buy something on the way back ... maybe some wine or other booze. The last time I tried to bring wine into India, I was deemed by customs to be over the allowable limit and was stiffed with a Rs. 3000 fine.

I did spend some time over aforesaid breakfast reading the Guardian (gotta love left-of-center liberal papers), and catching up with the latest Big Brother updates. Apparently both Shetty & Goody are up for a vote to be thrown out this Friday, with obvious favorite being Goody. And there was a lot of hand-wringing over the death of British civility. One commentator, who seemed to have a bit more sense than others, derided Big Brother-esque reality TV for being the real culprit.

10-hour trip to Chennai coming up. I swear, I'm going to sleep through Saturday at this rate!