Recovering from Trip to Bangalore

Arrived home safely on Saturday evening, a little tired but glad to be home. The girls had an exciting day cycling in Indianapolis with Lynne, Randy and Lorraine and were off to sleep in no time.

I bought some dresses in India which the girls were thrilled about, I'll post pictures at a later date.

Yesterday we caught up with Steff, Ginette and Marissa. It had been quite some time since we had last seen them, I couldn't believe how mobile and big Marissa had become. They too will soon be having a new baby, mid October, just six weeks prior to us.

I did manage to take a few photos in India but they were not very good. We literally got no time to look around the city, literally none. I liked the picture of the kids, happy as could be, walking to school barefoot. The second was a shot of a taxi rank in Chennai!

 

 

Bangalore

Arrived safely yesterday in Bangalore, India. The trip was uneventful, just long. Weather here is beautiful, 80 degrees F with little or no humidity. Certainly not what one would expect for India in July. I understand that Bangalore is unique in this respect since it sits on a plateau of approximately 1000m high which gives it a unique micro climate. I'll be off to Chennai (Madras) tomorrow which will be different.

Jet lag is usual, was up this morning at 4am wide awake. I’ll be adjusted just in time for my return trip. I will try taking some pictures and post tomorrow.

A couple of Items

I picked up a new nifty little camera today. A Canon SD1200 IS that I got mostly for its size. It can easily slip in my pocket and having now taken a few shots, I like it. I used it to take the picture below.

I'm off to India on Sunday afternoon (hence the little camera will be handy for quick photos and video capture. Will be visiting Bangalore and Chennai (formerly Madras).

Got upgraded from limited basic cable TV to basic....why....this allows me to start watching highlights of the Tour de France. There was a pretty exciting stage today for those of you half interested.

I'm finished with Microsoft Explorer....forever. I recently updated to IE8 and now the default search is bing which I do not like at all. I keep changing the default back to Google but every time I boot its changed back again. I'm done....done, done done....Google Chrome and Firefox from now on (except at work of course where we will never move from Microsoft products).

Tomorrow we are having Lynne's entire research group over for an afternoon of grilled food and forced socialising. Weather is supposed to be good, so should be fun. I think the plan is to have about 15 people here!! I'm wondering how many will be brazen enough to have a beer? :)

Hope your weekend goes well.

 

Trip to Ohio

We had a very enjoyable trip to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to visit with Chris, Karen, Bobby and Morris. It had been two years since we met them but other than the kids being a little older, they have not changed a bit. It was great to see them and their wonderful little hippy, artist leaning village/town. For anybody who has ever heard or visited Yellow Springs, you will certainly understand my comment. We liked it a lot.

Generally we took it easy over the weekend, managed a visit a local dairy farm and ate their homemade ice-cream, took a walk in the local parks (got stung by a bee), played in parks, ate good food, drank some of Chris's homebrew, chilled out round his campfire....you get the picture.

Karen, Chris, thanks a million for your hospitality!
I've posted a few pictures here.

 

Going to Ohio

We'll be out of town for a few days, we're off to Yellow Springs, Ohio. This is a small town just outside Dayton, where Chris and Karen live. Recall that Chris went to college with Lynne and they visited almost two years ago (I know we should have had a return visit prior to this). Anyhow, this is how we'll be spending our short 4th of July holiday.

Shown below are a couple of photos taken last weekend of the girls playing in the living room. Speaking of photos, for those of you out there that know my extended family members, check out the excellent photos on Jonathan's Facebook page of Mum's surprise 60th birthday in June (apologies but you need a Facebook account I believe). They are fantastic, Jonathan has a real talent behind the lens.

I've also got some relatively good news from my work. I tend not to post anything work related (for obvious reasons) but I can report that I have just being promoted again (second time this year). Technically it's a new job since the position was advertised internally, I applied, interviewed and was successful. It's a very similar job but with more responsibility. On August 1st, I'll get to call myself a Senior Director.

Anyhow, enjoy the weekend everybody!!