Relaxing Sunday ..

Hi again,

Following our very long and busy day yesterday, we had a nice relaxing day today. A late start about 12 and the highlight for me today was our lunch .. a wonderful meal in a very authentic South Indian restaurant in town. That's my meal above, served up on a huge bananna leaf ! Thankfully, we had Stalin with us to explain what everything was and how to eat it ! For me this was the best meal yet. It was definitely very local. We were the only tourists in the restaurant. There's no menu. You get served rice, dal and some vegetables automatically, with lots of additional dressings and flavourings. I couldn't begin to describe them .. there seemed to be hundreds of them, (see all the little pots) and they were all fantastic. Here's Stalin showing Liz how it's done and don't Una and Bernie really look the part, eating from the bananna leaf, with their beautifully decorated hands !! I think we'll leave them behind ! One of the chefs continuously circles the restaurant with a huge pot of rice and delivers big spatulas full onto your leaf .. unless you object, when he looks at you as if you're mad. We had a fantastic meal and the sheer entertainment of sitting in the middle of this drama was brilliant. We left some carnage behind us .. but not too bad ! Here's Emily reviewing the damage !

After lunch, we hit the shops .. enough said ! and then back to the hotel to relax before dinner. Tonight, there was a sepcial celebration for all the Birthday Girls .. anyone who has a birthday during the build .. including our Liz .. Happy Birthday Liz (it's actually on Wednesday 17th March .. as if we needed another excuse to party on 17th March !! but we'll take it !).

That's it for tonight - I'm off to bed, to be ready for another busy day on site tomorrow. Only 2 and a half days left and tons to do ..

Bye for now.