Rain

Blessed rain has been falling for nearly 48 hours now. Temperatures have dropped to seasonal norm or even a little below. Can this herald a proper winter? We sincerely hope so.

We can’t help being British with our built-in weather fetish, but we did think it would be reduced when we shipped out to Goa three years ago. We were led to believe that the climate only became slightly uncomfortable for a couple of months a year. Wishful thinking or what? Still the weather is more predictable that in the homeland, there’s something to be said for that.

Gone Fishing

After a break of 20 years from sea angling, Martin has dusted off his now ancient rod and tackle and headed for the beach on Hari Enfield. His knots and casting are a bit flakey and need some practice, but he hopes to report a catch of some description in the not too distant future when he has discovered the fishing hot spots of Goa. He’s spotted a few likely places but the locals aren’t giving away any secrets.
The one place he doesn’t expect much is the nearest beaches to Margao.

Kefalonia

Petani Beach

After a break of three years we returned to Kefalonia for a week’s holiday. We had some misgivings about what might have happened in the intervening years, particularly regarding development. With the weak pound a lot of prices had more than doubled, we couldn’t get accomodation in Agia Efemia where we like to stay and yes some development was a bit ‘in your face’.

That said, generally property and tourism development have been well controlled and we had a completely relaxed week of not doing anything apart from beach hopping and re-visiting old haunts. The weather was kind, the accomodation, high on a hill overlooking dispiriting Lassi, was excellent. We got through three different hire cars in 48 hours, ate several times at (still) the best restaurant on the island, Stavros Dendrinos, where the menu has remained largely unchanged in eighteen years, picked up a healthy tan and agreed that we would be happy to return in future.

Well done to the Greek and Kefalonian authorities. They have spent loads of Euromoney, but unlike Gordon, they have put it to good use. Although traffic is generally light, there’s even a new highway across the north half of the island, which waits proper connections to the main road system. We guess that it has been built well in advance of increased tourism and a steadily increasing domestic population.

Nearly perfect return

Well, we got back home in one piece after our UK and Greece holiday, picking up a son-in-law on the way. Tired but happy and expecting the worst. Actually nothing went wrong while we were away except for monsoon mildew most everywhere and a dead internet connection. Inconvenient yes; frustrating? not any more. We just took a deep breath and started out on what we thought would be a long time without our favourite means of communication. However, our engineer turned up only 12 hours later than he said he would. After several head-shaking minutes while our hearts started sinking, he brightened up and got enthusiastic and then fixed it. Some number had changed itself while we were away, which leaves us with a puzzle… but nevermind everything is working again! More later…..

Tam and Ryan

Martin now has a new son-in-law. His daughter is now known as Mrs Tamaris Conradie and her marriage to Ryan took place in Newquay, Cornwall on 19th September.
Family and friends enjoyed the venue and the weather was more than kind so the ceremony was conducted outside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Hotel Victoria did a professional organisational and catering job and the whole day went smoothly and any hiccups were quickly dealt with.
We are back home tonight and will return to regular blog duties as soon as possible.

Martin’s newest job – tree surgeon

We were attempting to leave our house by taxi on Thursday, a bit hassled because we were running late and the taxi was on time (it does happen). We noticed more traffic than usual backing up the road, then realised why. The heavy rain (yes, we’ve got some at last) had brought down a tree and it was blocking the road.

What to do, as they say on the sub continent. Well, plan A was get the parked cars moved from across the street as this would have allowed traffic to move one direction at a time. No such luck, no sign of the drivers anyway. Plan B, find out if someone could be brought in to cut up/move the offending branches. Yes, ’someone is coming’, however the ’someone’ had not been phoned yet (so how they could be ‘coming’ we’re not sure). Anyway, this being 2pm and this being Goa, there would be little chance of an actual arrival much before 5pm.

So plan C was implemented – enter Martin with his trusty saws. Martin and the taxi driver set about the branches, attracting a considerable crowd (none of whom offered to help). Despite torrential rain and being voraciously eaten by ferocious red army ants enough space was cleared to allow cars to pass but not before the tree’s ants and thorns had taken some sizeable chunks out of Martin’s arms.

Traffic problems did continue, given the Goan inability to give each other any space or wait their turn on the road. Efforts by vehicles to push through from both directions at once soon caused another block, and the two policemen at the side of the road did not seem to think it was there job to provide any direction. They just stood there watching the chaos and… holding hands.

Nevertheless, we were on our way soon thanks to Martin’s efforts.

A bridge not far enough

Dog asking wheelie bin for directions

Directions from humans here are bit like the roadsigns in Goa, best ignored on many occasions. On our journey into the ‘wilds’ of Goa on Monday, we turned right one junction too soon over a bridge, which we though was our landmark. The road came to a dead end and there was no-one to ask. We re-traced our steps and continued to the village where we stopped opposite the next junction and asked where ‘Kanke Wada’ was. We were surely directed back the way we had come to the previous junction. Which we did and came up with same dead-end result, but we did ascertain that we were not at Kanke Wada and that that place lay back at the next junction in the village. On the way back we checked again. Sure enough, they pointed us in a totally different direction. Our destination was only a kilometre, over another bridge, from where we had been originally stopped to ask and was easy to get to.

These misdirections happen often. We have yet to get to the root of the problem. Answers on a postcard please.

…and more Ganesh

Mango Room Wallpainting

Our friend Vivek invited us to his ancestral home in Rivona to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with his extended family on Monday. We checked out how to get there and what went on in the area of Rivona. Not somewhere we had previously visited, we learnt that there were ancient caves with paintings where sages of old had gathered consistently for more than 2000 years and that its an area where there are plenty of springs with good water.

Togged up in wet weather gear, we braved the 25 kilometre journey in heavy rain (at last), were misdirected by locals twice but arrived at our destination in the foothills of the Ghats in good time to witness our friend doing puja (devotion consisting of a ritual offering of food, drink, and ritual actions and prayers) to Ganesh, following a tradition laid down generations back.

Vivek’s grandfather was a farmer and head of the village and did well for himself. The house, some of it 200 years old, is becoming dilapidated. Vivek was the last of the family to be born in the house, which had been extended sequentially to accomodate the families of his three uncles and father. As these families grew so all they moved away and the house became too big for the grandparents to stay in and it became unoccupied. A burglary deprived the house of it’s furniture and old artefacts. The family have ideas to restore the place as a holiday residence for themselves.

As well as enjoying the pleasure of the family gathering in this reverential but fun atmosphere, we were shown some wall paintings in the ‘mango’ room, which we hope will be restored one day. The countryside and whole ambience was a welcome relief from city life and we felt tempted to run away and live here! Now we feel we have sampled what life was like in Goa until ‘liberation’ in 1960, when India took over the state from the Portugese and changed a way of life that had existed near enough unchanged for 500 years or more. We guess than many of today’s Goans still believe they are in this peaceful and relaxed mode despite the huge changes.

More Ganesh

A God

A row has been rumbling in the capital city Panjim for a fortnight. The problem has arisen because of some paintings and drawings of Lord Ganesh, none of which were published in the press, by a local modern artist. The antagonised or antagonistic group (probably politically motivated) have claimed that they are ‘obscene’ and asked for their withdrawal from a public exhibition with a lot of ballyhoo police and government involvement. The gallery promoters have backed down so another headline grabbing subsides.

We thought the paintings/drawings were rather good and very much to the point of the festive occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Here’s one that we thought summed up Indian/Western religious beliefs rather well. Obscene, we think not. Controversial, undoubtedly.

Google Kerkar Calangute for more pictures.

Not enough rain

It’s raining. Not a downpour, not drizzle, but good old ordinary intermittent rain. And this is the second day in succession. Temperature and humidity decrease comfortably and a breeze stirs to help things along. It certainly isn’t monsoon rain though. Many parts of India are now officially classified as drought areas, talk is that the monsoon has failed and locals are saying we won’t get any retreating monsoon and that it’s over. Hope not.

One would think that a drought would worry the Government of India, certainly when it comes to food supplies. But actually food stocks, particularly rice, are enormous. More than enough to keep the undernourished population fed for a few years. So why is a large percentage of the population undernourished? Government warehouses are bulging with the stuff. And the storage set up costs a small fortune to run. We wonders, we wonders.