Wednesday, January 29, 2003 :::
OK. thought i'de write some more general stuff. A very weird thing happened to me. I was pickig up one of the kids from school with chintu and , as snormal EVERYONE was staring at me, pointing and laughing. I was standing there when these kids came up to me. one of them said: "Uncle, May i ask which country you are from?" For some reason everyong under the age of 20 is calling me Uncle. I told him i was visiting form the Uk and he duely nodded. He then turned round and YELLED across the now full playground "I told you he was from the UK." They had been betting on where i was from. Strange.
I still aint been ill once. I though i was going to be ill th minute i got here but it aint happened. Have been dehydrated a few times but no Delhi Belly as of yet. Will wait in anticipation. The beer over here is fantastic. Its all larger (pilsner), no stout and absolutly no draught (all bottled). Its usually reletively strong (about 6%). Have sampled quite a few including a local one known as Black Knight (brewed here in Chennai) it was fantastic although nowone (Indian) seem's to understand the look of absolute delight on my face when a waiter hands me a nice cold beer at the end of a long hot day. I have also tried lassi's (sweet ones) but no special ones as of yet. They are yoghurt mixed with fresh mango juice, devine although very fattening. All the sweets seem to be made out of ghee (clarified butter) and curdled curried type milk. They are all pretty revolting, unlike the women as there are loads of attractive young single women walking around. Having spoken to a few people from what i gather a bald, bearded, dropped out of college 20 year old man is not especially desirable in Indian culture but hey, stranger things have happened.
Everything is very very very cheap. a litre botle of good strong beer in a resteraunt costs like 100 rupee's 9 around 1 pound 20 (sorry they don't have the pound sign on these infernal keypads) if that.
The people i'm staying with are wicked aswel. they have maid who brings you stuff while u just sit there, with a book, on the balcony with a cool 35 degrees beating down on you staring at coconut palms. (anyone jellous yet?) all good stuff.
what else. the food is really good. curry for breakfast aint as bad as it sounds. You have to use your right hand to eat which is actually quite cool and i is beginning to get the hang of it. One slightly odd thing is you have to get up at 7 every morning which is going to take some getting used to.
safe guys
jaime
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 8:23 PM
Tuesday, January 28, 2003 :::
OK. Well its been a week and i thought I would post and let you know what i've been up to and some facts about the indian people. On saturday having got back from Pondicherry we went out for a meal in a chinese. Things are so cheap out here and eating out is just stupidly cheap. I met a few more poeple. Poorni and Prathi are cousins of iggy and anne and daughters of sami and christi who i shall be staying with in renagathapuram. Both very nice. I also met john who is a friend and dance instuctor of the family. On sunday we went to the sheraton 5 star hotel for lunch to celebrate chintu's parents wedding anniversary. In the evening iggy and myself went to play basketball in a park with a big bunch of his mates. It was to hot for me to play so i sat in the shade and read (howard marks' MR Nice).
On tuesday i went out with john, his mum, uncle and brother to a sold out concert in chennai. it was a fusion band called shakti. There a tabla player, a guitar player a madalinplayer a dude on some sort of tamborine and an old dude playing a clay pot along with some other guy playing bongo type things. I have never seen anything like it. I was speachless. the spead at which these dudes played was incredible. The tamborine dude did a million solo's all of which sounded like a full drum kit i kid you not. The guitar and mandalin players were mind numbinglyt fantastic and played faster than i can even comprehend. It was INCREDIBLE. Them we went out for a meal (11pm).
Right, a few observations about the people over here.
1- they have an amazing sence of balance. How else could you fir 7 people on a motorbike or carry enough bricks to build a small house on your head (i kid you not)
2-Everyone is crazy when it comes to driving. you honk as much as you can, and force your way through the traffic of people, cows cars scooters dogs goats rickshaws etc etc. Its mad
3- They are very very very polite and always do as much to make you happy as they can. its great but a little intimidationg sometimes especially say when you full and they are still trying to fill you with food. As you all know i don't eat a huge amount anyway and they don't seem to understand the concept of "no thanks, I'm full."
4-The general concept of being young and bald also seems alien. Whenever i take my hat of i just get stared at. I have been to st michaels school a few times and they all just point laugh and stare. Its very odd. I generally get looked at a lot. Its quite cool although slightly disconcerting.
5-There is no such thing as "self service" in india. Nothing and i do mean ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING is self service. Everything gets done for you.
Hope everyone is cool and groovy.
safe
jaime
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 8:22 PM
Jamie: hello
Raymond: Hi Jamie
Raymond: How are you doing
Raymond: I noted you'd been quiet for a few days - so guessed you'd started to settle down?
Jamie: fine. am just trying to work out how to call iggy's house from the uk. The full international and national (chennai) codes. any ideas
Raymond: You want to call Iggy from the UK? But you're in India.
Raymond: From the UK I think the international code is 00
Jamie: yeah but a few people have inquired into my phone number.
Jamie: whats the code for chennai
Raymond: To call Chennai from the UK it is 00 91 44 then the local number
Raymond: 00 = international
Raymond: 91 = india
Raymond: 44 = Chennai
Raymond: Have you been reading your emails?
Raymond: I've sent a few, but you have not replied back
Jamie: so it would be 00 91 44 blah blah blah. yes have been reading then several times a day. which ones in particular. The TV one is cool but we get a lot of british tv over here and the only thing i really want to see is the grand prix which they show on star sport
Raymond: OK. I won't bother with TV then. I thought you said there was nothing on TV to watch - it was so boring
Raymond: Have you been able to pick up SMS on your mobile?
Raymond: I sent you details on how to get cheapest rate to India from the UK on the phone with BT Together
Jamie: it is but they still show poor quality British programmes. The only thing i really watched is cartoon network and nickelodeon
Jamie: I not too sure i got that one. would that be calling from uk to india or the other way round
Raymond: It is for calling from the UK to India - I guessed you might want to pass the message on to people who would want to ring you from the UK.
Raymond: Best of all though - while you are in Chennai - if you want a chat, make a very quick phone call and ask the people to get online with Yahoo Messenger, then you can chat for as long as you like
Jamie: We hired out clockwork orange last night along with shawshank redemption. not to sure if i should have suggested clockwork
Jamie: exactly
Raymond: No Clockwork Orange was a bad idea
Raymond: Your mum refused to watch it
Raymond: And you have to watch it to the end to get the point of it
Jamie: i thought so, iggy wanted to watch it. i realised it may be a bad idea on getting. its that first scene i think may be a bit too much
Raymond: I sure it was - it is not even Hollywood style violence. The violence in CO is very disturbing - very British
Jamie: we aint watched it yet. i aint to bothered about the rest of the film its just that first bit
Raymond: If I were you, I'd skip it, or just watch it with Iggy on your own
Jamie: Yeah probably a good idea. oops
Raymond: What about your mobile phone? Is that any use to you in India? Are you getting texts?
Jamie: have had a few. alex (bennet) helene and thats it. Can't reply to them though. most of them are from skycell in india cause when you walk down the street the network changes so when you go back into skycell they send you all these greeting, advice numbers etc. its really annoying getting 5 txts just for walking down the road
Raymond: That's interesting. You haven't received any from me? I sent them through Lycos.co.uk
Jamie: only about the insurance and that was a while ago
Raymond: Was that while you were still in the airport?
Jamie: ? we also tried to get myself registered like it said on the visa but the police (where you register) didn't have a clue what we were going on about. apparently according to their wall chart there have only been 5 murders in chennai in the last 10 years.
Raymond: I'll send one now, and we'll see if it comes through. If it is unreliable, I won't bother with it, but it worked well for your mum when she was in India
Raymond: That's a very low murder rate for such a large city
Jamie: it's a load of hot air. the police are allegedly very very very very corrupt apparently
Jamie: tell robbie i have also completed spiderman
Raymond: I suppose a death could be reported as anything - accident, natural causes, ...
Jamie: am going to a concert tonight with john his mum uncle and brother
Raymond: Who is John?
Jamie: the dance teacher friend of iggy. apprently you have met him.
Raymond: (I just sent you an SMS: "Hi Jamie - hope you get this message and that India is good for you. Love Raymond".)
Jamie: my phone is here. will let you know.
Raymond: I don't remember John, but it was a few years ago, and there were lots of people.
Raymond: What sort of concert: music, dance, rock music?
Jamie: guitar tabla drum etc. met prathi as well. john prathi and poorni all came out with us for a meal. all good did you get my message about 5 star hotels and pondicherry
Raymond: Yes, thank you for the message. Your mum read it to say that you'd stayed overnight in the Hotel, but I don't think that was what you said. We also put up the photos on the BLOG from your trip out there
Jamie: 0oh yeah have had some people mailing about those. am being eaten alive which is slightly worrying as i aint on anti-malarials
Raymond: Eaten by mosquitoes?
Jamie: yeah
Raymond: It is good we have a way of getting photos up on the BLOG - another way is for me to screen capture the webcam.
Raymond: What did you do with the weekend?
Jamie: pondicherry, meal on sat with poorni prathi etc, basketball on sun with iggy and mates. didn't play though, way too hot
Raymond: Did you go to Church?
Jamie: no. neither did iggy etc cause apparently i had worn them out. they were knackered. actually i think chintu has just gone to sleep
Raymond: Hmm. Basketball is usually more energetic than Church
Jamie: yeah but we had spent most of the waking time in the sheraton hotel with chintu's parent casue it was their anniversary. they didn't start basketball till 5 but church was at 7
Raymond: Yeah, with a large family, there are lots of birthdays, anniversaries. I think it was Jordan's second birthday when Annie and I were over.
Jamie: tibs and maggies wedding anniversary is today
Raymond: Aha - another one.
Raymond: People in India may well choose to get married in the Winter more - when it is cooler.
Jamie: anyway. am going to go. i shall talk to you soon.
Raymond: OK. I'll post this chat up on the BLOG - editing out the swearing.
Raymond: Bye
Raymond: Let me know when you do get the SMS, or if it doesn't arrive. Good to know how many minutes it will take.
Jamie: ok bye
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 2:13 AM
Saturday, January 25, 2003 :::
Recent photos from India
Jaime (hat on) in the evening in Chennai on the balcony at Iggy and Chintu's flat with Joel and Jordan.
Very small in front of a Church with Iggy, Jaime, Joel and Jordan
In the trees with Jaime, Iggy, Joel and Jordan in front of Auroville in Pondicherry
This temple dome made of gold with a central chamber and crystals that held it up in Pondicherry
Chintu with Joel and Jordan before the gold dome
Photo retouchers note: the healthy glow around the group is an artefact from a rather amateur attempt to make the figures more visible without washing out the background
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 4:14 PM
Hello everyone. thought i would give you all a quick update. Well, OnTgursday I went to mamllapuram which is this old temple place on the coast south of chennai. There are all these temples, carvings and statues but they are all carved from one piece of rock which used to be a mountain. It was mad. The guide harrased me for more money which was a bit odd. I saw a dude with leprosy which was horrid and I got a car with driver and friend of the family for the whole day which ruled. I also went to a crocodile sanctuary which was really cool. Then on friday i went with iggy, chintu, joel and jordan to pondacherry. We stayed in a rwally nice hotel, went out and ate in a frencgjh resteraunt and then got a bit drunk which was good. On saturday we visited a couple of churches then we went to this meditation temple called Auroville. Its a community where people live in peace and stuff and there is this temple dome made of gold with a central chamber and crystals that it up and its just AMAZING. will post some pics in next few days so CHECK BACK. anyway hope your all well and stuff
love jaime
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 4:11 AM
Wednesday, January 22, 2003 :::
Today - a web cam chat with Jaime in Chennai
Jamie: any luck
Raymond Scott: Yes indeed
Raymond Scott: You are coming through very well
Jamie: can u c me
Raymond Scott: I can see your bald head
An Invitation to view your Webcam was sent to jaimegarbutt (22/01/2003 14:14)
Jamie: safe all good. welcome to chennai
Raymond Scott: I too have a picture
Jamie: i can c u
Jamie: this is jordan. say hello
Raymond Scott: Weh hey
Raymond Scott: Hello Jordan
Raymond Scott: Apparently we can talk too
Raymond Scott: With our voices!
Jamie: i aint got a microphone
Raymond Scott: Shame I could send you a sound
Jamie: here r the rest of the guys
Raymond Scott: Hi Chintu
Jamie: fantastic how u
Raymond Scott: This is Raymond here in Norwich
Raymond Scott: I've had a haircut
Raymond Scott: I should be working but this is much more fun
Jamie: what time is it
Raymond Scott: Quarter past 2 in the afternoon
Jamie: say hello to iggy
Raymond Scott: Would you like to see a cat?
Raymond Scott: It's Iggi!
Raymond Scott: Hi there
Raymond Scott: Isn't this clever?
Jamie: wheres bongo
Raymond Scott: Bongo can be found
Jamie: ok
Raymond Scott: I'll leave you with Cleo while I get him
Jamie: look what i managed to pick up. You know i don't read but i have read three chapters today and have almost finished tv nation. aa bongo
Jamie: hello bingy
Raymond Scott: He's gone now
Raymond Scott: I see the book - right cook
Raymond Scott: How come the India connection is so much quicker now?
Raymond Scott: Do you have broadband or a faster modem?
Jamie: they just got broadband so its faster and better. I can improve the photo quality but it makes the picture slower
Jamie: c
Raymond Scott: Is the broadband always on like we have it - with no call charges?
Jamie: yeah i think so. this is so weird. we need to get mum in this. can she log in from work
Raymond Scott: We should schedule something together.
Raymond Scott: I don't think your mum could get Yahoo Messenger at work. The Java version may not work either
Raymond Scott: This is the best I've seen webcamming
Raymond Scott: I've tried it several times over the last 5 years
Jamie: by the time she is home from work we r all in bed unless you fancy doing it at like 7-8 in the orning
Raymond Scott: 7-8 in morning is better because your mummy and little brother could be here too.
Raymond Scott: Send out an email inviting people - or I could pass the message on to the people.
Jamie: well what time do you make it now
Raymond Scott: Almost half past 2
Raymond Scott: Your 8 pm?
Jamie: yeah. so if i log on at, say, 1 ish like 7.30 tomorrow morning will you all be at the computer
Raymond Scott: Would you like to give a nice big smile for all your friends in the UK - I'll capture the picture
Jamie: ok
Raymond Scott: Yeah OK 7.30 am tomorrow
Raymond Scott: Could you put your face nearer the camera?
Jamie: ok
Raymond Scott: And look into the lens
Jamie: ok
Raymond Scott: OK got it. You need to tell all your friends they can have webby webcam chats with your over the internet
Raymond Scott: Here's Bongo
Jamie: yeah sounds good
Jamie: wave to jaime bongo
Raymond Scott: He's trying to
Jamie: have you seen my room at iggy's
Raymond Scott: No not yet
Jamie: hang on a sec
Raymond Scott: I can see a clock on the wall
Raymond Scott: And a bald head
Jamie: no can't move the camera its stuck on monitor
Raymond Scott: Oh well. Maybe you can move the room - or use a mirror held up to the camera?
Jamie: has there been any post or anything
Raymond Scott: You got a brochure from Iwantoneofthose
Raymond Scott: Your mummy has eaten all your sweets
Raymond Scott: No other post yet
Raymond Scott: Not much to report in fact
Jamie: bin that. thats the people i got you mirror from so they must still be sending junk mail. read a bit in tv nation on how to prevent yourself from getting junk mail\
Raymond Scott: Junk mail is worse on the net - it cloggs up your mailbox
Jamie: iggy has a digital camera so am hoping to get some shots and post them on the blog
Raymond Scott: Sounds good. I'm not sure how you get images up. You may have to read up on that. Or post them onto some other webspace and add a link in your Blog postings.
Raymond Scott: Oh yes the hyacinths are out at the moment and making a nice smell
Raymond Scott: You can see the bowl on your mummy's desk
Jamie: yeah i aint got any web space if thats what you need to do. did you see me adding chennai online on the blog as a link on the left hand side. that to let everyone know where i am. can't find the AREDS site to put there
Raymond Scott: I thought you'd added something, but I could not quite read the link as the picture was over the top of it
Jamie: right am going to go. will be online at 7 tomorrow so get everone there and stuff.
Raymond Scott: OK Jamie = again a really nice chat
Raymond Scott: Thanks for calling and I'll tell people about the 7.30 call tomorrow
Jamie: yeah man all good. shall c u tomorrow. good we got this web cam thing going
Jamie: love jaime
Raymond Scott: Yeah - well easy
Raymond Scott: Love to you all
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 1:36 PM
Start of jaimegarbutt buffer: Wed Jan 22 11:26:35 2003
raymonddarling: Cool you're online
jaimegarbutt: yeah. not for long causee its iggy's computer. He already had messenger installed so I just gave it a go. how are u
raymonddarling: All well at our end
raymonddarling: Mummy at work, me at my desk, Robbie at school
raymonddarling: Raining of course
jaimegarbutt: right well yesterday i went shopping with poorni and chintu
raymonddarling: And you went to all the girl's clothes shops?
jaimegarbutt: then me poorni chintu iggy and the boys went out to dinner to a food hall on a beach
raymonddarling: How'd it all go?
jaimegarbutt: went well. managed to pick up a copy of howard marks mr nice for 333 rupee's thats about 4.50 in pounds. then today we went ot pick the kids up from school and tomorrow i may be going to a dancing class with poorni and prathi
raymonddarling: So you can do some dancing too? Getting nice photos?
jaimegarbutt: possibly may just go and watch casue i can't dance for toffee. think we are going to meet tibs maggie and that lot tonight
raymonddarling: OK. How are you getting on with the heat?
jaimegarbutt: its very very hot. at night with the AC and fan on it gets a bit nippy but generally its ok. The onsuite in my room ony has a cold tap shower which is very refreshing but jolly cold. Aint been ill once but got attacked by mozzi's last night, think i may have forgot to turn the coil on
raymonddarling: That's a shame. You must get a ride in an autorickshaw at some point if you haven't already. They're terrifying.
raymonddarling: Would you like me to copy this chat onto your BLOG?
jaimegarbutt: yeah they look it. poorni has a mo-ped and they suggested she give me a ride last night. they are all nuts. I aint getting on nothing without it having a safety cage especially seeing as they drive like maniacs, we nearly hit two cows yesterday.
jaimegarbutt: cut out swearing though
raymonddarling: I didn't notice any swearing, but certainly will cut it out.
jaimegarbutt: eating with hands is quite cool aswell although slightly messy
raymonddarling: If you did hit a cow, it'd be your fate anyway. No compensation culture in India at the moment!
jaimegarbutt: Iggy has a web cam here so we thought we could do a conference call vid camera thingy at some point. don't know how it would work
raymonddarling: I never did the eating with hands. I used forks. I could not cope with putting my fingers in my mouth for dinner, when I'd spent the whole day taking great care not to put my fingers anywhere near my mouth
raymonddarling: We could give the web cam a go. We've got one here as well. No harm in trying. It may not work through my proxy server though - that can be problem with some messaging software.
jaimegarbutt: I have actually wiped my mouth by accident quite a few times and I've been absolutly fine. suppose this place is very clean in comparison with rural india though. I even swallowed a bit of shower water a few days ago but ain't been ill at all
raymonddarling: Let me know when you'd like to try the web cam.
raymonddarling: Good to hear about your not getting ill. Particularly you need to not dig around under your nails - that's where the bugs can be picked up.
jaimegarbutt: Will do.anyway. going to go cause we are half way through the film "Bandits" and I don't want to run up a bill. Talk to you soon. love to everybody.
raymonddarling: Bye Jamie
jaimegarbutt: bye
*** "jaimegarbutt" signed off at Wed Jan 22 11:25:33 2003.
End of jaimegarbutt buffer: Wed Jan 22 11:26:35 2003
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 3:36 AM
Sunday, January 19, 2003 :::
The eagle has landed and its all cool apart from the weather which would be perfect for temperature indurace training should man ever decide to inhabit the sun. There are hundreds of nutters legging it around on motorbikes bikes (I saw four on one mo-ped). The roads have no lanes painted on them and so everyone just rams there way through the mass of people, cars, rickshaws and buffallo that are just like sitting there in the middle of the road. The car horn is not used as an aggressive thing but as a "mate i'm right behind you and am likely to hit you if you don't get out my way now" and therefore may as well be glued down Its MAD. There are like coconuts everywhere just growing. and EVERYTHING is just so colourfull, its like looking at one of those trippy acid induced sixties posters. The sky is increadibly blue, there are palm trees everywhere. All i can say is this that this country really rules and all i've done so far is drive a twenty minute car drive from the airport to iggy's house.\\safe boys and girls, safe.
jaime
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 9:52 PM
Saturday, January 18, 2003 :::
Am still in norwich. Heading off in a few hours to heathrow. Check regularly cause i should update once i get settled.
safe
jaime
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 3:51 PM
Hello, my name is Jaime (originally Jamie, but I swapped the i and m around). I am still in Norwich as I type, but tomorrow morning I'll be travelling down to Heathrow to catch an Emirates flight to Dubai on my way eventually to Chennai in India. Return here often to hear how I get on with the heat, the food and the new culture.
::: posted by j(e t')aime at 3:32 PM
