Now that we have been in our house for a couple of weeks we are exploring and understanding the local environment a little better. The garden teems with many species of ants especially vibrant orange ones. Previously enjoyment from this direction was limited to the early eighties - 'I'm the deadly highwayman that you're to scared to mention, I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention' indicating some Reiverish behaviour, and it still doesn't take too much for me to get me crossing my forearms and wiggling what hips I have to Ant Music (my children should look away now). The most interesting and recent find however (courtesy of the Love Guide Bangalore) was ANTS which is a crafts/clothing/COFFEE SHOP just round the corner - which has great potential as an abandoned expat spouse bolt-hole for pondering lifes big questions - and of course doing that male rabbit in headlights Christmas shopping. The vegetable seller with his cart parked outside our gate and the local laundry facilities (coal powered ironing on the streets) may add colour but it seems I have slipped inexorably into the expat lifestyle - Chester le Street sheds a salty slushy tear and ponders how fickle are human affections (perhaps this blog is a covert attempt at writing the movie script of my life - discuss?)
Harsh reality intervened on Saturday when I went down to Bangalore Rugby club which curiously temporarily train in side a golf course. Attempting to coach the local kids, without the benefit of any Kannada or Hindi was a little challenging - getting the concept of soft hands and the pop up pass over through the medium of mime was fun, although I did feel at times more Norman Wisdom than Marcel Marceau. This reminds me that on a stag do a few years back we were in a comedy club in Nottingham and the compere was asking where the various groups were from - Chester came our reply - and taking in our group without a beat he said 'mmm more Emmerdale than Holyoaks' - Oi keep on topic - yes rugby. Emboldened by this mini-coaching experience, I decided to stay for the seniors training - I should have realised the error when most of the seniors looked younger than my kids, and the focus of the session was to be an up and coming sevens tournament. I last played sevens seriously (for University) in 1981, at the County sevens when our primary purpose was to ensure that we were able to field a team and so ensure the return of the clubs £50 entry deposit - having suitably run around but emphatically gone out in the preliminary round, we felt completely justified in then drinking the entire deposit in the Club bar - and £50 was a lot of money then.
After two hours on Saturday I once again had that difficult to describe feeling of being pleasantly beaten up, which translated on Sunday into an almost complete failure in leg function resulting in a pregnantesque waddling walk for at least the first half of the day. My recovery was of course aided by the inherent Harmony of our surroundings where it emerges we have papaya, guava, herbs and a lemon tree in the garden and life and love blossoms. The award of 'couple of the week' goes to Buffy and Angel (see picture) who have chosen to hang out just outside our front door - if they can manage 13 series between then then anything is possible!
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