Updates from India 67

Well, another month has gone by. The temperature here is rising daily sooner than is normal. We hear today many parts of the world are experiencing 'freak' weather, snow storms, and heat waves. Today on BBC news...Helsinki warmer then Nice.......how crazy is that! 

The world climate is changing in front of our eyes and yet many still deny it’s happening or argue about the cause. 

Isn't it time our politicians faced the truth and told us. Protecting a seat, towing the party line or being afraid of the impact on business is NOT a reason to continue to lie to the world. But can we ever expect the truth from our politicians? Under the current system, a politician is allowed to tell the electorate ANYTHING with no fear of being penalised.

For or against Brexit?  Is just one of the many campaigns based on lies that the British public has no choice but to accept. Make your choice, vote and if you voted for a liar don’t worry, they won’t.

How can the average person make a rational choice when both sides feed us lies to gain our support?  MP’s are paid, we pay them as taxpayers………….and we can’t believe or trust them.

In Britain right now house prices are crashing, debt is out of control, the homeless live on the streets, the numbers are carefully disguised by our government and since the introduction of universal credit, these numbers are rising sharply. Food banks that give out free food to the needy are now common. Please note I said needy, not just homeless.

“Since, I think 2010, the number of people relying on food banks has gone up from the tens of thousands to the millions.” Source, The Russel trust. 2017.

What can we really do about it?   NOTHING as long as we are prepared to go on allowing our government to treat us as a commodity with no rights, a work pool, homelessness and hunger used as a means of keeping wages low and profits high.

I despair that my once ‘Great’ Britain no longer exists.

Perhaps it is the time we really considered revisiting the proposal to introduce criminal proceedings against MP’s who knowingly misinform (read LIE) to us the electorate.

Sir Malcolm Bruce says the House of Commons would 'empty' if politicians had to resign for lying.

Using deceit, lies or misdirection to pass legislation or support a position is unacceptable and must stop before we can have any chance of a social or financial recovery.

Britain is what YOU make it, apathy leads to the destruction of democracy.


Our Garden

Our centre bed, flowers yet to come.

Sweet peas and our main border now growing well








The herb pots Mint, Baby Leeks, Sage, Lettuce and Coriander

Tomato time soon, yummy.

Our mango tree, each of the flower sprays is a potential mango.

We are feeding and watering in the hope it will fruit.

We moved it when we moved in from a shaded spot to full sun

since then its been growing much better.

 Leeks in Udaipur! Now we know how more will no doubt 

be planted next year!

On a sad note one of our chickens died, we tried nursing her to health but she just gave up alas...............and no we did not eat her.

Goa. The Four-Chapter Meet.

When IBRMC announced that the four southernmost chapters were going to hold a meet on the beach at Goa, well what could we do? 2000km away.

Well we had to go for it didn’t we, he he he.

So, unofficially it became ‘The four chapter meet plus us’

Comments from Kris

Chris and I had the pleasure of joining the IBRMC quad meet in Goa at the beginning of the month.

We set off from home mid-afternoon to get our coach to Ahmedabad, where we would fly onto Goa. The coach turned out to be a minibus, comfortable airline type seats so all was good.

We received a message telling us our flight was delayed by an hour, no issue more time to eat before boarding. We arrived at airport circle which was  1km from the airport, no autos about so we decided on a gentle walk to the airport.  We checked in still one hour delay so we headed off to get a drink. We then had a further two delays so I headed to the subway stall to get us some sandwiches, yummy, fresh bread and produce, it was very busy. After several hours delay, our flight disappeared off the board as had some others before it, so I thought oh no it’s going to be cancelled. Hurray, it was just a blip as they moved us from one boarding gate to another and at last, we boarded. Good flight, we landed in Goa and set off to get a taxi at around 3am, deal done and we were away.

We got to our destination near the beach at 4.30am but could not locate the venue “Jamaica’s Cabo Wabo” at Arambol beach; we did, however, find the restaurant Ash which we knew was nearby so the driver dropped us as he could go no further because of the sand. We spent some time walking around trying to find the resort, alas no we couldn’t and no reply to phoning them, so we sat down in the sand and waited for morning. Around 6am they answered the phone and said they would be with us in a minute. It turned out that the sign was facing the sea and access was behind another hotel. We slept for a couple of hours in our beach hut on stilts. It had a bed with mosquito net, bathroom with shower, sink and toilet with a small balcony outside. Basic but all you want from a beach hut.

Catching up with old friends from around India and making new friends with a beer in your hand, beautiful view of the sea and beach what more could you want. The food was excellent as was the hospitality of the owners. We went paddling in the sea, sat around a fire one evening and just had a brilliant time. Definitely would visit again.

The resort organised a taxi for us to return to the airport, very comfortable. On the journey, I got a message saying bus had broken down and was cancelled, ah well we’ll sort out something when we get to the airport. Alas no flights from Ahmedabad to Udaipur so coach or train only options, no issue we’ll sort when we get to Ahmedabad late afternoon.

We sourced a company doing coaches to Udaipur and got a taxi to the booking office. Last sleeper upper berth yes we’ll take it, getting us home around 2am. Now we needed food as we were both very hungry. I asked around for restaurants or cafes nothing seemed near, but one man told me I could get a non veg meal at the Metropole Hotel nearby so off we went.

I left Chris outside with the bags whilst I checked it out, Yes they served food and knew we had only a limited time before our coach was due. The Manager was more than obliging ensuring our comfort despite our casual dress and made sure our meals were received in good time. The food was excellent; we had Chicken sizzler and chicken fried rice absolutely beautifully cooked. Meal eaten so we walked back to our pick up point.  (Kris fell over on the way by stepping around a pothole she, wobbled and……..yep ended up falling into it. No damage, and I didn’t even laugh!) (Chris)

Yet again a delay, traffic problems and our coach was an hour late. Too chilled to worry, such is life, but despite all the delays the trip away was fun and relaxing.

The coach was comfy and the driver was excellent, I know I stood at the front for about 45mins so I could tell him where to drop us, and by Indian bus drivers I have seen our driver was first class. Dropped off we rang our friend Peter who was staying at our home to come and collect us. Yeah home again after a fabulous break. Our two dogs were so excited to see us, they had been looked after by our friend Disha who stayed at ours during our break. The dogs love her so were a bit broody but happy to have someone they knew around during our absence.

                                                 

Chris had his birthday this month and the plan was for me to take him out for a meal, but that was changed last minute as I was ill so meal cancelled and delayed. Friends knew so they turned up to celebrate and we had takeaway instead.

Last evening I took Chris to Wok by the Lake a Chinese restaurant we had not been to so taxi booked and off we went. Could not find the restaurant despite Google, so the driver phoned them to be told it was inside Radisson Blu hotel. When we got there I realised this was the Sheraton Hotel, very posh, let’s hope the foods good.

In one word Yes it was. A very authentic Chinese restaurant not Indian version of Chinese, lovely food with a great bottle of Chardonnay which went down a treat.

Guess where I want to go for my birthday, hint hint Chris.

Meant to take a picy sooner, got into the food so forgot.

Warm Aid

Well, it’s our second winter finished. We have learned so much this year. Winter one was done on the spur of the moment winter two was better planned but still not as good as we can make it. To begin with, at the beginning of November we had no stock to distribute. As donations came in we bought and distributed blankets to the poor who needed them. This we are going to change Warm Aid 2018 will start to distribute at the beginning of November BEFORE contributions start coming in. We are doing this by holding any donations we haven’t used this year. For instance, thanks to better publicity more people have helped us than ever before. But for some, it was too late in the winter. If we buy and distribute now most will just get sold as they are not needed. That’s not why we do this. It feels so wrong to waste donations like that. So we are using all the donations we have now and buying blankets that we will hold in stock until November. During the year we will try to raise more money and buy more blankets. In November we can distribute from day one.

Figures for this year: 301 blankets given to the needy in and around Udaipur.
235 blankets in stock for 2018.
One dead person found on the cold bare marble steps in a thin shirt and pants, no shoes. We covered him with a blanket out of respect.
He was one we didn’t get to in time. But thank God he was the only one this year we found.
We have three volunteers who worked all winter with us and many people who came at least once to help distribute blankets.
Donations came in from ordinary caring people, Rs100 to Rs10,000. The generosity of people has inspired us in our work. Thank you all. And a special thank you to Varshit Karanpuria of Karanpuria Cloth Centre, Udaipur who supplies us with good quality wool blankets at a greatly reduced price as his contribution to our cause, he even pays for delivery of blankets to us.
To everyone who has helped in any way we thank you, you have saved lives. What better testament can anyone have for what they achieved in their life than this.
A final meeting of Warm Aid 2017 will take place soon to discuss this year and plans for next year. Some awards will be given to various people for their help and support. More on this next month.
We will soon officially close Warm Aid 2017, and start collecting for 2018.

Well thats all from us this month

Take care and God Bless

Chris and Kris in sunny Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Updates from India 66

Hello again welcome to our first blog of 2018.

Its been a strange month, plans derailed, unexpected happenings. Most important the weather daytime is starting to warm up. Still very cold at night, down to 5degC and believe me when you have adapted to 50degC summers then that really is cold.

We had a visit from some friends who were riding to Mumbai in the south for a big biker meet and then heading home 4000km!

Converted the bike to solo as Kris finds riding in winter to painfull on her knees. We will go back to two up when the weather is warmer.

 What Happens When You Take God Out Of Schools
I still think this is a very powerful piece of writing from the internet. It is based on American society but reflects on all of us. Please read and forward if you believe we should all look closely at what our faithless society is becoming. It is our society and our responsibility.  

Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained (In the USA) she didn't want any prayer in our schools, 

and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.... the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself. 

And we said OK.

Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. And we said an expert should know what he's talking about so 

we said OK, we won't spank them anymore.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. (There's a big difference between disciplining and touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.) 

And we accepted their reasoning.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents.

 And we said that's a grand idea.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said 

that's another great idea.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good. 

We said fine.

And then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women (and nude men) and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female and male body. 

And we said we have no problem with that.

 And the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex.

 Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers  (and the internet) say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says.

Funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan who, by the way, also "believes" in God.

Funny how we are quick to judge but not to be judged.

Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail (and the internet) they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.

Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

Are you thinking?

Pass it on if you think it has merit! If not then just discard it....no one will ever know what you did, for sure. But, if you discard this thought process, then don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.....

Garden.

Well it’s that time of year again. After a slow start because of unusually cold temperatures slowing germination things are at last beginning to grow.

It is still very cold here at night so we have been sowing in trays indoors. The weather here in India has definitely changed over the last ten years and that change seems to be becoming more obvious each year. Summers are later and hotter (up to 50degC here) and the monsoon, our only source of water has consistently been less than is used depleting the underground water stores that we rely on. More and more bore wells are going in drawing that water for Industry and private use. Nobody seems to care, ‘water is a right like the air, and we have the right to use what we need’ is a comment we often hear. It cannot go on forever; already many wells that used to be productive all year are dry in the summer. Lakes that are fed by run off from the monsoon are going dry. Water tankers are becoming a common sight visiting many homes towards the end of summer. And still apathy reigns. Not a single day passes where we don’t see water flowing down the street from a hose or an overflow. We have plenty of water….it’s just after monsoon! It’s like paying into your bank every month, and then you slowly increase what you withdraw. First your surplus goes, then you have to start being more careful, finally, the account is empty. If you are lucky your bank will let you overdraw for a while. If we run out of water people die, crops fail and famine visits us again. But its India isn’t it; they are used to famine and drought. Well don’t feel too safe, climate change is coming to all of us no matter where we live.

Rant over, back to the garden.

We have been trying every year to improve our crop of tomatoes. More fruit from less space. Adjusting sowing times and soil conditions definitely have helped. So has our method of pruning to only two main stems. This year we have seen the greatest improvement in growth and so far in flowers on the plants. We sowed early but kept the plants indoors until the ‘wild’ varieties popped their heads up. We then transplanted into bags of worm compost (normally used as a feed for poor soils). Since then Kris has regularly fed them on her secret mix. Dilute chicken poo from a 40gal barrel we have. The water is from the RO (Reverse osmosis) water purifier we use. Most users waste this as ‘bad’ water, not fit for use, probably as a result of the purifier manufacturers advertising the need for only ‘pure’ ‘safe’ water in the home.

Why all the bother when tomatoes are available all year around in the markets? Simply the taste, gorgeous fresh sweet tomatoes organically grown….nothing compares.

We have planted the centre bed with nasturtiums and surrounded it with a small flower border of daises and petunia

. For only the second year since we got here we have succeeded with Sweet Peas, they are growing well and looking strong in a planter under the sitting room window.   We are hoping the scent will drift into the house.

Kitchen Garden growing well.

The kitchen garden is looking good. As expected the brassicas are doing best in the lime rich soil, courtesy of six months of chicken poop in it, as are turnips and swede. Tomatoes here are immigrants from who knows where but we have decided to grow on and see if we like them. Seeds in the fridge again soon?

One other small border has been made in front of the chicken pen, two varieties of annual climber 

and one perennial moonflower.

The whole garden is looking good and even the dogs have learnt what ‘GET OUT OF THERE’ means so fewer holes!

Our only failures so far are herbs and melons. We have one more sowing of melon that went in today as well as sunflowers that we are growing (we hope) for the seeds.

The leeks are growing as is the garlic in the front bed. 

Our old friend is doing well these days.

 Both the dogs are well, Chilli is growing, soon be as big as Blue'

So, all in all things are going well here.

Our jeep sprang an oil leak!
Nothing serious, an oil pipe had blown. Just very messy. As luck would have it just as we came onto the colony returning from a wedding.

As you can see we had some visitors this month. 
Friends from the bike club Delhi chapter just passing through.
They stayed with us for one night so we did a quick oil change.

This was parked just outside visiting a neighbour, lovely bike but our roads in Rajasthan would kill it. Imagine this off road!

 Harley Davidson.

Bike converted to solo use

Back to two up as the weather gets warmer.

 It works by being able to bolt/unbolt this entire rear section with only six bolts. About twenty mins work. It took a few attempts to finalise this design!

In solo configuration

Warm Aid

We have been out and about again this month giving blankets to the needy in our society.

This time it was to an orphanage in the city, 40 new blankets for them.

We have also had a donation of Rs18000 about £200, anonymous from church friends. Fantastic, this means so much to us and to the people we can help. There is a government blind school we are going to visit, if needed they will be our next donation.

For details of Warm Aid please have a look at our Facebook page.

Comments from Kris

Well, I have been thinking about all the names I am known by since coming to India so I thought I’d share the ones I remember with you.

I am known as Christine; Kris, Mrs Chris Chris; Mrs Hyde; Mrs Hydeee; Ma’am and Auntie and these are just the ones I know about. I am sure eccentric foreigner would be in the list too but I have no intention of changing who I am to conform and become boring.

Chris and I were talking recently and I said that when we came to India at least I would have no further use for my nursing qualifications, how wrong I was.

Since coming to live here I have given IV infusions, IV medications, IM and SC injections, dressed wounds, a lot of this was for friends and neighbours who live on the colony one was even a doctor, I’ve taken out sutures, removed a catheter; removed a gun pellet from Moti the street dog, nursed sick birds and my hens, nursed a very ill street dog; assisted at road traffic accidents giving first aid, taught first aid to students, taught self breast examination seminars, given nutritional advice and taught hygiene to name a few. Chris falling off his bike and breaking his foot needing to strap the foot several times daily as we were in the middle of nowhere whilst on a riding holiday, I have to say he is still my hero we carried on with the riding and the holiday despite his pain but the strapping and high boots helped. That’s my Chris for you he will not give in and I admire him for that. 

There have been numerous accidents mainly involving motorcyclists not wearing helmets, some of the victims of these accidents alas died from their injuries but not all. I was most touched to receive an email a few weeks following an accident in Dungapor with thanks from an elderly gentleman via a friend whom we stopped to give first aid to. He alas was not breathing when we got there but after ensuring he had an airway he started breathing and Chris and I treated his wounds. He had a large deep laceration on his forehead where a stone was lodged, I managed to remove it clean the wound and put a pressure bandage on to reduce the bleeding, I bet he had a horrific headache afterwards. He also had lacerations to his hands and foot. What is most disturbing is that the man in the car who knocked him off his scooter just drove on never stopping. The locals took my advice and got him to hospital after they had all stood and watched me treat his wounds. After all, there is little to do for entertainment in some of the rural villages. The gentleman who was in his eighties or thereabouts alas lost his scooter as it was totalled by the cars impact.

There have been many opportunities to use my nursing knowledge that I am thankful God gave me the compassion to care for my fellow man and animals. So much for not needing my nursing, there are too many stories to tell.

Well, that was some of our month. Looking forward to next month.........Visiting GOA.

May God bless you all (even if you dont believe in Him)

Chris and Kris, Udaipur Rajisthan India.