bloggiting

wherein i vomit a spate of blog updates.

we fired the maid. she simply did not show up on saturday, and didn't bother to call us until 4 hours after she was supposed to be here. par for the course for india, but for me it was the final straw. it seemed clear to me that not only had she never really done this sort of work before, but she clearly did not like it even a little bit. i interviewed a cook this morning. she'll come 3 days a week, can read english/recipes, and comes highly recommended by another american. it's the best we can hope for.

christmas was good. we had plans to meet up with some american friends at a coffeeshop for brunch. half their menu is breakfast egg dishes. as is typical here, they had no eggs. never have, probably never will. no apologies, no explanations, just no eggs.

brunch was moved to our friends' apartment. eggs, brie, wine, nuts, peanut butter. it was amazing. we then headed out, looking for nativity scenes to photograph. there are tons around, and they're a big deal here. we didn't actually find many, but did make some new friends. a fisherman invited us to his seafront bungalow and then proceeded to feed us and get us drunk. he has an upper balcony with a great view of the seaface. we could see about a mile of fishermen slums, boats, and pigs, rooting around in the colossal heaps of trash that clutter the rocky 'beach.' yummy. we stayed for sunset and then had dinner at the thai place. it was the most unchristmas christmas i've ever had.

i've been reading a lot. just finished 'a mighty heart' and 'the glass castle...' didn't realize i liked nonfiction so much. i could use some recommendations. read any good nonfiction lately?

tomorrow we're off to pune. m has work there. i'm gonna FINALLY get outa the city and go along to assist him.