The girls are back from India, a bout of sickness, new clothes, Halloween and Dorothy the chimpanzee

The girls with Summit their guardian angel in India, from left to right: Suzy, Rocío, Summit and Olivia
Hi again.

Today is Sunday 1st November and the good weather is still with us with temperatures around 20ºc which is wonderful for this time of year. We have just come back from our evening walk with dear Norah (as gorgeous as ever and if you don’t believe me look here) and it’s quite late to be writing my blog. The girls are having some friends round for drinks (Erika, Carolina, Rocío, Estefanía, etc) and my Father will be making his frugal dinner and probably eating my home made vegetable soup.
Norah was also happy to have the girls back.
So what has happened since last week? The major news is that my dearest girls, Suzy and Oli came back from India. They have had an amazing time, first in Delhi and the experience at the NGO for children where their friend Arancha works, then in Agra where they went to see the Taj Mahal. Afterwards they went to the Punjab in Chandigarh to stay with Sandeep’s family and in Ropar with Summit’s family. Summit was their guardian angel in India and made sure they had everything they needed.

Oli with a beautiful little Indian girl at Arancha's NGO.
Oli commented that he and the families treated the girls as princesses. They also visited Shimla, the so called “queen of the hills” in the mountains near Chandigarh and after their visit to the Punjab made their way by train to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. In Rajasthan they also visited Pushkar, that very hippy destination with the dirty but holy lake, and of course Jodhpur which Oli loved most. Their final stopping point before returning to Delhi to make their way home was Varanasi, the holy city by the Ganges where the famous cremations take place. They seem to have bought half the markets in India and I for one, got a lovely silver ring with a red stone which I love. Thanks girls!

The day the girls came home coincided with a terrible bout of sickness which came upon me last Wednesday night after having had dinner with my Swedish colleagues, Birgitta and Anna in Alcobendas. The bout started with a terrible headache and had me throwing up in the middle of the night until there was nothing left in me. I had to go into work on Thursday morning because I was to do a presentation for the Swedish girls who had come specially to see me. Somehow I drove to work but it was very soon obvious I could not stay on at the office so I ordered a taxi to go home and left my car at work. I continued throwing up in the taxi much to my chagrin. Eladio took me to the local doctor who immediately gave me an injection to get rid of the sickness and another one to get rid of the headache. I then slept for 2 hours and woke up with the sickness gone but the headache still there. In fact the headache did not go until yesterday Saturday and is still with me really. I’m not sure whether the bout of sickness was a migraine or something caused by what I had eaten. I tend to think it was the former. I have always suffered from headaches but in the past year or two have had similar attacks to last week’s. Migraine or not, I had a nightmare of a time and hope I won’t get another one ever again, except I probably will.

So yes I had a terrible migraine and was k.o. for two or three days, but on the bright side my diet seems to be working (now over 6kgs) and I am beginning to fit into my old clothes. But who wants old clothes? To cheer myself up I went shopping and bought a whole new range of clothes and enjoy wearing my new outfits. I felt very guilty coming home with so many bags but on the other hand I feel I deserve the treat. I do don’t I?

Oli didn’t go to her flat so we have had both girls with us over the weekend which has been great. On Friday we went to the cinema with Oli to see a Mexican film called “Sin Nombre”. It’s very violent but informative too and is about the Latina American Mara gangs (frightening) where disloyalty is paid for with your life, as well as the terrible train journey the immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico take to try and enter the “promised land” which for them is the United States. You can see the trailer here.
Great but violent film, Sin Nombre.
Yesterday the girls got ready to go out to celebrate Halloween and looked great. Oli was dressed as a vampire type bride and Suzy as a horror school girl. Believe it or not she can still get into her old school skirt! I don’t particularly like Halloween and I’ve always considered it more an American celebration and as a child enjoyed Guy Fawke’s Day on 5th November and the English equivalent of Halloween, Mischief Night on 4th November. The girls, however, have been celebrating Halloween ever since they started school at St. Michael’s at the age of 3 and 4 and always enjoy it. You can see the full set of picture I took here on Facebook.
My halloween girls, ghastly but good.
The weekend is nearly over but it has been great to have the girls back. Today we had a lovely Sunday lunch all together outside, of course, because of the great weather. Eladio took this photo of the table which I had just laid and where my Father is sitting and enjoying a glass of wine before his meal.
The table laid for the family lunch today.
My final note this weekend is about a chimpanzee and not any chimpanzee. I read about Dorothy today, an ape from a zoo in Cameroon who had been mal treated. You can see in this amazing photo the moment when she was laid to death and how her fellow grief stricken apes mourning her death.
Rest in peace Dorothy. It is good to know that apes can feel the same grief as humans.

And that's it for this week. Cheers till the next.
Masha