  Hot Days and Nights |
Patnem, India
The weather has been extremely hot the last couple of days. Unusually hot for this time of year. Burningly hot. Actually the weather has been unusually hot throughout our stay. Normally in these months daytime temperatures hover around 32-33C and night times around 26C and there is little humidity. This year, even in January it was hotter than this range and humidity started to rise in February. Today, it feels more like a normal April here than early March. Even the locals are complaining. Tonight is was still 29C at 9pm but the humidity made it feel more like 42C. Thank heavens we have a/c in the room.
We have spent both days at the beach but have quit early – about 2pm – to return to the pool at the Tubki. Although there has been no wind, the surf has been up, pounding in quite hard. If you can get beyond the breakers,, you can bob up and down in it but even there the odd massive wave comes crashing in and you have to dive through it and under. Not very restful. So, once the heat really gets up it’s nice to retreat to the pool which is always deserted. Patnem is very quiet at the moment everywhere. The season is cranking down. The shacks are reducing staff. Kylash, the most senior waiter at Salida went back to Nepal last night. Such a sweet nice man. He is 44 now, much older than the others, and he doesn’t know if he will be brought back next year. I hope so.
Last night we had dinner on the beach and then came home to a tearful call from Daisy. Her job at Rainbow has gone. They told her this afternoon and she left immediately. It’s been coming a while. Her boss(the Sales Manager) left unexpectedly just before Xmas and since then she has been reporting directly to the Director of Sales and Marketing. He has now decided that they are not replacing the boss’s role and they don’t want a graduate anymore, they want to replace both roles with a single experienced Sales and Marketing person. They’ve given her a fairly generous cheque and will provide a favourable reference for the future but still…… she was quite devastated. She bravely held up during the meeting (more than I’d have done!!!) but then cried all the way home. She’s worked so hard there too. Many long days….. never mind she has learned a lot about work and life. Knowing Daisy, she will bounce back and by Friday will have updated her cv and be back out on the market again.
All this was put in perspective this afternoon when we said goodbye to a lovely English family we have met at Salida. Husband, wife and 20 month old baby girl. They are in their early 30s and 2 years ago he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. The medicos in the UK can do no more for him so he is exploring alternative therapies out here and in other countries, apparently Israel has made some breakthroughs. Most of them are treating him freely and he feels they are making a difference. He’s now off for another round. We wished them well and hope to see them next year but….. one wonders…… he’s such a lovely lovely guy.
Have started clearing up the last remaining “jobs” here. Printing out the paperwork we will need in Hong Kong. Last laundry load at Shiresh’s wife Amelia’s laundry (£1 for a bag). Have dropped Joe and Janet’s toaster off with Shiresh to keep till next year and Gloria’s Scrabble game has gone to Ishmael to be stored. We have paid a 50% deposit on our room at Marylyn and Clive’s so that’s sorted.
Tonight we had dinner on the beach at Roundcube. Rocky had promised us a special: Murg Masallam, a North Indian speciality. It was absolutely delicious. A whole roast chicken covered in a minced chicken, nut, onion sauce, stuffed with nuts, egg, fruit and rice and sitting on a bed of vegetable biryani. My picture does not do it justice. So hard to take a good picture of most Indian food. It’s all a bit “brown”. Anyway, the flavours were amazing. A snip as dinner (more than we could eat), 4 double Gimlets and a bottle of water was £12. Highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Patnem.