Happy Birthday, Adrian

Saturday was Adrian's birthday. He had disconnected Gtalk, so I didn't get to talk with him that day. That was sad, but we had the party anyway. I invited all the supervisors and their spouses to the apartment for dinner and cake. I hope everyone had a good time, I sure did. You know how I love to cook.

I've been complaining about the grocery stores in town. Chandan had directed us to one called Monday Through Sunday. I guess the name All Week was taken. There was a problem with the store the first time I was there, something smelly was broken and I was pretty disgusted with it. We went back Saturday morning and it was fresh and clean. Got lots of good stuff for the party. Ramesh directed us to a bakery for the cake. We filled in some empty spots at the little store in the complex.

The picture at the top shows me cutting the cake. There is a tradition in India of rubbing uneaten cake into the face of the celebrant. Barring that, they said the person cutting the cake would do. Don't know if you can see the knife I'm cutting with, but it is formidable. Nobody would consider coming close to me to do any rubbing.

The group, from the left is Avinash and his wife, Sowmya hiding behind him; Suresh; Teena and her husband; Pinaki and his wife, Daisy; and Rishi. Zuber didn't come and Vijay had to drive his dad to Kerala. The best food of the night was a mango and shrimp salad. I got the recipe from The Times this week. I was thinking it would be veg if I put the shrimp on the side. It had fish sauce in it, however, and that took it off the veg list. Adrian loves fish sauce, so I couldn't resist.

Santhos helped me cook again. So did Laura (that's a picture of her next to me while I cut the cake.) We had a lot of fun. As always, it took longer to make than to eat. As always, I made enough for a small army. Maybe I'll understand kilos by the time I leave. I bought two kilos each of chicken and shrimp. Who knew that was over 4 pounds?

Laura and I went to the Leela for my last brunch there. Good as ever. Then I got my last massage. Laura had never had one before. Neither had I before I came to Bangalore. Now I think they are required for healthy living.

Santhos had washed all the dished before he left last night. We had borrowed half of Laura's apartment for the party. Deepak (now her houseboy) hates for us to share stuff. He speaks only a few words of English, so he didn't understand when I told him that I was paying for 3 apartments and to leave me along while I borrowed stuff. By the time we got back from the Leela, all Laura's stuff was back in her apartment and Santhos was ironing my pants in a spotless kitchen.

I've started packing, seeing if all my purchases and my clothes can co-exist in the luggage I brought. I think I'll be okay. The big purchase, the rug, was shipped and is now rolled up at home, waiting for me to show Adrian the magic of the "look at this carpet" flip. I may have to move the furniture to do that. Hope I don't seem too excited about leaving Bangalore. It's been great here, but I'm pretty excited about seeing both my families - home and work.

5 more days. And counting.