A Day in the Life...

Beautiful Clouds After the Rain

It turned out to be a beautiful day after the rain with huge puffy clouds floating by. After a cooler morning, it has warmed up again.  Yesterday, it rained well into the early evening which is unusual for this time of year in Bangalore.  We did not bring umbrellas so we had to walk quickly from the entrance of Tesco HSC to their office building. 

I have somewhat settled into a routine by now... return to the hotel from the office around 3:15am.  Take my malaria pill & vitamins with a light snack.  Set my Blackberry alarm.  Brush my teeth using bottled water.  Go to sleep and awaken at 9:00am, sometimes slightly later if I press snooze a few times (or more).  Brush my teeth using bottled water and carefully wash my face.  Throw on shorts and a t-shirt. Lather on a generous amount of sunscreen and hesitantly spray my arms & legs with poison (a.k.a. "bug repellent").  *See my footnote below.  Wash hands well.  Eat breakfast at the buffet - 2 hard boiled eggs (no yolk) , toast and stir-fried vegetables (for some reason, it always involves carrots).  I will usually peruse the Indian dishes, almost all of which I cannot tell what it is made of, but sometimes I am brave and try a small spoonful.  It is usually very spicy.  Some are good, and as for others, well, I know not to try it again.  Afterwards, I go and sit by the pool, hoping that the attendant will clean my room while I am waiting.  I watch as the women groundskeepers pick up fallen plumeria flowers by hand, although as soon as it is picked up, more fall.  I normally last for 30-45 minutes by the pool before it is much too hot and even my shorts feel toasty to the touch.  Back at the room, I catch up on emails, post on my blog, check the U.S. stock market, do work, and prepare for my day at the office.  At some point, I take a nap because if I don't, I will be too tired later and I will be yawning at work.  I eat lunch around 3:00pm, shower and get ready for the driver pick-up at 5:00pm.  Once things are more settled with what we have scheduled to complete at the office, I plan to use the hotel's fitness center because I need to exercise and run on the treadmill in preparation for the Half Marathon in September.


** I learned on wikipedia that the reason DEET (Diethyl-meta-toluamide) is effective as a bug repellent is because mosquitoes intensely dislike the smell of the chemical repellent.  I can clearly understand why.