My Indian birthday

Today is my birthday and I c0uld not wish for a better place in which to celebrate it. We opened the door this morning and there on the verandah was a bouquet of flowers, a Hindu newspaper (our favourite paper), and a large boxed fruit cake .. all from our favourite auto (tuk tuk) driver .. It is his birthday today too and he knows we love the Hindu so it had to be from him... (I was a bit relieved as I have been invited outside before on my birthdays here to find an elephant waiting for me!! I will find a photo of that and backblip it soon .. tricky to get on and ride an elephant with no steps, no seat .... )

Mr A gave me a beautiful card and we are going out to celebrate tomorrow in the big city!!! Then we went for breakfast with our friends ... and you can see the spread prepared for us here. It was huge. As well as what you can see in the blipfolio pic there was bagee and an iced birthday cake ... whew we did our best .. I got a garland of jasmine ... I adore the smell ... and a money saving box with a pink key!!

We went into the little town for some shopping and I did a royal wave as we went past the tailor to show him my new salwar that he had made.. I almost came off my bike in the midst of hectic traffic... and we went to Mr Jolly to get our tyres pumped up .. and we went to buy some toilet rolls .. I always have to ask for them and feel bashful about it as the Indians don't use toilet paper.. If you have read Midnight's children there is a very funny passage about that ... and on the way back I saw one of the receptionists from the hotel where I run my programmes going home from the night shift and he thrust two chocolate bars in my hand and wished me Happy Birthday ...

And this is Arul one of our dearest friends, brothers, companions, ... having coffee with us after breakfast ... He and his family are the reason we came to India in the first place 10 years ago ... We love him to bits and we love them all to bits .. in a manner of speaking ... !!

P.S Cowgirl you wanted a picture of me in a saree .. here it is