Hello family and friends. Well, Dan had another birthday. They just keep on rolling around so, after another trip around the sun, here we are again in late February and we did have a good time. The day started with a trip across Mumbai to Bandra West where our favorite Mexican food restaurant is, Sancho's. Sancho's was originally discovered in Delhi, where they had the original restaurant and we so enjoyed it there but then they closed it. Once we moved to Mumbai we didn't know that there was a Sancho's here until we were at a gathering of American pilots late last year and the name Sancho's came up. I immediately investigated and found the Mumbai location. The chef for both of these restaurants is from Northern Mexico and he arranges with the Mexican embassy here in India to import authentic ingredients for his Mexican food dishes. The result is that it doesn't taste at all Indian, which was our biggest complaint about the other Mexican food restaurants that we had tried. So, after a nice lunch, beginning with the pictured Fiesta Nachos, we each chose an entree and left with full tummies and food to carry out for a couple of more meals at the house.
Then, it was time to drive just a few blocks away to a theater that I had found online just a few blocks from Sancho's. It turned out to be alright and we saw Denzel Washington's latest, Safe House. Good movie and it will definitely have a follow up movie to help finish the story. For a big finish, Karen and I went to another mall where they have a nice electronic's store and I picked out my new Canon 1100D DSLR camera. Over two years ago, when I first came to India, I bought a Canon 1000D, equivalent to the Canon Rebel or EOS 1000 in the US. It is a start up Digital SLR camera and has been really a nice camera for me here. Of course, Canon is continually making improvements and so I now wanted the improved version, which is up from 10 to 12 megapixels and also has the video option. So, rather than sell my old camera to my copilot, who really wanted it, I am going to now have two digital cameras for our wild game safaris. You really need two cameras, one with a telephoto lense, and one with a more normal lense. I have found that quickly changing lenses while on a dusty jeep in the middle of the jungle is both unconvenient and dirty, as well as not good for the camera. Next, I want a really powerful long lense to bring those tigers right up close. Next trip to the USA, I will be looking at camera shops for a good deal on that. Karen's mom will be here in a week or so for a visit and we'll be doing a tiger tour, hoping to get pics of the big kitties again. I did see some on a trip I did in late 2009, before Karen came to India, but since she has come, we haven't been able to see any, so here's hoping.
The final part of Dan's birthday was to grab some dessert at our NEW close-by restaurant, TGI Fridays. This nice restaurant was just completed and added to our nearby mall, R City Mall, just a couple of kilometers from our home. We can take an autorikshaw (affectionately called tuk-tuk's) and be there in 10 minutes if traffic isn't bad. That equates to about 75 cents. So, I came home from the birthday having seen a good movie, a full tummy and a new camera to play with. I will try to put up some of the new photos pretty soon here. I haven't ventured out with my new camera yet, nor have we had any flights for the last couple of days, but something will come up soon.
Part of our building excitement these days is that Karen's mom will be here in less than a week, my daughter Shayna and her husband Keith Bowman will be here in mid-March doing some mission work and then stopping by for a couple of days. We just had a two day visit from Dr. John McGhee of Seattle, so we have been enjoying this period. Shortly after Shayna and Keith leave, we'll be traveling to the USA to take advantage of our built in contractual vacation and possibly for Dan to do his recurrent training. Lots to look forward to and also lots to keep life interesting as Karen has big plans for her mother's visit. They will be flying over to Lucknow, India, where our aircraft owner has his main home and estate, along with several on-campus guesthouses, one of which they will stay in while enjoying the benefits of the spa and gym, etc. Plus, the campus is a gated community with not much going on so the roads are wide and quiet and there is no traffic. It's actually quite tranquil there and, with the spa providing free services, Karen has come to really like Lucknow. It will spoil you, and being that I fly for the owner, we are treated like Kings and Queens while there. The tiger tour will be another 90 minute flight to Nagpur and then a drive to a nearby game park, though not the same one that we drove to in January. We liked that one but thought we would try another one with Karen's mom and see what happens. There will be plenty to do just around Mumbai for a couple of days while Keith and Shayna are here. My friend, Ron Coleman, who flies for Continental/United airlines, first told me about the laundry. Its a huge, outdoor commercial washing operation, where you see literally miles of water running in cement troughs while people are beating the dirt out of the cloth. When you see the color of the dirt and water, you realize that the sun has to do a miraculous job of bleaching while things are hanging on the miles and miles of clotheslines that comprise this operation. You see the amazing white sheets, linens for restaurants, etc, as well as people personal stuff and it just boggles the mind to process that this really works.
Last Sabbath at our Mumbai Central SDA church we enjoyed the company of Dr. John McGhee and his amazing musical talents. He put the new keyboard at the Mumbai church to work and gave the congregation an appreciation for what you can do to liven things up a little more. One of my challenges as I play the keyboard there for church, is that they use the hymnals that only have the words in them. They only have one hymnal with the music and it's the OLD SDA hymnal so it's numbers don't match up with the NEW SDA hymnals that they use for words. Since I don't play too much by ear, I have to find out what the song title is, quickly look it up and see if it's in the OLD hymnal and then find that hymn before I start playing. Trying to get someone to actually give me hymns for song service in advance, so I can look up the numbers, hasn't happened yet. When I come to the US, one of the things I will be doing is buying a NEW hymnal with the music. I have one, but it's safely in storage up in Pennsylvania. It would be buied somewhere and it really wouldn't be fair to ask someone to try and go find it.
I have been really busy flying for the last couple of weeks, right up until my copilot's wedding last week. Since we took that break, we have had a full week off and this never happens, but it's been nice to be home for my birthday and for visits with John McGhee. Next time we'll put some more exciting photos up and show you another side of life in India. Since this bday this week, I have a maximum of 6 more years here, and that's if everything goes according to plan. We'll look forward to seeing some of you very soon.
