Refusal to use antibiotics.
I'm still ill with dreadful sinusitis.
You see, some would say that I complain, moan, whinge. True, I do. At times. But if you want to dig, I can be an optimistic fecker.
Have you heard me moaning recently about having really bad sinusitis since the flight from Heathrow to Mumbai on 21 February? I had to lie down with a hot water bottle, and the air conditioning blew my old sinuses to bits again. Also, the British Airways staff have this horrid habit of spraying the plane with some hideous anti-bacterial spray to rid the atmosphere of germs. Silly billies.
Maybe Kenyan Airways did this too when I flew back from Tanzania to London three years ago from that viper's nest of a school Braeburn Arusha. Can't quite remember. So much happened out there. There will be more on that later. Much much more!
So I guess they must have been doing this on long haul journeys for a while. I'm not in the habit of doing long haul flights.
If Lewis Brown was still alive - he'd get all paranoid about it and say that it was the Establishment's method of gassing us. Just as well he decided to relinquish his love of travelling by refusing to fly anywhere, decades before the term "carbon footprint" was ever invented. Then he swam out into a treacherous strait of sea off Hoy, Orkney Islands, October 2011. Guess his outlook on life was too intensely dark. Another silly billy.
Lewis was a good friend of mine. He helped during a very dark moment of mine. When none of my other 'friends' were able to help. Like that Jo, girlfriend of Henrik Scheffmann. Jo was ok. Didn't know her that well. Excellent brains, beautiful writing to the point of OCD, great at cryptic crosswords, good knitter.
It was Henrik that was the real arse. He was a bit of a bully, I guess. And broke one of the main conditions of our mutual exchange. I said that he must NOT move in a girlfriend into my flat. Very important for me. He agreed at the time of moving in 2006. Everything was above board with my social landlord up till the point he moved in what he a called a very attractive girl, with a pot belly. He didn't have to tell me they met on Guardian Soulmates ... I just knew. Years later, Jo told me during a ciggie break outside The Angel (Poet's) pub, London WC2 that they had met via Guardian Soulmates. "Don't tell Henrik I told you. He'd kill me ..." or words to that effect. It's ok, Jo. I knew that boyfriend of your very well indeed.
Back to India.
I have no idea where to start ...
I've been here for nearly two weeks. I still have raging sinusitis. This will not clear until I get to a clean beach. Quiet place. No traffic. I have discovered that Om Beach, Gokarna, is not as clean as it was a year ago, S & S. Sad but true, I've been told. As I've had quite a challenging time of it with the continued rundown-ness, 35 degrees centigrade in a dusty polluted city, and ealing with the vagaries of India timekeeping, half-attempts, or no attempts to get things through room service here ... coakroaches galore, hot water that is really luke warm. Not great when I've sometimes had a slight temperature too ..
So, Miss Mo's plans are scuppered again.
That's life. Especially in India.
GOOD NEWS:
1. No smoking since Sunday 24 Feb.
2. No booze since London. I did have a small British Airways white wine spread over 2 days in Mumbai. But that's it.
3. Started an account with an Indian online travel agency called MakeMyTrip.com. They have Toll Free numbers which is great for me. (I still don't have an Indian SIM card. The process is so LONG. Go to passport photo studio, take photocopy of your passport and Indian visa, find something called a VODAFONE GALLERY. Get SIM card after 7 days. Makes Egypt seem like Noddy-Land of capitalism ...) Lovely young chap at MakeMyTrip.com was so patient, as I could barely hear him with all the racket going on in my hotel reception here. Bless him, he had to repeat every at least twice, sometimes 5 times.
Tomorrow (actually, later this morning), I will buy a train ticket from here, Kochi, to Payyannur, north Kerala. Then will take a ferry, I guess, across to Kannur. Will double check on that tomorrow when I book my hotel on this lovely new find of a website. They kind of remind me of Trailfinders. Excellent English, very efficient. You'll find that the combination of these two things are RARE.
Have also booked a cheap flight today from Mangalore to Mumbai, under 22 GBP.
Dear MakeMyTrip. I really hope you can make my trip.
I bloody need it.
xxx
I'm still ill with dreadful sinusitis.
You see, some would say that I complain, moan, whinge. True, I do. At times. But if you want to dig, I can be an optimistic fecker.
Have you heard me moaning recently about having really bad sinusitis since the flight from Heathrow to Mumbai on 21 February? I had to lie down with a hot water bottle, and the air conditioning blew my old sinuses to bits again. Also, the British Airways staff have this horrid habit of spraying the plane with some hideous anti-bacterial spray to rid the atmosphere of germs. Silly billies.
Maybe Kenyan Airways did this too when I flew back from Tanzania to London three years ago from that viper's nest of a school Braeburn Arusha. Can't quite remember. So much happened out there. There will be more on that later. Much much more!
So I guess they must have been doing this on long haul journeys for a while. I'm not in the habit of doing long haul flights.
If Lewis Brown was still alive - he'd get all paranoid about it and say that it was the Establishment's method of gassing us. Just as well he decided to relinquish his love of travelling by refusing to fly anywhere, decades before the term "carbon footprint" was ever invented. Then he swam out into a treacherous strait of sea off Hoy, Orkney Islands, October 2011. Guess his outlook on life was too intensely dark. Another silly billy.
Lewis was a good friend of mine. He helped during a very dark moment of mine. When none of my other 'friends' were able to help. Like that Jo, girlfriend of Henrik Scheffmann. Jo was ok. Didn't know her that well. Excellent brains, beautiful writing to the point of OCD, great at cryptic crosswords, good knitter.
It was Henrik that was the real arse. He was a bit of a bully, I guess. And broke one of the main conditions of our mutual exchange. I said that he must NOT move in a girlfriend into my flat. Very important for me. He agreed at the time of moving in 2006. Everything was above board with my social landlord up till the point he moved in what he a called a very attractive girl, with a pot belly. He didn't have to tell me they met on Guardian Soulmates ... I just knew. Years later, Jo told me during a ciggie break outside The Angel (Poet's) pub, London WC2 that they had met via Guardian Soulmates. "Don't tell Henrik I told you. He'd kill me ..." or words to that effect. It's ok, Jo. I knew that boyfriend of your very well indeed.
Back to India.
I have no idea where to start ...
I've been here for nearly two weeks. I still have raging sinusitis. This will not clear until I get to a clean beach. Quiet place. No traffic. I have discovered that Om Beach, Gokarna, is not as clean as it was a year ago, S & S. Sad but true, I've been told. As I've had quite a challenging time of it with the continued rundown-ness, 35 degrees centigrade in a dusty polluted city, and ealing with the vagaries of India timekeeping, half-attempts, or no attempts to get things through room service here ... coakroaches galore, hot water that is really luke warm. Not great when I've sometimes had a slight temperature too ..
So, Miss Mo's plans are scuppered again.
That's life. Especially in India.
GOOD NEWS:
1. No smoking since Sunday 24 Feb.
2. No booze since London. I did have a small British Airways white wine spread over 2 days in Mumbai. But that's it.
3. Started an account with an Indian online travel agency called MakeMyTrip.com. They have Toll Free numbers which is great for me. (I still don't have an Indian SIM card. The process is so LONG. Go to passport photo studio, take photocopy of your passport and Indian visa, find something called a VODAFONE GALLERY. Get SIM card after 7 days. Makes Egypt seem like Noddy-Land of capitalism ...) Lovely young chap at MakeMyTrip.com was so patient, as I could barely hear him with all the racket going on in my hotel reception here. Bless him, he had to repeat every at least twice, sometimes 5 times.
Tomorrow (actually, later this morning), I will buy a train ticket from here, Kochi, to Payyannur, north Kerala. Then will take a ferry, I guess, across to Kannur. Will double check on that tomorrow when I book my hotel on this lovely new find of a website. They kind of remind me of Trailfinders. Excellent English, very efficient. You'll find that the combination of these two things are RARE.
Have also booked a cheap flight today from Mangalore to Mumbai, under 22 GBP.
I bloody need it.
xxx
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