Little Brothers

What is it about little brothers. At first they are the ones you are a bit jealous of because they are now getting some of the attention that was previously yours. Why when they burp do you hear “good boy!” When you burp you hear “what do you say?” or “I beg your pardon?” You also start to notice that when they do things you did at that age nothing happens whereas when you did it, you got grounded. 

Do parents get some form of younger sibling amnesia? Their curfew is later than any curfew you ever had and missing curfew suddenly does not come with fear of death. Not to mention when that little bag of weed is found under their mattress the world does not actually come to an end! How life is so different when you are a little brother. 

Then we grow up and now we do not see each other every day, sometimes not for months and then as life rushes past it can be years between visits.  You go to bed each night with an empty place in your heart where you long for a pillow fight or a night “babysitting” no matter how traumatic those nights were, just to be connected. That is when you make a change in your life to get that boy back. We now have FaceBook, FaceTime, email, texts and even blogs to reach out to those guys and reel them back into our lives. 

Don’t miss another day.

Donna’s Top Tips for a Happy Life

I have been very fortunate in my life to meet some incredible people and along the way I have tried to pick up nuggets of wisdom.  We have all seen the signs telling us to “dance in the rain” and “stop to smell the roses”, well here is my list of top tips.

• Learn something new everyday (if you stop to smell the roses maybe take time to learn its Latin name or what makes it fragrant.)
• Teach someone something everyday (share your knowledge because we are all different and have unique things to offer)
• Eat dessert first! (enough said)
• Enjoy the rain because when the drought comes you will wish you had
• Never regret the past because who you are today is a direct result of everything you have been through
• Get your adrenaline pumping at least twice a day!
• When life throws you a curve ball swing for the fence. (Baseball fans) When you get a googly…hit it for 6 (Cricket fans)
• No one on their death bed ever said “I should have worked more”
• If you don’t have a bucket list, make one. If you do have a bucket list make plans today to do one of those things, when you complete an item on your bucket list add another!

Trump’s IQ Test

10 Questions

1. What does IQ stand for?

2. How many questions are on this test?

3. Who is the a Commander in Chief of the U.S.?

4. Finish the pattern, Army, Navy, Air Force …?

5.  Use an adjective with more than two syllables ( note “very very” is not a single word)

6. Who is the George Washington bridge named after?

7. Which one of the above is not a question?

8. Who was the 45th President of the United States?

9. Have you ever suffered from mental illness?

10. Name one person in the world, living or dead, who is better at something than you are.

What a Year!

Tonight is the last night of being a certain age and moving swiftly into my next year. If you are like me you don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on the past year, it is usually thinking about how old I am getting. I decided that this year I would not move forward until I recognised and appreciated the year that was about to finish. So much has happened in the last 12 months it hardly seems possible it all took place in such a short period of time. Let’s see…four weddings, one wedding announcement, one baby announced and newly arrived, a visit from my Mom and Dad, an incredible trip back to San Diego to see all of our friends, the trip continued to Georgia for one of the aforementioned weddings and a wonderful visit with the happy couple,  4 trips back and forth to Pune India and a whole new world of first time experiences, one high school graduation, the trip of a lifetime, to South Africa, planned and paid for…those were some of the good things but like every year it has had its sad times as well; the loss of my much loved Mother-in-Law, the loss of a friend (way before her time) and the loss of my little Westie (Maggie). Alongside these major life events ran the little things in life; meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones.

It has been a full on 365 days and I didn’t want it to pass by without recognising, appreciating and learning from it before moving on to the next chapter of my journey through life. I hope before your next birthday you can do the same.

Upper Class Travel Linked to Intestinal Gas

If you don’t do a lot of Business travel you are probably thinking how can First and Business Class have any downsides when compared to Economy Class. I think I have mentioned in the past that one unpleasantness when traveling long haul is the odour from  flatulent co-travellers. 

I now believe I have enough data to draw a scientific link between upper class travel and excessive amounts of intestinal gas. The cause of this is modern cabin design. You may be asking what is my proof? Well, after experiencing numerous (too many to count or remember) Economy Class trips and comparing that to the multiple Upper Class trips over a 21 year period I think I have a good data set to work with. 

Here is my hypothesis: when travelling long haul in an upper class cabin travellers have room to stretch out enough to sleep. 21 years ago upper class travel was more specious but you were mainly sitting in a reclined position with extra leg room. However, with the modern design of upper class cabins, which allows you to lay fully in the prone position, people are much more comfortable and can actually fall deeply asleep. This combined with the pressure in the aircraft creates excessive amounts of intestinal gas.  

The difference in Economy Class is that you spend the flight with your knees wrapped around your ears trying to drown out the sound of the wailing toddlers and grumpy pre-teens “who are bored and didn’t want to go on this dumb trip in the first place.” So, getting yourself in a position physically or emotionally for sleep is damned impossible! Hence intestinal wind stays put.

Whereas; if you are in upper class and are the type of person who likes to read or watch movies before attempting sleep you will no doubt be subjected to wafts of odorous fumes from sleeping passengers. 

Conclusion, foul bodily odours are more pervasive in upper class cabins lending a smelly musk to the entire experience.

How Do You Lose One Shoe?

Have you ever wondered how people tend to lose just a single shoe? We can’t blame the washing machine or dryer in this instance like you can for socks. On our recent trip to Rhodes, Greece Pam and I saw a plethora of single shoes, these lost (soles) seemed to be everywhere but were missing their (sole mates). Okay I promise that was the last pun. But seriously how does this happen? A single flip flop might be explained by someone losing one in the water. A lost tennis shoe is puzzling but the best one of all was a lost hiking boot. Yes we saw one hiking boot with no laces. You could accidentally lose a tennis shoe out of your beach bag but if you were hiking how did you get home? Where did your laces disappear to and where are you now, wondering around wearing one hiking boot? Very strange indeed.

Pune Commute Day 6

In a city of more than 3 million people it is amazing how many of them you see more than once while going to or coming from work. Considering that there are about 7 different routes that my driver can take depending on traffic plus the fact we don’t always leave at exactly the same time every day.   There are two guys, on a scooter, we have seen a number of times when making our way back to the hotel. These two must be building a house or maybe an ark, whatever it is it is big and made of wood. How do know this, because every time we see them the guy on the back is holding on to two 8 foot long planks of wood balanced on the seat between him and the driver. I’m not sure what they are building but it is going to take forever two planks at a time.

I have seen many interesting things transported on scooters, motorbikes and bicycles since coming to India. Here are a few of them:

• A family of 5
• A dog
• A 50 kg sack of rice across the tank and two large boxes resting against the driver’s back
• 3 gas cylinders 
• A tree

Today is Friday so the traffic was even heavier than usual and the spaces between vehicles was even less (meaning inches instead of the usual 2 feet or so. This one guy was taking multi-tasking to a new and very dangerous level. He was driving a motorbike and texting in traffic that was so tight I had to breathe in to allow cars to go by!  (Gentlemen don’t get too excited about males and their multi-tasking skills as we saw him 5 minutes later looking very disappointed, with his bike lying on the ground.)

Children and Air Travel

Those of you who know me know that I love children, especially babies. I am currently sitting in the lounge waiting for my flight to Mumbai, yes, I know I just did this last week, anyway as I sit here all I can think about is “I hope that new innocent child is not sitting anywhere near me.” I realise how awful that sounds as I understand how difficult it is for parents traveling with a little one. That said I still really don’t want to be in the same cabin with said child and frustrated parents. Why? Because on my return from Mumbai last trip, less than 7 days ago, I was in 1st Class but so was a very unhappy child who was inconsolable for most of the 10 hours we shared a very small space with no means of escape. As the child cried the parents grew more frustrated and at several points angry with the little person who did not ask to be put in this situation.  

As this was 1st Class the passengers in the cabin were not overjoyed with the continual serenade of ear piercing protestations. The poor parents were having to bear not only an upset child but the eye rolls and tsk tsk from the passengers. I’m sure you are thinking “you have headphones and ear plugs” ah, this particular infant had an incredible range of screams that could penetrate any sound proofing technology. I’m sure this will be an asset in later life when he or she is auditioning for the a role in the New York or London Opera but at this juncture it served only to remind us all how tired we will be on arrival. 

Back to the lounge and my present trip.  Crying child and parents oh, or maybe the other way around, have just packed up their belongings for their onward journey and I still have 45 minutes to go. Potential bullet dodged but who knows what awaits me once I board my plane. 

Trek to Mumbai

Let’s start by saying my return leg from Pune to Mumbai was enlightening. Since I’ve done this trip once already last November I considered myself adjusted to the experience, the noise, the traffic, the exhaust and general stimulation overload. Well I was not even close! Today’s journey from Pune to Mumbai took just about 5 hours, I estimate we sat still for a very large portion of that time.  It is not just the volume of cars that make the traffic so horrendous but add to that all of the scooters, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, bicycles and pedestrians all trying to occupy the same space at completely different speeds and directions. Oh, I almost forgot the four legged beasts. Today we had to give way to a small herd of noisey water buffalo and believe me they were no rush. Then we had the bull with horns longer than any I have ever seen. Shortly after we passed that behemoth a couple very naughty goats dashed into the road, all of this and we had not even left Pune.

Once free of the city the trip across the mountains was awesome with Mother Nature making a majestic display of the sunset, with the bright orange sphere slipping behind the mountains. Then before I knew it the noise was back and at levels that amazed me. More cars, two wheel vehicles and people. I think the ethos for driving is…if there is a space fill it. Now mind you the space available does not have to equal the size or mass of what you are trying to cram in to it. It took us another hour and forty-five minutes to travel the last 5 miles. As we crept along or sat stationary I was able to watch Mumbai life outside my window. As the night deepened the streets transformed and came alive with vendors of every description. I saw many single tables with a camp stove and one pot boiling away,  callieing themselves a cafe. 

The city has a section for everything. Along one stretch you can buy every individual part and component to build your own car from scratch. In another area it was marble wholesalers and then the furniture and mattress companies came next. Each area providing customers with choices that spanned the spectrum. 

This country brings out such a combination of feelings and emotions in me; amazement, curiosity, sadness, humility and inspiration. It is a place of stunning beauty but also of appalling living conditions for millions of people. It takes me on a rollercoaster ride every single day. Tomorrow I head home having seen and learned more about India and it’s incredible people. Until next time India goodbye.

Monkey Traffic Monitor

The monkey on traffic monitoring duty is just one of the things that have caught my attention so far on my trip to India. Yesterday as we were travelling the 3+ hours from Mumbai to Pune I saw my first free range monkey. There he was sitting in a tree just on the side of the motorway. He was perched up there watching the traffic with close scrutiny. Not sure what action he would take if he spotted an offence. About 10 minutes later I saw a lovely cow sitting in the plush grass of someone’s front garden happily munching the said plush grass.  

Today on the my way across the city into the office, I suddenly saw movement out of the corner of my eye, which when I looked properly, turned out to be 4 goats running along the concrete wall which sloped down to the road. These dare devils must have had super glue on their hooves to keep them from tumbling down this incredibly steep bank to the road below. 

The trip back to the hotel this evening was equally interesting on the wildlife front. I saw several buffalo (is buffalo the collective noun for buffalo or is it buffali?) Anyway, the point is that we are in the middle of a huge city, not out in some nature reserve somewhere and I am seeing buffalo! Last but not least my day would not be complete without seeing pigs in a playground. Mind you, it did look like an abandoned playground (that was probably down to the pigs not playing nicely) but still we are talking pigs in a playground. 

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!