home and being a slug

Home again and I fell asleep! Completely unmotivated slug for days....this is not like me at all and was starting to feel a little scary and extremely boring when my energy started bouncing back,

 thank goodness!

Came home to a very happy Praveen, he has lost weight without my cooking....I use a lot less oil than local people and being on his own he had to rely on Mukesh's cooking....good Rajasthani chilli and oil concotions, now too much for his stomach.

 Baba is as beautiful as ever....shaved almost to the skin...I love watching him and the way his head swivells, he is so peaceful to chat to...not like on the home front. The young man Mukesh who looks after the animals and gardens can be rather lazy, especially if we are not constantly watching him, this gets really tiring as you can imagine, so we have had big drama sessions trying to give him a shake up or he can find somewhere else to be lazy. Not easy to find a job around here and we don't want to upset his family....so we had to get his father in and blah, blah, blah- see how things go but I must admit I am just about over it all with him, I think his days are numbered.....

 and our dear Sarda, the young lady who works for us inside the house, was rushed to hospital for an emergency ceasarian operation. It is a miracle she and her little, tiny, tiny boy are doing well. She is looking rather tired but the night before this she and all the family were praying and chanting....

We attended the ceremony for coming out of the house for the first time after the baby was born.
Her family had traveeled to the home of her parent-in-law bringing many presents for every member of her husbands family and a big meal was then served by the husband's family.
Here are all the ladies, of course the men are separate sitting just behind.
It is expensive having daughters- first there is all the gifting associated with the wedding and then for each child they have you also gift liberally to the husbands family....thankfully Praveen only has 2 girls....it could really bankrupt a family.
been doing a small amount of cooking....we have lots and lots of garlic [from our garden I might add]

This is so easy and totally addictive, even had it on toast with eggs....
Lasun or Garlic Chutney

• handfull of garlic, peeled
• 1 t salt
• 1 or 2 or 3 t red chilli powder or handful of fresh red chillis
• 1/2 t tumeric

grind together
fry off over low heat in good dab of veg oil- enough to make it all shiny.

• splah in 2 or 3 T vinegar...heat a little more until think
• serve as condiment with meal

Enjoy, no vampires are going to come near you, or germs for that matter.
I noticed the meal served for Sarda's coming out was extra heavy on garlic, a folk remedy for healing ...good to see
My tour has been travelling around Syria, this is the first group I have organized and not lead myself...it has gone really well, they have been to all the places they wanted to see and met some lovely people, unfortunately things have got pretty tense there now and they have left a day or 2 early.....say a prayer or 2 for all the good people in that country who are facing a huge amount of uncertainty. It is easy to see Egypt, Libya etc on the news and think ohh what a headache, it is much harder putting faces to people facing that type of uncertainty...I know many good, good people in Syria leading lives just like you and I it makes me sick to the stomach wondering how they are feeling, how are things going for them? What a difficult time...and from  what I have seen the world media does not always reflect things accurately they have agendas they are pushing for different governments....

Leave it there, say a prayer for good people the world over don't tar them because of their religion, colour of their skin, level of education etc most everywhere it is poeple like you and I trying to get by and make a good life for ourselves where we have enough to eat, a place to sleep and fair employment....