Liz & Shirley Are Here

Liz & Shirley arrived last Friday from Costa Rica. Even though I had told our staff that Diego had two sisters that were twins, everyone was a bit confused when they saw Liz. Shabina asked me, "Where is Diego's sister?" I told her in the living room. She asked, "No, that one same sister as February." I said, no this is the OTHER sister. Shabina said, "Ohhhhhh. Same same."

We haven't seen Liz & Shirley in a bit more than a year. They came to Falls Church last April to meet their nephew. Looking back at pictures from their last visit shows how much Luis has changed.

Liz & Shirley have settled right into our little world. Luis loves having more people to play with and flirt with and show off with. He is down right smitten with Shirley. He gives her googly eyes all the time and will stop playing & walk across the apartment just to give her a hug and a kiss. When I was telling JuanFe about this, he said, "Who isn't smitten with Shirley?" True, true.

We've done a lot of shopping here. The girls were very interested in getting clothing here as well as other textiles (table clothes, bed linens, etc.). In this picture, Shirley was looking at some pants at a stall on Linking Rd. (big shopping road). We asked the guy how much and he told us Rs 150 (about $4). The general rule of thumb is that you should pay no more than 50% of the initial price. The guy wouldn't budge below Rs. 100, so we walked. We saw the same pants three stalls down. THAT seller told us the pants were Rs. 225. Maybe the Rs. 100 price wasn't so bad... After hitting most of the good Bandra stores (my neighborhood), we went down to South Mumbai on Thursday to see some sights and pick up some stuff. It was a nice trip. It would be dishonest of me to imply that it is only Liz & Shirley who are buying things. Suddenly faced with the idea that I probably won't ever see these shops again, I have picked up some more stuff, too.

We had a quick stop at the Gateway to India - just long enough to take a few pictures. There is a lot of construction going on there, which makes it not so nice to walk around. Also, you can barely take 3 steps without 10 guys trying to sell you postcards, a map, some sort of magic beads, a giant balloon or some other thing. The hawkers are persistent and will follow you back to your car and continue to tap the windows until the car actually pulls away. Not so much fun.

We've done quite a bit of relaxing, too. Jules set some sort of world record in the number of books she read in her 3 week visit in February. I guessed at least 15, but never got an exact count. Liz and Shirley are also enjoying some quiet reading (and knitting) time. Before they arrived, I read about 1500 pages (two books) in three weeks. With packing and moving looming large over me, I can't quite focus enough to get into a book (nor do I allow myself to sit down long enough to really try).

On Wednesday, Erika invited us to join her at her club, Waterstones. It is a BEAUTIFUL oasis very near the airport. We enjoyed lunch, a dip in the (huge infinity) pool, and some time relaxing in the lounge chairs. It was great. To me, it feels like being at a fancy hotel on vacation, except you go back home at the end of the day. I've been twice with Luis, who loves, loves, loves the enormous baby pool. It's a treat to go.

Last night, Liz & Shirley headed out on their own Indian Adventure. They spent last night in Delhi and then (I hope) took the early train to Agra and will spend the day there. (After my experience driving from Delhi to Agra, I heavily encouraged those guys to take the train.) They'll spend tonight in Delhi and then tomorrow, fly to Bagdogra (the closest airport to Darjeeling). They've booked three nights in Darjeeling and then will fly back to Mumbai on Wednesday.