update

Hi not from India but the Perth Hills. I know I'm not in India because it's not blistering hot, and the water and power supplies have been constant

:-) . Upon opening the newspaper at sparrows fart last Tuesday morning we discovered why we had no water. A major pipe had burst in Vasant Kunj, and most of South Delhi had been without water for two days. We must have more water storage tanks on the roof than we thought, or all the rest of the building must have been away on holiday for our water to have lasted as long as it did. Anyway, that was restored midway through last Tuesday and Rod was free to wash again. Phew...

The landlord turned up later that day with an electrician to sort out the electricity supply. Rod had used his multimeter to determine one of the feeds coming into the fuse box was dead. To do the same thing, the electrician used a lightbulb with two (bare) wires attached. We had no lightbulb moment - there was no flicker at all, so the electrician, the landlord and Rod trooped down to the building's fuse box around the back. One of the fuses feeding our floor had died. This wasn't one of those lovely, easy to fix, flick the switch back into the up position fuses. This was one of those old fashioned, wire ones. Being a typical Indian tradesman, the electrician had turned up with no tools. All he had was his lightbulb with two wires, so he had to use Rod's screwdriver and one of his wires to fix the fuse. But light, and AC were restored to the entire house, and Rod was able to reduce the "health and safety" nightmare D59 had become.

p.s. Passing through Indira Gandhi Airport was actually a breeze. The information boards didn't want to tell us the right information, feeling we'd like to check in at blocks G-H. We could have, possibly, but the check in staff at block D had our booking. They also weren't busy, probably because everyone was wandering down to the wrong set of desks!

AWOL

Lana in India will be a little quiet for a while. For at sparrows fart tomorrow (an incredibly specific time India is generally incapable of acknowledging), Thalia, Keir and I will fly to Singapore to begin our six week summer holiday, in Perth. The fact that it is wintertime in Perth is, as far as I'm concerned, an absolute bonus. For tonight I sit in my supposedly posh New Delhi suburb, with no water, and only half a house of electricity. The back half of the house has power, the front has none. And it's not a circuit that's tripped - that's the way it's going into the fuse box. Answers on the back of a postcard...which may or may not get stolen by the mail service. Rod has miraculously gerry-rigged a collection of extension cords and power boards, with UK and Indian plugs and a fair bit of insulating tape, from the back power point of the dining room, where there is electricity, and artistically draped them across the hallway into the front room, so I can type on this computer, we can recharge the enormous battery that powers the TV, DVD player, Satellite TV box, modem (life's essentials, obviously) and have a floor light. Unfortunately we can't gerry-rig power to the AC or the ceiling fans, so this post isn't going to be long... our bedroom, in the back of the house has electricity, AC and a TV/Satellite box on a small battery. Guess where I'm going? At least until the entire suburb loses power...

Time will tell tomorrow if Indira Gandhi Airport is capable of being ready for us at sparrows fart, even if that's the time printed on our e-ticket. Well, not literally...