Pretty much the most momentous event of the day was going to Bhat Bhateni, the big department store on the outskirts of town, to buy a microwave. Although I am pretty well used to the diet here, it does get a bit relentless, so the ability to cook my own food, even if that is just baked potatoes, will be most welcome. I met Aparna there, and also bought some basic provisions in the supermarket section. I had sort of hoped they might have a ready meal selection, but the freezers were entirely filled with chicken sausages, so far as I could see.
We then travelled to the Immigration Office, which is fortunately just a stone’s throw from her house. There were a few moments of concern when the lady there noticed that my passport had less than six months to go, but fortunately, as this was just an extension of my visa, rather than applying for a new one, that was not an issue. Pretty expensive, at $135, but I was not in a position to haggle.
After a kight dinner, I made the usual journey home by tuk tuk. Since I was last here, they have completed their renovation of Main Road by adding red, white and blue rope lamps to all of the large bushes and street lamps, which makes it all very much more attractive.
And also, as it happens, with the US election. I had been reading the news pretty avidly – I do anyway – but as soon as it became apparent that Trump would win, I had my usual ostrich-like response to what I consider appalling news, and refused to read anything about it. It is all just too awful to contemplate, but since there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, I shall just do my best to ignore the whole thing.
The whole town is it up with what we call Christmas lights, brightly coloured twinkling chains of light adorning just about every building, set up first to celebrate Divali, the festival of light, and lasting until tomorrow, when there is another holiday, especially focused on the sunset. But in the meantime, it all looks very Christmassy,
