I can hardly believe that it is a month since I last added anything to this Diary! On the other hand so much seems to have been happening that time has just flown by and so perhaps I CAN believe it is a motnth already!!

Anyway, enough of that nonsense!!

The first hiccup was the fact that I had a few days of severe dehydration. In fact I ended up in the Infirmary here at Reliance Greens having all sorts of tests and then being pumped through with all sorts of re-hydration drinks and monitoring. I slept practically round the clock and then felt much better. I think what happens at this time of the year here is that the outside temperatures are so high that we stay inside in the air conditioning as much as we can and then (because this is quite cool) we forget to drink enough water and then we do go out in the extreme heat and - wham!! But I must say that I was really well taken care of by all the staff in the Infirmary and received heaps of sympathy from all our other ex-pat colleagues and friends.

Then we had the sad news that Gavin's Aunt Frances had died in Fife and so we made plans to return to the UK for her funeral. Within twenty four hours we were packed and off to Jamnagar Airport to fly to Mombai and then to Heathrow, where we hired a car and drove north to Scotland.

All funerals are sad occasions, but in this case we were also celebrating the life of a lady who was ninety-four years old. Who had enjoyed a long and happy marriage; had sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There were cousins present who had not seen each other for forty years and Fife towards the end of September with the sun, trees beginning to turn for the autumn and being beside the sea is a beautiful place.

It takes two days to get from here back to Scotland and two days to return, with all sorts of time changes in between. We were only away for a week (I think!) but we also managed to see brothers, sisters, mothers, sons, daughters and grandsons and do enough shopping to bring back here to require us to bring a second small suitcase!!

A couple of days after our return there was a Public Holiday here to be added to everyone's one day weekend and so it was decided that all the Bechtel staff and partners would take a trip to Diu, a tiny island around the coast on the southern side of Gujurat (there will be pictures in due course). It was a long way to go on some pretty grummy roads but we saw lots of countryside and experienced other places and sites and walked on the beach and enjoyed good company.

We had a lovely dinner out in the old town of Diu in an open air restaurant. Unfortunately, Gavin ate something which seriously disagreed with him during the night and he woke up in the morning to some severe dehydration. So, more doctors and re-hydration drips and so on. A twenty four hours of almost non stop sleeping and then back to normal (sound familiar!). So Gavin and I, together with Pete, stayed behind for another twenty four hours before returning to the township.

Since our return, two or three others have had the same problems. It really has been VERY VERY hot. Perhaps we had not realised just how hot. Anyway, we are led to believe that the temperature will not go up any more!! That it will now gradually ease off and become more manageable for us 'foreigners'!!

And then during this past week there has been a fair amount of work going on in the apartments which are being renovated for Bechtel couples and we started tidying up as we thought we were about to move out of the Guest House after ten weeks here. But this was not to be. There still appear to be some electrical, plumbing and plastering problems. The Guest House is very comfortable, so I guess we will be spoiled here for a little longer!!

And so, suddenly a month has gone by!! I have lots moe pictures to share with you and I will add these as soon as I can as I want you all to be able to share a little in what we are enjoying here.