The majority of Bechtel staff working here returned to their home base (in USA, India, UK or other European countries) for the Christmas and New Year holidays. We decided to stay here and have a quiet time together and save our holiday allocation for a holiday in India after the turn of the year (more of that later).

We had a day out and just popped into the Guest House for a little supper on our return. Certainly not expecting to find Santa Claus had showed up!!!

We have a beautifully laid out park here at Reliance Greens and the evenings are a lovely time to be there.

Every now and then a large stage is erected there and performances, such as these pictures show, are staged for the enjoyment of everyone.

During November we were invited by the gentleman on the far left of this picture to a very special function at the Town Hall in Jamnagar to watch his sixteen year old daughter performing a type of dancing particular to an area of India much further south than here (where the family, as I understand it, is originally from).

Charles, John, Gavin and I were priviledged to be included as the only non-Indian guests in an auditorium seating up to eight hundred guests!!

A most enjoyable evening. And neither did my sari fall apart!!

Winter in this part of India seems to be classified as from November to February. (Not that it is 'winter' as we know it in northern Europe more like the best of summer days, but nevertheless 'winter' for this part of India)

There are so very many hard working people in India who live in the most appalling conditions - with no running water or electricity; with shelters which can barely be called homes; and after having worked a long day in equally appalling conditions there is little warmth or comfort.

Last Otober I joined a group of other resident ladies of Reliance Greens to raise money to try to make at least a small difference to the people who live in the little shanty just outside our boundaries and work on the buildinig sites here. A blanket per household, a jumper or something similar that is warm for as many people as possible as well as some jammy dodgers for the children just to see them smile. I wish we could have done more, but at least it was something.

The plight of these people from first hand experience and from following the newspapers while we have been here means that these types of situations will beimprinted in our minds for life. In fact, should never be forgotten by anyone.

After trying so many times over the last months to add more photographs and notes to this Blogg, I had all but completely given up hope. But, for some completely unknown reason I have tried again today and lo and behold it appears to be working again!! Why or how, I have no idea but long may it last!!

By the way, this picture is of the two little parrots we had for a while. They lived on our balcony but, un-noticed by us, they gradually ground there way through the paperclip which we had twisted through the bars to keep the door shut. And one day while I was in the UK, Gavin came home for lunch and found they had flown the coup!!

Anyway, now that we appear to be up and running again, I will spend the next little while adding SOME of the three hundred photographs we took while we were on our recent Indian holiday. What a fabulous time we had and the places we saw - fantastic!! We hope you will enjoy sharing some of our experiences. Of course, the first thing to do is send a 'round robin' e-mail to say we are back in business with this Blog. I am stillsomewhat stunned - just hope it is really and truly going to work this time!!

Important Notice . . . .

There STILL appear to be endless problems at Blog HQ and I STILL cannot upload photographs, which are obviously the most important part of a Blog Diary like this one - I am sorry. I am trying to find out what is going on. If the problem does not get resolved very shortly either I will go up in smoke or I will start a completely new Blog with a different outfit. I am just about at the end of my patience!! It was so easy for the first three months or so and now . . . .

Because the refinery is being doubled in size the township is also having to be doubled in size to house everyone and so there is building work going on all over the place. But scaffolding never looked like this in the UK or America for that matter!! Hard hats are not seen very often either. And only limited amount of machinery. As much work as possible is done by hand with men and women working as labourers and lifting heavy weights. The women bring their small children with them as well. There are some accidents but not nearly as many as you think there ought to be given the attitude on the building sites to health and safety issues.

Navratri is a fabulous festival towards the end of September. There is dancing every night for about nine nights between approximately ten in the evening until one in the morning!! Here at the township a huge, huge circle was cordoned off outside the Civic Centre with rows of chairs around the outside and stalls outside of that selling all sort of snacks, soft drinks (remember Gujurat is a 'dry' state), balloons and whatnot.

The colours and glamour of all the costumes was quite fantastic and a wonder to see. I just wish I had learned the dance so that I could have joined in!! The costume below is being modeled for us by a young lady of about twelve years old. She was really pleased to be having her picture taken!! No shyness here!!

PORTBANDER is about an hour and a half's drive from here and is the town where Mahatma Ghandi was born and therefore is a special place in the heart of many Indian people.

The building on the right with a pink facade is the entrance to a large courtyard surrounded by a museum and gallery and a small shop. Items and personal effects from his life, including all his lifetime's journals are displayed here. Many photographs have been enlarged and are displayed here. His autobiography and other writings about his life and beliefs are sold here. No one is allowed to take photographs inside the building. Because of this I think it would be a good idea if postcards were available for sale, but India (at least not in this area) does not seem to realise what a good idea postcards are for the encouragement of tourism and India wants very much to encourage tourism.

An archway in a far corner of the courtyard leads to the house where Ghandi was born and brought up. His great-grandfather purchased a single story home here in 1777. His grandparents built another story and his parents added another one.

I found the whole place fascinating, beautiful and peaceful. I have purchased a copy of his autobiography which I have started to read. Many,many years ago I was able to visit Ghandi's resting place in Delhi, so feel now as if I have come full circle.

These are some of the people who are grating up the herbs and spices just using a very old fashioned cutter supported by their feet.

This is the Spice Market in Portbander, about one and a half hors drive from here. The day of our visit was Sooooo hot, but the herbs and spices were good to see. Everything was so carefully laid out and displayed.

Although we only had a very short while to explore we did manage a walk on the beach first thing in the morning - and very lovely it was too.

The weekend after we returned from the UK (the first weekend in Octobert) a group of about ten of us went to the island of Diu for a couple of days. Some of the roads were alright but some were not . . . so it felt like a nine hour drive each way on a 'off road' driving course!! When we got there the hotel was really lovely as you can see. The island of Diu used to belong to the Portuguese and although still very Indian is also a little bit different. We explored a little bit on our first evening there and had dinner in an open air first floor restaurant overlooking the sea. Unfortunately, Gavin got food poisoning and so we were obliged to stay an extra day and return with Peter Steeb the day after everyone else. But the troubles only lasted twenty four hours and as soon as the dehydration had been taken care of with a large injection of who knows what by a local doctor all was well.

These are the views from our balcony. Our building is the same as those shown. All through the residential areas of the township are gardens that look like these. Aren't we lucky to live in such a place. The whole township is like a giant oasis in this part of rural India. It will take quite a while to get gardens like this when we move to our Barn in France! But the dreams and plans are there - will just need to put in the effort.

We have a lovely little balcony which is in the shade all day. Never thought I would think that was an advantage! There is a great little garden centre on our side of Jamnagar where we have bought several potted plants to make us feel as if we are in a conservatory all the time! A lovely place to sit and read a book! A tough life, but someone has to do it!!

We moved a couple of weeks ago after about eleven weeks in the Guest House. The last week or so of the refurbishment of this block was fraught with ups and downs. Plumbing that was leaking; air conditioners not working properly; whether this colour curtains should be upstairs or downstairs as there were two different colour ways; whether or not the internet connection was operating or not; whether enough of the selected furniture had actually been delivered yet or not; oh yes, there was no outlet for the waste water from the washing machine; and so the list could go on. But everyone was trying hard and so we moved as soon as we could. Most of the difficulties have now been sorted out. But some never will be and so we just work around them. All in all we have all that we need and will be very comfortable here for the next six to nine months.

I am so behind with sending you pictures and telling you about the things we have been doing and seeing that it was difficult to know where to begin again!! So thought I would start with our new apartment. So that you can see where we live now that we have moved out of the Guest House.

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.