These jugs and other impressive items, such as weapons were housed in buildings that are part of the City Palace complex, most of which is still occupied by the royal family.
This is the pavilion which houses the silver urns and had been used for royal audiences back when the Maharaja ruled.
Speed, when running is measured differently than in driving: Runners will mostly express their efforts in minutes and seconds per mile. The range of speeds is much narrower than when driving. Drivers could realistically expect to be going anywhere from 25 MPH to 80 MPH while a typical runner may go as fast as 6 minutes per mile (in a short race) to as slow as 9 minutes per mile in a long slow workout. This is a range of only about 4 miles per hour. Even with this small range, it is easy to tell within 20-30 seconds/mile what your pace is.
In spite of this fine precision, one still feels the effects of habituation: For instance, I have been injured for a few months and now that I am feeling better, am trying to get back to my usual speed. At my age, I need to run 8:00 minutes/mile to qualify as an entrant into the Boston Marathon, so I naturally try and keep all of my training runs at or below 8:00 per mile. Last week I finally broke 8:00 a couple of times and not by more than a second or two per mile. It felt really fast and not due to effort--my cardiovascular system is not being pushed at this pace. I'm just not used to this speed. Again, it is good to have instruments: In this case a digital watch with a timer on it. If it wasn't for the watch I would think I was right back up to speed, rather than around 30 seconds per mile slower than I ought to be for these distances.
My wife's workspace: I made the desktop and Ikea made the rest of the table.
She has always wanted a double papasan chair. Back when she was pregnant with Dahlia, we went to a Halloween party at Attila and Michelle's place and they had such a chair. She dressed-up as a big black pregnant cat (she was past 8 months by then) and curled up on their papasan chair. She stayed put for the better part of the party and vowed then that we would one day own a chair like that. 10 years later, the dream has come true.
My work space is over on this side.
My wife and I left the kids at home and went to a fancy v. the usual grocery store--this is pretty much a date, or at least bonding time. I toyed with getting some sushi, but it was kind of expensive and of questionable provenance. The mussels were only half the price but I had to get a pound of them, which is a couple of times more than needed plus they don't keep and nobody else in the house likes them.
I got through most of them though.
See?
Which is really kind of a relief: He's not just bowing to our enemies.
There were many notable things about this site. It was really huge: One would go through a cluster of buildings and into a courtyard, then there would be buildings on the other side of the courtyard, with a courtyard beyond that etc.
One odd and ironic thing which struck me was in regards to water. Our guide claimed that the city was abandoned due to lack of water and yet this was the only fort/palace we visited with such obvious water-handling civil engineering as this place had. In the above picture, the drainage channel was one of many throughout the complex. It would seem that excess water was the problem when the place was being built.
What I had been doing is starting a new batch of 64 oz each week by pouring a little of the previous batch into the new one. To the yeast it must have seemed like escaping from a crowded and polluted slum to rich, verdant and unpopulated countryside. The alcohol and CO2 that are my whole purpose for doing the fermentation are waste products and therefore pollution, from the yeasty standpoint.
I can usually get two 64 oz apple juice bottles for $3.00 and each will give 5 1/3 12 oz servings, so this comes to about 30 Cents/serving. Not bad considering that pre-made cider I buy costs about $ 7.00 for 6.
Roasted coffee for the first time this year.
Attached the new desk top to the frame. We stopped at the Ikea in New Haven on the way back from Newark and got the missing T-leg. The guy who helped me was great! It was all a fog though because I hadn't slept on the flight from Bombay--which had departed at midnight India time.
Went for a slow and painful run. I have a marathon in 3 months but am crippled by injuries: There isn't time to wait and heal--then train, so I will have to just grit my way through.
This cow which we saw on temple grounds was the only one in India I saw eating grass (Jemma is feeding her a flower in this picture but earlier she was grazing on the lawn.) The city ones lived on scraps like orange peels and paper. There were vendors selling freshly-made sugar cane juice and often there would be a cow on the scene eating the smashed canes.
Pleasant as they are, the cows are not pets: They give milk and dairy is a big part of Indian cuisine.
I was slow and achy--situation normal, but it was daunting just getting out the door. It takes remarkably little time to get soft both physically and mentally, but especially mentally.
In all, it went fine: I was a bit slow but ran a good distance and am hoping that the injuries of early November are now behind me for good. Whether they are or not is pretty much moot though since Boston is in April and I really don't have time to wait for injuries to heal. Update: Sunday 8:36.46 per mile 7.9mi
Monday 8:43.08 per mile 5.2mi
Tuesday: Between meetings at work and voting for Scott Brown, no time to run.
Wednesday 8:20 per mile 6.48mi
Thursday 8:16.15 per mile 5.2mi (wiped-out on black ice right at the end)
Friday 8:04.62 per mile 5.2mi
The trend was toward increasing, if still slow, speed. Also, my hip was hurting so badly that I very nearly gave up on the Friday run within the first couple of steps.
One should keep in mind though that the authorities require all visitors to remove their shoes before entering.
2. Check bags with the airline.
3. Show passports and give forms at customs.
4. Pass through security check, bags x-rayed and body groped.
Now for the stupid stuff:
5. An extra x-ray and pat-down courtesy of rent-a-cops at the Continental gate. This was especially slow since there was only one x-ray machine and was so sloppily done that it added not one iota of benefit. It did however, prevent any passengers from unloading leftover rupees in the extensive gift, duty-free and restaurants available in the terminal.
6. Submission of boarding passes at the gate with additional check of passports by armed guard.
7. An additional check of boarding passes and passports by a Continental agent in the jetway.
We were in one line or another for the 3 hours between arrival at the airport and actually getting onto the plane.
Yes, I know it has beautiful carvings and inlayed decorations. The view? Fantastic! Good breeze way up here and I can even see the Taj Mahal shimmering there on the other side of the river. It is the railing. No, the geometric designs are great and the marble is of the highest quality. It is the quantity I take issue with--they are only just high enough for me to trip over, which means that when I plummit into the moat, I will do so head-first rather than feet first.
Please see what you can do about this.
Yes, I know it has beautiful carvings and inlayed decorations. The view? Fantastic! Good breeze way up here
The beach in Kapu is like the one we go to on Plum Island, except:
No sand flies.
No crowds.
The water is warm.
There are palm trees.
The place had one major flaw which will be in an upcoming update--if I can get Internet service--harder here than I expected it to be.
We Stayed at a classic Indian country house which was retrofitted with modern things like electric lights and running water. The place had only 4 rooms but we were the only guests. The center of the house was an open grassy area about 30 feet square and all around was an elevated veranda about 15 feet deep and covered. In essence, the place was a museum that you get to stay at. The residence itself was surrounded by a couple acres of garden with chickens, ducks and geese wandering around. The beach could be reached via a 5 minute walk down a sandy path.
So far so good--what is the big problem? The first morning at 5:00 AM and continuing for 2 hours there was broadcast some cheesy song over what have to be the lowest possible quality and tinniest loudspeakers in existence. The next night it was done by 5:00 AM, having started around 3:30 AM. We came to find out that there is some obnoxious cult nearby that all the neighbors hate, but can't do anything about. I suggested that in the USA, if the police refused to help then the cult compound would find it self vandalized until its leaders saw reason.
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