Breakfast

So after arriving in Dubai airport for a few hour lay-over we went and had seafood and mojitos- both of which were AMAZING- although this idea was probably influenced by the fact that we knew it was going to be the last of both... for a long time. Our next meal was 'breakfast' on the airplane (see photo) aaaaaaaggggghhhhhh .

We arrived in Bangalore at 9am local time and managed to (somehow) breeze through immigration-phew.... I've had much worse experiences at US immigration when I want to go on a 5 day holiday. After all the drama involved in getting our visas organised I was somewhat sweating at the thought of passing the immigration. OK so we are off to a good start :)

Next stop- baggage. Done, no problems, waited around 15 minutes longer for one of our bags, but at this stage we were happy that we had already collected 3, that is 75% success rate... NO WAIT... My make-up is in that other bag!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I think Simone (more than me) was relieved when it finally arrived.

We got a taxi from the airport to the hospital to collect our house keys. On route I think I saw around 15 men urinating at the side of the road..... OH NO, those of you that know me well, will know that this is the ONE THING I CANNOT STAND. I think this year in India is going to change me- A LOT.

I was so tired at this stage, it was 1230 in the afternoon and all I wanted to do was sleep. Then Simone came bowling out of the hospital saying 'get out with the bags'. His boss had organised his driver to take us to our house, drop off the bags then go shopping to get food. So instead of going to bed we had to go shopping. Great.

On route to/from the shopping place....... 7 men urinating in the side of the road...... OK now it's time to stop counting and GET OVER IT.

We got home and as I am emptying shopping bags Simone disappears upstairs and returns some 15 mins later

"Erm Lou, we have a problem"

"What's that?"

"I did a massive poo.... and it really doesn't flush away, I've tried like 4 times and it's still there... I don't know what to do now"

So off he trots with his hand well and truly buried in a plastic bag, and the rest......... I'll leave to your imagination..... All I can say is there is good reason to have Delhi belly, at least it will flush away.

We ate one slice of dry bread each and went to bed at 8pm.

Next morning involved a walk to the hospital which actually took us half an hour, even though it's not really that far. We went in to Simone's boss' office where his secretary (who is a man) got tea and water etc for us. Then the nursing director came to meet me. I asked her what exactly I will be doing. "Yes yes you come and work with us, wherever you think is best" ok great what about shifts? "yes there are 3 shifts 730-1430, 1430-2130 and 2130-0730" ok so will I be doing this shift pattern? "no no you come in the morning and you go home at 4pm" great!!!!! I like the sound of this... except I have no idea what I'll be doing. Despite this I was then whisked off to HR then blood tests, chest xray and an eye test????!!!!!!!! Yep and eye test... and btw I have 20/20 in both eyes :)

We then ate in the staff canteen where btw, they have DOCTOR's ONLY section where they have a little waitress who takes their orders and serves them the food.... for everyone else it's self-service. On this occasion I was graced with eating in the DOCTOR's ONLY section as I was with Simone (and dressed in my own clothes), I'm sure once I have my nurses scrubs on, I'll be eating off the floor.

THIS IS INDIA :)))))))))))))))))))))))))) xxxxxxxx