The Adventures of Rick Shaw

Update – The Weather

October 5, 2009 at 9:18 am (Uncategorized)

Having flown out of the eye of the storm that was consuming Goa we thought we were ahead of schedule and ahead of the rain.

We were wrong.

Last night whilst out absorbing the atmosphere of ahmedebad we were caught in some kind of raining monstrosity. Literally one second it was completey dry and then the atmosphere started giving off a damp smell to which Nilz replied”I can smell rain” (must be a good sense of smell) and allof a suden like an Audi being driven like a man late for work it went from 0-60 in 3 seconds. The rain just started slamming into us as we were trying to do a ittle filming. Battering down upon us we ran to the nearest shelter covering the camera so as not to get it wet.

Minutes later the ground was covered in a blanket of water that had mixed with the dusty roads to create a thick muddy paste. Whilst Gandhi’s choiceof footwear was sandals I am starting to wish I had not copied his style. If it was good enough for him he must not have been stuck in a flash downpour.

As the devestation throughout India continues and the death toll unfortunately rises, we are doing our best to press ahead and continue what we started.

The path of desctruction

We are tracing our route via the Indian weather auitority online and these tropical storms are set to precede us on our route.  The nature of th e storms is so unpredictable in that one second they are off and then the switch is hit and it is pouring that we are going to be very careful about where we bed down.

The Gods are not on our side.

The major problem here is that the storm is now ahead of us and it is obliterating the roads making them impossible to drive on unless you have a landrover and I am not seeing any of those.

By now Boris Johnson would have declared a London emergency and have us all at home off work but at the end of the day … the natives can do it … so can we.

Hooooo-raaaaaah!

Skin tone advantages

All I hear from this pair is that my skin tone gives me an advantage out here but having spent my entire life (bar two months in China) on the moon-bed I am actually not agreeng with their viewpoint.

My skin tone attracts beggars and rubberneckers who are hell bent to twist their necks 180 degrees to get as much of a prolonged view of me as possible. Although, not much has changed from all the chicks that stare at me back home (lol).

Seriously though, in the bank to change some Sterling to rupees (look its me, looks 12 years old, blond hair, green dress and handling rupees) and fair enough I did not have to queue to get a ticket, I was ushered to a seat by the Branch Manager.

Lol it's me

However, I was then kept waiting for almost an hour as people stared at me.  All I wanted was a plain ol’ currency exchange.

Once I was being served and going through all of the necessary checks I was told that my money was “doubtful” in regards to its authenticity.  Snore.

It took a lot longer than necessary but eventually I was out with a proper stack of notes, sme of which were crumbling to dust in my hand.

PS these two are growing ridiculous moustaches and I am dashing 100 rupee notes at Manon to sport this hairy monstrosity at work.  Pictures to follow (once the growth has reached its full potential.