The Martin's Blog

Tom – On our beach walk this morning it looked like someone was praying on a rock outcrop jutting out into the ocean.  However when we got closer we discovered it was a piece of drift wood decorated with plastic bags and nets.  It was a cloudy morning with a comfortable temperature for a change but the sand flies were merciless!

This is a view of our beach from the headland looking east

Lots of office work today getting ready to wrap up my teaching and preparing for my India presentation.  In the afternoon, went downtown for a haircut (first one in 2 months!).  I went to the expensive “Super Salon” by the bus station.  It cost me 100 rupees ($0.93) for the haircut + tip!  Early evening we walked out our front door and into the ocean – we had fun jumping the waves, we’ll miss our beach when we leave next week!

Helen – Tom was at the office all morning and then came home to work in the afternoon.  We were having dinner with Nicole and Luke from the hotel; she was preparing a German dish with chorabi and dumplings and I was bringing the chocolate zucchini cake.

About 4:30 we decided that Tom needed a haircut and I wanted to drop off some things to be hemmed at the tailors.  I bought four batik bathing wraps which needed the sides hemmed and Tom’s galabia (dress/robe from Egypt) needed the sleeves and hem to be shortened and the seams finished.  Can you believe that he is going to do all this for $4.50; $2 for the batiks, and $2.50 for the robe!  I think that I am going to give him some more business when I pick these things up tomorrow.

 Tom’s hair cut was another story.  The girls at the hotel said to go to Super Salon – that is where their friends go and we should expect to pay a little more there.  The shop was really little and a little dingy.  One man was cutting hair and another was shaving people with a straight razor!!  When Tom walked in they all snickered and looked at the barber, a young man attending another customer.  They were snickering because people here do not have fine hair cut in Tom’s style.  Their hair is coarser and thicker so this was going to be interesting.  Also, they don’t wash it first or even wet it for that matter.  He picked up his scissors and motioned to Tom if this was the instrument he wanted used; I guess compared to the clippers!!  They wrapped a cloth around his neck but did not use clean combs or utensils…what would Tom’s stylist say to this???  It is a bit shorter than usual but it looks good, kind of reminds me of his younger days with shorter hair.  At least he won’t need another haircut until we come home!!

It was after 6 when we got home so we ran into the ocean for a quick swim before showering and dressing for dinner.  It was a beautiful evening with lots of waves.  We were hoping to see a sunset as well but there were too many clouds.

Dinner was delicious and we licked the pots clean…the cake was also a success and it was fun being with “the crowd”.