Norah Head, Central Coast

Pelican Feeding

More fun at Guantanamo?

Snapped high on a hill in Lambton North, a Newcastle suburb, while Nicholas was taking his weekly weekend Spanish lesson at the home of an Argentine couple. The husband is getting a degree at the University of Newcastle, the wife, Nick's tutor, is staying at home with a fairly new baby.

While some consider it torture, I personally enjoy lawn bowling, especially watching the exciting championship matches on TV on Saturday afternoons.

Santa Cruz Basilica and St. Francis Church, Cochin

"Built by the first Portuguese viceroy, Francesco de Almeida, in 1505.

When the Dutch conquered Cochin in 1663, they ruined all Catholic establishments except this cathedral and the church of St. Francis. In those days, the Santa Cruz Cathedral was used as an armory. It was destroyed in 1795, after the British took over the city. Only an elaborate granite pillar remained. The pillar is displayed on the southeastern corner of the present Basilica.

The new, present cathedral was sanctified in 1905. Recognizing its historic significance, Pope John Paul II raised the status of Santa Cruz Cathedral to a Basilica in 1984.

Santa Cruz is one of the eight Basilicas in India. In 2004, this cathedral completed its five centuries of existence. The architecture is a blend of the Indo-European and the gothic style. Italian paintings dating from the time of the original foundation of the church adorn the interiors."

- excerpted from http://www.cochin.org.uk/religious-places/santa-cruz-cathedral.html

And here's St. Francis Church, which, according to Wikipedia, is "the oldest European church in India. It was constructed in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan friars. Sometimes, this church is also referred as St. Francis Xavier's Church.

Vasco da Gama (commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India) was buried here, but his mortal remains were returned to Portugal. The original headstone is still kept there."

• Hot sunshine


• Cockatoos and lorikeets on my street


• Palm trees in the yard


• People running errands in bare feet


• "No worries" and "You're all right!"


• morning tea at work


• pavlova


• Kangaroos


• lawn bowling competitions on TV


• children who say please and thank you

Vanilla County

Here are some of Sarah's emailed impressions of Vanilla County, our home stay near Wagamon, in the Western Ghats:

"We are now in the mountains staying at a homestay called 'Vanilla County'. There is a website you can google to see a picture and description. It's in the Western Ghat mountains. Needless to say, it's incredible as everything here is. It's a nice contrast to the austere convent in the middle of a poor, crowded city - here it is quiet, cool, lots of flowers, palms, jungle - the home is very luxurious in a nice old-fashioned way. We swam at a beautiful pool in a mountain stream today (see earlier post, "Swimming in the River"), and our guide picked vanilla, cardamom, cocoa, and black pepper berries and showed us the rubber tapping which is the big industry here (see earlier post, "Rubber").

Our kind and friendly hosts are cooking us more delicious Keralan food including exotic vegetables which we have never had before. Tomorrow we take a tour and then we will go to an ashram which is a famous Christian retreat 10k from here. "

[This small balcony and a large one beyond were both outside Sarah and my room. Nicholas and Peter had a separate room and bath. The bit of railing in the foreground is part of a large deck accessible from the second floor hall.]

Trucks

There's got to be a coffee table book somewhere about these brightly painted trucks. I was reminded of the photographic studies that I've seen of Pennsylvania barns and Amish hex symbols. Like the autorickshaws and buses, many of the trucks celebrate religious themes. Others look like they just advertise the driver/owners name.

Emerald Isle and the Alleppey backwaters

Bullock Cart Ride - Tamil Nadu

A few miles inside the state of Tamil Nadu, which borders Kerala. A very early morning tour around a sprawling plantation in the flatlands east of the Western Ghats. Like many park rangers around the Periyar Tiger Preserve, our guide was a former elephant poacher who was arrested and given a job as a guide and wildlife protector. He had a bit of a Gandhi look about him, and he played a haunting melody on a wooden flute after our brief white bread and cheese lunch next to a small Hindu temple under a banyan tree at the edge of a rushing river.

Monkeys

Cute? Definitely. Lovable? Perhaps. Shopkeepers in Kumily took aim at the monkeys with slingshots, even as Sarah fed one of them an orange. They are clearly a nuisance. Our hotel in Kumily advised keeping doors and windows closed when not in the room because monkeys might come in and steal items, ala the movie Night at the Museum.

At the Periyar Tiger Preserve, one of them grabbed Sarah's purse and tore it because it smelled an orange in the bag. A mug shot of the offender, or at least its accomplice, is pictured here.