Wednesday, December 27

Last night one of the toilets suddenly stopped working. I guessed that it would take two minutes to fix it, but I also guessed that it might not work the way I expected it to work. I phoned Anib.

This morning we woke up at bout 7:00, feeling bright and sunny: the effect of an alcohol-free yesterday. We had hit the buffers earlier than in previous years: filled with the feeling that the metallic taste of Kingfisher had become a major obstacle to drinking any (more).

We leapt up and started breakfast. Naa joined us before we had finished.

Anib arrived at 11:00 to look at the toilet. As I had predicted it took two minutes to fix. As I had also predicted the toilet mechanism did not resemble anything I might have expected.

It seems that Bruno will only ever go for walks with me. He ignores any attempts that Irma or Naa make to get him to follow them. Anib said that Asha used to get angry about exactly the same thing. Bruno only goes for walks with Anib and ignores Asha if she leaves the house. The irony in this lies in the fact that I would feel overjoyed if I could read the newspaper while Naa took him for a walk. Instead, I now get up, get dressed, and walk for twenty minutes while he runs around in front or behind me, doing whatever he does, and returning home with, or shortly after, me.

In the afternoon Irma and Naa got a rickshaw to a hotel where Biju will give them massages. My skin still feels sore from too much sun too soon, so I remained at home with the man-lovin’ dog. The internet dropped to a speed of zero as soon as they left, so I sat in the sun and read.

Later I tried to use my iPad to look up references, and stray words, with variable success.

Word of the day, found while reading about John Holt in some old notes: ephebiphobia. I looked it up and found it defined as

the fear of youth. First coined as the “fear or loathing of teenagers”, today the phenomenon is recognized as the “inaccurate, exaggerated and sensational characterization of young people” in a range of settings around the world. Studies of the fear of youth occur in sociology and youth studies.

Irma and Naa arrived home about 17:30 and shortly afterwards we noticed a big truck ignoring the Road Closed sign and driving up the road towards the road works, now somewhere in the distance.

Some while later we notice the truck return and park halfway between our house and the temple. It has collected the earthmover which now sits strapped to its back. We both walk down to look and the driver welcomes us and almost insists that we photograph him and the truck.

We photograph the inside and outside and Irma takes some good portrairs.