Thursday, January 10

I woke at 4:20 to the sound of engines outside the window. The noise persisted long enough for me to get up and look at two gigantic trucks full of building materials trying, and failing, to turn right down the winding path to the highway. They eventually carried on up KS Road in the direction of Kovalam Junction.

As I returned to sleep I heard the sudden sound of devotees clapping rapidly at the temple festival, soon accompanied by singing.

At 7:45 Irma woke me to tell me that we had to video the puppies who had to look cute. Mary from the dog rescue centre had messaged Irma to say that a family had shown interest in adopting them, but wanted to see them in action first.

For thirty minutes we staged scenes of increasing cuteness. See the dogs come down the stairs. See the dogs jump up and down at the sight of food. Delete the video of the dogs fighting over said food.

After this we had our second power cut of the holiday. It lasted an hour and a half, while I read about the aftermaths of the 48 hour national strike. I learned that various different groups had called a total of 120 hartals in Kerala last year. Some people got affected by all of them and, in effect, lost a third of their annual income.

At 11:00 Irma called Tangaray and we took the rickshaw to the Mall of Travancore to have a long, leisurely look around.

When we arrive, Tangaray stops outside the mall, not in the car park. Today we therefore walk into the mall through the main entrance. This involves walking past Ronald McDonald. We pause, of course, to take photos of each other posing with him; some mildly pornographic, others less so.

We will start our journey round the mall with an ice cream, and then we will walk along each of the three floors, looking and (occasionally) buying. I will spend some of my time relaxing outside shops while Irma explores their interiors.

While I stand I will read about blockchain-based social networks and begin to evolve a project in my head that will hopefully involve Arcada, Soc&Kom, Sophie Hope, and the Social Tools team. This will form my response to an invitation Nathalie sent me a few days ago.

At 14:30 we will declare ourselves hungry and head for McDonalds. Irma will then discover that nobody has offered her raffle tickers, and she therefore has no chance whatsoever to win an electric car or a motorscooter. Off she will go, retracing her steps and requesting belated tickets.

After some time Irma will return empty handed, and at 15:10 we will enter McDonalds and order two Maharaja Mac meals. Irma will have chicken and I will order the veg alternative, containing “two crusty cheese and corn patties topped with chunky cocktail sauce mingled with fiery jalapenos and crunchy onion slices”.

I will declare it a considerable improvement over the McVegan, or even the Vegetable McFeast that it replaced.

Yes, I know vegans don’t each chesse but my point still stands. If I had had the veg McSpicy it would have come with a bean burger, and vegans do eat beans (”mingled with fiery jalapenos and crunchy onion slices”).