Thursday, January 3

I got up at 6:30 and wrote for three hours. I finished a draft of Chapter Four. I had Quaker lemon and pepper porridge for breakfast and liked it.

Sreni arrived at 11:00 and off we went for a day in Trivandrum. We have been to Style Plus, where I bought underwear; Modern Book Center, where I found four books I wanted; and Big Bazaar, where I stocked up on savoury porridge.

Now Irma and I are in the market where no photograph can capture the minute by minute, metre by metre activity.

Soon we will return to Kovalam, stopping at a beer shop on the way. At my suggestion we will also buy two huge bottles of Sprite in an attempt to convert the overstrong beer with a horrible aftertaste into some sort of passable shandy.

In the end the Sprite will prove superfluous. The beer is not really extra strong as promised; just slightly more flavoursome.