Hello,

Thanks to all the well wishers. I am definitely recovering from my nasty cold and we will be moving out of Edward's bungalow and back to our hotel room in Mirzapur city on Sunday. We are being being very well taken care of here. I am lazing around drinking freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice and nimbu pani (lime or lemon juice and water), reading my book and doing some journal writing and eating all the fine meals, much of which is grown here in the large gardens.

This afternoon I was reading in the sun on the verandah adjoining the computer/TV room when two little mongooses came running from behind some pots of chrysanthiums across the drive to a hole in the wall about twelve feet in front of me. Before disappearing down the hole the second one stopped and turned to look at me. In a moment they both came back out again and this time they both raised their heads and looked at me for a few seconds, turned and went back down the hole. Seconds later out they came again and again looked at me and then ran back the way they'd come from across the pavement. Next just one streaked across the drive again and disappeared down the hole. They run sleek and low to the ground, they're related to ferrets, I suppose, but with long pointed tails that are held straight out behind them. When they stopped to look at me their head and shoulders were held up as they stared with beady little eyes. As a child in Mirzapur a mongoose would always come into our bungalow after lunch and I distinctly remember him coming into my room while I was in my cot for a nap. Mongoose always win their fights with poisonous snakes and they have antivenom in their blood.

There are also many little striped chipmunks everywhere. I've yet to see a monkey (Ross has seen seven in Mirzapur so far. He goes in every day on his motorbike on errands.), which is perhaps a good thing as I've heard they have become quite a menace.

Many different types of birds are all about us. We've seen the noisy Seven Sisters, a bird called a Crow Pheasant, black with rusty orange wings, peacocks, magpie-type birds, crows, pigeons, doves and numerous small birds. Without a bird book or a knowledgible English speaker around I am at a loss to identify many of them.

Here's wishing you all the very best of New Years. May there Peace for all and may all your best dreams come true.

Love,
Judy