Posts
Hi again to all,
We hope that life is treating you kindly and that you enjoy this blog. It's all of 7 days since the last one - so high time!!
To begin - another Irish joke (hope no-one accuses us of being racist!):
There was a knock on the door and there was a collector for the Home for Alcoholics. He asked whether the lady of the house had anything she could give him and she said "No, not at the moment. I'm sorry, but if you come back at 5 me husband will be home then and you can have him!".
Life goes on apace here in Chennai. It's really just a waiting game for us now with Jean's recovery paramount. She continues to make good progress (sounds like a school report!!) and is now walking about a kilometre up and down the road next to the hotel. So, it's all good but we are getting thoroughly bored and can't wait to get back to the boat in Thailand. In the meantime we are going down to the ex French settlement of Pondicherry next Wednesday and will stay there in the Villa Shanti until we fly out on the 14th.
Pondicherry should be a welcome change from the mundaneness of Chennai as the historic old French quarter where we are staying is compact and can be walked around easily apparently. And some people there still speak French! A brief history -
The earliest known mention of Pondicherry was in the 1st. century AD when it was a Roman trading destination. Then over the next 500 years or so various dynasties held sway as their fortunes in southern India ebbed and flowed until the French arrived in 1674. They then ruled Pondicherry along with other possessions of French India until 1956 when all the former French possessions became Union Territories of India. The Union Territories are special areas with tax concessions - among them duty free booze!!!
The French occupation was marked by various skirmishes with the British and the Dutch who occasionally kicked the French out but somehow they always came back! The major incident was the Seige of Pondicherry by the British in 1761 which culminated in British victory during which they raised Pondicherry to the ground. The French then came back in 1765 and rebuilt Pondicherry. There were a number of peace treaties with Britain after that and of course the Napoleonic Wars but in 1816 the French were back for good - or at least until 1956 just after they suffered their biggest defeat in Indo China at Dien Bien Phu in what became Vietnam and the anti colonial thing was in full swing. The Indians no doubt gave them an ultimatum!
The biggest news here in recent days is the shock conviction of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on charges of corruption involving Rs.66.6 core (just over 13.5 million NZD!). They establish this figure by comparing known assets with known levels of income. Any disparity is known as a "disproportionate asset case". Simple but compelling no doubt. The case had been going on for 18 years and reached its culmination last Saturday in Bangalore when she was sentenced to 4 years jail and fined Rs.100 core. There is now some doubt whether the sentence is legal because apparently it is illegal for a court to convict and sentence in the same hearing. Not surprisingly an appeal has been filed.
Unbelievably there is a huge groundswell of support for the former CM from the very impoverished people she stole from. This support manifested itself in an ugly way on Monday night. It is worthwhile reproducing verbatim the newspaper report in this morning's Times of India -
Headline: "MOB TRIES TO BURN ALIVE BIHAR MINISTER". "An angry mob tried to set ablaze Bihar art and culture Minister Vinay Bihari at a cultural programme in Sasaram in Rohtas District on Monday night. The attack took place at Tarachandi Temple in the presence of district officials, including the district magistrate and the Rohtas SP. The cultural programme was organised by the administration as part of Navaratra celebrations. Bihari, also a folk singer, inaugurated the programme and sang religious songs. A couple of other well known folk singers were also scheduled to perform at the function. But angry at the poor sound and seating arrangements, some people in the gathering started hurling chairs towards the dais. After a chair hit SP Chandan Kumar Kushwaha, the police started caning people. This further infuriated the mob, which then threw bricks and stones at the police and the dais. At least 100 people were injured in the brick batting. The Minister and other officials scurried for cover.
'Had I not hidden myself under the dais for over two hours, I would have been roasted alive' said Bihari, his head and chin swathed in bandages. The mob torched the Minister's official vehicle. Bihari said he overheard a few people who were carrying petrol cans and looking for him. 'I applied my mind and preferred braving stones to being burnt by coming out of hiding and running away', Bihari said. He later saw the dais go up in flames.
Bihari demanded an inquiry and held the local administration responsible for the attack. Kushwaha said the police had lodged an FIR against 500 people and arrested 6. A bottle of petrol was recovered from one of them." Only in India!!!
Emotions seem to be running close to the surface here and we have been warned not to go out at night - not that we were about to! However, we haven't seen anything untoward at all. The Indians are very fiery ( a bit like the Thais) and while all very polite, if you seriously upset them it all changes in a flash. But then Europeans are a bit like that as well! It's all fascinating to be here and watching the events play out - much more exciting than the NZ elections - tame by comparison.
Having said all that, the staff in the restaurant are very solicitous of Jean's dietary needs and are always rushing to assist. Jean is very appreciative. The waiters are all dressed in dark suits and ties and Boumi, the head waiter knows now that Jean likes Watermelon and Papaya for breakfast. So, she gets that delivered while Jim has to fend for himself at the fruit salad bar! We have finally educated the chef at the grill to produce eggs the way we like - for Jean scrambled with Coriander or Chives and for Jim fried and turned over and done to a crisp!
We have noticed the Indian women who, when here to dine or attending conferences, wear the most gorgeous saris. Beautiful colours edged in gold and all sparkly with glass beads. Very striking. However, the other thing we've noticed is that almost all are obese with a few notable exceptions. The notion of exercise doesn't seem to exist and the men are also overweight in the main. Sugarcane originated in India thousands of years ago long before sugar was brought to Europe and so the use of excessive amounts of sugar is endemic. There are constant articles in the paper about Diabetes.
We shouldn't talk as we've both put on weight but at least we exercise and are conscious of the issue, whereas the majority of Indians appear oblivious. And with the inefficiency we see constantly, we wonder how they'd fare against a Chinese invasion across the Tibet/Indo border which will certainly take place some day - unless demographics catch up with China as they inevitably will. The danger is that China undoubtedly knows this too, and might launch a pre-emptive strike before it's too late. China has a rapidly aging population whereas India has a huge proportion under 25.
China is quite frankly a worry and for NZ and Australia too. They have a growing and sophisticated naval presence in the Indian Ocean with submarine launched ballistic missile capability and they are stealing vast swathes of the South China Sea from Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. They are establishing military bases on hitherto uninhabited islands and conducting oil drilling exploration. Their motives are expansionist, whether by military aggression or economic means and they have an intergenerational time frame.
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Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
1st. op. day 31 2nd. op. day 10
To begin, another Irish joke -
Flanagan met the parish priest in the street. The priest didn't have much time for Flanagan, being as he was a hedonist and non church goer. Flanagan thought that as the priest was no doubt a man of wisdom and knowledge, he would ask what Lumbago was. The priest decided to give it to him with both barrels. He said, "Lumbago is what you get from loose living, fast women and too much of the drink. Why do you ask?" Flanagan said that he was concerned as he'd heard that the Bishop had it!
Jean continues to progress but a little more slowly than last time, although that's not surprising or unexpected. We are taking all our meals in our room as it is too difficult for her going to the restaurant but she's hoping that she'll be there for breakfast tomorrow. She is doing extremely well. We are hoping to go down to the old French settlement of Pondicherry 150 kms south of here on Oct. 10th. and then we'll fly back to Bangkok on the 14th. All still subject to change but looks doable at this stage.
Thought you might like to hear some of the items in the Times of India today.
- A rare white tiger killed a youth who fell into his enclosure at the Delhi Zoo. It was 10 minutes before the tiger attacked but in that time no-one helped the guy. Then the tiger dragged his lifeless body around before losing interest. Can't have been too hungry!
- The unemployment rate among working age Indians between 15 and 60 years of age is 15%. This amounts to 110,000,000 people. Not a healthy figure. The total population is 1.2 billion.
- There has been a money laundering and corruption scam involving the 2010 contract for purchase of Augusta-Westland helicopters for India's Ministry of Defence. Some 21 million Euros involved in kickbacks. India has now cancelled the contract with AW and various people have been arrested.
- The Indian sharemarket (Sensex) down yesterday by 1.5% on bad global economic news.
- In Tamil Nadu State (Chennai is the state capital) 20% of power was cut to the industrial sector. This is because a key power station is out for repairs. Every now and again there are blackouts of usually only a few seconds but it must play havoc with high tech industry, hospitals etc. Still, there is much being done throughout India to upgrade the whole power supply system. But, like the roads, there is a long way to go with millions still without any power whatsoever and India will never reach its full potential until these infrastuctural problems are fixed. It's a mammoth task.
- Narendra Modi, the Indian PM, is off to the USA for a 5 day visit this week and always gives a gift to his opposite number. Apparently he gave Tony Abbott a book on Yoga!! He still hasn't found anything for Obama. The Chinese President received a Khadi Jacket.
- Petrol prices are down to 71.5 Rs. (NZD1.53) per litre but local auto rickshaw drivers haven't reduced their fares. In fact fares have gone up and there's a big stink!! Much like anywhere really.
- India is getting tougher with drink driving laws but there is still a long way to go with apparently 380 deaths on the nation's roads every day. A lot of it is in the attitude to driving too. If even a small gap opens up the first instinct is to open the throttle and the brake is very much a last resort. No thought of any potential consequences.
- There are 2 desalination plants due to be built near Chennai at a total cost of Rs.5.441 crore. If you've got a big enough calculator you can work it out - 1 core = 10,000,000 and 49.2 Rs. = 1NZD!
- a bus driver was stoned to death when stones were thrown at the bus and he died at the wheel while the bus was still moving! One of the passengers managed to stop the bus. This happened at Uthankarai, some distance from here.
- Trucks are being hijacked and the drivers murdered in Andhra Pradesh State. The trucks are carrying copper plates and the latest incident was # 14 in 6 years. Not surprisingly owners and drivers are refusing to drive that particular stretch of the highway! The Police say they are increasing patrols!!
- By now it will be known whether the Indian space mission to Mars has been successful. India will be the 4th. country to have entered the "Mars Club".
- Apparently the reason for the present Chinese aggression on the Sino/Indo border is that China wants to bully India into not becoming too friendly with Japan. Modi, the Indian PM has just been to Japan and apparently has a good personal rapport with the Japanese PM, Abe. China of course doesn't want a newly militarised Japan on their eastern side together with India on the west. But the bully boy tactics are unlikely to work. India has said that the outcome will depend on who blinks first. Not very propitious for peaceful relations. Just remember all this when thinking how great it is that we are selling all our milk powder to China!! China's sole aim is TAKEOVER, whether it be by military means or by financial stealth and they have an intergenerational time frame.
- 11 people died when a 5kg LPG cylinder exploded on a bus. It was being carried illegally. 60 more are badly burned and are "battling for their lives" (apparently some with 80% burns) in hospitals near Delhi. It took emergency services several hours to reach the scene and then another 4 hours to hospitals in Delhi through evening rush hour traffic. Just imagine how the burn injuries fared over that time frame.
Well, that might give you some idea of life in India. Not, we hasten to add, that our lives are being directly affected, but it shows how diverse in a totally bizarre way life is here. We have state of the art hospitals, an advanced IT industry, Martian space missions, potential war with China, horrific crimes and daily loss of life on the roads, to mention just a few things which happen all the time.
Hope you enjoy the read and that all is well.
Cheers and love from us........
Jim and Jean
Chennai
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Flanagan met the parish priest in the street. The priest didn't have much time for Flanagan, being as he was a hedonist and non church goer. Flanagan thought that as the priest was no doubt a man of wisdom and knowledge, he would ask what Lumbago was. The priest decided to give it to him with both barrels. He said, "Lumbago is what you get from loose living, fast women and too much of the drink. Why do you ask?" Flanagan said that he was concerned as he'd heard that the Bishop had it!
Jean continues to progress but a little more slowly than last time, although that's not surprising or unexpected. We are taking all our meals in our room as it is too difficult for her going to the restaurant but she's hoping that she'll be there for breakfast tomorrow. She is doing extremely well. We are hoping to go down to the old French settlement of Pondicherry 150 kms south of here on Oct. 10th. and then we'll fly back to Bangkok on the 14th. All still subject to change but looks doable at this stage.
Thought you might like to hear some of the items in the Times of India today.
- A rare white tiger killed a youth who fell into his enclosure at the Delhi Zoo. It was 10 minutes before the tiger attacked but in that time no-one helped the guy. Then the tiger dragged his lifeless body around before losing interest. Can't have been too hungry!
- The unemployment rate among working age Indians between 15 and 60 years of age is 15%. This amounts to 110,000,000 people. Not a healthy figure. The total population is 1.2 billion.
- There has been a money laundering and corruption scam involving the 2010 contract for purchase of Augusta-Westland helicopters for India's Ministry of Defence. Some 21 million Euros involved in kickbacks. India has now cancelled the contract with AW and various people have been arrested.
- The Indian sharemarket (Sensex) down yesterday by 1.5% on bad global economic news.
- In Tamil Nadu State (Chennai is the state capital) 20% of power was cut to the industrial sector. This is because a key power station is out for repairs. Every now and again there are blackouts of usually only a few seconds but it must play havoc with high tech industry, hospitals etc. Still, there is much being done throughout India to upgrade the whole power supply system. But, like the roads, there is a long way to go with millions still without any power whatsoever and India will never reach its full potential until these infrastuctural problems are fixed. It's a mammoth task.
- Narendra Modi, the Indian PM, is off to the USA for a 5 day visit this week and always gives a gift to his opposite number. Apparently he gave Tony Abbott a book on Yoga!! He still hasn't found anything for Obama. The Chinese President received a Khadi Jacket.
- Petrol prices are down to 71.5 Rs. (NZD1.53) per litre but local auto rickshaw drivers haven't reduced their fares. In fact fares have gone up and there's a big stink!! Much like anywhere really.
- India is getting tougher with drink driving laws but there is still a long way to go with apparently 380 deaths on the nation's roads every day. A lot of it is in the attitude to driving too. If even a small gap opens up the first instinct is to open the throttle and the brake is very much a last resort. No thought of any potential consequences.
- There are 2 desalination plants due to be built near Chennai at a total cost of Rs.5.441 crore. If you've got a big enough calculator you can work it out - 1 core = 10,000,000 and 49.2 Rs. = 1NZD!
- a bus driver was stoned to death when stones were thrown at the bus and he died at the wheel while the bus was still moving! One of the passengers managed to stop the bus. This happened at Uthankarai, some distance from here.
- Trucks are being hijacked and the drivers murdered in Andhra Pradesh State. The trucks are carrying copper plates and the latest incident was # 14 in 6 years. Not surprisingly owners and drivers are refusing to drive that particular stretch of the highway! The Police say they are increasing patrols!!
- By now it will be known whether the Indian space mission to Mars has been successful. India will be the 4th. country to have entered the "Mars Club".
- Apparently the reason for the present Chinese aggression on the Sino/Indo border is that China wants to bully India into not becoming too friendly with Japan. Modi, the Indian PM has just been to Japan and apparently has a good personal rapport with the Japanese PM, Abe. China of course doesn't want a newly militarised Japan on their eastern side together with India on the west. But the bully boy tactics are unlikely to work. India has said that the outcome will depend on who blinks first. Not very propitious for peaceful relations. Just remember all this when thinking how great it is that we are selling all our milk powder to China!! China's sole aim is TAKEOVER, whether it be by military means or by financial stealth and they have an intergenerational time frame.
- 11 people died when a 5kg LPG cylinder exploded on a bus. It was being carried illegally. 60 more are badly burned and are "battling for their lives" (apparently some with 80% burns) in hospitals near Delhi. It took emergency services several hours to reach the scene and then another 4 hours to hospitals in Delhi through evening rush hour traffic. Just imagine how the burn injuries fared over that time frame.
Well, that might give you some idea of life in India. Not, we hasten to add, that our lives are being directly affected, but it shows how diverse in a totally bizarre way life is here. We have state of the art hospitals, an advanced IT industry, Martian space missions, potential war with China, horrific crimes and daily loss of life on the roads, to mention just a few things which happen all the time.
Hope you enjoy the read and that all is well.
Cheers and love from us........
Jim and Jean
Chennai
----------
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Friday, 19 September 2014
Fwd: Day 5 2nd.hip post op.
----- Original Message -----
To: "2XS - Peter & Marguerite" <margueriteharmsen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Day 5 2nd.hip post op.
Date: 20 Sep 2014 06:02:29 -0000
From: zmq5985
Hi again to all,
Jean is continuing to make good progress although it has been bedevilled by a stomach upset (no vomiting though) which has inhibited her with her food intake. That is one thing we must say. The food here, while reasonable, is very limited and we constantly have to keep saying NO SPICES for Jean as her stomach won't cope at present. So, the food has been somewhat frustrating.
Anyway, we are leaving the hospital tomorrow and then will be back at the Quality Inn. We'll stay there for 2-3 weeks before returning to Thailand, depending on her rate of progress. At least the food there is much better and Jean is very diligent about exercise.
She's been through a lot in the last 4 weeks. It's been a huge assault on her body but we are very pleased with all the surgery and medical aspects. Dr. Bose showed us an x-ray taken 24 hours ago which clearly shows the new hip joints and his comment is that they are "perfect". So, now it's just a matter of time. Everest will have to wait just a little bit longer - maybe another week or so!!
To end, a little humour might not go amiss:
A Scottish joke - he was in Dublin on his honeymoon and when he came down to breakfast at the hotel they asked where his new wife was. He replied "oh, she's not here - she's been to Dublin before"!!
And another (Irish this time) - a man was lost while driving and saw a farmer on the side of the road. He stopped and said, "am I on the right road for Clanakiltie?" The farmer said, "Ye are, but you're going the wrong way!" He said, "well, what do I do now?" The farmer replied "well, if I were you I wouldn't start from here at all".
And a parting thought - Winston for PM!!!
Cheers and love from us..................
Jean and Jim
Chennai
INDIA
----- End of Original Message -----
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radio email processed by SailMail
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To: "2XS - Peter & Marguerite" <margueriteharmsen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Day 5 2nd.hip post op.
Date: 20 Sep 2014 06:02:29 -0000
From: zmq5985
Hi again to all,
Jean is continuing to make good progress although it has been bedevilled by a stomach upset (no vomiting though) which has inhibited her with her food intake. That is one thing we must say. The food here, while reasonable, is very limited and we constantly have to keep saying NO SPICES for Jean as her stomach won't cope at present. So, the food has been somewhat frustrating.
Anyway, we are leaving the hospital tomorrow and then will be back at the Quality Inn. We'll stay there for 2-3 weeks before returning to Thailand, depending on her rate of progress. At least the food there is much better and Jean is very diligent about exercise.
She's been through a lot in the last 4 weeks. It's been a huge assault on her body but we are very pleased with all the surgery and medical aspects. Dr. Bose showed us an x-ray taken 24 hours ago which clearly shows the new hip joints and his comment is that they are "perfect". So, now it's just a matter of time. Everest will have to wait just a little bit longer - maybe another week or so!!
To end, a little humour might not go amiss:
A Scottish joke - he was in Dublin on his honeymoon and when he came down to breakfast at the hotel they asked where his new wife was. He replied "oh, she's not here - she's been to Dublin before"!!
And another (Irish this time) - a man was lost while driving and saw a farmer on the side of the road. He stopped and said, "am I on the right road for Clanakiltie?" The farmer said, "Ye are, but you're going the wrong way!" He said, "well, what do I do now?" The farmer replied "well, if I were you I wouldn't start from here at all".
And a parting thought - Winston for PM!!!
Cheers and love from us..................
Jean and Jim
Chennai
INDIA
----- End of Original Message -----
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Tuesday, 16 September 2014
After 1st hip replacement day 23 - after 2nd. hip op. day 2
Hi to all,
Well, as you know we are back in hospital in Chennai at the SRM Institutes for Medical Science (Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute). Jean had her operation to replace her right hip on Monday and the surgeon Dr. Vijay Bose said it was a perfect result - just like the 1st. one. So, that is reassuring. And he also said that this hip was quite a bit worse than the 1st one with complete cartilage loss and severe pitting of the bone surfaces and bone on bone. No wonder it was painful. Anyway they had her walking down in Recovery before she came back upstairs. However, the first 24-36 hour period is always the worst and she had an uncomfortable night with a certain amount of pain and lack of sleep. Then today (Tues.) the Physio was here and again she was out of bed and the pain was worse, but he assured us that the pain would subside faster with exercise, even if the exercise itself was somewhat excruciating. Seems like being cruel to be kind but hard to go through with at the time. Still, it does help, having been through it before and knowing what to expect. As always the nurses are very kind and competent and always do their best to make Jean comfortable. They were pleased to see Jean again, even if she might be the patient from hell!! She's not very patient! There is one thing that Dr. Bose has assured us of and that is that they operation itself cannot be damaged. The ceramic prostheses are virtually indestructible and even the muscle and ligament re-attachments are foolproof. Good to remember this when enduring pain in the recovery phase.
We are in the Raffles Suite on the 5th, floor where we were before, although this time we have a much larger corner room with views in 2 directions. However, the views are hardly salubrious - a commercial building roof in one direction and the building site construction camp that we overlooked before in the other.
When we left the Quality Inn, we said we'd be back in a week or so and they've offered to upgrade us to a bigger room at no extra cost. One of the staff in the restaurant said they'd all be praying for Jean. On the one hand it's a nice thought but on the other sounds like they think there's a real chance they might not see her again!
On this visit we've only seen a very small part of India compared to Jean's first visit here 13 years ago when she spent 5 months backpacking in the north. Then she visited Mumbai, Pune, Rishikesh, Dharamsala, Delhi, as well as a few other places Jim can't at the moment recall. By contrast Jim has only been to Delhi for 3 weeks which included a quick visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal. All unforgettable experiences.
Chennai is mostly an unremarkable city of 6 million people. The terrain is overwhelmingly flat and the buildings mostly nondescript. Some strikingly large and impressive ones though and some pleasantly leafy avenues. Some attractive Indian style 2 story houses which one could fantasise about living in, but then one thinks of the practicalities of living with little local knowledge in Chennai! There are many large housing developments going on all the time - some very upmarket apartments in complexes with swimming pools and tennis courts. The traffic is chaotic, although nowhere near what Jim remembered of Delhi 9 years ago. On that note we read a horrifying statistic in the local paper a few days ago - apparently 380 people are killed EVERY DAY on India's roads. That's a planeload of people every day! Not sure whether that's believable but that's what the paper said. God knows how many are injured. The human cost and suffering to say nothing of the financial cost can only be imagined. They talk of improvements to the roading infrastucture, enforcement and licensing but nothing moves quickly in India!!
At least Chennai is clean - no knee deep paper rubbish as you see in Delhi. Chennai is definitely not pedestrian friendly and being a pedestrian, much less a partially disabled one as Jean is at present, is fraught with difficulty. In Asia generally footpaths are to put it mildly, not of a high standard, but India takes the cake. In many places there is no footpath at all and you are in there with the motorbikes which show no mercy. In other places the footpaths are about 12" (30 cms) above the road and narrow and obstructed with - you name it. Broken manhole covers, piles of earth and stones and street hawkers all add to the mix.
However, in spite of all that, one does get a strong feeling of intense commercial energy which will propel India way beyond her earlier conventional limits. There are ads for new cars all over the place including well known luxury brands. Just seen an ad for a new Volkswagen beetle for Rs. 21.32 lakh. One lakh = 100,000 so the price is Rs. 2,132,000 which is NZD42,984 - probably not much different from NZ. Another unit of numerical measurement is the crore. One crore (pronounced "karor") = 10,000,000. Guess you have to have these units of measurement when one rupee is worth so little. But, although labour rates in India remain comparatively low, India still does suffer from high inefficiency levels. A lot of this inefficiency is due to the black market which is still huge and which makes the collection of meaningful data very difficult. And the entrenched class system is still there with nurses for example refusing to touch more menial tasks which are passed down to "nurse helpers". However, compared to China it has a demographic advantage in that it has a big proportion of its population under 35, whereas China has a rapidly ageing population. Anecdotally we heard of a female Indian patient in this hospital whose sheet had slipped off her. A cleaner who happened to be in the room at the time pulled the sheet back into place, but the patient ordered her out and demanded that the sheet be replaced because it had been "contaminated"!!
On the subject of China, the Chinese President is due here tomorrow (Wed.). Don't know how cordial the visit will be but if China thinks they can indulge in a bit of browbeating the way they did recently with Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea, they'd better think again. India has just signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam to counter Chinese aggression in Vietnam's and other countries' waters in the S. China Sea. This agreement includes the supply of naval vessels.
The Indians are very distrustful of China and with good reason. India is expanding its military forces at a great rate to keep up with China's expansion which is all very worrying. China's overall policy is AGGRESSION, both military and financial, and anyone in NZ who lives in a fanatsy cloud cuckoo land believing anything to the contrary needs to get out more.
And something else on the subject of politics - that of NZ's. We have been bemused and horrified at the continuing tales of underhand sleazy politics just about every day in the NZ Herald and the continuing efforts of that noble organ of journalistic probity to continue to undermine legitimate criticism of the current government. While there may be legitimate argument on both sides, we believe that there has been sufficient exposure of corrupt behaviour to say "there's no smoke without fire". And there is no real democracy when those tactics are indulged in by any government. To that end we cannot bear the thought of another 3 years of a right wing National/ACT coalition and so we are channeling our votes (already cast) in another direction - NZ First. They are a centrist party and hold out the only hope of an effective brake on right wing covert spying and financially destructive policies which will see the complete selloff of NZ completed in their next term. We are keeping our fingers crossed for NZ's sake that a balanced government is the outcome of Saturday's general election.
Well, that's enough ranting for one day - we'll keep you up to date as to Jean's progress and when we can finally return to Thailand.
Hope all is well with everyone out there.........
Lots of love from us,
Jean and Jim
Chennai
INDIA.
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Well, as you know we are back in hospital in Chennai at the SRM Institutes for Medical Science (Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute). Jean had her operation to replace her right hip on Monday and the surgeon Dr. Vijay Bose said it was a perfect result - just like the 1st. one. So, that is reassuring. And he also said that this hip was quite a bit worse than the 1st one with complete cartilage loss and severe pitting of the bone surfaces and bone on bone. No wonder it was painful. Anyway they had her walking down in Recovery before she came back upstairs. However, the first 24-36 hour period is always the worst and she had an uncomfortable night with a certain amount of pain and lack of sleep. Then today (Tues.) the Physio was here and again she was out of bed and the pain was worse, but he assured us that the pain would subside faster with exercise, even if the exercise itself was somewhat excruciating. Seems like being cruel to be kind but hard to go through with at the time. Still, it does help, having been through it before and knowing what to expect. As always the nurses are very kind and competent and always do their best to make Jean comfortable. They were pleased to see Jean again, even if she might be the patient from hell!! She's not very patient! There is one thing that Dr. Bose has assured us of and that is that they operation itself cannot be damaged. The ceramic prostheses are virtually indestructible and even the muscle and ligament re-attachments are foolproof. Good to remember this when enduring pain in the recovery phase.
We are in the Raffles Suite on the 5th, floor where we were before, although this time we have a much larger corner room with views in 2 directions. However, the views are hardly salubrious - a commercial building roof in one direction and the building site construction camp that we overlooked before in the other.
When we left the Quality Inn, we said we'd be back in a week or so and they've offered to upgrade us to a bigger room at no extra cost. One of the staff in the restaurant said they'd all be praying for Jean. On the one hand it's a nice thought but on the other sounds like they think there's a real chance they might not see her again!
On this visit we've only seen a very small part of India compared to Jean's first visit here 13 years ago when she spent 5 months backpacking in the north. Then she visited Mumbai, Pune, Rishikesh, Dharamsala, Delhi, as well as a few other places Jim can't at the moment recall. By contrast Jim has only been to Delhi for 3 weeks which included a quick visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal. All unforgettable experiences.
Chennai is mostly an unremarkable city of 6 million people. The terrain is overwhelmingly flat and the buildings mostly nondescript. Some strikingly large and impressive ones though and some pleasantly leafy avenues. Some attractive Indian style 2 story houses which one could fantasise about living in, but then one thinks of the practicalities of living with little local knowledge in Chennai! There are many large housing developments going on all the time - some very upmarket apartments in complexes with swimming pools and tennis courts. The traffic is chaotic, although nowhere near what Jim remembered of Delhi 9 years ago. On that note we read a horrifying statistic in the local paper a few days ago - apparently 380 people are killed EVERY DAY on India's roads. That's a planeload of people every day! Not sure whether that's believable but that's what the paper said. God knows how many are injured. The human cost and suffering to say nothing of the financial cost can only be imagined. They talk of improvements to the roading infrastucture, enforcement and licensing but nothing moves quickly in India!!
At least Chennai is clean - no knee deep paper rubbish as you see in Delhi. Chennai is definitely not pedestrian friendly and being a pedestrian, much less a partially disabled one as Jean is at present, is fraught with difficulty. In Asia generally footpaths are to put it mildly, not of a high standard, but India takes the cake. In many places there is no footpath at all and you are in there with the motorbikes which show no mercy. In other places the footpaths are about 12" (30 cms) above the road and narrow and obstructed with - you name it. Broken manhole covers, piles of earth and stones and street hawkers all add to the mix.
However, in spite of all that, one does get a strong feeling of intense commercial energy which will propel India way beyond her earlier conventional limits. There are ads for new cars all over the place including well known luxury brands. Just seen an ad for a new Volkswagen beetle for Rs. 21.32 lakh. One lakh = 100,000 so the price is Rs. 2,132,000 which is NZD42,984 - probably not much different from NZ. Another unit of numerical measurement is the crore. One crore (pronounced "karor") = 10,000,000. Guess you have to have these units of measurement when one rupee is worth so little. But, although labour rates in India remain comparatively low, India still does suffer from high inefficiency levels. A lot of this inefficiency is due to the black market which is still huge and which makes the collection of meaningful data very difficult. And the entrenched class system is still there with nurses for example refusing to touch more menial tasks which are passed down to "nurse helpers". However, compared to China it has a demographic advantage in that it has a big proportion of its population under 35, whereas China has a rapidly ageing population. Anecdotally we heard of a female Indian patient in this hospital whose sheet had slipped off her. A cleaner who happened to be in the room at the time pulled the sheet back into place, but the patient ordered her out and demanded that the sheet be replaced because it had been "contaminated"!!
On the subject of China, the Chinese President is due here tomorrow (Wed.). Don't know how cordial the visit will be but if China thinks they can indulge in a bit of browbeating the way they did recently with Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea, they'd better think again. India has just signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam to counter Chinese aggression in Vietnam's and other countries' waters in the S. China Sea. This agreement includes the supply of naval vessels.
The Indians are very distrustful of China and with good reason. India is expanding its military forces at a great rate to keep up with China's expansion which is all very worrying. China's overall policy is AGGRESSION, both military and financial, and anyone in NZ who lives in a fanatsy cloud cuckoo land believing anything to the contrary needs to get out more.
And something else on the subject of politics - that of NZ's. We have been bemused and horrified at the continuing tales of underhand sleazy politics just about every day in the NZ Herald and the continuing efforts of that noble organ of journalistic probity to continue to undermine legitimate criticism of the current government. While there may be legitimate argument on both sides, we believe that there has been sufficient exposure of corrupt behaviour to say "there's no smoke without fire". And there is no real democracy when those tactics are indulged in by any government. To that end we cannot bear the thought of another 3 years of a right wing National/ACT coalition and so we are channeling our votes (already cast) in another direction - NZ First. They are a centrist party and hold out the only hope of an effective brake on right wing covert spying and financially destructive policies which will see the complete selloff of NZ completed in their next term. We are keeping our fingers crossed for NZ's sake that a balanced government is the outcome of Saturday's general election.
Well, that's enough ranting for one day - we'll keep you up to date as to Jean's progress and when we can finally return to Thailand.
Hope all is well with everyone out there.........
Lots of love from us,
Jean and Jim
Chennai
INDIA.
----------
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Monday, 15 September 2014
Fwd: Jean
----- Original Message -----
To: "2XS - Peter & Marguerite" <margueriteharmsen@yahoo.com>
Cc: marguerite.harmsen@gmail.com
Subject: Jean
Date: 15 Sep 2014 12:19:48 -0000
From: zmq5985
Hi to all,
Very pleased to report that Jean underwent surgery for her 2nd hip replacement (right side) 12 hours ago and all was well. Jim saw her in Recovery afterwards and she was in good spirits. Her BP was a bit low(normal for her) but was being monitored and not serious. Our tentative plans now are to stay in hospital - the Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute here in Chennai - until Sunday and then have 2 weeks back in the hotel before flying out back to Krabi 3 weeks from now. Before the 2nd. op. she had been walking up 3 flights of stairs and walking about 1 km per day down the street. The main hazard here is the traffic which like most of India is horrendous. We have very good accommodation here with a cot bed for Jim in one corner and a sitting room with some kitchen facilities plus our own bathroom. There are 2 TV's!!
There will be a detailed blog in a day or so.
Cheers and love from us......
Jim and Jean
Chennai
INDIA.
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
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To: "2XS - Peter & Marguerite" <margueriteharmsen@yahoo.com>
Cc: marguerite.harmsen@gmail.com
Subject: Jean
Date: 15 Sep 2014 12:19:48 -0000
From: zmq5985
Hi to all,
Very pleased to report that Jean underwent surgery for her 2nd hip replacement (right side) 12 hours ago and all was well. Jim saw her in Recovery afterwards and she was in good spirits. Her BP was a bit low(normal for her) but was being monitored and not serious. Our tentative plans now are to stay in hospital - the Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute here in Chennai - until Sunday and then have 2 weeks back in the hotel before flying out back to Krabi 3 weeks from now. Before the 2nd. op. she had been walking up 3 flights of stairs and walking about 1 km per day down the street. The main hazard here is the traffic which like most of India is horrendous. We have very good accommodation here with a cot bed for Jim in one corner and a sitting room with some kitchen facilities plus our own bathroom. There are 2 TV's!!
There will be a detailed blog in a day or so.
Cheers and love from us......
Jim and Jean
Chennai
INDIA.
----- End of Original Message -----
----------
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Thursday, 4 September 2014
Blog yesterday
Hi again,
Very pleased and relieved to report that Jean's rash is not Shingles, but some other easily treated dermatological problem. If it had been Shingles then that would probably have precluded surgery in a week's time so all sorts of potential repercussions from that.
Anyway, apart from that you can tune into www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com for all our latest news.
Cheers again and love from us......
Jim and Jean
----------
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Very pleased and relieved to report that Jean's rash is not Shingles, but some other easily treated dermatological problem. If it had been Shingles then that would probably have precluded surgery in a week's time so all sorts of potential repercussions from that.
Anyway, apart from that you can tune into www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com for all our latest news.
Cheers again and love from us......
Jim and Jean
----------
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Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Day 9 post op.
Well, such a lot has happened since our last blog on day 2 after Jean's 1st. operation on her left hip.
First, we must thank all of you who have sent messages of support either by email or through Jean's Facebook page. You, and those we have rung on Skype will have had some more up to date news.
The hospital (Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute) and the Surgeon, Dr. Vijay Bose have been great. Jean has made excellent progress and the improvement day by day is absolutely amazing. Just before we left the hospital on Monday (day 7) she had even been climbing stairs. There were constant visits from the Physiotherapist and a very hunky young assistant Orthopaedic Surgeon. Jean always enjoyed his visits!! And the nurses who we have got to know quite well, have been very attentive. They are mostly local Tamils, although one is from further west towards Kerala. Tamils are startlingly dark when we are used to our pale skins (!) and very beautiful. The nurses all hold themselves well with great posture.
Our room was very comfortable with a daybed for Jim near Jean's bed, a modern well equipped bathroom and a sitting room with couch and chairs and a bench where one could prepare snacks and make tea. Also a fridge and 2 flat screen TV's. Meals were delivered 3 times a day and were always good and nutritious. And marble floors! The only other comment there was that they had a definite sameness and so became somewhat boring. Jim has eaten so much chicken that he might start flapping his wings anytime soon. Jean was very happy with the food generally - very nutritious for her post op.
We were very sad to be leaving on Monday and said fond farewells to the nurses but with the proviso that we were coming back in a few days. We were picked up by the hospital car with Jean propped up across the backseat to keep her leg elevated as there has been some swelling. We are assured that this will abate fairly soon. We drove south along the Coromandel Coast after which NZ's Coromandel was named. No idea why because you couldn't imagine anything so different. The coast here is flat and relatively uninteresting with canals, waterways and lagoons just inland. On the other hand everyone knows the rugged nature of NZ's Coromandel; doesn't matter whether you've seen it by land or by water as we did last time we were there. We went to Te Kouma and then up the west coast to Great Barrier Is. on Tiare - but that's all in the past now!!
Anyway, we carried on south feeling quite unimpressed for about 50 kms. Firstly, getting out of Chennai in the mad Indian traffic. Many dingy dilapidated buildings although every so often you would see either an old classical well maintained one along with some very impressive large modern commercial buildings. You see so many hair raising traffic violations that in the end it doesn't worry you. In fact you just have an inward and slightly nervous chuckle! We carried on south gradually getting into the countryside and then turned off the main road towards the Golden Bay Resort. We had been expecting a pleasant place where Jean in particular could relax and convalesce but, although the buildings were of a good modern standard, that's where the compliments stop. What a disappointment. The place had a generally unkempt appearance and the swimming pool which had figured highly in our reasons for booking here was murky and green. It transpired that we were the only guests and consequently the restaurant had very little food on hand, and so there were very few menu items actually available. Jean needed good nourishing food - lots of green vegetables. There was none of that although they kept saying that they could get them. They also kept ringing our room to find out when we'd be in the restaurant because they didn't want to keep it open for the advertised hours, seeing as how we were the only guests! It's quite depressing eating in a restaurant when you're the only guests. The power kept going off every hour or so - sometimes only for a few seconds but sometimes for up to 5 minutes. Pitch black in the meantime of course and we didn't have any torches. We didn't think we'd need them in what was supposed to be an upmarket resort (NZD110 per day!!). The property wasn't even on the coast; it only overlooked one of the inland lagoons which was brackish looking, shallow and totally uninteresting. The only thing of note that Jim observed was a fish which jumped completely similarly to the mullet in NZ. It jumped out and stayed flat then re-entered the water in a belly buster landing - just like the NZ version. A moment of nostalgia remembering the mullet Jim used to catch at Paroa Bay in the Bay of Islands.
However, none of this was relaxing for Jean - or indeed for Jim. We were both getting more and more frustrated and fairly cranky!!
So, we decided that we had to leave. The immediate problem was that we had paid (through Expedia NZ) in advance for 8 days. So there was a flurry of emails and acrimonious discussion with the manager and we finally got agreement to refund us the unused portion of our stay. We have had to take this on trust as it apparently takes 5-15 working days to process refunds. However, we have now received an email from Expedia which confirmed that the refund would arrive in due course. On that note, we have now been refunded by ASB Bank for the fraud which had been perpetrated when our ATM cards were copied. It seems that there is very little they can do to apprehend the thieves. Travelling these days sometimes is far from simple.
The next day early afternoon a vehicle arrived to transport us back to Chennai. The hospital had told us that the cost should be 2500 Rupees (NZD50) but the resort insisted on 3800 Rs - later reduced to 3500 Rs after Jean roundly abused them. Rogues pure and simple but we were in no position to argue. Jean had her feet up again - just like the wife of the pukkha sahib in the back!! And she's not even me wife!!!!! The hospital meanwhile had organised a booking at the Quality Inn back in Chennai for 4,000 Rs per night (NZD80). A bargain here because Chennai is a bustling city with so much commercial activity. The Quality Inn is mainly a corporate hotel with 5 conferences in-house observed so far today. We arrived around 1530 yesterday and soon settled in. Such a different feel from where we had been. Another small thing, but the laundry comes back on the same day and the shirts all nicely ironed with cardboard inserts - just like bought ones!! The food in the restaurant is excellent (cream of spinach soup to die for) and the room is very comfortable with a large king size bed which is an asset with Jean's need to keep her leg elevated to alleviate the swelling which is actually now starting to decrease. Jim is getting used to this nursing lark with lifting her leg into place and helping with removing and putting on of clothes. No (!), we are not 40 years younger any more!! She now also has another problem with a suspected rash of Shingles appearing on her back. It's not too bad so far but is a worry, particularly with surgery for the other hip scheduled for 7 day's time. We have an appointment tomorrow back at the hospital for 1030 and they are sending a car to pick us up. Hopefully it can be dealt with satisfactorily.
Des back at Popeye in Krabi Boat Lagoon has been suggesting that Jean may well be climbing Mt. Everest soon with 2 Deltamotion hips providing bionic power. Jim has replied that she may well go up for the day to admire the view but there's no way he's going up with his knees. He has a nasty feeling that with this new found mobility he may well be cut off at the knees - just keeping his head down at the moment to avoid flying crutches and dreaming of being back on Tiare and Captain once more! Actually the crutches haven't started flying yet, but the manager at the resort is lucky they weren't bent around his neck! She won't need the crutches for much longer although after the 2nd. hip op. it will be back to the walker for a few days then crutches again. But all in a good cause.
Well, that's it again for a while. Tomorrow we plan to go walking in the street - avoiding potholes and other Indian footpath paraphernalia should be fun on crutches!!
More to come as always..........
Lotsaluv from us
Jim and Jean
Quality Inn Sabari Hotel
29 Thirumalai Road,
T. Nagar,
Chennai 600 017
INDIA.
----------
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First, we must thank all of you who have sent messages of support either by email or through Jean's Facebook page. You, and those we have rung on Skype will have had some more up to date news.
The hospital (Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute) and the Surgeon, Dr. Vijay Bose have been great. Jean has made excellent progress and the improvement day by day is absolutely amazing. Just before we left the hospital on Monday (day 7) she had even been climbing stairs. There were constant visits from the Physiotherapist and a very hunky young assistant Orthopaedic Surgeon. Jean always enjoyed his visits!! And the nurses who we have got to know quite well, have been very attentive. They are mostly local Tamils, although one is from further west towards Kerala. Tamils are startlingly dark when we are used to our pale skins (!) and very beautiful. The nurses all hold themselves well with great posture.
Our room was very comfortable with a daybed for Jim near Jean's bed, a modern well equipped bathroom and a sitting room with couch and chairs and a bench where one could prepare snacks and make tea. Also a fridge and 2 flat screen TV's. Meals were delivered 3 times a day and were always good and nutritious. And marble floors! The only other comment there was that they had a definite sameness and so became somewhat boring. Jim has eaten so much chicken that he might start flapping his wings anytime soon. Jean was very happy with the food generally - very nutritious for her post op.
We were very sad to be leaving on Monday and said fond farewells to the nurses but with the proviso that we were coming back in a few days. We were picked up by the hospital car with Jean propped up across the backseat to keep her leg elevated as there has been some swelling. We are assured that this will abate fairly soon. We drove south along the Coromandel Coast after which NZ's Coromandel was named. No idea why because you couldn't imagine anything so different. The coast here is flat and relatively uninteresting with canals, waterways and lagoons just inland. On the other hand everyone knows the rugged nature of NZ's Coromandel; doesn't matter whether you've seen it by land or by water as we did last time we were there. We went to Te Kouma and then up the west coast to Great Barrier Is. on Tiare - but that's all in the past now!!
Anyway, we carried on south feeling quite unimpressed for about 50 kms. Firstly, getting out of Chennai in the mad Indian traffic. Many dingy dilapidated buildings although every so often you would see either an old classical well maintained one along with some very impressive large modern commercial buildings. You see so many hair raising traffic violations that in the end it doesn't worry you. In fact you just have an inward and slightly nervous chuckle! We carried on south gradually getting into the countryside and then turned off the main road towards the Golden Bay Resort. We had been expecting a pleasant place where Jean in particular could relax and convalesce but, although the buildings were of a good modern standard, that's where the compliments stop. What a disappointment. The place had a generally unkempt appearance and the swimming pool which had figured highly in our reasons for booking here was murky and green. It transpired that we were the only guests and consequently the restaurant had very little food on hand, and so there were very few menu items actually available. Jean needed good nourishing food - lots of green vegetables. There was none of that although they kept saying that they could get them. They also kept ringing our room to find out when we'd be in the restaurant because they didn't want to keep it open for the advertised hours, seeing as how we were the only guests! It's quite depressing eating in a restaurant when you're the only guests. The power kept going off every hour or so - sometimes only for a few seconds but sometimes for up to 5 minutes. Pitch black in the meantime of course and we didn't have any torches. We didn't think we'd need them in what was supposed to be an upmarket resort (NZD110 per day!!). The property wasn't even on the coast; it only overlooked one of the inland lagoons which was brackish looking, shallow and totally uninteresting. The only thing of note that Jim observed was a fish which jumped completely similarly to the mullet in NZ. It jumped out and stayed flat then re-entered the water in a belly buster landing - just like the NZ version. A moment of nostalgia remembering the mullet Jim used to catch at Paroa Bay in the Bay of Islands.
However, none of this was relaxing for Jean - or indeed for Jim. We were both getting more and more frustrated and fairly cranky!!
So, we decided that we had to leave. The immediate problem was that we had paid (through Expedia NZ) in advance for 8 days. So there was a flurry of emails and acrimonious discussion with the manager and we finally got agreement to refund us the unused portion of our stay. We have had to take this on trust as it apparently takes 5-15 working days to process refunds. However, we have now received an email from Expedia which confirmed that the refund would arrive in due course. On that note, we have now been refunded by ASB Bank for the fraud which had been perpetrated when our ATM cards were copied. It seems that there is very little they can do to apprehend the thieves. Travelling these days sometimes is far from simple.
The next day early afternoon a vehicle arrived to transport us back to Chennai. The hospital had told us that the cost should be 2500 Rupees (NZD50) but the resort insisted on 3800 Rs - later reduced to 3500 Rs after Jean roundly abused them. Rogues pure and simple but we were in no position to argue. Jean had her feet up again - just like the wife of the pukkha sahib in the back!! And she's not even me wife!!!!! The hospital meanwhile had organised a booking at the Quality Inn back in Chennai for 4,000 Rs per night (NZD80). A bargain here because Chennai is a bustling city with so much commercial activity. The Quality Inn is mainly a corporate hotel with 5 conferences in-house observed so far today. We arrived around 1530 yesterday and soon settled in. Such a different feel from where we had been. Another small thing, but the laundry comes back on the same day and the shirts all nicely ironed with cardboard inserts - just like bought ones!! The food in the restaurant is excellent (cream of spinach soup to die for) and the room is very comfortable with a large king size bed which is an asset with Jean's need to keep her leg elevated to alleviate the swelling which is actually now starting to decrease. Jim is getting used to this nursing lark with lifting her leg into place and helping with removing and putting on of clothes. No (!), we are not 40 years younger any more!! She now also has another problem with a suspected rash of Shingles appearing on her back. It's not too bad so far but is a worry, particularly with surgery for the other hip scheduled for 7 day's time. We have an appointment tomorrow back at the hospital for 1030 and they are sending a car to pick us up. Hopefully it can be dealt with satisfactorily.
Des back at Popeye in Krabi Boat Lagoon has been suggesting that Jean may well be climbing Mt. Everest soon with 2 Deltamotion hips providing bionic power. Jim has replied that she may well go up for the day to admire the view but there's no way he's going up with his knees. He has a nasty feeling that with this new found mobility he may well be cut off at the knees - just keeping his head down at the moment to avoid flying crutches and dreaming of being back on Tiare and Captain once more! Actually the crutches haven't started flying yet, but the manager at the resort is lucky they weren't bent around his neck! She won't need the crutches for much longer although after the 2nd. hip op. it will be back to the walker for a few days then crutches again. But all in a good cause.
Well, that's it again for a while. Tomorrow we plan to go walking in the street - avoiding potholes and other Indian footpath paraphernalia should be fun on crutches!!
More to come as always..........
Lotsaluv from us
Jim and Jean
Quality Inn Sabari Hotel
29 Thirumalai Road,
T. Nagar,
Chennai 600 017
INDIA.
----------
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