It could be quiet for a while

We're going to the NCF guest hosue in Mysore at 9am tomorrow (which means a 6am start to get to NCBS and have breakfast in time). No idea when I'll next get access to the net so I will update stuff when I do.

Mossies...

...apear to have aquired a fancy for my left leg, but no-where else. Now have 7 bites.

Friday 2

There was suddenly a cry of SNAAKE, ran out to see but sadly I missed it. Sophie who was the one who spotted it (pretty much next to her) realised it was a cobra and filmed it eating the frog I sat on a couple of days ago - tough life...

Heading off to Mysore then Bandipur either tomorrow or Sunday (we're doing India organisation) so not sure when I'll have the next access to the internet. Also my laptop's fan has stopped working so it could melt at any point so we'll have to see how that goes.

Today I was outwitted by monkeys (as was Kate)

Today NCBS contained: 2 Monkeys

I was sitting drinking the worlds sweetest cup of coffee (I'm pretty sure it was about ninety percent sugar) enjoying a break in the sun, bliss. This was obviously far too calm for me so two monkeys appeared in the ground, climbed the building and entered in an upper floor window. Kate and I grabbed our cameras and ran up the stairs to take photos. While we were climbing the stairs they jumped back out the window, to where we had been sitting, and started rummaging through bags, stealing my tasty dextrose tablets and Kate's Nalgene water bottle. We ran down as they ascended the building and watched as one of them opened the bottle but managed to poor the water on his own face (Nick took a photo of it playing with its testicles so it was definitely a boy). We were obviously not only conned by a monkey but conned by a stupid monkey. After drenching itself it dropped the bottle off the top of the building which Kate collected unscathed, lending credence to Nalgene's "unbreakable" reputation. There were only bite marks on the lid... (we've helpfully suggested she washes it. The monkeys then went back indoors to continue their reign of chaos and steal a woman's icecream. As we got closer to take photos it decided it was his icecream and chased us with fangs bared, so we scattered giggling (by this time it was me, Nick, Kate and two other guys who we didn't know (one Indian and one possibly dutch?). Escaped unscathed but a little over sunned due to the time chasing them about.

Going to a "banquet" this evening, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably going to contain curry (curried rice for breakfast this morning, tasty but still a little odd to be eating at 8am).

Thursday

After an epic two hours of pingpong yesterday with a Nick, Sophie and a smelly man, we had to get up at 6:50 am. So far today I have learned hydrology is dull.

Tuesday

Icecreams had: 1 (Mango yumyumyum)

Nearly wet myself today when I was sitting on the grass (mmm colonial) enjoying a coffee while having a break between work and a cleverly disguised frog leaped onto me from between my legs. A giant argument broke out in the middle of our lecture (on how we should focus the fight for conservation) and I managed to shut up one of the prestigious scientists I mentioned yesterday with my insightful comment, hurrah.
Just waiting for dinner now...

Monday

Bite Tally: 1

Today we started our workshop on Biodiversity at the most prestigious biological science department in the country - many cleverer people than I are taking part (who are actually biologists) including a couple of India's big name scientists (who I have read some books by). Interesting but hard work. Halfway through the afternoon a monkey decided to climb in through the window so someone hit it with a book. Spent the evening playing Uno with many people (Mexican rules) and played midnight table tennis (which is table tennis at midnight) but I only had half a bat.

Sunday

On Sunday Nick and I decided to go to Bangalore...
Looking back we're not quite sure why - But Koos (lecturer and researcher on Bees) Mette (my supervisor) and Anders (her son) we're getting a taxi in, and on the spur of the moment we decided to join them. While we were there it was pretty uneventful, having a look at Tippus palace, a Mango exhibition and having a few more people requesting photos of Nick and I. It was when were leaving things got a little exciting.
Nick and I decided to get a TucTuc to IISc (Indian Institute of Science) to eat at their restaurant there while Mette, Koos and Anders were heading back to NCBS. We set off, not really recognising anything and after about an hour of travelling he pulls into the Indian Institute of Management - we promptly pointed out his mistake. Trying to work out what/where the IISc is, he queries the guard, during which time someone starts fumigating the area around us with fungicide - with our driver failing to realise we probably shouldn't be in this cloud of death. Finally he turns round and sets off back down the road we came (back past an open river of sewage). Then the monsoon hit and today happens to be the day where I didn't plan on doing anything so I failed to bring my waterproof. By the end of the hour long journey back to our starting point - I was very wet and getting wetter, however we were probably doing better than the guy we saw fall of his bike, and the two blokes who had crashed and knackered their cars (but were well enough to shout at each other in the middle of a "motorway"). Now someone decided it would be a good idea to drive into the back of us on a motorbike, cue much shouting in the middle of the road. We finally pulled into IISc, in a very moist state, 3 hours after setting off amid thunder and sparking lamposts. Settled down with a curry and a coke. Laughed.

On Saturday

I have... made one child cry by being white, made about 50 children happy by being white (one of them called Nick Obama) and had about 10 photographs with various people. Not quite as bad as Kate who had a bus load of people drive up, surround her and take photos.
Anyway, sorry about the lack of writing, we've had a couple of hectic days. We're staying outside of Bangalore at the NCBS (National Centre for Biological Science), which is a about 20 minutes from IISc (Indian Institute of Science - the main campus) which is then about 30 minutes (in ok traffic) from Bangalore itself....
...so. The first day was fairly uneventful, checking out the main campus, exchanging some money but then we discovered the guy in Thomas Cook (oh yes) was a rapper who then gave us some impromptu freestyle rapping while converting our cash. We then headed to the centre, got some lunch and went to the the park to be accostedby children and adults alike (in a nice way.) A seemingly proffesional photographer turned up at one point, so if anyone heads to India sometime soon, keep an eye out to see if we're the new face of an elite apartment block. We decided to take the Bus back for an authentic experiene - it's as mad as it looks on the photos, you try not to get on last otherwise you spend most of your time trying not to fall out. Two hours later and a pint of sweat less we arrived back. Spent the rest of the evening with Nick, Justine and Sophie on the balcony with a few beers until 4am. Pledged never to return to Bangalore.