The monsoon has started!
It was predicted to hit Delhi on the 28th of june but it came early, and as the scorching 48ºC has now turned into a delightfully 26ºC, it's a relief!
We have thunderstorms every day now - the sky turns into a very dark grey and when the rumbling starts the winds start as well...then the rain comes, as if the gods are turning buckets full of water upside down. The roads and sewer systems cannot cope and streets (especially the ones downhill) turn into rivers, with stranted tuctuc's standing deserted left and right, the occasional car ploughing through. Thank god we bought a jeep-type car!
Our garden turned into a pool, parts of it at least. There is suddenly so much water that the grounds are satiated...I am sure the vegetables will drown (we still have rucola, fennel, leek and sellery in the garden). Oh well, part of the How-To-Grow-Vegetables-In-India experience. I'm learning every day. It surprises T and me that the Indians haven't build large underground reservoirs for the excess rains, as a reserve for the hot summer when there are water shortages. With the enormous amounts of people, and cheap labour costs, achieving that should not be a big problem.
For now we are busy checking the house for the inevitable leakages, making sure the cats and the chickens are dry and safe, and keeping the generator running as frequently trees will fall onto electricity wires, cutting us off. By the time we are ready for a boat to roam our garden, we'll post another blog!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
So much for the digital highway... I cannot upload pictures from our home as the system -despite claims that it is broadband- will not even upload a 100k file...and now I cannot upload from the embassy either as their system changed and T has his own internet connection now, to which I have no access. So...no more pictures from now on!
Monday, June 11, 2007
India is HOT!!!
No, not in the sense of booming...India is literally Hot...very very Hot...I don't think I have ever been so Hot in my life! And given the fact that we lived in Sudan on the edge of the Sahara when I was a child, that says something!
Yesterday it was 40ºC in the shade and 48ºC in the sun...even the wind feels hot, scorching, like you are sitting in an oven. Inside we have a permanent temperature of 36ºC and the airco's (of which we can only run two at the time since the wiring of the house will not allow for more) cannot keep up...the coolest we manage to get our bedroom is 22ºC (with the airco set on 17!).
Our clothes feel as if they have just been ironed, the marble -which is everywhere in the house- feels warm and the floor feels as if we have a permanent underfloor heating on, set on "Korean temperature in the winter" (app 34ºC). The water from the coldwater tap is so hot that we cannot use it (my thermometer stops at 42º and it was way beyond that), the water from the boilers -which have now been switched off- have a bearable 36ºC, the outside temperature. My brain has switched off...overheated. I can only sit very quietly, walking to the fridge for a cool drink once in a while, and then returning to my seat in front of the airco. I feel deeply for all those people who live in the streets, with no access to cooling, powercuts of hours in a row and no generator, and sometimes even without access to water! India still has a long way to go before it is truly booming on all levels of society!
Mr. Gill tells me that we can expect this temparature for 40 days, and then the monsoon will come - I am starting to understand why everybody takes their annual leave around this time if they can be missed. Next year, I am planning a vacation to Antartica in June....
No, not in the sense of booming...India is literally Hot...very very Hot...I don't think I have ever been so Hot in my life! And given the fact that we lived in Sudan on the edge of the Sahara when I was a child, that says something!
Yesterday it was 40ºC in the shade and 48ºC in the sun...even the wind feels hot, scorching, like you are sitting in an oven. Inside we have a permanent temperature of 36ºC and the airco's (of which we can only run two at the time since the wiring of the house will not allow for more) cannot keep up...the coolest we manage to get our bedroom is 22ºC (with the airco set on 17!).
Our clothes feel as if they have just been ironed, the marble -which is everywhere in the house- feels warm and the floor feels as if we have a permanent underfloor heating on, set on "Korean temperature in the winter" (app 34ºC). The water from the coldwater tap is so hot that we cannot use it (my thermometer stops at 42º and it was way beyond that), the water from the boilers -which have now been switched off- have a bearable 36ºC, the outside temperature. My brain has switched off...overheated. I can only sit very quietly, walking to the fridge for a cool drink once in a while, and then returning to my seat in front of the airco. I feel deeply for all those people who live in the streets, with no access to cooling, powercuts of hours in a row and no generator, and sometimes even without access to water! India still has a long way to go before it is truly booming on all levels of society!
Mr. Gill tells me that we can expect this temparature for 40 days, and then the monsoon will come - I am starting to understand why everybody takes their annual leave around this time if they can be missed. Next year, I am planning a vacation to Antartica in June....
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