How is it February already?! Somehow I've managed to neglect the blog for almost a month which is absolutely not acceptable.....my bad :-S I think the reason for this is twofold - firstly I've been really busy (although if you asked me to be specific I bet I'd have trouble telling you exactly what I've been doing with my time!) and secondly, I'm really starting to feel like I live here now, I've settled into a bit of a routine which is as terrifying as it is comforting. The bottom line here is that I do not want to come home in April. So many people warned me that this would happen; that I'd go away and be bitten by the travelling bug and want to keep going to who knows what destination. This isn't strictly true in my case, it's more that I still haven't decided what direction I want my life to go in, my career, where I'm going to live, all those really important things that need to be considered. I'm not ready to make those decisions yet and the 4th April is starting to feel dangerously close rather than a million miles away. One of the options that I'm looking into is doing a CELTA course to qualify to teach English abroad. My big sister did this and teaches in Spain now - it's just an idea but one that I'm seriously considering as it would mean I can work anywhere in the world whilst the job situation in England improves. I got a taste of teaching English last week when I covered for Tor at her school. I don't think I've mentioned it before but Tor works as an English teacher nowadays (general conversation - those of you who know her know how good she is at talking!!) in a school in Goa. She's teaching students (mainly 20 year old boys) from the Middle East (mainly Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan) and she absolutely loves it. She managed to get sick last week though so I was called in at the last minute as a substitute teacher - honestly I was absolutely terrified driving to the school beforehand but once the classes started I soon got my confidence back and by the end of the day I'd really enjoyed myself. It was actually really interesting having to look at the English language from a non-speakers' point of view and as my teaching experience is limited to Rosie and I teaching five year olds to speak French when we were eighteen I'm not exactly what you'd call an experienced teacher. I did enjoy it though and can understand why Toria gets so much out of it; once these boys manage to have a proper conversation with you when they arrived in India a couple of months ago with no English whatsoever it really does make you feel like you've accomplished something. Credit where it's due here though, I only taught them for a couple of days so big congrats to Toria for being such a good teacher!

Goa's the kind of place where nothing really changes but one major change has happened to India as a whole in the last week - the announcement on 25th January of new temporary restrictions which are set to cause serious trouble for the tourism industry here for the next 5 weeks:

"It was announced this morning that with effect today, the following restrictions will be imposed across the whole of Goa until the 6th March. 25th Jan until 5th Feb, all bars, restaurants, wine shops, shacks will close at 11pm and not open until 9am the next day. From 6th Feb until 6th March all the above will close at 10pm and not reopen before 9am the next morning. The 1st, 2nd & 3rd march along with the 6th March will be dry days."

I've been coming to Goa for twelve years and I have NEVER seen it like this. There are plenty of places in Goa to go for peace and quiet etc but a lot of what makes Goa 'Goa' is the nightlife here - we eat late, we drink late, we dance late. And I don't just mean the clubbing types, I mean anyone and everyone who goes out to socialise, maybe (and more often than not here) have a drink or two and just have a pleasant evening. There is a huge community of long termers here so tourists aside, for people like my parents and their friends, and my friends here too actually, closing all bars and restaurants at 11pm is having a huge effect on the way we spend our evenings. If I'm honest I'm glad that I'm in Amritsar and Varanasi for the first nine days of the 10pm curfew month as that will just be bizarre! Driving down Calangute high street at 11:30pm to see each and every bar and restaurant closed, lights out and shutters down, empty and lifeless, it honestly seems like it 5am rather than before midnight. The whole atmosphere of Goa has changed in the last week and so many businesses are suffering as a result of this ridiculous change. Apparently it's because of the upcoming election - the idea is that if you curb drinking to before 11pm, people are less likely to get into drunken discussions about politics and cause trouble. This is, of course, absolute rubbish. The alcohol might stop being sold at 11pm but the result isn't crowds of sober people merrily going home, the reality is people are drinking earlier and faster and probably consuming a lot more than they would have if these restrictions hadn't been put in place. As one newspaper wrote, it's bureaucracy gone mad.

The rest of the month has really been a bit of a blur - Rodger, Claire and Kim left India on 8th January and we had such a lovely couple of weeks with them - I really went into holiday mode during their visit. It took them all being here to make me realise that I am actually 'living' in India and I'm not just on some kind of extended holiday - every day they were here we went to a different beach or pool or market and ate out every night (actually there were a few home cooked meals at dads to be fair but still fancy food every day!) but we were busy busy busy and were pretty much non-stop for the whole fortnight. It was only after they went home (sob) that I went back to just living here again - plans being made on a day to day basis if at all, doing whatever I wanted when I wanted, wandering wherever I pleased and settling back into my non-routine. I managed to get burnt for the first time in three and a half months (and I mean BURNT! Thankfully not all over but believe me it was painful) so I'm back on the factor 50 now, I'm not taking any risks! I am really happy at the moment though - I think meeting someone has had something to do with it but everything else too, I really feel like I'm home. I'm so happy at the moment you can't even imagine, I'm like a ridiculous smiling person all the time. Another reason that my leaving in April is all the more complicated - I've got some serious thinking to do!

I'm heading off to Amritsar and Varanasi on Saturday (with a quick stop in Delhi on the way there and back) which I'm really looking forward to. It feels like I've been in Goa forever so it'll be nice to do some proper travelling again and just like in October I feel like I'm leaving people behind that I'm really really going to miss - the only difference is that this time they're not in the UK, they're here. I am in serious trouble!