I've been in Goa for almost a month now and I can't believe how quickly time passes here. I'm settling into a routine of sorts, although not one which results in me knowing what day it is when I wake up - it really is strange opening your eyes in the morning and having to work out what day it is and knowing the date rarely seems to matter! The main change in the last week or so is that I no longer feel like I'm on a month long holiday which is about to end, I've finally accepted that I'm in India now for the duration which definitely feels strange. We spend our days at the beach, at the markets, eating and drinking or just sitting on Tor and Mohamed's terrace with the dogs - it really is a relaxing life but at the same time one I know I couldn't live forever. After school, college, university and then three years working in London I was definitely ready for a break but the last few weeks in Goa have made me realise how much I enjoy the hussle and bussle of 'real life', despite the working hours and dodgy weather back home! I'm planning to be in Goa for a couple of months until my sister's wedding on January 5th, after that I'll be back on the traveller road for the next few months so I'm enjoying the easy life for a while! I should point out that 'the season' hasn't even started here yet so the last few weeks have been a novelty for me; having only been to India at Christmas or Easter previously it's been lovely to see Goa before the truck loads of tourists arrive, before it really gets going. From next week, everything will change - more of our friends arrive, the Saturday night flea market begins (always a highlight - even if you don't buy anything the bar and live music make it THE destination for a Saturday eve here) and Goa will start to feel more energetic compared to the lethargic chilled out environment I've been enjoying for the past month and although I've loved the 'relaxed Goa', I'm very excited about what comes next.

I really appreciated the lack of tourists last week when Mohamed took me out for a driving lesson on the scooter. Tor and Mo go everywhere by bike (as do most people we know here - dad is the exception on his push bike!) but at the moment Laura and I are travelling everywhere by rickshaw, taxi or bus. The bus is cheaper than cheap and a lot of fun actually (only 5 rupees per journey so less than ten pence per trip) but the rickshaw and taxi fares are starting to add up so I suggested having a go on the bike to see just how terrified I'd actually be on it and if I was even remotely capable of driving one. I've been driving in England for seven years so I did hope that this would prepare me slightly for driving a bike over here as they drive on the left hand side of the road in India but after my experience driving mum's car here a couple of weeks ago I didn't hold out much hope of feeling confident on the road. In the car I was pretty scared, without the protection of the armour of a car I was petrified. At first I was completely terrified and despite having Mohamed behind me with his hands over mine on the controls I felt incredibly vulnerable and scared witless of the potential catastrophe I could cause in the driving seat of the bike. Every movement I made, even the slightest clench of my fist, affected the bike in some way - I was speeding up or slowly down unintentionally, steering straight but somehow heading for a ditch because of the angle of my hips, basically the bike seemed to have a mind of its' own. But after a while, Mohamed's hands weren't on the controls anymore and we weren't crashing. I was driving solo (and at a reasonable definitely not a snail pace speed) along the road, allowing cars to pass me, going over speedbumps without squealing and having an excellent time. Admittedly when we swapped back to Mohamed driving my entire upper body ached from the constant tension whilst driving (and three days later my shoulder still aches) but overall it was a positive experience and one that I'm going to repeat when he takes me out again this week! It might be a while before I'm cruising along Baga road without a care in the world but I'm certainly trying to get there!

One of the harder things about being out here is missing home, or rather people at home - everyone knows what I'm doing because of the blog, where I'm going and what I'm getting up to, even seeing my trip literally through my eyes with my photographs but I have no idea about so many things that are happening back home and it's strange to be so out of the loop. I know part of the travelling experience is leaving everything behind until you get back but I can't help missing hearing what is going on in people's lives; hopefully after reading this some of you will get emailing and tell me what's been going on with you! I can't really say I feel homesick as I have my mum, dad and little sister here with me in Goa (home away from home!) but I am missing certain things other than people - baths, shoes and wine being three of them. Baths don't really exist here and although Tor has an amazing bathroom with a massive sunken shower in it I can't help missing bubble baths. I think it's because in November I'm usually doing everything I can to keep warm and I'm currently doing whatever I can to cool down so a hot bubble bath over here would be completely useless but it remains a favourite thing of mine for a winter evening and I miss it. Wearing shoes is a similar issue - obviously I'm wearing shoes but they're flip flops and a constant flip flop wearer I am not. I'm having to wash my feet several times a day and yet I still have consistently dirty feet which after six weeks I'm still not used to. And wine. Wine I miss. Goa is very much a spirit and beer drinking place - bottles of rum/vodka/gin are less than £2 each, mixers cost next to nothing and beers are less than 50p a bottle. Wine however, is more like £10 per bottle if you want something drinkable, getting closer to £20 if you want something pleasant. After a childhood being surrounded by excellent wine I have become a fan of a good glass and even in my student days didn't mind forking out a little extra for a bottle of something decent but here, on my traveller budget, drinking red wine on a regular basis isn't really an option. All I can say is bring on Christmas, the one day of the year when we all drink red wine and say sod it when it comes to the cost! In the meantime I keep having occasional small tastes of home to tide me over - Heinz baked beans on toast at Infantaria Cafe in Calangute, goats cheese and balsamic sandwiches (panic over people, I discovered that finding cheese was not a problem so my addiction to all things fromage may continue), mum and I even had KFC on our recent visit to Panjim (the capital city of Goa) which was bizarre but delicious at the same time. I'm eating so much wonderful food here but sometimes all you want is comfort food that reminds you of home, I've even been making Nigella's marmite pasta in a bid to fend of the dozens of mosquitoes that try to attack me on a daily basis (I heard a rumour that eating Marmite keeps the mosquitoes away - I'll keep you posted on the results of this experiment!). Now if someone could just sort me out with a Pret sandwich I'd really be in heaven!

Food aside, the other thing that I'm finally getting used to here is the weather. For the first three weeks of my trip I was fine, the weather in Rajasthan was fantastic and I was acclimatised and comfortable within a couple of days. Arriving into Dabolim airport in Goa was a very different story. It was 33 degrees on landing and the humidity here is ridiculous, we're still in the post monsoon period of the year and the temperature has been steadily rising (or at least it felt like it was!) on a daily basis. All of this changed two nights ago - we were at a BBQ on the beach at Papai's shack and suddenly the heavens opened and it rained and rained and rained. Rain like I've never seen before in India, an immediate downpour that went on for a few hours on and off, heavy warm rain that would instantly soak you to the skin if you were caught in it. It was incredible to see and a stroke of good fortune for Tor who was immediately happy that her garden would get a good soaking. The weather had been building towards rain for days but I was still happily surpirsed when it eventually came (and admittedly equally happy when it momentarily stopped when we set off home from the beach!). It's usually constant glorious sunshine in Goa so a evening of serious rain made a refreshing change from the norm. On a separate note, a happy side affect of all this sunshine is that despite my skin being coated in factor 30 at all times (factor 50 on my face!) I am actually starting to show signs of a tan - being so pale I'm often compared to a chicken breast by Indians which is less than flattering so any hint of heading in the direction of gold rather than porcelain is fine by me. I guarantee that I'll probably leave India in April and return to England the same colour as I left in October but we'll see, perhaps six months is just the right amount of time to actually look like I've been away to a hot country! I know I'm terrible going on about suntans and being excruciatingly hot when everyone back in the UK is dealing with wind and rain and being cold cold cold so I'll shut up about it for now and solemnly promise that when I burn and turn bright red (which is inevitable, I've never been on holiday and not gone the colour of a ripe tomato at some point) I will post a picture on here so whilst wrapped up at home with the central heating on full, you can enjoy a fleeting moment of wicked joy at my misfortune during my Indian summer :-)

I have a busy day ahead of me so I'm going to have to dash off - Roshan is tattooing Laura today (the same guy who did Tor and Mo's tattoos over here) and then we're heading to Anjuna market later on to see our friend Jan do her first singing performance of the season, it should be a good day!