Evening all! How are we?

Well i am now in India ... Madurai to be exact, its in the south for those of you scanning a map at present desperately trying to find it. Got here late on Sunday after a killer day, one which i would not wish on anyone and would never like to go through again personally.

Anyways, so carrying on from last Thursday ... i think. So Thursday i had my last morning at the school, but yet again the mens club in the evening was called off. This did however allow me to venture into Columbo with the others (well most of the others, the zoo girls stayed in and had a b**** about us apparently ... the whole its got better thing, yeah well that didnt last. Its a shame as they seem really nice girls on their own, but as 'Team Zoo' they were just a bit of a nightmare.) ... right so into Columbo the rest of us went. Samie had used her contacts to score us a night at the Oz embasy in town. What a wicked night too. Unfortunately Rob fell ill that night so i was the only lad, but we met loads of people there, and there was plenty of cheap booze. We met up with Sam & Andy who Samie introduced us to the previous week (they both work for the UN) and we also met a mate of Samie's brother called Richard (i think). Richard was really cool and seemed to have an awesome job out here organising tours for sports teams. I also met a US Marine who had previously served an 8 month stint in Iraq, he was an interesting chap to chat to. The rest of the night was just simply fun, having a drink, having a dance, sampling (or in my, Charlottes and Samie's case SCOFFING) some of the delightful pies they were handing out. Ashamedly in my semi drunken state i did dance to both YMCA and Greece ... but we've all been there havent we!? ... havent we? ... its not just me is it? S**T!

Friday i made my last visit to the school which was really quite sad. I spent a good 2 hours there though, and seemingly just as long saying goodbye. The kids at that school were amazing, i'd love to go back, hopefully they'd recognise me. During the day on Friday i said goodbye to Natalie, Jenny, Sophie and Charlotte as they were off to the rain forest and i'd be gone by the time they got back. Awesome bunch of girls! There was however more partying to be done on Friday night and many more shapes to be cut. Friday night myself, Samie & Rob were taken by Tyron (school footy coach) to his friends wedding party. Now as you might have guessed Asian weddings are huge, and this was no exception. At first all was quiet, we werent sure whether to have a drink or not but things gradually started to pick up and we all made new friends and in the end it pretty much turned into a rave. I'm pretty sure i was sexually assaulted at one point by one of Tyrons mates, after shaking his hand he proceeded to stroke my face and play with my hair a bit. Very scary, but we did all burst out laughing afterwards. Dont think i'll ever live my episode of facial rape down. Rob was next as he was cornered by a lad we were to later name stinky pinky. SP was the life and sole of the party, dancing from the first till last and seemingly wanted rob to accompany him all the way. He was christened SP because of the amount of sweat that was pouring from every oriphis as he paraded around the dancefloor. His delightfully camp pink shirt was by the end of the night a rather unhealthy looking shade of red. We did all have a dance and generally on the whole enjoyed our first Sri Lankan wedding experience. We had our photos taken with the happy couple and also watched them get grilled by their elders in what could only be described as a post wedding press conference.

Saturday ... my last full day in Sri Lanka. Good day though, myself, Rob and Samie went to Kegalle to visit the elephant orphange there. Travellers have a placement there and most of the girls at the Ja Ela house at some point will have worked there. The day was long but eventful. We got to watch elephant feedings and bathings, we also got to ride one. Probably one of the most unsafe things i've ever done but good fun. I just couldnt stop laughing even though i was at time inches from falling 8/9 ft to the ground and snapping my pine ... most probably taking the other two with me. Think we all had a slight case of groin strain afterwards.

... And that was it for Sri Lanka, i left for the airport the following morning. I'd never have imagined that saying goodbye to Samie and Rob would have been that hard but my god it was. I'm male and therefore emotionally retarded so i'm not good at goodbye and probably looked like i wasnt bothered to be leaving, but that couldnt be further from the truth .... it was absolutely gut wrenching! I'm 92.78789679867689689YMCA89890809809% sure i'll go back for a week or so, but it was still killer. That day was physically and mentally draining to the extreme. Throughout i just wanted to turn around and go back. I had two flights, only an hour and a half each but it took all day to reach Madurai. I was met at the airport by Pradeep the project coorinator andf supprisingly both of my bags ... result.

Now India .... its early days but to say i'm not having the best of times would be an understatement. Dont get me wrong the other volunteers are all really nice, and the house is fine, but since i've arrived i've found that there is very little,if any demand for football coaching in Madurai .... so why am i here??? Its been a bit of a shambles so far, i've sat around the house for three days pretty much. I did visit a school yesterday (tues) and watch a football game but as to whether i'll be coaching there who knows? We're going away this weekend so i'll give it till next week but if nothing develops after that i can see myself making a sharp return to JA Ela, which would be a shame as i'm sure India has loads to offer ... just not opportunities to coach football. On the bright side the house does have ESPN (sorry Rob) so i've got to catch up on a bit of sport, and there are a few others here who like a drink and a laugh. We spent last night playing Kings/ring of fire. As per usual my luck was out and i got the 4th king ... my forfit being to stand on a chair and sing a song for a minute whilst downing a shot of vodka.

Dont really know what else to say about india, writing this has probably been the longest amount of time i've spent out of the house.

I've got photos from my last weekend in sri lanka which i'm trying to upload as i type this but it doesnt seem to keen to allow them, just keep an eye out in the future if you're interested.

Right i'm off to ... well sit in the house. Apparently Nick if you want to pay for something that will make you truely miserable just splash out a grand to come football coaching in India ... hopefully it wont last though.

Until next week!

NB.

I have just found out Rangers lost at home to derby so please take into consideration that this blog would not have been as negative had we won, as we should have.

Derby ... F**ks sake.