The Girl's are back in town!

My week here has flown by, so much so that I almost forgot that Jessie would be returning to commandeer her flat back off me.

She arrived yesterday in the small hours of the morning and headed straight to sleep only to be woken at around 10am by a phone call telling her that her interview (for Virgin Atlantic again!) had been moved forward to 12.30pm that day. Panic ensued. Her CV wasn't ready, she had no photos to hand over, and (of course) nothing to wear. In a magical effort on both parts we managed to scrape everything together and get her down to Central Mumbai in the absolute nik of time. I left her to it and went for a walk along Marine Drive eventually settling myself on the wall to read a book. An hour passed and I had made 2 new friends... Sandy, a student from the near-by college, and Jaysh, a guide from the 'Prince of Wales Museum' who offered to give me free entry and a free tour some time. Very kind, might do that tomorrow.

After her interview (which apparently went "OK") we went and had lunch at Leopold's in Cabala then walked around some of the street stalls and ended up at the 'Gateway of India'. At this point we realised we had grossely mistimed things and now faced a hard slog back to the flat during rush hour which actually lasts about 4 hours in reality. Being a big fan of taxi's, this was Jessie's first attempt at the trains in rush hour (I was by now an old hand), and she didn't seem too impressed by the experience. We split into respective mens and ladies coaches and proceeded to be squished to a pulp for the best part of an hour. She has been here 6 months and never experienced it, about time I say, but somehow I doubt she will ever travel in that way again.

Last night The rest of her flat mates returned, once more in the middle of the night, so I woke to find the flat which at one point had been soley my domain was now crawling with 4 girls all nattering away. Quite a change. In a good way of course.

Today I have had an elongated tour of all the Air India facilities in Mumbai whilst Jessie and Somu tried in vein to sign up for their next flight schedule. It being a Saturday, most of the locations had shut at midday so we zig zagged across town in Auto rikshaws until we finally found one location to be open. I spent a facinating hour in the gaurds hut, staring at the celing fan, whilst the girls dissapeared inside to sort out their schedule.

Tonight we will probably go out somewhere for a few drinks, maybe a club.

Tomorrow I will need to sort out a ticket out of here to continue my onward travel as I am sure I will shortly outstay my welcome at the flat now that it is full to bursting. But it's been good to see a more suburban side of Mumbai life.

I am truely very thankful to Jessie and her lovely housemates for their warm welcome.