it's been raining since you left me, now i'm drowning in the flood

The monsoon hasn't caused the widespread chaos here that has been happening in Mumbai. This is quite fortunate, although to be expected since Hyderabad is v. far inland and so doesn't get quite as much rainfall as the coasts. However, this may hamper my trip to London on Friday--hopefully it stops raining by then, since I'm supposed to fly through Mumbai, and it looks like tons of flights are being cancelled due to the flooding :( I'm going to call the airline tomorrow and see if they have more information, although given the absolute hilarity that ensues whenever I try to call people who speak minimal English, I do not expect solid results.

The internet is finally working again in my apartment, although it's extremely slow. Last night, we celebrated six expat birthdays that are all packed into a three-week period in July/August by going out for dinner at Fusion 9, followed by drinks at Cinnabar Redd. Dinner was v. fun and v. tasty, and drinks afterwards were also fun, although it was quite disappointing when the bar shut down, in true Indian fashion, at 12:15am. But, I had six cosmopolitans, which was probably a bad idea since I have a sore throat, but as many of you know, I have a weakness for cosmopolitans. We came home, and of course the smart thing to do when everyone has been drinking is to shoot off some fireworks. I stayed away from the actual lighting, but I enjoyed watching them, and then we came up to my apartment and ate popcorn and hung out until three. Yay.

I slept extremely poorly last night, due in equal parts to alcohol, a fever, and a broken air conditioner. In my half-lucid state, I was sure that I was coming down with malaria, since I kept vacillating between burning and freezing, but I think that perhaps I was overreacting. I made it to brunch today, then took a two-hour nap, then went out to dinner at Peshawri. It's an Indian restaurant in the Sheraton, and some people really like it, but I am not a fan. There isn't much variety, and I prefer the ambience at Angeethi, although Peshawri utilizes red and green apron-bibs to differentiate between veg and non-veg eaters. So, with my red apron tied on, I felt like I could be at some seafood restaurant in the States, but alas I was stuck eating murgh makhni. Don't get me wrong, I love murgh makhni, but if I could have some steak and some deep-fried shrimp with a baked potato, I would be much much happier.

The head of the California office is visiting this week, so I will have to tone down my insanity just a little bit. Of course, this isn't really possible for me; case in point, he came upstairs to check out our apartment after dinner, and he went out onto the second-floor balcony. We never use the balcony, and apparently the pigeons know this--because when he opened the door, it was like some Hitchcock movie, with birds everywhere, and I definitely got some bird matter flung onto me. In my haste to evacuate, I said 'Jesus!' and pushed Arod, which did not help me to project the requisite team-player attitude. Sigh.

So, that was my weekend. Now I should go to bed--if I am going on vacation on Friday, I have tons to do before then. Goodnight!