Our Beautiful World - Stone - The Acropolis, Athens, Greece, November 15, 2015

I have been fortunate to see many of the world's most beautiful places - the Acropolis in Athens, Greece and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, being among the most special.

The Acropolis of Athens, according to Wikipedia, "is an ancient citadel located high on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains several buildings of historical and architectural significance."  Seeing it always gives me chills and begins day dreams about what life must have been like in the time of Pericles and the ancient Greeks.  I sip wine in Plaka tavernas, feast on spanokapita, taramasalata and lamb and my imagination runs wild.  

I am participating in: OBW 123 ~ 123 Stone

A Lot of Catching Up to Do! - October 26, 2015

Well, folks have probably forgotten me after my long silence these past few months!  My India residence had the absolutely worst WiFi connection so I was seldom able to post.  

Besides that, my right shoulder has been insufferably painful and massage did little to relieve the agony.  I didn't get to San Francisco before departure so I was without my usual pain medications -the new Federal law states that you must have prescription in hand from your physician - no more phoning in to your pharmacy.  I can honestly say that Naprosyn does NOT alleviate that joint pain.  My total shoulder replacement is scheduled for November 18th so, thankfully, I should feel better as soon as the day after.  My left shoulder was done two years ago.  Of course, I will need about three months of physical therapy - and it is my right shoulder so I anticipate things will be a bit more difficult post operatively!  I'm trying to practice doing things with my left hand.

I flew from Mumbai to Tampa for a week with Charlene Payton, my dear friend of forty years.  I didn't really have jet lag, I don't think, but with her incredible sleep number bed, I made up for five months on that horrible mattress I had in Mumbai.  Blissful sleep, wonderful company, and great eating readied me for a week in New Orleans and my fifty year Charity Hospital School of Nursing reunion.

I stayed at the home of my friend of fifty years, Martha Meaux Genin.  What a joyful time we all had.  There were so many memories, a few tears, lots of laughs, fabulous food.

Finally, I made it to West Sacramento where I got the warmest welcome ever from my sweet granddaughter, Harper, and the granddogs.  She does not want me out of her sight now and I am being showered with hugs and kisses - when she isn't saying, "Nana, don't touch me!"  She has grown by leaps and bounds and has an incredibly amazing English and Spanish vocabulary for a 2-1/2-year old.

Now that I have really high speed internet, I'll be catching up on India posts and the rest of my world.  While this last stay in India was not my best, I do want to go back.  I can't end my visits to this "country of my heart" on a bad note.

More to come.......

Through My Lens Nr. 6 - Making Music in Jaipur - September 11, 2014

This visit to India, I did make it back to Jaipur, my favorite city so far, for a ten day stay.  I was fortunate to live there, once for six months.  I love the colorful city and spent a wonderful evening at a special event with lively music, good food, and colorful saris.

I am participating in Mersad's

Through My Lens Nr. 6

Three Word Wednesday: Week 409 - A Blast! - January 7, 2015

About 3WW

Three Word Wednesday gives writers, poets and those who journal a mid-week jolt of creativity.Each week, three words are selected; you create something with the words. Then come back and post a link to your contribution.

The idea is to create an online writers' collective, where feedback is offered and received.All rights to the contributions rest with the author.  This is a place to stretch your muse, test your dreams.

This week's words:

Electric, adjective: Of, worked by, charged with, or producing electricity; (of a musical instrument) amplified through a loudspeaker; (of a color) brilliant and vivid; having or producing a sudden sense of thrilling excitement.

Passionate, adjective: Showing or caused by strong feelings or a strong belief; showing or caused by intense feelings of sexual love.

Savage, adjective: (Of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and uncontrolled; cruel and vicious; aggressively hostile; (chiefly in historical or literary contexts) primitive; uncivilized; (of a place) wild-looking and inhospitable; uncultivated; (of something bad or negative) very great; severe; noun: A member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized; a brutal or vicious person; verb: (especially of a dog or wild animal) attack ferociously and maul. 

She clung desperately to him, tears coursing 

shamelessly down her cheeks, without abatement.  She

did not want to leave India for so many months.  Her

adopted country felt more like home now than the country

of her birth.  He held her close and shushed her as one

would a child, assuring her that, once she had visited 

family and friends, she could return early if that was her

wish.

As lightning flashed outside the terminal, the electric lights 

flickered and a voice announced, over the tinny loudspeaker,

in Hindu and English, that her flight would depart in thirty

minutes.

Because he was a government official, he was allowed to

accompany her as far as the waiting lounge.  Observers 

wondered about this couple, both very striking in their

looks, he, obviously Indian, she, holding a United States

passport, dressed in an elegant sari.  They were well past

middle age.

As flight boarding was called, he took her into his arms

and they said farewell with a passionate embrace.  They

were oblivious of the eyes upon them or the flurry of 

comments.  

She changed planes in Mumbai and began the long

journey to California.  It was going to be a tedious

trip, she thought, as she looked around the plane,

every single seat full.  She whispered a silent prayer as

she always did at the start of every flight.  It was then she

noticed the savage eyes of the man seated across the aisle

from her as he pulled wires attached to the vest under his

jacket.  

No survivors were found in the scattered bits of

wreckage and bomb fragments of Air International Flight 666.

I am participating in:

Three Word Wednesday: Week 409

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Jaipur Cow - November 28, 2014

Cows wander the streets freely in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. This fellow seemed to be taking a rest against this orange brick wall.

I am participating in:

Orange You Glad It's Friday, Week 118

and

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

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The Ibis Mumbai Airport - Mumbai, India - November 27,2014

Ibis Mumbai Airport is termed a "budget" property.
I discovered it during my second stay in India during
my retirement years.  To be truthful, prior to that, 
during my nursing employment when I often traveled
with three or four of my esteemed forensic friends and
colleagues, we would never consider anything with
the term "budget" attached to it.  Our Royal Caribbean
friends on board the Monarch of the Seas gave us the
title of "Queens" and that name stuck.  We would 
usually pick a posh property, book a suite which we
could afford if we shared, and travel like queens.  

Well, reality hit when retirement came and I suddenly
had to live on a pension and social security.  As a 
traveler all my life, I would either have to make adjustments
or stop seeing the world.  I immediately downsized,
giving up the rented four bedroom house I had occupied
for over twenty years and got rid of most of my belongings. 
I put the things with which I couldn't part in a 10' by
20' storage unit and started coming to India.

Occasionally, I found I needed a hotel for the night in
Mumbai where hotel properties border on the expensive.
After a most horrific experience at one hotel, I decided I
needed to do some research.  After all, I had been an
outside sales travel agent for years, I was fairly proficient
with the computer, and I was a long term Trip Adviser
member.  I got to work and my research led me to the
Ibis Mumbai Airport.  Good, it was near the domestic
airport and I wanted a place that was in that locale for
my trips here and there about India.  Price-wise, it was 
perfect and I liked everything else I read.

The Ibis Mumbai Airport is located 2 minutes from the
domestic airport in Mumbai and 1 km from the international
airport.  It has 159 rooms, either consisting of one
double bed or two single beds, with an attached bathroom, 
WiFi, and an excellent restaurant, Spice It, that offers
individual dining selections as well as sumptiuous buffets.

The Ibis Mumbai Airport is a member of the Accor Hotels
group.

Weekdays, it seems filled with business travelers, while
weekends, usually at a lower rate, attract families.

I have found hotel staff to be friendly and helpful and the 
rooms are spotlessly clean.  The beds, with incredible 
mattresses, are some of the most comfortable I have
experienced.  The rooms and baths are not very large but,
as this is a budget property, mainly used by business 
travelers, I did not expect a suite!  They are quite adequate
for my purposes.

For much more extensive information about the property,
refer to the Ibis Mumbai Airport website at:
http://www.ibis.com/gb/hotel-6367-ibis-mumbai-airport/index.shtml

Two of the wonderful Ibis Spice It staff.  24-hour room 

service is available from the restaurant and buffets are 

offered at breakfast and dinner.  The special Thursday night

buffets, which feature various regions of India, are not to be

missed.

There are always multiple veg and non veg choices at every

meal and, of course, one can always order off the menu.  If

I look at the buffet, though, I can never resist it.

The Kerala evening buffet was especially wonderful.  I wish

I could remember the names of everything I ate because many of the selections I had never tried before.

I usually indulge in a vodka martini but there are assorted other cocktails ( nice cosmopolitan ), alcoholic, beverages, beer, wine and mocktails as well.  Of course, water, soft drinks, coffee and chai are always available.

The main problem I have is that my eyes are bigger than my stomach.  I've learned to take tiny tastes, planning to go back for more later.  Trouble is, once I've finished all the "tastes," 

I am too full even for dessert.

I am also including a few other pictures from the Ibis Mumbai 

Airport.

The wonderful bed!

Desk work area in room

The lobby bar area

The wonderful front desk staff

Community lobby computer station

I have stayed at four other properties in the domestic airport

area.  I can recommend Ibis Mumbai Airport if you are in the

market for a reasonably priced budget hotel, with an excellent restaurant, and don't require luxury accommodations at a luxury price.

CONTACT

PLOT NO F 77 VILE PARLE EAST
JUNCTION OF NEHRU ROAD
WESTERN EXPRESS HIGHWAY400099 - MUMBAIINDIA

• TEL :
  (+91)22/67087777
• FAX :
  (+91)22/67087778

GENERAL INFORMATIONS:

H6367-RE@ACCOR.COM

HOW TO REACH THE HOTEL

GPS: N 19° 5' 47.51'' E 72° 51' 11.9

Sundays in My City - Homeward Bound in Seventeen Days: I Love You

Coastal Scene Near Pacifica, California

Well, really, it's hard to say where home is nowadays. I have spent about as much time in India as I have in California over the last three years.  If I could establish some sort of
residency, open a bank account, and get health insurance, I would actually live here most of the time and go home twice a year for two months.  Why? Mainly because it is affordable .. and I like this country. I have so many friends here, from youngsters to people my age, get very reasonable massage, can die here without spending a fortune for cremation and departure from this earth and they have some amazing, reasonably priced hospitals as well.  I can eat inexpensively, find someone to clean, cook, wash and iron for barely a dent
in my retirement income and participate in any number
of wonderful festivals that take place.  

The downside, of course, is that my three sons live in
California and so does my daughter-in-love, Laura, and my sweet granddaughter, Harper Ann,and the two granddogs.  In spite of Skype,not one of them seems predisposed to stay in touch with me that way - though, when I am in the U.S., my Indian friends always keep in touch  via those modalities or Viber, We Chat, etc.  I am a woman of the internet. Air fare is costly between the two countries, often $1000+ round trip and it is a long journey, sometimes 25 to 30 hours.

Jal Mahal, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

I've been very pensive the last week or so, acknowledging
that I am aging and may not be able to continue to keep up this international travel forever.  Words for a poem came to mind so here it is.

I Love You

The days rush by too quickly,

Minutes go so fast.

Those we love pass through our lives, 

The treasured times don't last.

Do we pause to cherish them,

While we have the chance?

Or does God take them from us,

While we look askance?

Three simple words, "I love you,"

Are not so hard to say,

We may feel them very often,

But not say them day by day.

I often feel the anguish of a friend,

And his overwhelming pain,

At the death of one most cherished,

And words cannot be said again.

The world would be much happier,

If we'd take time, now and then,

To tell our loved ones how we feel,

From family to special friend.

Carmen Henesy

November 12, 2014

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Sundays in My City

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Orange You Glad It's Friday, Week 114 - October 30, 2014

First of all, I must congratulate my home team San 
Francisco Giants on their great World Series win.
It was a knuckle biting seven games and, though I 
didn't actually watch them from India, I followed, almost
play by play, on internet news.

I offered prayers to almost every deity, including Lord
Ganesha, the Indian god, known as the overcomer of
obstacles.  To whichever god ( or all of them ) that 
helped my team win, thank you!!  Our city rejoices.

My "orange you glad Friday" post is of a sweet Lord
Ganesha I found at Creative Textiles in Jaipur, a store
that had wonderful fabrics and made lovely clothes 
from them.  I came home with two outfits and this 
little Ganesha.  I now have a small collection of Ganeshas.

I am participating in 

Orange You Glad It's Friday, Week 114

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join in the fun.

Cats on Tuesday - Indifferent Tom - October 28, 2014

I lived nearly a year, at two different times, with my
wonderful friends, Rosy and Norman Toscano, in
Bandra West, an upscale suburb of Mumbai, India.
The house was shared with three cats who gave me
multiple photographic opportunities.  None of the 
three ever paid a bit of attention to me!

Here's Tom, clearly wishing I would take myself and
my camera off, anywhere!

I am participating in 

Cats on Tuesday

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Looking Back - October 24, 2014

Three years ago, I did it, 

I went through all my things,

Downsizing, giving away so much,

With necessity, retirement brings.

I found that I could do it,

By keeping treasures dear,

Telling myself I'd see them,

In some future year.

With super help from Jeremy,

My stalwart athletic son,

At last, it all was over,

My Canterbury life was done!

I finally boarded my flight,

Two months overdue,

A bedraggled weary traveler,

When those 7000 miles were through.

At last, I'd returned to India,

Fourteen years away,

But I felt at home with many friends,

Acquired each cruising day.

Four months I stayed with Santos,

And my lovely "family" there,

It made my life in India,

Begin without a care.

Next time I went to Jaipur,

A most amazing place,

With memories made and friendships,

That time cannot erase.

Back home to spend eight months,

With the sweetest grandchild ever,

Whoever knew a little girl,

Could be so very clever!!!

Who says that growing older,

Still can't be much fun,

I've realized a dream,

And I still am not quite done!!!

It must have been my destiny,

That Virginia Lynch and I were here,

To share ten days together,

In this country we both hold dear!!!

I've even found martinis,

That meet my discerning taste,

And I'm happy to report,

I've lost pounds around my waist.

As long as I can manage,

With my creaky joints and such,

I'll commute between two countries,

That I love so much!

Carmen Henesy

copyright Carmen Henesy October 24, 2014