If you can't sell 'em join 'em

Now back in my cosy 5 bedroomed guest house where the owner and her family live on the floor above – after the rock hard beds with only a bottom sheet to sleep on and a huge blanket to sleep under it was bliss to have ironed sheets on a soft mattress and a duvet here. I travel with my own pillow which is my one sop to myself! In the more expensive hotels they will give you a top sheet but generally in a double bed you can fold the sheet over to be able to sleep within the two halves.

Had my pre op assessment for jaw treatment today and then moseyed around as is my wont. Found a new build where two men were carving sandstone pillars in the road outside. The master mason took me inside to show me the rainbow stone that finished some of the walls and also the natural ventilation they have installed in the building with side passageways with mesh netting to let in the breeze and space in the center of the building for the hot air to escape.

Marriages are still happening all over the place and innumerable marriage gardens are rented out, tented and decorated. I found a business where they were loading up a small truck with flowers and foliage to take to just such a place and they let me in to see what goodies they had to offer in the way of decoration. Difficult to photograph in a small place but they had lots of gilded plastic pillars to hang curtains between to block out the miseries that might be seen outside.

Street barbers abound here – cheaper to have a pitch outside – but I went to a unisex salon where the only men were the barbers and the women were all doing massages, manicures, threading and facials. My hugely smiley man had a large pale green spot of paste on the tip of his nose which seemed unusual – half way through his nifty scissor work he rushed to a cupboard, blew his nose and wiped most of it off – apparently it was an ayurvedic medicine for a cold but it did look a bit out of place and I had difficulty not smiling. I shall be cross if he's given me his cold...

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