Thoughts in the Middle of the Night—but Whose Night?

Here’s what woke me up. Before we left America, Sally and I went shopping for presents to give to our Indian friends. We bought candy, books, and postcards, but knew we wouldn’t have room for them in our luggage. Luckily we had the address of the hotel in Bangalore ahead of time, so we dug it out and had the box of presents mailed to Sally in care of that hotel—a brilliant strategy if we were actually staying there.

Last night our Indian friends joined us for dinner. Incidentally, they ate with both hands. In fact, they mopped up their vegetables with a piece of flat bread and invited us to do the same. I think the left-handers are in the clear.

Anyway, during the meal we must have been commenting on the tropical theme of “The Unwind Island” when Sally asked, “What IS the name of this hotel?” I was glad because I could never remember the name they’d sent us. The answer was surprising--nothing like the name I remembered. That’s because we were in a different hotel.

So, in the middle of the night, the significance of that came to me: Sally and I had sent the package to the wrong hotel, and we were going to have to go get it.

With that jump-start, other thoughts came to mind, too—random thoughts, thoughts that made no sense, thoughts that seemed monumental at 2:00 a.m. but might not be so amusing or important in the light of day. For instance, you might have heard of Bollywood, which is not a real place, but the name for the thriving movie industry in India. Well, in addition to Bollywood, there’s Bangalore and Mangalore. We’re off the subject of movies now and onto Words That Sound Alike. As a fan of vampires, I was thinking at about 3:00 this morning that Fangalore would a terrific name, too. And that was before the coffee.

Being an early riser at home, I’ve had to make a rule for myself: Never make the coffee until 4:00. The idea behind that one is that first I should try to sleep. Last night I couldn’t; I was wide awake. So was the person who vacuums this hotel, or else my refrigerator was really loud. My little travel clock said 3:05.

After two days of trying, I’ve learned to figure out the time difference between Bangalore and Cincinnati. First, you add 2.5 hours to the local time, which would be—oh, let’s round off to make it easy—3:00 a.m. Then you simply change a.m. to p.m., or vice versa. At 3:00 a.m., Bangalore time, it’s 5:30 p.m. at home. But now you won’t have to rely on me for the correct time.

Sally is a whiz with technology. She has on her blog site a World Clock that tells the time in both Cincinnati and Bangalore. Check it out; the blog address is in an earlier post. And here’s more good news: Sally didn’t send our package to a hotel at all; she sent it to the offices of our host company. Smart.

Yesterday was Sunday and we took advantage of the facilities and cuisine here at the hotel . Today we work.

If I don’t stop writing NOW, I’m going to be late for the breakfast buffet. Note to self: The gymnasium (what we call a fitness center) is in the Basement.

Signing off.