DAY 197

Ed took this photo in a market near our house which I have yet to explore. He's selling anything you could ever possibly need for your portable stove. Note the picture of Ganesh on the wall for luck and prosperity.

DAY 196

My lovely friend and colleague Devi has sadly just left Delhi and sold us all her plants ... our balcony is shaping up. Ed had the bamboo planters made for growing salad (thanks for that brilliant idea Jessica). Will post some more photos once things are growing in them.

DAY 195

DAY 194

A string of chillies and a lime. People hang these up outside their shops and stalls to ward off the evil eye. There are various symbols for this - see Day 60 for another example.

DAY 193

These guys are making kulfi ice cream by filling up the big earthenware pot with crushed ice, putting the kulfi in its small containers into the pot and then they roll the pot back and forth so that it freezes evenly. Pretty clever considering it's still more than 35 degrees.

DAY 192

I might start a new mini series of auto rickshaw seat coverings. Always plastic coated, sometimes dirty and boring, often slightly crazy. This one was wild. I should have taken a photo of the whole auto - this pattern covered almost all of the inside.

DAY 191

I had a meeting today in a government office building.

DAY 190

Chips for lunch. On the balcony at the office. Again.

DAY 189

I love this bike seat. And the fact that it almost certainly belongs to a man.

DAY 188

Today I was reminded that shopping and kids don't mix, but at least I saw this beautiful door in Hauz Khas Village.

DAY 187

Our living room ceiling leaked during the monsoon. It looks a lot worse now that they've starting fixing it. Plastering on Monday. Painting on Tuesday. Then hopefully back to normal.

DAY 186

School photos out today. Is it just me or do they look a bit more American than they used to?

DAY 185

Andrew and Sophy - this one is for you, to show you how building work is done properly. This is our house, but we're not quite sure what the scaffolding is for.

DAY 184

All the road name signs in Delhi have four languages on them, in four different scripts. From top to bottom: Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu. And there are several roads in Delhi named after famous Russians. Interestingly most of the roads named after British people have been slowly changed to Indian names, but the Russians seem to be sticking it out.

DAY 183

Another photo from Ed. He seems to be moving into specialising in roadside shrines. This is Durga, riding on her tiger consort. The kids are getting good at naming the different gods, and Louie has declared Indian Studies as his favourite subject (but I think probably just because the teacher gave them some food the other day).

DAY 182

We went ice skating today. Despite the small voice in my head telling me how bad the environmental impact of an ice skating rink in Delhi must be, I loved it. We all loved it. It was brilliant. That's Louie at the top.

DAY 181

I went to a workshop today about the history of the sari and different ways that it is worn around the country. One piece of cloth, between four and a half and six and a half metres long, 108 different ways of wearing it.

DAY 180

Ed and the boys take a cycle rickshaw back to our house after dinner in the nearby market: pizza. Again.

DAY 179

Celebrations have begun for Ganesh's birthday. It's not such a big holiday in Delhi, but is huge in the West of India and some states in the south. You can just about make out the statue of Ganesh being carried in the back of this pick up.

DAY 178

I will never get tired of driving past India Gate.

DAY 177

Bike shop number 4: a mini hardware store. Might be one of the best bike shop photos yet (slightly annoyingly as it was taken by Ed).

DAY 176

Another outing on the pedal boats yesterday. Not sure it's really my thing but the kids can't get enough of it.

DAY 175

You know you've made it when your house has a breakfast bar.

DAY 174

People sell all sorts of things at the traffic lights in Delhi: books (pirate copies), cloths for cleaning your car, phone chargers, fruit, toys ... but these giant balloons are the craziest. Why would anyone buy one of these? And how would they blow it up?

DAY 173

Back in Delhi. These guys are playing something like draughts in the car park next to my office. I'm not sure if you can see, but they've actually dug out bits of the wall to make the board.

5000 page views on this blog now - woo!

DAY 172

My colleague took me out for dim sum and tea at a vegetarian place near the British Council office. Mmmmm.

DAY 171

Hong Kong was great, but it rained the whole time I was there. This is normal. So normal, apparently, that when you enter most buildings, there are umbrella covers supplied to stop them dripping all over the floor.

DAY 170

Hong Kong! Three days of meetings in this nutty city. I haven't seen any grass yet. Just buildings.

DAY 169

Yes. This is a park in the middle of one of the biggest, craziest, most polluted cities in the world.

DAY 168

In the market near our house there's a place that does the best pizza ever. Mark - Oz is like you were at Pan Pan: he always orders a pizza margherita, but with olives.