We were up early this morning with the intention of doing our seven laps before breakfast.  However, either it had rained heavily during the night or they’d been out with those hoses, because the deck was treacherously slippery and I called it a day after just two.

The interesting thing is that the sea has changed in character from yesterday.  It’s smooth and glassy with larger ripples.

The colour is indescribable.

In places, it looks like an Impressionist painting, with large splodges of colour reflecting from the clouds.

It’s also very, very hot out there and we were pleased to have a few good reasons to stay indoors in the cool.  First, this morning, was an interesting lecture about India, this afternoon a more fascinating talk about fabrics and textiles of the region, including fashion and jewellery.  As the speaker described the various styles and outlined the development of the garments, I simply wrote down the vocabulary.

muslin :: calico :: chintz :: pashmina :: shatoosh :: banjara :: shisha :: silk :: trefoil pattern :: uttariya :: antariya :: kayabandha :: shiwani :: lehanga :: choli :: shalwar :: kameez :: dupata :: kurta :: pyjama :: dhoti :: saree :: lunghi :: Mahabharata :: palu :: bangles :: sindar :: chooda :: mehindi :: tikka :: bindi :: nath :: khol

For once she was speaking about things I am familiar with.

Later in the day, with yet a different sea outside our door, I went to finish painting my fan, which seems to have a bit of an Art Deco flavour to it.

Once it’s dry, we’ll reassemble it and glue the paper in place.

As for this afternoon’s Trivia, well, we were the bridesmaids yet again, losing the tie break to the better team.  Ho hum!

We arrive in Chennai (Madras) tomorrow lunchtime and having secured our Indian visas last month didn’t really expect to have quite as much paperwork to complete once again.  Still, we’ve listed the serial numbers of our cameras and suchlike, given all our details once more and hope that when the Indian Immigration people come on board tomorrow morning, all will be in order for a swift disembarkation.  We’ve not been to Chennai before and have a free afternoon ahead of us, so are thinking that a little online research might be needed tonight.

Oooh, there’s porpoises/dolphins/whatever to see…must go!