The weekend began with us deciding to stay at home and not do anything. How wrong we were! On Friday, W had spoken to a consultant, and it just happened that they had an appointment slot free for 11:30 am on Saturday. In the meantime, we knew that P's mom had arrived from Kolkata and we wanted to see her too. So, on Saturday morning, we set out at around 11:00 am for our appointment, planning to drop in on P's and say hi to her mother before heading back for home. We went and saw the consultant - a seemingly totally useless exercise, where we were made to fill out long boring forms which was actually a repetition of what was on our CVs, after which we met the boss lady, who heard us out and promised to be in touch if anything turns up. As we were leaving, we were told tht we had to pay a registration fee of fifty rupees each. AS we had no money with us right then, they said it was okay if we paid them later.

Then we went to R&P's house. And stayed there for the rest of the day, totally unplanned. Aunty (P's mom) was quite cool - she's a doc and a nutritionist with her own TV show, and she stirs a mean kichdi! So that kept us there till the evening, when we all piled in to our car and went to (where else) Spencer Plaza. After shopping for a bit - and yes, we had cookies at Cookie Man - we went off to Oriental Pearl for dinner. R&P are wine people, and ordered Chantilli White. I discovered that I am a non-wine person - the first glass had me a bit mixed up on the inside, and I was not particularly fond of the taste either. W liked it, and R&P and Aunty went for it in a big way. I declined alcohol after the first glass. The food itself was quite good. I split a Tom Yum with W, and it was more spicy than the usual. We had a fried rice with water chestnuts in it - the water chestnuts had been marinated in syrup. Overall, tghe experience was good.

Finally, we got home quite late, but with a plan to make an early start on Sunday and go see Mahabalipuram and get back by 3:00 pm - Aunty and P were catching a train to Kerala at 8:00 pm.

Sunday's "early start" was at 9:00 am. I was all ready and chirpy, and W was none the worse for Saturday night. R, who had consumed large quantities of Chantilli White, had a humongous hangover, but had still managed to wake up early and make sandwiches. So we set out, picnic hamper and all, at 9:00 am. We drove out on to the ECR, which was not very crowded, and stopped at a casuarina grove by the seaside for breakfast. The picnic hamper was soon empty, and we went out onto the beach. While the sun was blazing away, the water was cool enough. As we were playing about, W spotted some dolphins playing in the sea some distance away. We spent the next half an hour pointing and screaming whenever we spotted one. After a while, we went on to Mahabalipuram, where it was so crowded that we managed to see only the so-called Five Rathas before we decided not to see any more of the sights. It was getting quite hot as well, and we went and had lunch at GRT Temple Bay. Buffet at 400 a head was quite expensive, considering that the food was not all that great. The spread was quite large, but the rice dishes were quite bad. The rotis were good, as was the chicken gravy that went with it. At the ample dessert table, the ice creams were the disappointments, though there were plenty of other items to make up for it, especially the croquembouche.

We then drove back and were home by about 3:30 pm - exhausted, but after having a good time!

Next weekend, we will stay in!