White rice, white bread roll and 3 pieces of watermelon

Alex has made an almost 100% recovery, while sadly and expectedly I am taking just a bit longer to get well. I can function and move around, but once food hits to 'ole stomach, bad things start happening and then watch out! Yesterday it rained solidly for over 20 hours and it has continued into today. We made it to a cute little place called Cheeky Chapati owned by a British man and the menu was a right treat after vacillating between Indian and Italian, Indian and Italian over and over again...we just could not face either one! This menu has some almost pub-like delicacies. We settled on a veggie burger and a hummus wrap. I ate very slowly and delicately, but to no avail and I was doomed to a night on the toilet. Alex was alright...a blip of nausea and then just smooth sailing! We spoke to the owner for some time about food and opening a restaurant in Goa and how easy, yet impossible it was. That is India for you...somethings can be easier than you can imagine while others can actually be impossible and make you want to cry! He takes pride in his restaurant and menu and loves his food so we enjoyed that place...played a bit of Connect 4, which I am a bismal at, while Alex wins each and every match. Not only does she has stellar athletic prowess, but she also has a gift for board games...I just cannot win. We were going to leave and head to north Goa to Anjuna yesterday, but the Cheeky Chapati guy told us that everything would be shut down due to monsoon...even more so than in Palolem where we are now, so we decided to stay here another week and work with the GAWT some more and go on a few day trips in the mean time...
Yesterday was one of those day trips to a Spice Farm and two "museums." The Spice Farm was interesting...we have already toured a Spice Garden which was 1000 times better, and went on a 30 minute tour in the pouring down rain and then ate a buffet lunch...where the title of this blog derives from, as all I could stomach was white rice, white bread roll and 3 pieces of watermelon...so I thought. Our tour guide was an interesting fellow and sweet, as he had to put up with the most annoying know--it-all Indian woman in the tour who kept telling everyone which plant was what and which herb is used for what ailment...he humoured her, but was very irritated. Her family was also quite rude, as they constantly answered their never-ending ringing cell phones and talked loudly in full phone conversation throughout. There were also two poor French girls who spoke very little English touring with us. Bless them when the tour guide would put them on the spot with pop quizzes about spices. Of course, I knew the answers from listening to the previous tour so I won the gold star for knowing the most answers about spices. Alex is rolling her eyes at me as we type this blog entry to you, but come on...we all know that I have a amazing ability to remember facts and then repeat them when most important...hehe. Our opinion of the tour guide changed, however, when he very coyfully asked us, "what does rogue assassin mean?" Hmmm, why are you asking us this you strange spice farm tour guide...or are you really a spice farm tour guide? Maybe this spice farm is just a front for an Indian Assassin Training Camp or IATC...Well, unfortunately it is just a spice farm. Eventually, we figured out that he had see an English movie called The Rogue Assassin the previous night and just did not know what the words meant...wonder if the plot of the movie gave any context clues...The farm was over 150 acres, but we only toured a tiny circle of it, but from what we saw, we both decided that if we were any sort of animal in India, we would go there to live! It was gorgeous! After that, with a gurgly stomach, we went to the 2 "museums." We should have learned from the Science Museum incident in Udaipur that museums in India are really hit or miss...well, mostly miss! But, as this is Mel and Al, we NEVER learn! The first museum was called Big Foot and this one actually one a coveted award in 2008 for the Best Museum in Goa for preserving Goan culture, but we think it was up against the Science Museum so the competition was fierce. This Big Foot consisted of an all outdoor (in the monsoon flooding) series of mannequins all sitting or standing doing regular daily activities such as breaking open coconuts or walking with some cows. The tour guides are the worst though...they have no idea how to include everyone in a tour and leave people behind, as well as never really explain anything, though these were pretty self explanatory! We cut this visit short after we saw the one sculpture of two men walking with what looked like g-string panties on carrying a stick...just un-interesting. So we moved onto the Ancestral House which was called The Ancestral House. It was an ancestral house...not too sure whose house other than they were of Portuguese decent. You walk into the front door and they press play on a tape recorder which describes what you will see in each room, but the tour guides also like to point things out and talk so you just really cannot hear or understand anything. In between rooms, as you are walking from one room to the next, they play marching band music...after days of water-logged skin coupled with dehydration one goes a bit delirious and one starts to actually do marching band movements to this music...well, when I say one, I really mean Alex...well, actually me! What else could I do to entertain myself and Al! So, I have now mastered the art of marching band dance movements and I can now check this off of my "Things to do Before I Die" list. Thanks India. We returned to the room for a lovely and relaxing evening of diarrhea and the trifecta of amazing films, power cuts and mosquito bites. Last night we saw Hit and Run, Jingle All the Way and various shows on the Discovery channel. Today it is raining...again...so we are trying to dodge the drops...again...We did meet a interesting dancer/reader/travelling computer programmer from Canada...she is very well travelled and agrees with me that dance IS a sport...so Matthew, John and Alex be aware and educated to this fact!
Happy 45th birthday Mom - July 16th - hehe...and you don't look a day over 62!