Vay-caysh Lanka.

I cannot say enough splendid things about Sri Lanka.  Honestly.  It’s this amazing, lush, beautiful island paradise.  The people are amazing and friendly (wayyy friendlier than India, and the women don’t have to cover up as much and don’t appear to be as oppressed), the food is super good and the tropical fruit tastes better than any other fruit I’ve ever eaten. Scouts honor.  

The pineapple is so sweet it tastes like it’s been infused with coconut. The old coconuts (pol) have tons of fluffy  pulp inside to be scraped out and turned into spicy pol sanbol (it’s like a dry chutney served with all meals, it’s shredded coconut, chili, onion and lime; wow!).  The young coconuts (tambili) are orange (not green) and are filled with at least 16 oz of coconut water (juice, whatever) each.  AND the fruit was cheaper than it is in India.

Pretty much, I’m in love.  I could live there.  I’d just have to get a job that paid in USD or Euros, as the positions for pay available in Sri Lanka aren’t as lucrative as they are elsewhere…

Getting there was an adventure all it's own: holy hell on wheels! We took so many forms of transit in each direction I can't even count them on two hands. Taxi to bus stand to bus stop to train station to took took to airplane to taxi. And that's just the way there!  Traveling is pretty fun and always makes for a good story even if it isn't funny at the time.  

The cab driver who dropped us off at the bus-stand in Pondy was standing with us, making sure we got on the bus and when it pulled up, people were scrambling to jump on it, WHILE IT WAS STILL MOVING! Probably 15-20 people were on it before it stopped. Then Kate the Cripple (she's got an ankle injury) pushed to the front of the line to get a seat, but unfortunately I did not. So I spent the three- hour journey sitting on her backpack, in the aisle on the bus, sleeping on her lap. HA! At the time it was annoying but as soon as we got off the bus it was wayyy funny. I'm actually laughing now...

And we had a 7am flight from Chennai, so we actually left Sadhana Forest at midnight, did our whole planes, trains and automobiles schtick and landed in Sri Lanka at 9am on NO sleep. We were all sorts of wild giddy delirious.  It felt like the longest, but funniest day ever, and we came up with about 9000 inside jokes, hhahahaha.

So yeah, Kate and I split our time over the two weeks between two places: her friend Tash’s grandmother’s place (a totally kick-ass family compound just outside Colombo in Dehiwala) and down on the beach in Unawatuna (staying with Tash’s friends for a few night, then staying in a guest house with a view of the ocean the other nights). Tash is pretty much super awesome!  So glad to have had a chance to meet and hangout with her (she's Kate's bestie); at the end of two weeks I felt like I knew her forever!

To get down the west coast from Tash’s place, we caught a train, the COASTAL train.  It literally runs down the whole west coast, next to the water, all the way from the north in the mountains, to the most southern tip in Matara. So of course for a 3 hour train ride we had enough snacks to last us the whole week. And ate most of them before we got there, hahahahha. The scenery was so beautiful and sad too.

Sri Lanka was hit pretty hard by the tsunami seven years ago, and most people aren’t likely to let you forget it.  Locals that you meet  all have stories about what they were doing when the tsunami hit, or loved ones that they lost, or how they managed to survive.  It wiped out entire villages and each village has these seaside grave markers to denote those lost (sometimes there’s 3 or 4, sometimes there’s more than 30) that remind you each time the train goes through a new village.  I’m sure we saw hundreds…

Sri Lankans seem to be fairly spiritual folk, and the few I talked to made reference to their faith helping them get through the aftermath of the tsunami (and 30 years of a civil war).  The three dominant religions are Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. I had never seen a Buddhist temple before, and I saw sooo many! They come in all shapes and sizes, from little roadside boxes with a little Buddha inside to giant statues and huge temples.  I really liked seeing them sprinkled all over the place because I would really feel a sense of calm each time I looked at one; Buddha’s face is so calm and serene, getting his meditation on.

WOW, wow wow! The beach was pretty awesome.  There wasn’t any trash or fishermen pooping on the beaches, the water was clear, it wasn’t too hot, we saw lots of sea turtles: ahh, INCREDIBLE!!! I mean, I’ve lived in coastal cities before (Charleston, Jacksonville) but the beaches just weren’t the same.  Also, it’s “low season” right now, so this tiny little town wasn’t totally crawling with tourists everywhere… You pretty much see the same 10 people wandering around all the time or at one of the 6 restaurants, haha. There was this couple from Hungary that we would see at least 5 times a day and usually ended up eating at the same restaurant at least once a day; as soon as we saw one another we’d just start laughing and wave and say “Hi, AGAIN!” lol.

Since the beach is such a small community and we were a bit bored with it by day 3, we decided to take a bus into Galle (an old Dutch fort town, established during colonization, blah blah blah) just to get lunch and see a change of scenery, NOT to visit the fort (like most everyone else, haha). Once again, I’ve lived in Charleston and was dragged to several forts over the years: you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all (in my humble opinion, I’m not much of a physical history buff). 

Getting there turned out to be the ultimate journey: bus drivers in Sri Lanka are CRAZZZY! Literally. They drive incredibly fast and slam on the brakes at each bus stop to pick up the people waiting there, that is if they don’t make road kill out of them first. Geez Louise.  Though we were quite pleased with ourselves for figuring out the transit system.  It’s definitely easier than in India because 1. There are some buses that are marked in Singhala (local language of the Singhalese) AND English (unlike most buses marked in Tamil and Hindi in India) and 2. The locals speak pretty good English and can usually point you in the right direction.  What can I say, I’m got a bit of an English bias…

The next day, we took a day trip down the coast to Mirissa, an even more secluded, little, jungle-beach paradise. Totally beautiful.  Aside from the bus driver on the way back that was caught up in some power struggle and decided to drag-race another bus on the road into oncoming traffic: people, you haven’t lived until you’ve taken public transit in a developing country, but especially Sri Lanka.  It makes the CTA drivers look like driving instructors.

Aside from the transport to get there, we decided that is where they “cool kids” are and that next time we come to Sri Lanka (as opposed to that day, which would have involved moving our stuff from Unawatuna and another bus ride, yikes!) we will stay there and be “cool kids,” haha. Even though we seemed to attract plenty of attention on our own and were constantly complimented on our “super hair” (Kate) and “nice tattoos” (me). It got to the point where we started calling each other Hair Nelson and Tattoos Harkins. Oi vey.

Speaking of cool, it seemed a lot cooler in Sri Lanka than India. Ha, I just realized this whole post is mostly about how Sri Lanka is more awesome than India.  Oh well, they’re the only two countries I’ve traveled to outside of the U.S. besides Canada, haha. Jet –SETTER! Anyway, the weather was awesome, high 80’s and sunny every day, with a rain shower every afternoon, only to clear up for a perfect sunset. 

It actually rained all day on our last day, which worked out perfectly as a sit-around-and-read-and-drink-hot-beverages day.  I love days like that and it never happens at Sadhana Forest: if it’s raining on a weekday (rare is the occasion for rain anyway), you still have to get out of bed and do work. Sigh. There’s not really any “chukin’ a sickie” (Australian slang for faking being sick) going on here; people would be able to tell if you’re lying. Especially if no one else gets out of bed because it’s raining, haha.

Overall, Sri Lanka is the cra-mazing (crazy amazing) vacation destination of the future. Or of now. The war ended a few years ago, so it’s pretty safe and awesome to travel all over the place: west coast, east coast, northern mountains and tea country and the central jungles. Being with the perfect travel companion can’t hurt. Kate and I laughed so hard so many times I actually thought stop breathing. Or throw up, lol.  I could definitely spend more time with her traveling, living, hanging out, etc. in the future.  Sri Lanka + Kate = funktasticnomenal! I can’t wait to do it all over again!

 Check out the bus creepers: they were definitely drunk and drooling. Next to and on Kate. It's good to have a buddy system. Kind of glad I was on the floor...

 Money money money: MON-ey! (This adds up to about 4 bucks USD)

 Put the lime in the coconut...

 Ah, sweet, sweet tropical fruits.

 Not a pineapple: a cocoyumapple.

  

Tash may or may not have crashed into a staircase and a row of motorcycles 

in a parking lot that boasted this slogan...

 Fun with Macrame.

 Snacks snacks snacks snacks snacks! For the trains: 100% vegan, complete with Marmite sandwiches, thanks Nan! Now I'm addicted to Marmite (many are disgusted by the fact, I revel in it!)

 Bronze Buddha. Bronze is a very common color to find Buddha wearing.

 Monsoon Mongoose (Kate's new nickname is Mongoose, with any M word attached...)

It was raining this day, thus Monsoon.

 Definitely knocked back a few cocktails whilst there: 

this stuff IS a pretty happy lady drink.

 Buddha is even there to greet you upon arrival at the airport! Thanks Buddha, I DID enjoy my trip!

These are just some of the greatest hits. Check out the rest of the pics on Facebook: Picture Lanka http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.813429518946.2266419.38508937

My life as a cartoon character.

Let’s cut to the chase: lately I’ve been feeling like a cog in a machine.  In a really awesome machine, but a cog no less.  I’ve been struggling with the whole work/life/home balance, since all of these things are the same physical location for me.  As a result, the past week or so I’ve felt sooooo boring. Not even bored, just boring. Like not capable of intelligent conversation, or having any motivation to have an intelligent, or even unintelligent, conversation.  Or having anything to write about. Duh.

I was expressing this out loud to Jaspreet yesterday while we enjoyed some hammock time. I’m all like “Blah blah blah, my life is so boring and unexciting” then all of a sudden, not five seconds later, something dropped on my head, really really hard, from above.  As it squirmed away, I noticed a long tail and I thought “Eww, a nasty giant rat was not only in my hut, but it landed on my ear!” Yet, this smarmy creature stopped a few feet away, and it was a lizard. A huge lizard, as I’m used to seeing little geckos running around; this one was large enough to be heard rustling in the bushes! 

So much for nothing exciting happening! Life just kept getting more interesting, with each hour that went by, no joke.  A few hours later, I was cycling (that’s right, riding a bike, I finally got one after three months of solely commuting on a moped) along, when all of a sudden there was a small snake crossing my path, at quite a clip, and I ran it over! Oops.  I don’t think I did it any real damage, it kept slithering right along like 80kg of awesomeness didn’t just roll over its body.

But that’s not it.  Our friend James (who recently fell out of a mango tree and dislocated  his shoulder, ow) called and invited us over for an Indiana Jones/Pizza Party.  Now, he has a refrigerator, and we like to buy mangoes to freeze and eat (I swear I’ve never eaten so many mangoes in my life, they’re so amazing, especially frozen). So we stopped at the fruit stand on the way to pick some up. There I am, minding my business (I swear!) when I notice a cow moseying on by. It is very common around dusk and dawn to see groups of cows on the move, and very common throughout the day to see them randomly, individually or in smaller groups, on the side of the road.

Thus, there was no reason to be alarmed. Apparently, I should have been.  The fruit-stand owner started making noises at it (I assumed he owned it and knew how to communicate with it), and I was still ignoring it at this point (I had mangoes on the mind!) when all of a sudden, I realize I’m in trouble.  It’s heading towards me, so I’m like “Oh, Daisy, you want some lovin’?” as I thought she was getting close to have me pet her or something. Hell frickin’ no. She wanted blood.  She got about 2 feet away from me, then pointed her horns at me and started walking towards me! 

That’s right, I was almost gouged in the stomach by a wild animal. Shit. Luckily, the fruit-stand guy managed to shoo her away as I only had about a foot to back up (my moped was right behind me, limiting my escape route), and surely would have been a goner without his intervention.

Luckily, I managed to laugh about it. I mean, it didn’t actually happen, it just ended up being added to my repertoire of stories including myself and beasts from the wild.  It’s still not the end of my most-exciting-boring-day-ever.

So we made it safely James’ with mangoes in tow, only to call the pizza place to be informed “It’s a holiday; no pizza.” What the heck! Jaspreet and myself had been craving pizza for about three weeks (as our usual place has been closed for renovations) and were mildly frustrated, mostly hungry, and ready to munch on something or somebody, so James suggested “veg noodles.” We didn’t know where the good, cheap veg noodle place was, so James, sling and all, rode with our other friend, Vikram, to pick up the noodles. They were gone for oh, I don’t know, about five minutes, when I decide to do a few dishes, knowing our dear friend cannot use one of his arms. As I’m turning off the water, I might have used a little extra force (what can I say, I’m a hoss) to ensure the water wouldn’t drip, when I find myself holding the faucet in my hand while water sprays from the wall at my chest and all over the kitchen.

“JASPREEEEEET!!!!! GET IN HERE AND HELP ME PLEASE!!!!” were the next eight words out of my mouth.  Apparently this had happened before and the faucet was affixed with India’s alternative to Bond-o, but I had no prior knowledge of this.  I’m just thinking “What the shit, I just broke James’ sink and he’s housesitting and it’s not really his sink and he’s only been gone six minutes.” Though we managed to wrestle the faucet back on, the kitchen might have been mildly flooded and we might have looked like we just rolled out of the ocean, fully clothed. When the guys came back from picking up the noodles, James casually mentioned “Oh yeah, that happened to me the other day, I forgot to tell you.” 

Ha. It just keeps getting better. And when I woke up this morning, no shit, I sensed something going on upon the roof of my hut, as it sounded like something about the size of a golden retriever leaped onto it. I was kind of scared, really. I’d only been awake a few minutes, so lucid thoughts weren’t quite happening yet.  In my mind I was thinking, “Oh, it must be the squirrels playing around” even though it was a mighty heavy sound for the light-weight chipmunk-half-breed squirrels we have around here. By the time I walked down my stairs, I had kind of forgotten about the noise until I looked up at the hut next to mine and noticed an GIANT peacock standing on top.  

 

Honestly, I didn’t realize they could fly, I thought they were like ostriches and penguins, hahahahahahah.  I looked up at my own hut just in time to see it flutter-jump onto it to join his other two friends who were already partying on my roof.  I couldn’t believe it.  And of course I didn’t have my camera on me, that doesn’t even make sense. It was one of those moments that will forever live in my mind and in words, never to be captured on film, which probably would have ruined the moment anyway.

So yeah, who’s boring now? Sometimes I forget that I live in a forest in the middle of (kinda) nowhere in India.  The past 24 hours have been a lesson in not taking this experience for granted, that’s for sure. Some other exciting events that I had previously forgotten about from the past few weeks include:

·       

• A fleet of four wild, French foxes (men, actually, but very good looking ones) rocked up to stay here, wreak havoc and crack us up. And serve as eye-candy, lol.
• I almost lost all of my big toe-nail while making a whirlpool with the aforementioned foxes in the tiny swimming pool we have here. One of them lost part of a toe-nail as well, we were moving so fast, and any limb not totally attached was apparently susceptible to involuntary detachment. My toe is fine now, promise.
• I had a fish pedicure.  There is a peaceful, man-made pond in one of the communities here that has fish in it that come to the surface and nip at any dead skin on your feet when you put them in. It tickles a bit and leaves your feet looking real nice :).
• Harvey Dangerfield got 86’ed. I loaned him out twice in one week, to two different parties, the first of which was half of the four French foxtrot, who slipped and fell and broke off the rear-view mirror. No big deal. The bike mechanic fixed it, handed back the keys, which I promptly handed over to another set of friends who got rear-ended by a car on their way back to the forest, sending muffins flying all over the road (we do free muffins on Friday for the weekly tour), amongst pieces of Harvey and my friends. The friends are okay now, but were pretty shaken up and had some bumps, scratches and tears. Harvey Dangerfield, R. I. P.; long live the Barracuda (she’s blue and sexy, for a TVS).

As always, I hope that I get the time and motivation to write more in the next week rather than next month, but I’m running on India time: you never know what’s going to happen next.  In the meantime, enjoy some random photos I’ve taken out and about that follow no actual pattern.

 An egg & cheese sandwich at Ganesh Bakery: my favorite, meow! (PS ketchup is called 'tomato sauce' here and doesn't quite taste like ketchup, lol)

My busted ass vans. Note the tear on the left-side: a dog attacked my shoe and held it hostage. This is what it looked like when I discovered it in the laundry area after a week. I'm just happy to have the shoe back.

 Yep. Those are camels on the side of the freeway. I couldn't believe it either, hence the photo.

 My life most afternoons.

 A young man who pulled an eye-ball out and it turned into a muffin. His name is Rohit, he's a riot.

 Chai Posse.

Diva Dude

 Shteffy!

 Jazz-a-ma-Tazz! (or JB, or Cookies - half of the "Cookies 'n Cream" duo)

 Double D's

 Automobiles and motorbikes for Jesus.

 Honest, it's very common to love Jesus (or Hindi gods) in a big way by showing love on your vehicle. Amen.

Creepin' fogs and burnin' logs: Kodaikanal.

 Vay-cay-she-yon!  After two straight months of blistering heat, we (Jaspreet and I) decided it was time for a frickin’ break.  So, we decided to go to Kodaikanal, a mountain station originally established by the British to cope with the heat in the summer.  This is actually the ideal time of year to go because as it’s over 90 degrees in Auroville every day, it’s like a high of 70, with zero humidity, and in the evenings it was in the 40’s at night, just cool enough to sleep with a blanket: it was amazing!!! 

We even had a fireplace that we attempted to use three nights in a row.  I say “attempted” because we never quite succeeded in building a fire that didn’t require constant care.  I swear I did everything right, so I blame the wood.  We couldn’t get any good logs that weren’t already a little burned or wet or treated or whatever other problem there could be with the wood.  I even hacked up a piece of wood with a hatchet (the only tool we had to make a log smaller) to make it fit nicely inside the fireplace, to no avail. At least it wasn’t THAT cold at night, hah.

Most of the trip consisted of walking somewhere, usually uphill and in search of food.  Wow we ate a lot of food!  I think I gained like two kgs, that’s right KGs (equals 4.4 lbs) in an eight day span.  We ate lots of north Indian food like mulai kufta (yummy breaded cheesey potato dumplings in a delicious vegetarian gravy), paneer butter masala (hunks of semi-firm cheese in a spicy, buttery sauce), chana masala (chickpeas in a tasty yet spicy sauce), along with lots of naan and north Indian parathas which are WAYYY different than their south Indian counterparts of the same name.  The northern ones are flatter and friend, with a different texture, more like a fat tortilla while the southern ones are a little denser and have a more circular , flakier way that they tear apart when you use them to scoop up your food.  Either way, totally delicious!Traveling is just an excuse for me to eat as much food as possible under the guise of “hey, I’m eating locally.” 

My thirst for knowledge of cultures started in 10^th grade Spanish class, and it wasn’t the language I was so drawn to, believe it or not.  It was the food.  I remember seeing pictures of paella in a textbook and being like I don’t know what that is, but  I frickin’ wanna eat it. LOL, true story.  Just ask my mom. 

Another type of food we ate out of style was real bread (well, and other assorted baked goods) from the only bakery in town.  We  live in a place where refined sugar, white flour and processed foods are not allowed, so wouldn’t you believe we ate white bread all week long.  The bakery is called Daily Bread Pastry Corner and it’s a tiny little storefront wedged between “homemade” chocolate stalls.  They opened twice a day, from 10-2 (or until they ran out of food), when they’d have donuts, sweet muffins, éclairs, sandwiches, something they referred to as pizza and cakes. Then, at 3, they would reopen until whenever they ran out of food again and during this time they would sell all of their fresh daily breads like baguettes, rolls and stuffed coconut bread. Wowee. They ran out of food every day.  If you didn’t get there right when they rolled the door open, well then you were just H.O.L. (hungry outta luck). 

I think in a less busy season, the food would last longer and there would be less competition, but as we picked the busiest time of year to visit Kodaikanal (lucky us), we literally had to drop an elbow or two and knock a granny down (jk, I would never knock a granny down unless she were  a zombie or something) just to get in there and get service.  There isn’t a proper “form a line and you will be served in the order you are standing.”  Hell no.  Survival of the fittest is more like it.  I’ve never been so offended by line cutting in my life.  Well, not really offended, more like off-put.  I’m a quick learner though, I can shove to the front of a line with the best of 'em now!

Another little tidbit about tourist season: people are everywhere, all the time.  Our hostel was like a sanctuary compared to the surrounding areas.  Like 50 meters from the entrance to our hostel was an “Observatory” aka tourist attraction, and thus everyday from like 8a-8p there were tour buses and crowds honking, stinking and staring up and down the street.  That’s right, staring.  One day I made the trek to the chai shop solo, to bring snacks back down to our room and enjoy the view and I made like 5 new “friends.”  A white girl traveling solo attracts a lot of attention from the fellas.  A group of 10 guys got off of a tour bus, proceeded to stare and then ask my name, where I came from, etc.  I felt like the tourist attraction at many places we visited last week, lol.

Apparently, there is a shortage of white people in these areas, especially during high season.  They must have gotten the memo.  Definitely had some fellas trying to take pictures with me or sneakily take my picture from afar.  Perverts.  One day a little old lady sat next to me on some steps for a while, then her family came up a bit later, they chatted a bit, and it ended up she wanted to take a picture with me. So, I put on my cheesiest grin, put my arm around her, and we made a photo together.  This is much more flattering than feeling like the paparazzi are after you, haha.

Now, the most harrowing, exciting points of our laid-back vacation were definitely the bus rides.  Oh my God, I’m lucky to be alive.  You think bungee jumping and sky diving are extreme sports? Try taking a local, government bus up a mountain in a third world country. Holy hell!  Riding a moped on a dirt road with no helmet doesn’t hold a candle to this bus journey.

Going up, we’re going like 2kph (aka slow), but there’s frequent braking and the twisting of this giant steel Twinkie filled with people around sharp curves.  Also, the two-lane road is just about wide enough for two small, compact cars to pass each other.  It definitely doesn’t appear to be wide enough for two buses to pass one another, but time and time again, it managed to happen.  As the buses continue on this grueling uphill journey, through which the bus stalled multiple times, increasing my trust in the whole experience, you are looking over the side of a cliff and the land is getting further and further away.  Which means that we were visibly climbing higher and higher. 

This experience is like the uphill part of a roller coaster, but only slower, at the pace of a snail, and there isn’t a part, after 30 seconds or a minute where you get to joyride down, strapped in a seat on, with the safety of a steel mountain passing away below you.  It took 3 hours!  Three hours going uphill on a roller-coaster:  my nerves were SHATTERED when we finally reached the top.  I was very, very happy to exit that bus.  My knuckles were sore for two days from holding on to the seat in front of me so tightly, lol.

Now, coming down the mountain was a much quicker experience, but even more harrowing. To start off, it took about an hour and some small change to descend.  And it was dark out.  And the bus was going so fast, and rocking back and forth so much that people, left and right, were throwing up. Not just a little bit either, or in one location, but EVERYWHERE.  Barf Fest, 2011. Luckily, I managed to keep my cookies down, but I’m definitely glad that I didn’t eat dinner before I boarded the Vomitron Saturday night. People were pulling plastic bags out of pockets and purses only to bury their head in the bag between their legs and let it go. The girls behind us were throwing up out the window, so when the bus stopped there was vomit streaked all across the side of the bus.  I’m glad we opted for the front seat and had windows to open, otherwise I’m sure we would have crashed the barf party, uninvited.

Overall, aside from the traveling, we had a great trip!  Just being in the mountains, above the clouds, was really refreshing. Being that high up, the fog and clouds just form around you; we kept joking that we must be on Cloud 9, lol. I needed it, for sure.  I’m ready to head to the next destination, probably by train next time, to the north, in search of northern Indian food, from north India.  Yum.

 Jazzy-Jazz, waiting for yet another bus, in Trichy.

 Amen!

 Sweaty, stinky and frustrated: this is the face of someone who has unsuccessfully run after a bus.

 Trichy (Thiruchirappalli) at night! We stopped over here on our way to Kodai, ate a tasty South Indian meal and splurged on a hotel room with air-conditioning.

 I don't know how theses people were sleeping.  Yeah, and that's a person sitting (sleeping) in the aisle.

 Another shot of the bus that stayed crowded like this the six-hour journey from Trichy to Kodai. Whew.

 View from our doorstep. It's okay to be a little jealous.

 

Staircase #1 of the climb we would do just to leave the hostel.

 Not so fancy, but perfect for us.  I spent many an hour reading in that there chair.

 You know who this is.  Those are the mountains. Yup.

 Dinner! S. Indian parathas, plums, mountain-made cheese, avocados and some Western condiments we found that we realized we could no longer live without (and they required no refrigeration).

 An alternate view, from another point in Kodai.

 The better half of the wild buffalo that cruised past our door at 7am sharp each morning.

 A tiger at a tourist trap. Rawrr!!

 This is a random parade.  These men were swinging from hooks that were pierced through their flesh.  There were three floats similar to this one.  There were also women who marched in this parade carrying pots of fire with long skewers pierced laterally through their cheeks, from one side to the other.

 An electrical marvel or an electrical fire waiting to happen? You decide.

Jazz-a-ma-Tazz and D$ in front of Pastry Corner.

 

 Notice here: the car in the lake.  No one seemed to startled or was in any huge rush to retrieve it.  We cruised past and they seemed to have it under control, thus we didn't offer to help.