Muddling through in the Monsoon

I don't have any photos of the monsoon yet. When I do I'll be sure to post them up. But for those of you who read my blog last week about the difficulties often presented by the pavement, I thought this photo provided a good example of this. This little boy has just stopped and is thinking what I often think when we come to a similar 'drop': what now??! The answer is, of course, go on the road. But now you see why pushchairs are just not an option here.

But back to the monsoon...I've lost count of the number of times we've been caught out by it recently. The other day Andy found Maya, Lily and I dripping wet under a tree after a hasty exodus from the park. I was in mid-spiel to Maya at the time, telling her how I really must stop talking about getting an umbrella and actually get one. It is very, very good that the monsoon seems to be finally kicking in. It's good news for the farmers, good news for the reservoirs and good news for the parched earth. It's also good news for the umbrella sellers, but these elusive people are much like buses: you wait for an eternity for one to turn up and then two come at the same time. I just couldn't find an umbrella when I needed it but then came across a street in which there were several sellers.

Maya put in a request for a pink one, but the only colour they came in was black. She was most unimpressed. But I want a pink one! she hollered. I eyed the strengthening rain and she was overruled, much to her disdain. However, once back outside Maya decided that any umbrella was quite a fun novelty. Have you ever walked behind a small child dwarfed under a huge umbrella, zig-zagging precariously along? Well, that is what Maya was doing yesterday, but throw the above 'pavement-pause' scenario into the equation and let's just say that it's not the safest journey in the world. If you look at the photo again and this time imagine that the little boy is staring down at a huge black umbrella which has got itself lodged in the pavement gap and a little curly-haired child is shouting back up 'Oops! Mummy! Can you get me out?' If your powers of imagination have served you well then you can imagine my concern at Maya walking along under the umbrella! She was not happy when I took the umbrella off her and hoisted her hood up instead (mental note to myself: must keep her raincoat on us at all times) but as much as she'd probably disagree, I'd rather she got wet than did a vanishing act into the pavement.