http://peterclaridge.me Expat - Grumpy - Chancer Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:09:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Sunday morning, 8:17am. I have been asleep for approximately 5 hours. There is a knock at my door. I ignore it, what sort of cretin knocks on the door this early on a Sunday? The door bell goes again. I continue to ignore. It can't be the maid because she ... http://peterclaridge.me/probably-the-best-housemates-in-the-world In keeping with the Saturday evenings of culture and learning (like the traditional Indian dances I saw the other week when we came across the cultural exchange show), and in a rather depressing sign that my youth and partying days are drawing to a close, I got invited to an ... http://peterclaridge.me/a-patron-of-the-arts The population of London is thought to be hovering around the 7m mark, although obviously if all the Aussie contingent suddenly got bored of rain, cold and snow, this would take a drastic dip to 6.5m and Walkabout bars across the city would go out of business. By comparison Chennai is ... http://peterclaridge.me/no-room-at-the-inn One of my friends here in Chennai is a classical Tamil singer. The guy is as American as a Ford pickup truck, but he's discovered a talent for the ancient and somewhat obscure art of warbling (which I'm reliably informed is actually singing). If you want to hear what it ... http://peterclaridge.me/culture-vulturing-in-chennai About two years (and a whole lifetime) ago I had my palm read by a fortune teller. You can read the outcome of that over on the Can You Read My Mind post. And now, nearly two years to the day later, I had my fortune told again, but not by ... http://peterclaridge.me/ive-seen-the-future-and-its-green Something you will discover about India is that there is a huge patriotic streak that runs through every citizen, but it only surfaces when they feel threatened, or as I believe, insecure about something - I have sat through frequent rants about how India is so much more enlightened and ... http://peterclaridge.me/give-a-little-respect I've been accused on more than a few occasions (well, OK, on every blog post I make that mentions India) of over generalizing (yes, weirdly, my English has be Americanized since being in India and I now spell stuff with zee's insteaded of esses) with my sweeping statements about the ... http://peterclaridge.me/the-two-indias-and-generalizations Given the utter lack of things to do in Chennai (ie. the pub) on Sunday evenings, Chennai, as a whole, converges en-masse to a place known as Marina beach. I often forget that Chennai is a coastal city but it's just a short 10 minute train ride to get to ... http://peterclaridge.me/if-you-go-down-to-the-beach-today I asked my friend a question the other day, I don't think they got why I was asking it though. The question I asked was: At what point is a country sufficiently developed enough that the people are able to pursue a career in a field that actually interests them ... http://peterclaridge.me/who-cares-what-your-dreams-are Wow, OK, I feel like I haven't updated this blog in a while so let's start off the new year by talking about last year. Backwards I know. Christmas was the first time I'd spent it away from my family. Every year since the age of 18 I'd come back to ... http://peterclaridge.me/christmas-and-new-year-in-india