150 Saturday Oct 30

Saturday Oct 30 Day 150

This is a major rest day because when I got up this morning I was unable to walk a straight line and I felt disorientated. Today is a cloudy day bordering on being cold. Just the day to bundle up and read a book or play solitaire which is what I am doing. For most of the last week I have had gastronomical problems. Today for the first time I could not stand the smell of cooking food. I have had a reduced appetite but now the thought of eating is uninviting. Today is bath and shaving day. After ones takes a shower the floor has to be cleared of standing water. I usually do this after putting on my shoes, socks and pants so I can go in and shave without freezing my feet in the standing cold water. As I was putting on my shirt I undid my belt to tuck the shirt in and the pants promptly dropped to the floor. Not eating very much lately has reduced my weight noticeably. My waist is at least 2 to 3 inches smaller than in the States, so my belt is now much too long. I force myself to eat something so I will not get too weak to climb around the hillside.

There was no sunset yesterday and it looks doubtful for this evening. This does not mean the sun will not go down, I shall not be able to record the decent which is obscured by the clouds. I am going in (at 3 pm) to put on my pajamas on under my clothes so I will be warm to read and play on the computer. I have completed the chore and it is wonderful. I leave my underwear on under my pajamas for the extra layer of clothing. When I put my pajamas on I have to take off my shirt (long sleeved) and pants. I put on the long sleeved T-shirt and long johns (these are damp and cold) climb back into my shirt, pants and sweater. Then the final and most important part is tucking the ends of my long johns into the tops of my socks. This keeps my ankles warmer.

149 Friday Oct 29

Friday Oct 29 Day 149

Last night my hands were very cold even with my gloves. I happen to put them to my face and the hands warmed up quickly. I realized I had a fever. I took a couple of Aleve tablets and bundled myself up for bed. During the course of the evening I suffered greatly from farts, stomach rumblings and burping. At 2:30 am I woke up suffering from heat stroke. The fever had broken and taking off my socks was just what I needed. I was unable to get back to sleep but my stomach rumblings, which had been going on for weeks, stopped. It is now mid afternoon and there are no stomach rumblings, burps or excessive farts in evidence. My appetite is still very poor but I have 3 days before the next project starts, the taping of the residences. Hopefully I get back up to speed by then.

I found that I was quite weak this morning but I went down to the school and taped the last of the classrooms. I said goodbye to that last of my classmates, Alan Robinson, walked to Mullingar, 3/4 of a mile, and took a taxi to the top of the hill. I have been in bed the rest of the day mostly reading.

There is a retired couple who come to Woodstock to work in the alumni office a couple of times a year. They have been here off and one for the past several years. The husband said that the snows were the clearest he has ever seen. I guess I am lucky to be here right now.

148 Thursday Oct 28

Thursday Oct 28 Day 148

Well I lied to you yesterday (but it was fun). Evidently my “spell” is a little more serious. I woke up this morning nauseous and slightly dizzy. For the first time my breakfast tasted light recycled cardboard. I could not finish my omelet and I left one of my pieces of toast. The term “toast” is interesting. Since our latest electricity outage (it lasted almost 2 days) the voltage in the morning is so low that coils in the toaster barely glow red. Needless to say the toast ends up as white bread that has been waved over a fire. Usually my toast is burned on the edges and is as hard as a brick. Now it is pale white and limp but you can tell it had been in the toaster.

The weather is turning colder. When I go to bed and put on my pajamas (a pair of long johns and a long sleeved T-shirt) they are damp and cold. This evening I shall put my long johns and t-shirt after supper and put my clothes over them. This way they (pajamas) will be warm and dried out. I shall let you know tomorrow if my experiment is successful. The extra layer will keep me warmer durning my computer time in the evenings (when I play solitaire, I’m addicted).

The snows are out in all their glory. I have been here a total of 5 months and this is the best they have looked. I walked down to Childers and got some great shots. This is the single clearest day we have had. This evening I tape the sunset against the Snows. They were still clear and NO clouds. The first day for that to happen.

I taped the classrooms and all the facilities of the Gym this afternoon. I have discovered why the Glidecam is not stable when climbing the covered passage. The torso of my body is too short for the Glidecam vest. When stepping up the ramp my legs hit the bottom of the vest and cause the camera to swing. When I go down the ramp the Glidecam is steady. SO! I shall have to use the downhill shots of the covered passage.

My stomach is upset and when I am not burping the last meal I am farting out the last meal. I must very entertaining to those who follow me. Subsequently I have not felt like eating my usual sized meals. I still had the energy for this afternoon’s shooting but it took me 40 minutes to get up the hill again. Supper is coming up within the next hour and I am NOT thrilled at the prospect.

Earlier I was logging the school tape I took the last several days. It took me a full hour to log 11 minutes of tape. At this rate it will take me 5 plus hours for each full tape.

147 Wednesday Oct 27

Wednesday Oct 27 Day 147

I must have had one of my periodic “spells” and it lasted 24 hours as all the rest of them. I feel fine today and by tomorrow I shall have the strength and energy to continue with my taping at the school.

I spent the morning in bed and went to the internet cafe this afternoon. While there I helped 3 young ladies from the language school book a taxi for Friday afternoon to go to Delhi for a long weekend. One cannot decide on the spur of the moment to go anywhere in India. The main means of transport is the train but you need to book weeks in advance. They could get a seat on a train but it would take 12 hours and it was not an overnight trip but a very long day trip. The most comfortable way is by taxi and I happen to know someone who could arrange the trip. I have done my good deed for the day and it makes me feel great.

The weather has been beautiful lately with sun almost all day long. The only problem is there are no beautiful sunsets as you need clouds to reflect the setting sun to get interesting colors. I have 4 more full weeks to get some good ones.

It is getting cooler at night and my room is a steady 54 degrees day and night.

146 Tuesday Oct 26

Tuesday Oct 26 Day 146

This morning I went down to school and taped the Junior School classrooms and hallways. The Glidecam shots on Monday were not a stable as I wanted. During my early morning thinking session I realized the I needed to bend my knees more, shorten my step and move more slowly. It worked. The hallway shots were much improved and I shall have to redo all the shots I took on Monday. While I was working this morning I felt a bit nauseous and my head began to hurt. I went up to Kilmarnock at 11:30 and I had to stop 4 or 5 times to rest before I could continue on. It usually takes 25 minutes to climb the hill. It took a little over 30 minutes. I returned down the hill to tape the classrooms in the Senior School. When I got to the High School office it was closed and all the classrooms were locked. I had been assured that the rooms would be open every day. How typically India. I promptly went back up the hill and it took over 40 minutes to climb the hill. I must have stopped 7 or 8 times to rest. I went to bed for the rest of the day. It took 3 full hours for my clothes to get dry. My headache is still active and I feel like a little pile of feces.

145 Monday Oct 25

Monday Oct 25 Day 145

This morning I went down the hill to school and taped the outside of the various school buildings under the morning sunlight. I also used my tripod to take some of the interiors hallways and verandahs of the buildings in the Junior School. There has been a new organization of the school with grades 1 thru 6 in the lower buildings and grades 7 thru 12 in the Senior School in the upper buildings near Parker Hall. This description will only make sense to the old Woodstockites.

This afternoon I went back down the hill again and tapes the Covered Passage with the Glidecam. Amazingly I was able to get the camera balanced and I was also able to handle the physical demands of carrying the equipment up and down the ramp. I was also able to carry it into the buildings and the new Gym. I am very pleased that I am in physical shape to do this major part of my project. This evening I am logging the tape taken during the day to see how it looks. My shoulders and back only hurt a little bit from the effort.

The snows were out at noon today and my main camera was down at the school. I got some good shots with my backup camera and I will have time to review the shots on Wednesday. This is the first day the snows have been clear at mid day.

144 Sunday Oct 24

Sunday Oct 24 Day 144

Yesterday afternoon I visited the site of the tree collapse which caused our power to be off all day. It turns out that the power lines are what kept the tree from plunging through the roof of the wealthiest man on the hillside. This gentleman has donated 30 million rupees (670,000 US dollars) for the new gym and renovating the high school boys residence. We did get a little bit of electricity last evening but the voltage is so low that I cannot use this laptop plugged into the wall.

I have been unable to use my computer to play solitaire and I find myself totally bored. The days are so long when you cannot break them up by playing a few games. I read a book most of yesterday sitting next to the window in a uncomfortable chair.

Last evening all my classmates and I were invited to the principal’s home for “Worldwide Woodstock Day”. The food was delicious and I helped myself to a good sized glop of mashed potatoes (anything but rice). The meat was in a very tasty red sauce. I had had meat for lunch and dinner 5 times so far and it has been wonderful. I will now return to my rice, lentils and vegetables for lunch and my bowl of oatmeal for supper.

I have just returned from a walk where I was escorted by the ghengis who lives here at Kilmarnock. He frequently gets out and is gone for days. As I left the house there he was right beside me. When I met some people I knew from the hillside he sat on the ground beside me and accompanied me home including getting chained upon his return.

143 Saturday Oct 23

Saturday Oct 23 Day 143

There was no electricity this morning and I found out why. There is a tree down on the chukker and we will be lucky to get lights by nightfall this evening. I am not holding my breath. I am using my battery on my laptop and I am down to 22% and falling rapidly.

I have to the internet cafe and sent off 5 days of blogs. On my way home (3/4 of a mile) I was caught in a hail shower and I ducked under an awning until it passed. Last nights electrical and booming thunder storm packed some winds. I had to bolt shut my door to keep the rain from blowing open the doors and inviting itself in for the evening. That is the first time I have had to do that. Except for the light show (plus hail) it has been dry but very cloudy. When this storm system passes there will be some exciting long distance vistas available. I am turning the computer off because the battery is now down to 7%.

142 Friday Oct 22

Friday Oct 22 Day 142

One of my classmates had a much younger brother who was a lost soul. During his many trips to India to find himself he happened to fall over the side of the mountain and broke his neck. He died some 6 weeks later in a Delhi hospital. Helen asked us to accompany her to this site and the driver of our vehicle was the one who carried the brother up to the road and transported him to the local hospital. It was quite emotional for Helen and I felt privileged to add my support. We just sat around talking for the next couple of hours and were transported up the hill to the newest restaurant on the hillside. The meal was fabulous and we spent the afternoon talking about the types of contributions the class of 1960 could make to Woodstock.

I am so tired that I walked home and will have my normal supper of oatmeal and bread. The last 2 nights there have been unbelievably beautiful sunsets and I could not get to my sunset location. I will do so tonight and hope. We ended up the night with a major thunder and lightning storm plus a very heavy rainfall. Within an hour the moon was back shinning beautifully. I think the building I am living in was struck by lightning. There was a bright flask just as lightning struck follow immediately by an very powerful clap of thunder. Needless to say the lights have been out but are back on along with the moon.

141 Thursday Oct 21

Thursday Oct 21 Day 141

We went to the Hostel this morning with the ladies taking a taxi down and up the hill and the men walking. The rest of the morning was a tour of the school buildings followed by lunch. This afternoon Alan and I walked up to the top of the hill and went back down stopping off to allow Alan to visit his old hillside home. They had updated the inside but it was still the same on the exterior. The ladies went shopping using a taxi to get them up and down the hills.

The meals prepared by the school are rather tasty much to our surprise. It is now 8:30 at night and I have been on the go since 7:45 am. I am completely exhausted.

140 Wednesday Oct 20

Wednesday Oct 20 Day 140

What a day. I was to meet my fellow 1960 classmates down in the main school building. I got there and was informed the tour had been changed and I needed to be at Ridgewood in 5 minutes. I made it down the hill in 8 minutes and we toured Ridgewood (boys grades 5 thru 9), Alter Ridge (girls grades 5 thru 9) and the Midlands (girls grades 10 thru 12). Compared to what we lived in the places are palatial. The buildings a still the same size but the facilities greatly improved. There are no long dorm rooms with rows of beds. But individual rooms containing from 3 to six students with the 4 person room the norm. The rooms themselves are large and there is even heat in the various common rooms during the cold months. We then returned up the hill to the school for lunch.

After lunch we met with a staff member about the Outdoor program (which is in trouble) and at 4 pm 4 of us went for a hike down to Dhobi Ghat. A dhobi is a man who washes clothes. Ghat is a village where they all gather to wash clothes because of the continuous flow of water. It is at the bottom of the hill. The resident hall is 300 vertical feet from the school and Dhobi Ghat is another 300 vertical feet lower. At this point one of them said we should climb to the top of Witches Hill. It is so named because of the almost continuous lightning strikes during storms in the monsoon. The top of the hill is bare because of the fires caused by the strikes. The top of this hill is about 800 vertical feet above Dhobi Ghat. We made it back to the school by 5:45 (just in time for supper).During the day (not counting the downhill walks) I climbed 2,200 vertical feet. This most probably covered 10 miles of walking. I hope I am dead before I ever climb to the top of Witches Hill again.

139 Tuesday Oct 19

Tuesday Oct 19 Day 139

Last week I mentioned to another resident of Kilmarnock about my plans to leave India. She works for UNICEF and has been in and out of India many times. There are so many things that could go wrong with my tight schedule and she recommends to everyone who flies out of Delhi to stay overnight and get to the airport 3 1/2 hours before departure. I was already having concerns about the schedule. The train arrives 3 hours before departure and it takes an hour to get from the train station to the airport. 10/19/10

18

5

was thinking about this yesterday morning and realized that the cost of a 2 night stay would probably be greater than the cost of a taxi from Mussoorie to the Delhi airport. It turns out that the taxi costs half as much. The best part is I shall not have to go through the constant hassles of hiring taxis and coolies and constantly watching my luggage. The drive will take 6 to 8 hours from my gate to the airport with time to spare. No stressing out about all the possibilities of things going wrong.

One of my classmates was denied a Visa to India. This happened a few days before he and his wife were to fly out. Mac went to Washington DC and spoke to the man in charge of issuing visas. Mac was born in a city that is now part of Pakistan. Mac was born in 1942 and Pakistan did not exist until 1947. Except of 2 one year stays in the US (1947 and 1954) Mac lived in India for a total of 16 years. The most unfortunate item was that the city of his birth is listed on his passport. So to Indian bureaucrats Mac must be a citizen of Pakistan and therefore not allowed into India. The visa man had never heard of the US Family passport in use before 1960. Today everyone must have an individual passport and the clerk wanted to know if Mac had ever had an Indian or Pakistani passport. There was one way around all this was for Mac to file a “renunciation” form. The clerk refused to tell him what it was or how to get one. I figure that Mac was supposed to renounce his Pakistani citizenship. So Mac is not coming to India and it looks like the Indian travel agent he used will not refund anything. I was told NOT to book anything until you had your Visa for India. The Indian government is being very tight with Visas from North America. Woodstock is missing 3 teachers held up by visa issues and they are all from Canada.

138 Monday Oct 18

Monday Oct 18 Day 138

Yesterday afternoon I had an enlightening moment. I was hauling around my photographic equipment to the field test. Wearing all this stuff causes people to give me curious looks. An older couple stopped me and we struck up a conversation. He was Indian and his wife was American (I could tell from the accent). A car stopped and a woman asked for some directions. The gentleman responded I could understand 90% of what he was saying. I mentioned that it was so nice to hear Hindi I could comprehend. It turns out that the language spoken by the hill people is NOT Hindi but a dialect. No wonder I have not been able to communicate with the servants here or understand anything that the people are saying to each other. Most of the servants we had during my 10 year stay in India had not been hill people. If they were hill people they worked for missionaries who had or were studying the language. Therefore they did not speak a dialect but correct Hindi. We kids got a lot of our language help from the cook who had travelled all over India during the British Raj.

There are at least 2 of me here or maybe 3. I found some mangos in the bazaar and some custard-apples. I am beside myself with excitement. I just got my pickings out of the bag and the mangos smell delicious. I had one of the custard-apples after lunch. They are an indescribable fruit with an apple shape and a hard lumpy green outer skin. Like so many fruits in the tropics there are seeds covered with a thin layer of fruit. A mango has a large seed and not much fruit for it’s size. The inside of this fruit has the color and texture of a rubbery custard, hence its name. A lot of effort for a little sweetness. I ended up dropping the opened fruit on the ground and that ended my snack. In India foreigners only eat fruit that has an outer skin like a bananas. Once any part of the pealed fruit touches anything other than the eater’s fingers, it is no longer safe to eat.

The tapes of the road between Dehradun (the rail head for Mussoorie) Mussoorie were very good. I now have plenty of material of the roads to give the viewer some idea of the roads and their condition. I also taped through the Landour bazaar, up the Mullingar hill and on to the Woodstock gate. By car this took 8 minutes whereas it takes 35 minutes on foot. The road through the bazaar is very rough and it looks like I shall have to walk the road tapping with my Glidecam. That is a project for mid November.

137 Sunday Oct 17

Sunday Oct 17 Day 137

Today’s major project has been to balance my camera equipment for use inside the rooms of Woodstock School. It has been moderately successful with a few elements to adjust. I did a real field test which involves taking the equipment out to a site still in pieces. The equipment is too awkward to carry so I have to break it down to fit in my backpack. The field test comprises putting it back together away from my apartment. I still have a sway in the camera that I should be able to solve in the next couple of days.

I have run up against the artist’s procrastination. This past friday I was able to get my first wide vistas of the hillside from the Community Hospital to the Midlands. I was very reluctant to check it when I got home on friday or all day yesterday. I am afraid that it will not turn out as I wanted and do not want to be disappointed. The vista shot are beautiful and I am very pleased. I cannot wait to see them on wide screen plasma TV. I find I am doing the same thing today about yesterday’s taping from the moving car. Logging the shots will take a couple of hours and I do not want to stop during the logging. So the moving car shots will be done tomorrow unless I do it after supper.

Bena, the lady that cooks my lunch and dinner, wants to go into the bazaar for some big event this evening. So I shall be cooking my oatmeal and making my own toast for dinner. I taught her how to make the oatmeal yet she feels that she needed to get everything ready for me. I will most probably end up with uncooked oatmeal and burned toast.

My blood sugars have been a little bit high the last couple of days. This comes from taping from a car and not climbing up and down the hillside repeatedly.

During my field testing I noticed that I was not even breathing hard while taping. I can hear my breathing in the recording. I must finally be getting into shape. A couple of weeks ago it only took 5 to 10 minutes to begin huffing and puffing on the recording.

136 Saturday Oct 15

Saturday Oct 15 Day 136

I am just exhausted. I spent almost 3 hours on the road taping. I have a real problem with motion sickness. The road up from the plains makes me good and car sick. In order to avoid the nausea I have to take dramamine. The side effects are that my mind does not work well and I couldn’t pass a sobriety test because I cannot walk a straight line. Through years of experience the secret to successful traveling along winding mountain roads is to take a pill 5 hours before the trip starts and then one as you leave the house. I have the chewable kind which taste absolutely ghastly so I had to have a piece of chocolate with the tablet (boy, how I suffer for my art). It took an hour and a quarter to get to the beginning of the road I wanted to tape. I think the taping went well but I shall log and review the tape tomorrow when I am back in my right mind (which isn’t saying much). It really feels good to finally get something to use. For old Woodstock people I tape the series of hairpin corners, through the bazaar, up Mullingar hill and to the Woodstock School gates. Enough of brain dead ramblings.

135 Friday Oct 15

Friday Oct 15 Day 135

After venting my spleen the other day I need to retract some of my statements. This morning I went down the Woodstock and got the contact information for the various Residence Supervisors and met with the 2 people who will allow me into the School buildings week after next. Tomorrow I shall be going down the road to tape it for posterity. It turned out that the brothers were extremely busy this week with emergency projects. I wonder why they did not call and let me know so I wouldn’t jump to unnecessary negative conclusions.

This afternoon the air was clean enough for me the tape the Woodstock hillside from across the ravine with correct lighting. I will be logging it and hoping to see great pictures. It cost me 100 rupees ($2.20) for the use of the empty roof at the back of Mullingar. The man was a little concerned that I might fall over the edge. The bottom was perhaps 500 feet down so he had a point.

The mini 50th reunion of the class of 1960 is occurring next week. It looks like there are going to be 5 or 6 members of class here plus some wives and grandchildren. It will be nice to spend some time with them getting reacquanted and meeting other members of their families.

134 Thursday Oct 14

Thursday Oct 14 Day 134

Today is the mid point of this trip to India. I another 44 days I shall be heading home.

Most of you know that I am not a large person and rather slender particularly in the width and padding of my butt. I have spent most of the day sitting on that skinny butt with only three layers of fleece protecting it. Today was Sports Day for Woodstock School. I was forced to sit on cement for 7 1/2 hours. My hips are sore and my butt is about dead. What a wonderful day. I had competed on this same field in Track and Field events 51 years ago. The excitement of the elementary and high school students for a full day of competitive sports was wonderful. All the pride I felt for my fellow class mates was in clear evidence today. It took me back over half a century. It was very rewarding to see the exchange between faculty and staff members with the students. The professional staff (including the residence supervisors) have a deep affection for the students and support them in almost everything they do. This affection is reflected by the students to these people. A truly inspiring interplay. This is the one day of the year where the students and staff play and do it for fun. This was the Woodstock I remembered. Well, I must go get an aspirin for my hips and butt.

133 Wednesday Oct 13

Wednesday Oct 13 Day 133

I am into the part of my project that I foresaw as a potential problem. I have done all of the work by myself in the taping f the trails. But now I am in the part where I need the help of others to keep the project moving forward. I have spent the last three days waiting for the phone to ring. I need the help of the Director of Facilities to gain access to the buildings and make arrangements with the Resident Managers of each of the 6 residential facilities. I went down to the school and had a face to face meeting and he said he would contact that day with names and numbers. On Wednesday morning I called him and he said he would call me right after lunch with the information. At 4 pm no call as yet. I know he is busy and I am NOT a priority on his list but if he wants glidecam pictures of the renovated facilities he needs to let me get started.

The other problem is working with Indians on the hillside. They promise the world and then fail to deliver. Pal (pronounced Paul) has agreed to help me tape the road between the plains and the hillside. He was supposed to meet me yesterday at 2:30 but did not show and he did not even call to let me know what is going on. Perhaps there is a problem with the new windshield for the car. A typical Indian response to a problem is to not tell the customer anything. I called last night and his phone was off. He will get a missed call indication but has not phoned me yet today.

Sitting around waiting is not something I do easily. However, I will NOT call and nag people to help me. I refuse to do that!!! I will cancel that part of the project (taping the interiors of the Woodstock buildings) or hire someone else (taping the roads) to get the project accomplished.

132 Tuesday Oct 12

Tuesday Oct 12 Day 132

Today was a very difficult day for me. I was to meet with my friend Pol and tape part of the road between Mussoorie and Dehradun. About half way down the hill are a series of hairpin curves. These are the most memorable part of this road. Pol did not arrive on time (he usually does, which is surprising for an Indian) but no such luck today. Something must have happened with the car or their business. I shall call this evening and see what is going on. Perhaps tomorrow will work. Living in India one can never depend on things happening on schedule and I must be flexible.

The electricity has been off for the last 2 days. It usually shouts off at 9 am and has come back on around 5 each day. This means I cannot play my computer games to make the day go by faster. I run out of battery power on my laptops within in a couple of hours and the rest of the day its either read a book or listen to one on my ipod. The problem is that is get dark in my rooms in the afternoon because of tree cover and the sun moving behind the hilltop. I was sitting outside reading when I go rather cold. I checked the temperature inside my rooms and the temperature has dropped a couple of degrees in the last couple of days. It is now 57 degrees in my bedroom in the middle of the day. 60 degrees was comfortable but this evening I need a heavier coat. The cold weather is coming. At 4 pm I walked to the top of the hill and as I came over the crest of the hill the temperature went up 5 or 6 degrees. That is a noticeable change of temperature. I live on the “cold” side of the hill and this is the first time I have felt the difference. Perhaps the colder temperatures of the fall months is settling in.

131 Monday Oct 11

Monday Oct 11 Day 131

I went down to Woodstock this morning and made arrangements with the Director of Facilities to tape the school buildings. The classroom buildings will be empty from Oct 25 to Oct 29. I walked around the buildings trying to get an idea of what I wanted to tape or not tape. That week is Activity Week and the students are not allowed access to the school. They travel to different parts of India and into the local mountains. Later this week I shall visit each of the residence dorms for an initial walk through of the facilities. I will tape inside the dorms in November.

I discovered that Sports Day will occur this Thursday. Evidently it is not the highly organized event that it was 50 ears ago. Evidently the Olympics do not occur any more. The Olympics was a track and field day where Woodstock competed against the other 3 or 4 English based schools on the hillside. Competition on Sports Day is between 3 teams with students from 7th through 12th grades completing. Members of each class are assigned to one of the teams. In the “old days” the competition was between the various standards (there were 10 Standards 1st grade through senior in high school) In order to get 12 years of education with only 10 Standards there were two 6th Standards, Lower and Upper 6th which was 6th and 7th grade and a Lower 7th which was 8th grade. 7th Standard was the freshmen year and 10 Standard was the senior year. The competitive groupings were as follows: 4th thru lower 6th. Upper 6th thru 7th. 8th thru 10th standards. The class of 1960 won every year except in 4th standard.

130 Sunday Oct 10

Sunday Oct 10 Day 130

This morning I am reviewing the shots I took yesterday of the washboard roads at the top of the hillside. They are looking good and are usable for final production. I began to get motion sickness near the end of the session. When walking these roads you do not know how bouncy the ride is in a car. When taking a taxi up the hill I am so busy holding on that I am not aware of the bouncing. The human body adjusts for the bounces that the camera cannot handle.

I have the remains of more lilies. They are in the old Christian cemetery. One of the grave stones identified the life span of the person buried there as 1828 to 1906. The cemetery is surrounded by a stone wall about 5 feet tall and the usual 18 inches thick. It goes down the hillside about 200 feet and is about 50 to 75 feet wide. It is interesting to see the grave markings and realizing that here lies someone who was loved by others and would be missed. When I get back to Maple Valley I will place Colleen’s ashes under a stone in the memory garden. I now see the need to do that.

I walked around Peace Cottage today and up onto the verandah of the main building at Childers Lodge. Peace Cottage was where the Dillingham family lived during the monsoons of 1947. During the months we stayed there 17 scorpions were caught and killed. My father discovered that when the tip of the stinger is cut off, the scorpion dies.

129 Saturday Oct 9

Saturday Oct 9 Day 129

A major tragedy has occurred. My Ipod has died. At least I finished the book I was listening to so I got the whole story. Now I am going to be without entertainment while I walk around the hillside which I frequently do for hours each day. I took the little machine to my friend at the Internet cafe and he turned it on. The Ipod had been frozen until the young man picked it up. When I got it home I discovered that half of the memory is not working but I can live with that.

The taping this afternoon of the roads around the top of the hillside were a great success. I am getting better control of the Glidecam but the roads are still very uneven and cause the camera to bounce a bit. The roads around the chukkar were hand built and not leveled out. It is too steep to get the paving equipment using asphalt up to the top of the hill. The other roads used by car, trucks and buses are not so steep and the paving equipment was used. I tested using a tripod to hold the camera on one of these roads and it is still to jittery, so I shall have to use the Glidecam for all my taping. I have to hold the equipment at a awkward angle to fit it into the front seat of the van. This puts a strain on my back muscles and Pol (the young man who owns the car) suggested I should use a pillow to support my back. The back of the passenger seat is sloped back and welded into position. This allows Pol’s father to seat comfortably but forces me to lean forward to shoot. We shall see if the pillow works on Tuesday.

The weather is very boring, sunny with clouds in the afternoon. I need some rain to wash the air clear so I can take some of the long shots I want.

128 Friday Oct 8

Friday Oct 8 Day 128

This morning was a great success. I was able to get good moving pictures of the chukkar. The surface of the road has been paved with cement. Because of the amount of rain during the monsoon, rebar is pressed into the cement leaving a channel for the water. Rebar is iron bars used in construction and are about 1/2 inch thick. The resulting channels are spaced about 6 inches apart. Needless to say a vehicle vibrates when going over these openings in the surface. On a video tape it is a wonderful “wash board” effect. Trying to get smooth pictures is about impossible. I adjusted my glidecam equipment to fit inside the front of the van and was able to get fairly smoothly flowing pictures. The road, though paved, is far from level. The cement was just put over the uneven stone and dirt road so the car bounces around quite a bit. The Glidecam removes many of these irregularities and I end up with decent pictures. We are going to try for some final pictures of the cement covered roads at the top of the hill tomorrow afternoon.

127 Thursday Oct 7

Thursday Oct 7 Day 127

I found out yesterday why Woodstock had been silent on Monday. It is the quarter break when the whole school shuts down and the campus is basically closed to outsiders. Part of this event is the parent-teacher conferences which occurred yesterday morning.

Last evening i got my first unimpeded view of a Winterline sunset. Up till There have been local clouds actually blocking the horizon. Last night all these clouds were below the horizon of the Winterline. There is not much color except for orangish red but it is magnificent. The only problem is I forgot to get the Winterline level across the screen. I will watch for that tonight. The entire sunset takes 10 minutes including the afterglow. It is difficult to remember that Landour is on the same latitude as Jacksonville, Florida so the sunset is a rather rapid affair. In the evening I need to wear my gloves because I am just standing around and it becomes cool quickly. Fortunately the gloves are my thin, thermal gloves so I can work the tiny buttons on the camera with no problems.

This morning I was feeling really good so I headed out to Flag Hill to check out the shots I want to take later in the year. Judy, I found the lilies. Flag Hill was covered with them earlier during the monsoon. I recognized the plants from the lilies I had in my back yard in Seattle. So the lilies are still around but not on the Landour hillside.

A week ago I took my last pictures of the trails. All the green moss on the retaining walls has turned a dark green almost black. There are no more ferns on the trees but the ones of the ground are still doing well. It is amazing how one dry week effects the greenness of the hillside.

I am signing off for the day. I have had an active and thoughtful day and for the first time I am not exhausted as I type this. Perhaps I have been ill and I am coming out of it.

126 Wednesday Oct 6

Wednesday Oct 6 Day 126

My walk down the hill this morning was a waste of time and energy. At 10 am the sun has not moved far enough over the sky to light the hillside. The haze was rather bad and clouds started to build. It seems that I shall only be able to get clear, crisp images after a rain storm to clear the air and hope it gets cooler to forestall the creation of clouds. I shall see as the weeks go by.

This is another one of those days where I sit around and wait for others to call and start work on a taping project. I am waiting for the young man with the car to get back up to the top of the hill so we can test the use of the camera in the car. At 10 pm I gave up waiting for the call from the young man. Something must have happened after 2:30 pm when he called and told me he was heading back up the hill. I hope nothing serious has happened to him or his car.

125 Tuesday Oct 5

Tuesday Oct 5 Day 125

I went down to Mullingar this afternoon. I got there around 1 pm and part of the hillside was completely clear of clouds. There other half was partially obscured with a thin layer of cloud. I was out of luck but the light was what I have been looking for. I shall go down again tomorrow morning to see at what time the sun starts to face the hillside and I can get the buildings to stand out from all the foliage.

This afternoon I was to meet with the owner of the famous van to plan our taping of the roads from a moving vehicle. I finally got together with them about 7:30 pm (I guess it was technically after noon). I showed them some of my rough footage and we played ping pong. It was an enjoyable evening and I did not get home till 10:15 pm (I have become a real social butterfly).

I made my first sandwich lunch today. I purchased peanut butter at the store in Sisters Bazaar. I must have done it right because I had no problem with high or low blood sugars.

124 Monday October 4

Monday October 4 Day 124

I suddenly remembered that I have to get my train reservation for November 27. So this morning I took my credit card, ATM card and prescription with me. Evidently Woodstock School was not in operation today. Everything was locked up so I was not able to get my train reservation. Walked over to Mullingar (about a kilometer) and headed down the hill to pray to the money god at the bank (successfully) and go on further down the hill to get my Insulin (also successfully).I then climbed all the way back up the hill (about 2 miles). This afternoon I cannot get my hands to warm up at all. Perhaps I am not in good enough physical shape to do all this climbing. It has taken me most of the afternoon to recover from the morning exercise.

One of the great tragedies has occurred. I have run out of sugar free jam. Last night I had to eat my three chapatis without any jam only butter. They are pretty dry and lacking in flavor with no jam. I keep hoping that the little store will get in their supply. I have mentioned it several days in a row but so far no luck. Last time I mentioned it, the jam was there the next day.

Tomorrow afternoon I meet with the young men whose van I want to use to tape the roads from a moving vehicle.

Early evening there was some rumblings of thunder in the distance followed by a small hail storm. It was interesting to see the leaves being knocked off the trees. There was not much rain so I will see how much clearer the sky is in the morning.

123 Sunday Oct 3

Sunday Oct 3 Day 123

Another day with nothing to do but try to get my body in shape to continue.

I was down in the bazaar and stopped in to visit the young man who runs the internet cafe in Landour. He asked to see some of my tapes. I decided to put the Eyebrow Trail from the camera to the computer. The images are unbelievable. They are so crisp on the full screen of my laptop. I can hardly wait to take my laptop down and show them to him.

The weather is the same as every day. Sunny mornings with clouds moving in and ruining any chance at a good sunset. I shall pack up my gear and head to the spot to see if there is any chance at a sunset. It is rather cold all the time and I bundle up a bit before heading out for the last shots of the day. I got a cloudy sunset obscuring the Winterline so it was not very effective.

122 Saturday Oct 2

Saturday Oct 2 Day 122

I went out looking for a location to tape the hillside. I found it at the back of Mullingar. I lived across from Mullingar for most of 9 years and was never in the building. So this morning I went into the old building and found old balustrades constructed in the late 19th century. My location ended up being a new addition overlooking the valley across from Woodstock School and the rest of the hillside. Now I have to wait for a clear afternoon which could be a long wait. Most afternoons the hillside is covered with low clouds. Patience is the name of the game.

While walking down the hillside I came across a fence constructed out of concrete fence posts with 3/4 pipe as the barrier. I noticed a date molded into the concrete of 1927. These fences were old 60 years ago when I first walked along the path. The pipes themselves were of the same vintage.

121 Friday Oct 1

Friday Oct 1 Day 121

I have been in India for one month.

This has been a day of physical rest. I went out this evening to see if there would be a photographable sunset but no luck. I spent the day logging all of my shots taken as of yesterday. I have taped all the trails and it took 1 hour less than in April and May. I spent 11 days this time and 14 days the last time. When I log the shots I look at each one and I am very pleased.

I have 4 more major projects:

The interiors of all the buildings when they are empty.

Taping while riding on all the roads.

Sunsets particularly the Winterline.

Long shots of the hillside including as many of the homes and the long range views of the snows and hills as they march into the distance.

120 Thursday Sep 30

Thursday Sep 30 Day 120

I finished up my taping of trails this morning. I have gotten great shots and am very pleased with how they look. I now have to spend multiple hours logging these shots, about the same number of hours as taping.

I had a frightening thing happen this morning. I packed my equipment and was heading home. The stairs are very irregularly in height alll over the hillside. I tripped on one of the stairs and if there had not been a metal pipe railing I would have gone head first over the edge. I grabbed the pipe and hung on. This was the first time I was definetly in physical danger of falling over the hillside. I have fallen about 5 or 6 times usually on slippery moss covered cement paths or stairs. Mostly I ended up abruptly sitting on the path. I found I needed to carefully test the slickness of the stairs or path I was stepping onto.

I am so tired this evening that all I can do is play solitaire. My body and mind are almost empty. Hopefully I shall be able to get back to work in the morning.

119 Wednesday Sep 29

Wednesday Sep 29 Day 119

I have just had 18 minutes of heaven. I took a shower and it is rather an adventure. The first problem is that you must start heating the water 3 hours before imbibing. One always forget how wide the stray is and the cold water nails you when you turn on the hot water tap. When you finally get hot water it is usually a dribble until you turn on the cold water tap. Now you have a spray of water that is boiling hot until the cold water adds it’s pressure. After some jockeying around with the taps you get a nice flow of usable hot water and the shower begins unless someone else turns on water elsewhere in the area. Today the water stopped flowing completely. One us wary of stepping into the expected flow of water because you do not know what temperature the water will be when it arrives. Near the end of the shower the dance between the amount of cold water added to the hot is done in reverse. One must start to reduce the amount of cold water because the “hot” is running out but not too much or you risk the scorching water dance again. I even got the dogs to start barking in response to my whoops of “joy” or “anguish” depending on the temperature of the water.

Speaking of dogs. There is a new 4 legged canine resident at Kilmarnock. Her name is Julie and belongs to the cook and his family. She is a dirty white with a cute black nose and eyes. When I step out of the apartment and she spots me, she comes running as fast as her short legs will carry her. She is extraordinarily affectionate and very gentle. She will be a wonderful dog for the kids (ages 12 and 9). I imagine that when I leave she will be the one I will miss the most. I really want to see how she grows up.

The weather is wonderful with clear skies and clods later in the day.

I was out for 4 1/2 hors taping this morning. My feet and back are bothering me but that is the price one must pay for his art. This afternoon I logged shots and I am getting wonderful scenes of the hillside.

118 Tuesday Sep 28

Tuesday Sep 28 Day 118

Weather report: Sunny with low clouds in the afternoon. Perfect weather

I went down and started taping the trails in and around Woodstock School. I went down to Hanson Field and taped my way back up. I spent 3 hours taping the trails between Hanson Field, Midlands (high school girls) Ridgeway (elementary boys), Alter Ridge (elementary girls) and the Hostel (high school boys). I did this between 8:30 and 11:30 am. I shall go back tomorrow morning and tape from the residential halls to the school and several other trails in the area. I ended up having to cheat to get back up to the top of the hill using a taxi. Old age is not what one should hope for.

Last evening was the first of the Winterline Sunsets. This is very early as they usually occur during the middle of October and on into November. Unfortunately, I did not have my tripod to get steady video so there is no recording of the sunset. I did find the correct location to tape the sunsets from. The only problem is the location is where the large grey and black monkeys hang out in the evenings. I shall have to get friendly with them.

Today one of the most exciting things occurred. I have a grand total of 2 friends here on the hillside from the native population. A couple of days ago I saw one of the, Pol, driving an Omni van. Today I met Pol on the road and he owns that particular van. It is exactly the type of vehicle I need to tape the paved roads. He will drive me around if I will give him lessons on how to use video equipment. He has a good eye for photographs and wants to expand into video. I will pay for the petrol and he will take me where I want to go. I was thinking of using a taxi to do this, but this young man speaks english and I can get the control over the speed of the vehicle. If I used a tqaxi driver he would not have understood why I wanted to go slowly to improve the qualilty of the taping. I am very excited.

I am making a great push to tape all the trails before the ferns die completely. In 5 days they have gone from verdant green to a bright yellow. Next they will start to drop off the trees and be gone. This is why I am working as quickly and doing so for long hours each day. The rest of the vegetation is still very green and lush.