Am woken at 5.30 am by a text from Willy, saying he's on the way into work, still drunk and is 'never doing that again'.
How many times have I heard that?!
I feel remarkably well on waking, all things considered - gin most definitely suits me.
We head out to Lambeth to drop H's phone at Sam's place. It falls through the letter box to the tiled floor with a resounding clunk. Hmm - wonder if it has survived that? Oh well, better than losing it in India.
Wander back, pausing briefly to admire the 16.5 mile range guns outside the British War Museum. Then make our way to Oxford St for a spot of trouser shopping for H. He picks a nice couple of pairs in lovely warm corduroy and moleskin. Mmm - just the thing for a hot climate!
Up at the top of Oxford Street, we stop for lunch in Cafe Rouge, where I have an astonishingly good chocolate mousse for dessert (note to self - must tell Kate about this).
Pick up our bags from hotel and yahooo, the real start to the adventure begins with our tube trip out to Heathrow.
Whoop, whooop, soooo exciting (although the hang-over's caught up a bit now!
There's a new development I've noticed today in my pshyche - I've got an obsession with toilet paper. It's quite difficult to supress the urge to squirrel away any loose ones I encounter in my bags. After all - who knows what perils may befall us in the next few weeks?
Going through the airport is all nice and relaxed. A spot of shopping and a bit of dinner later and we're boarding our Jet Air plane. It's all very nice, with lots of interesting entertainment gadjets to play with, which makes me very happy. (H has seen it all before - so young and yet so jaded!).
My set of inflatable pillows come out and I'm very comfortable thank you, and H just gives me one of his long suffering looks. I watch Shrek 3, a Bollywood movie and An Officer and a Gentleman. We land just before the finish, but its ok as I already know the ending.
Into the terminal - and we decide to pop into the loos and there's a long queue in the ladies. Finally I'm out, and expecting H to have left long before me, so am surprised not to find him waiting outside. I decide that he must have carried on through to baggage retrieval, so make my way through passport control, only to find no sign of H at the conveyor.
So we're only 15 minutes in and already its gone wrong. I can't backtrack to look for him, so I wonder how long he'll wait outside the ladies, thinking I must have serious problems - and we've barely started eating Indian food yet!
Eventually, he arrives through passports and the H&C show is back on the road again.
Our taxi driver is waiting outside holding up a card with big letters "Mr Harry". We follow him out to the car park, and walk right up to the car, where two men suddenly step forward and lift our rucksacks out of our hands, place them in the boot and then demand tips for doing so. I'm a more seasoned India traveller these days, so extortion is not on the menu thanks boys!
The drive into Delhi is that wonderful heart in the mouth experience, where near misses with other traffic takes place on avarage every 5 seconds. The landscape is much flatter than either of us expected. Soon, we arrive at the Grand President Hotel in an insalubrious alley. The inside of the hotel is pleasantly surprising and we are warmly welcomed and invited to sit and drink a glass of fresh lemon water, before being escorted to our room.
Having missed a night's sleep, the main thing on our minds is gonking out, but the hotel staff have other ideas. A succession of visitors come to the door, bringing bottled water, loo roll, and our passports, and somebody else opens our door and has a look in, out of sheer curiosity.
At last, they run out of reasons to disturb us, and we can have our showers and fall into blissful slumber. I awaken a few hours later, completely disorientated and clueless what the time is, to find Harry telling me something completely incoherent, but evidently of some importance. Failing to make any sense of it - I fall asleep for a few more hours.
So, now I'm writing up the diary while waiting for the restaurant to open. I've already decided what I'm having on the room menu. It's going to be very quick eats and back to bed for me.
As I write, there have been several intermittent power cuts, plunging us into darkness and my bed seems to be heading in two separate directions. But hey - this is India and it's all part of the fun.
Well. we clock watched until it was time for the restaurant to open, then waitied until it was fashionably five minutes late, and went for anexclusive meal where we had the room and waiter all to ourselves. Our first Indian meal. H has his first taste of panneer in something very green and healthy looking (lots of spinach involved). I have channa dal with rice.
Wander outside after dinner, through thronging street market with all its smells, noise and colours, dogs, cars and motorbikes and unblievable overhead wiring.
Back at hotel, very tired, retire to bed.
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