A run in with the cops

Hello - I just want to tell you a short story about last night.

It all started about 7:00PM when we decided to go for a drive, we ended up at local Jasmine tailors for a piece that B conceived. The kids were hyper as ususal in the store and terrorized the shop keeps to their limits!

Upon leaving the store I made a few random turns, through a familiar area with no set destination in mind. Cruizing. Rolling. The Maruti.

We were all hungry and decided after much debate to go to the food court at City Center (a new mall with a great set of food choices: Pizza for Gage, Pizza for B, some spicy Indian dishes for me, and sweet pickings for Emmy. I was past the 'usual' turn for the road we needed to reach so I just kept on going towards what I thought was the right way to go.

Enter the red light.

Waiting.

Light turns green, with only a straight arrow. I don't want to go straight, I would love to just hang a right. I decide that it is ok to turn right on a straight arrow. (Remember we drive on the opposite side of the road in India.)

I look left. I look right. I look straight. No cars; clear, ok lets go.

I take er up to 20 and clear the intersection, and on the last 10% of the turn a street cop is waiving at me. I wave back and keep going.

Brandy: Dave, you were not supposed to turn there! Whack.
Me: Ouch! It was clear. This is India!

As I catch up to the traffic ahead of me I slow to a stop and wait. Waiting.

Suddenly a motorcycle with the still waiving street cop sitting on the back pulls up on my left, and he hops off. The driver pulls over and watches our white family in the Maruti with large white eyes staring down the police.

I roll down the window; Winnipeg style. (Think 'The Retun of the Jedi; Han Solo to Chewie: Just Fly Casual!')

Cop: Sir; you can't turn right there.
Me (thoughts): Mmmm I kind of knew that officer but it was clear to go and this is India.
Cop: Can I see your license sir?
Me (thoughts): Yep that isn't possible since my Manitoba license is in my dresser drawer beside my underwear, and my Indian license is 'conceivably' there but actually doesn't exist in reality.
Me (action): reach for the wallet, and fumble around a little like it's stuck in my shorts.
Me (words): You can't turn right there? I mean I saw a couple of other cars just turn right on the previous light, and it seemed like since they turned I should be able to.
Random driver from the motorcycle that dropped the cop off: Foreigner sir.
Cop (louder): Sir you can't turn right there.
Me (words): It was clear, and I really thought it was ok.

Pause.

Cop: Ok sir. (Head Bobble)(Waiving, this time to go forward not pull over)
Brandy (sound): First breath since we stopped.
Gage: Did he ask you for your license? Do you really have a license?
Me: Yes, I have a license.
Gage: Why didn't you have to give it to him?
Me: It just turned out he didn't need it.

After some laughter (quiet) by B and I we reflected on this moment.

Some thoughts:

Now try this situation in Canada, and the driver is a foreigner who barely speaks the local language. He is pulled over for turning left on a light that is straight only. The driver is not actually carrying a valid license (although in theory the license exists, as this person was trained to drive by the provincial driver training program).

Did he get a ticket or was he let free to continue driving?


We never made it to the food court; instead we decided to go to the Mariott (All of our new favorite restaurant).

Another very short story:
We missed the turn into the Mariott, but instead of going way around the block, taking a U-Turn, straight then taking anther U-Turn, and finally getting into the place - I just hit reverse.

I love it here.
Dave

Roll the Dice

Hello all!

I have the family back on the time here in Chennai; we are into the swing of school and work again and we are fortunatly blessed with +28 in January. I really feel for everyone back home as it has shown up on the weather network site at -48 a few days in a row now, this is damn cold and my heart goes out to everyone.

To all of you resort hopping - tequila popping - tanning oil slopping - hedonist beach walking - escaping minus 48 - you are the smart ones! Welcome home and I hope your skin didn't fall off in the Mexican sun. I am going to roll the dice and propose next year we all plan a trip to Mexico together it would be a blast!

Well back to the poolside it is sunny and hot out - just have to rub it in a little more (i still can't believe it is -48 in the peg!!!)

Dave

A Short Winter

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello all!

It's been a very short winter, three weeks in Canada has come and gone faster than we even thought. We had a great time, and spent many nights away from 'home' with friends and family.

One of the best things that could have happened did ... a huge dump of snow right before New Years. It was not too cold and I think the coldest day was about -22 (without wind of course) so now that we are sweating again in +30 that just seems silly.

My Mom and Dad (thanks guys we couldn't have done it without you!), B's Mom and Dad (we had lots of fun in Delta and would have liked to stay longer), Angie and Garth's (thanks to the games room at 4AM playing dodge ball), the Brown Family Cabin in Lac Du Bonnet (Doug better fish those grease logs out of the sump pit for next year! D'Arrgh), and of course our house way out in the south that our renters graciously let us back into for a few nights.



It has been a good trip back to India with the kids except for the time adjustment, there have been a few nights in a row now waking up at midnight and 3 AM to start the day, and I hope tonight starts to get a little better with sleep and we get on track for next week (work and school begins again!).



A few pics from our travels:


Emerson got her ears pierced; they are very cute and she loves to tell everyone including her dolls that she got them done. She also decided to squeeze into baby Ava's shirt and talk on the phone.

Gage and Emerson had lots of fun in the snow, I took them out the night it really dumped on Winnipeg and we had a blast! It snowed all night and left a beautiful memory of Winter looking back. We had lots of fun with everyone, I made a collage of Christmas and New Years; sorry if I missed you on this! We had a great time and alot of plain old fun.

See ya soon

Dave Brandy Gage Emerson

Send off From Chennai

What a crew! We didn't even realize what -1 c was going to feel like, still +30 in these pictures.


See you all soon! Good luck in Germany (Elliot-McFayden) and good luck at the salon (Meghan-Jane)!


The Bus - Large and at the same time not large. We had 9 people and about 18 bags to stuff into this white Mercedes. Thanks Gregg for booking it! All sitting comfy like a can of sardines.....

I love the airport - we had two porters to manage 4 luggage carts. With the tip they made about 20 bucks, and it was worth every penny as inside we only had to stand in line and check in.

Dave

Winnipeg Bound

The bags are packed

The time has come

The bus is here

The sun has set

And we are ready

Lets get back home

And see some Snow

Not a rhyme, just some words.

Dave

Amy's final Thursday Ritual

The time has flown

The time has passed

Amy's last Thursday

Didn't really last

We tried to stay

We tried to play

At least we've had

Good times, not bad

Lets remember when

We first arrived

Lets remember Amy

How she was deprived

All outer sanity

has been removed

By three short months

of Thursday moons

PS I love pants

And Amy

You will be missed very much by this pseudo Indian family

Love the OMatthes Clan

And Dave's (Brandy's) pants

PS

Sorry B

I made a small hole in the rear.

D

Got Fro?

This is real. The helmet. The quoff. The poufier. The Fro.

Touch it. Believe it. This is real.

Gage man and his prized do.

"I'm not cutting this thing until we get to Canada. Then everyone will say 'holy - your hair is big!!' Then I'm going to cut it short so when we go back to India everyone will say 'holy - you cut off your big hair!'"

Awesome.

DM

Its Not Butter . . .

It's Not Nutella...
It's Not Butter...

It's Nutter.

Say it with me again ... NUTTER.

This is funny to me, this chocolate spread. This delicious treat.
I smile when I say it. NUTTER.

Nutter is a delicious spread, and it has many uses.

Taken from the actual jar label:

Direction: Spread it like dairy butter on bread, toast, pizza, etc.

Read it again.

Nutter.

You can enjoy many new sayings with Nutter:

Can you pass the Nutter?
Bust a Nutter!
Man, I really can't get enough of that Nutter.
Oh, damn! We are out of Nutter!


You know the best thing about Nutter?
It's healthier than butter.
Zero cholestrol, 100% vegetarian.

You heard it here first. Nutter is where it's at.


DM

Suckers and Peanut Butter

We are getting closer to the fantastic voyage home, today is the penultimate Friday we will be here in 2006.

Had a fun day today; took the bike to work, Gage had a disco, I won a game of 10,000, Amy learned to drive.

Tomorrow we are off to Kerala with our fingers crossed it will be hot and sunny to enjoy the beautiful beaches to Trivandrum.

See you all soon!!!!

Love Dave

Check out this funny little video of Emerson playing in the car:

The new colour?

Wow! We made the local paper, the Deccan Chronicle. I am one step closer to greatness and world domination.

How it all happened:

We spent Thursday evening at an art gallery kick off party for a family member of our company out here where Brandy, Emerson and I had our pictures taken. We thought nothing of it at the time, I think all three of us just felt cool because a bunch of photographers were taking our pictures. Well I did anyway, and I actually thought they were trying to just take pictures of Emerson as she was looking really cute in her green and yellow outfit.

A couple of days later on Saturday morning I was leaving the office when Brandy calls me to say she received calls and remarks about us in the paper. On the way home I made a point of stopping at 5 places on the Bajaj to sweep up a copy, apparantly it was not easy to find a paper here. I was really excited when I finally found a little stand with papers and got a copy! Leaving the element of surprise open I stuffed the paper into by bag and saved the first view till I arrived back at the bubble.

When I reached home I frantically started thumbing though the paper - I went all the way through to the back cover. Behold! There we were! All checking out a nice little statue at the Gallery. Awesome.

According to the headline 'Chennai gets new colour' .... the new color is white?

As one of our favorite sayings go:
Only in India.

-Nearly famous white guy giving Chennai it's new colour.

Gettin Goofy

I love this place - I have experienced more in the last 4 months than many have in a lifetime. I can't say the same for some of my team, these two are gettin a little goofy.

Love Ya
Dave

Sorry AMY!

On the Road Again

Aaagh I am on the road again
The winding climing road again
I can be free like the wind in the trees
I can honk at worshippers on their knees
I can yell at moving trucks and bikes
No more tuk-tuk searching hikes
No more waiting for drivers rides
I can jam and pass their hides
I can ride and honk at will
I can show off my skill
I am a man with a plan
I am here with my clan

And I have a Maruti 800.


Aaagh I am on the road again.



But have I told you this?
Its another sweet collection of rhymes.
If you don't care or don't have time,
F*ck off and at just drop me a line!
Of course I'm just kidding again,
I am known to do that now and then.
The point of all this babble
Is to tell you some fine drabble
Its amazing, its fast, its 100 CC's of rocket power.

BAJAJ. Say it with me . . . . BAJAJ.


Aaagh I'm on the road again.




So let me spin you one more time,
Let me tell you a few more lines.
We are kickin it live in India
The Maruti - Bajaj Combo
Indian Logistics are in effect!

Aaagh I am on the road again.


Peace from the OMatthes Clan

Double Take

Wow - India. This place is filled with people, and I think people around the world have real similarities that we can all relate to.

For instance I always have enjoyed a cold drink, and I ususally end up having a sleep not too long after.
Indian locals also enjoy the drink, and of course the sleep comes here too.

Double Take - Driving home a few days ago I saw a man laying in the road (the MIDDLE of the road) just inside an intersection who I thought was dead. Two days later I saw two men in the same spot, who also looked dead. WTF? Turns out they just chose to sleep right there on the road, which is outside a local wine shop.

Another example is driving during the day. We all have our moments of road rage, and I think even in India you are allowed to have a little rage.

Double Take - just a leisurly drive, going about 30KpH and looked left. What was unusual? I saw a man on a bike try to pass two other bikes - they got a little too close and the guy passing went through and crashed the two slower guys - each wobbled and swerved, they both were carrying passengers who calmly held on. After all regained control, the passing bike driver looks back and lifts his arms as if to say oops?

Had that happened in Canada, anywhere, can you imagine the bullets that would have been fired?

Anther driving example with motorcycles - just around town you see lots of bikes with two people; a man driving and a woman side saddle. you also see similar configurations but with a small child on the gas tank. Or a large load that a truck should be carrying like a door or a bunch of rebar or even tanks of propane (plural). The best is seeing families of 4, all sitting calmly on the bike travelling wherever they need to go.

Double Take - have you ever seen a white family doing the same?

Diwali Week

I have been slacking on the blog entries, to all the loyal fans this is about a full week behind.

Diwali Week

WOW! I had a blast this week, literally. The build up to the festival of light has been amazing, all around town firework shops have set up shiops to make explosives easily accessable to the general public. Greg and I walked to our first shop on a Sunday afternoon and watched as locals were buying up huge boxes of crackers, and spending 1000's of rupees at a time. The shop we found is a larger size, just up the main RA Puram road. I think it was run by a family, the husband and wife working the counter and their child of about 5 or 6 years 'working the back'. I watched the kid hear what a customer wanted, and he would have to run up the shelves to grab whatever it was - the shelves were packed solid with stuff and it looked like a grand stage - with a little kid as the fast moving picker.

I started to ask for some stuff, not knowing what was what so I just pointed at whatever looked cool - here is a list of the names from our purchase:

7 shots
Letter bombs
Crackling king
Disco inferno
Black and whites
Sumo bombs
Flower pots
Fire pencil
Surveyor rockets
Hydrogen bombs
Whizz serpents
60 shot popcorn
Hitler crackers
Peacock crackers
Sparrow crackers
And of course some sparklers for the kids.

Here are a few visuals of the weeks nightly pyrotecnic shows we put on ourselves before the huge finale on October 21st: 

You Tube? You bet

WOW Google has made their bid and will take You Tube for a cool $1.5 Million. Not bad for a 2 year company that started in the garage!!

****Correction - that sale was for $1.6 Billion dollars. More dollars than people in India. ****Thanks Johnny!

I went to their site, signed up and put a video online just to see what all the buzz is about, it was really easy and now I can share with you a special video.

Here is the short training video of Daksh explaining to our new maid servant the requirements and wishes for working at the OMatthes house.

Enjoy!

-Dave

A trip to Snake Park

What an adventure - this past monday (the 2nd of October) was Gahndi's Birthday. It is celebrated here in Chennai as a holiday, so I took Amy and the kids to the local reptile zoo called Snake Park.

Most of the excitement happened before we actually arrived at the zoo. It all started with the walk from the bubble to our closest taxi stand. Amy was feeling a little nauseous and dizzy, I asked if whe was ok or if she wanted to go back. With her reassurance we continued into the auto rickshaw and were on our way.

We were about 10 minutes into the ride when Amy asked me if we were getting close, I didn't know but when I looked at her skin a tinge of white was starting to show - As a veteran vomiter myself recongnised the situ and I aksed if she wanted to pull over.

YES.

Without any special place to stop, we pull infront of a tea stand luckily containing chilly bottled water of which I bought 2 bottles to help Amy wash out her mouth.

Onward we go.

Feeling better, we arrive at the entrance to the park and I pay our driver a whopping 50 Rupees and he drives off. As we start our short walk in I realize I have left my backpack containing Emerson's diapers for the day, my camera, some snacks and other items, in the back of the auto.

CRAP.

So I start to run after it ... the entrance road was about 300 Meters away, and I could still see the auto driving. Here is my internal dialoge of the run:

Yep there he is. F*ck why did I forget my bag in there?
Speed up slightly.
Mmm he is getting closer to the end of the road. My camera is in there.
Speed up again, running about 70% of full speed.
He is at the corner of the road, turning left. Sh*t. My camera is in there.
Speed up again, passing lots of locals on the way. A woman says 'ooh' and another 'what is happening?'
Auto turned the corner and is out of site.
RUN that might be the last time I see him!
I am at Full speed now, and I turn the corner to see the auto picking up speed on the main road. Luckily I can run fast, I made it up to the left rear corner of the cab, starting hitting it with my hand and yelled loudly 'HEY! STOP'
Driver turns his head in horror to see a sweaty white guy running and slapping the side of his ride yelling - about two seconds after that shock he smiles and pulls over.
'I forgot my bag', I said camly as I reached in and took out my backpack.

Being calm and cool I casually walked back to meet up with Gage, Emerson and Amy and passed all of the locals I had just sprinted past.
'Nice run sir'
'Scary sir'
'Very fast sir'
Just a few comments from startled looking indians.

I reach my team and we are off to the entrance. Gage was laughing a bit, Amy told me later that when I was about half way running he said 'if he loses that bag that's like a million rupees!'

We got to the entrance and paid the 32 rupee fee (which included a digital camera photo pass) and walked in.

At the first snake exhibit I ask Amy if she wants to just chill out for a bit, she says ok then vomits on the sidewalk, there goes all of the chilly water she drank on the way. No problem, I always say it is best to get it out no matter where you are. Using the rest of the second bottle we rinse and clean up Amy.

Gage in the background is gagging because he can not only see but can hear what is happening, that is enough to trigger his weak stomach.

After Amy finished and I was able to get Gage to concentrate on the Cobra show, we had a nice little morning.

Whew! Won't forget Snake Park.

Love Ya Amy sorry I had to tell the story!!!

Dave


Web Album to come, check out this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/davematthes/SnakeParkIndiaOct22006

Happy Campers

Greetings from Chennai!!!!

Love From:
Brandy and Dave
Mom and Dad
Aunty and Uncle
OMatthes Clan Leaders
Sir and Madam
Parental Units
Mama and Papa Bear
Lovers
Friends



Miss you all!!!

Here are a few pictures from Brandy's first exploration mission to Mumbai (Bombay). The Hotel with the crazy dome roof is the Taj where she stayed, and the other building shots are the Gates of India - a famous structure that marks the entrance from the sea into enormous Bombay (15 Million and counting!!). The others are pics of the pollution you can see from the wharf among the small boats, the ocean filled with giant cargo ships on the horizon, a wicked storm blowing in, and a people pimp standing on the corner (he forces children to beg for money and food from passing cars and only lets them keep a small portion of the money).

Alot to take in for a small town Portage La Prairie girl!!


Miss everyone, congrats to Angie and family she finally added a girl to her baby farm in Carmen!!

DM 

Bottles of Hot Garbage

Greetings and Welcome - you are looking at the nearly famous creek that runs below the train tracks. I say nearly famous because to me I am completely awestruck at the variety of life that surround this polluted body of water, but to local Chennai - ians it is a simple bump in the road.

The first time I went out for a walk in India I crossed this bridge close to our street and looked over my shoulder at this sewage stand; a water world filled with garbage, bugs, sludge, and I would bet on bodies. A creek that supplies the small shanty villagers with water to wash their animals and boil for cooking their dinners - I would love to test their stomachs to find out what viruses and worms reside. I have spotted chickens, goats, cats, dogs, a boar or pig, and many birds taking a drink in the hot afternoon - not too far from a butcher where you can have 'fresh chicken' slaughtered, cleaned and packed up right before your eyes. I think this is where the term street meat comes from.

Take a close look at the pics, you will see there are really people living along side this! And when the garbage on the sides grows a little too high, you will find small fires burning to shrink the hills.


Everytime we take a walk you must cross this bridge, it is on the way out of our area. We have nicknamed it the stinky river. Go figure!!

Gage likes to look, but not for too long. Gage's keen sense of smell grabs the pungent fumes in a very short time and if we don't move on the gag reflex kicks in.

Emerson likes to look too, she takes a little longer to squirm to move on but she has taken great pride in yelling 'there's that stinky river!!' everytime we pass in a car, tuk-tuk or by foot.


This shot is just along side the bridge, where the bulk of the garbage is dumped and the fires are usually burning at night. Where there is fire there are bulls, last night when walking home from the noodle restaurant the fire was high and hot and two bulls were chewing their cud close beside just like it was a camping trip!!


If you look closely you can see the effluent mixing into the sludge; this is runoff from the streets and from the sewers. All of this slowly flows into the sea, and you won't be surprised but it goes into the 'local' beach called Marina beach where Ex Patriots like myself are advised to avoid.

As you can tell this is all very interesting to me, a stinky river under the tracks. I will do my best to bottle some of the surrounding air for all of you to sniff when I get back at Christmas!! Although how would you know the difference if I just bottled the air from a pile of hot garbage back home? You will have to take a whiff and decide for yourself.....


Love Dave and the OMatthes River Dwellers 

Album Posting? Awesome

This post is using a new feature from Google called Picassa Album; checking to see how it turns out.

We are all doing great and ALMOST used to the heat and time, I will try to send some more posts over the next week with some news of what we have been upto.

Take care!!

Love the OMatthes Clan.

India Sept 20 2006

Sep 20, 2006 - 12 Photos