The Chile Diary Chapter 9, 18th March, 2010

'Dying' To Feel Great



I didn’t write here yesterday so will update today. First I must declare I had a hot shower in my miniscule shower cubicle! It was getting impossible to bear the itching and abominable dandruff that was growing on my head. My precious hair was already in trauma, and falling by the hundreds every minute. For me not washing my hair every alternate day makes not only my hair itchy but also me to feel dirty. So I woke up quite early and while Tintin was still around at the guesthouse, hurriedly shampooed and bathed myself. My eternal fear is that I’ll be in a quandary if the house shakes when I’m in the shower. But here the problem doubles as the bathroom isn’t connected with the bedroom and is also too small for me to dress inside! Anyway, I managed and that’s one major accomplishment for me. I thought I’d repeat the performance this morning but woe is me, I woke up too late for anything but a quick wash and change of clothes. I had barely rinsed my tea cup when I saw Gabriel’s white car drive up to the gate.



Yesterday also brought for me help in the area of hair colouring and a trim. A couple of days back, I just happened to enquire if Roxanna knew a place where I could provide the colour I had bought to get my hair dyed. I added that I also needed a trim. She beamed at me with a broad smile and said she’d do both for me.


“You will?” I enquired apprehensively, stressing on the pronoun.


“Aha...me,” she said reassuringly.



Javier, who was sitting and listening to our exchange, must have heard the doubt in my voice because he informed me that his mother was trained. She was a professional. Wow! I thought to myself, things were getting better. So yesterday saw me with my L’Oreal dark brown hair colour, which I had purchased in India; a freshly shampooed head of long hair and more happiness than I ever thought I’d possibly feel for a hair colour and trim!


The colour was applied as I watched TV and also cut out raffle slips (900 of them) for the big Avon raffle today. Roxanna informed me that the dye would be left for fifteen minutes before washing. I was a bit worried about that. Forty to forty-five minutes is the time the beauticians kept it on my head, in India. I was quiet for a while. Then I thought that it made no sense to zip my lip and let all the work she was doing go in vain. So I told her it would have to be on for forty-five minutes. Going by the size of her widened eyes, I knew she was pretty shocked.



“Your hair will fall out,” she exclaimed.



“No, it won’t. It hasn’t till now. Indian hair needs more time I think,” I smiled. She wasn’t convinced.



As she went on with the colouring process, I decided to check out the application information hoping that the application time was also mentioned. Hallelujah! It was. I showed her the printed pamphlet. She saw the numerals 45(minutes) and only then did she believe me. The alarm signalled washing time and I was led to the bathroom. But due to my lumbar problems I couldn’t bend over the tub in the bathroom, so Gelda, the nana, washed and shampooed my hair in the kitchen sink! Roxanna who had gone out for a while returned and trimmed off about three inches of my hair. I was feeling so nice. I think it was extremely kind of her to accommodate me in this manner. There are angels all around me.



Yesterday I also brought some kaju katli ( an Indian sweet made out of crushed cashew nuts and milk)for them. Manu’s people in India, had given it to someone from the company, who was in India on a business trip. As expected the ‘vark’ (silver foil) which decorates every Indian mithai, made them wary of eating it. It took a bit of explaining and convincing to get them to eat it. The internet provided immediate information about cashew nuts, the main ingredient used in the preparation of the sweet. As for me I ate more kaju katli than I normally would, in one go, back home. Mithai,(sweets) even our favourite ones, would be lying in the refrigerator so long that eventually it would go to Lolita before it got unfit for consumption. I suppose just as ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’... scarcity makes the taste buds water. Ha! Now that’s an original one from my pen.



I was surprised to hear that there was quite a strong tremor last night. I was feeling unusually tired and sleepy so after Tintin and Manu had dinner with me and went back to the apartment for some time, I dropped off. The cell woke me up. It was Tintin ringing to see if I was alright. He didn’t enlighten me when it became obvious I had no knowledge of the tremor. I promptly went back to sleep. Even though I woke up late this morning, I’m still feeling tired. I’ll wind up my typing and take a break after I wrap up this chapter. The good news on the house-hunting front is that there is a visit scheduled for Saturday, to check out a place on 15 Norte. Let’s see if it’s good.



Martina, the cat was extra loving towards me today and even wanted to climb up on the table and inspect the laptop. That’s it. Cervical vertaebras or more aptly the cervical discs are acting up. Need to stop.


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