I develop routines on these long-haul trips. I open my balcony door while I’m getting ready for work every morning. It’s perfect fall weather here (as opposed to Tennessee where it has been down in the frigid 30-degree range several mornings this week). Once you learn to breathe through all the gunpowder residue left over from the prior evening’s “crackers”… you can really enjoy talking to the pigeons that land on the balcony and cluck at you. Then I take breakfast outside by the pool – where the locals think the mid-60s temp is freezing and beg me to wear a coat so I don’t catch a cold! As with the last visit to Bangalore, I make fast friends with the hotel staff who introduce me to cool off-menu items they think I’ll coooo over (and cooo, I do….).
The office was closed on Monday for the official “work holiday” of Divali, so (God forbid) I got to go shopping. A friend of mine here was gracious enough to take me to all my favorite places – 
lunch at InfiniTea where I buy the most incredible loose tea to bring home (basil is my favorite), two close encounters with more rugs that my home in Tennessee is just “incomplete” without (they were very close encounters – but my wallet was spared), drive-by shootings (digital, guys!) of local landmarks, and an end of day treat walking through lush water gardens at a local resort 
that would rival anything Vegas offers (complete with fountains filled with floating rose petals – I LOVE India!). 
