At Raj Nivas.

Lekha had woken me up at 4, we went through the chores and was ready by a half past 6. Kittu was waiting for his food around that time. Lekha had prepared it and we saw him devour it eagerly. As we kicked off from The Quarterdeck at a quarter to 7, he was watching us leave very intently. Did he have a touch of regret or was it all my imagination, I wonder?

This time I'd decided to go via Chavakkad as that route required minimum traversing through cut up roads. We had reached the Aaryaas at Edappalli by a quarter to 9, to have our breakfast. After the food and freshening up, we resumed our journey and stopped around a half past 11 at the Kalpakavadi Inn. Suja, the receptionist-cum-manager, looked after us as we'd a piping hot filter coffee and banana fritters. She, incidentally, was from Ambalapuzha and a cheerful young lady. She gave us lunch neatly packed as we decided to have it on reaching home.

Our route was through Kayamkulam - after what has been a long time -  into the KP Road and when we were short of Kottarakkara, I got the Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUC) from Jos. From there, we'd hit the Star Dish shop to get our Airtel Digital TV recharged but alas, couldn't watch the television as they were not able to connect up. 

Spoke to my parents and have briefed them about our programme. The work on the false ceiling and the washing of well with the metallic cover refabricated have been done well. The people had come to meet us just to ascertain as to how we appreciated their work, damn sweet of them.

To Rema and Padmakumar for the evening where we were given dinner too. It was a nice get together with Ramachandrettan, Hemant and Aji chipping in.

We'd returned by 10, it was yakkittiyak between us. 

Tailpiece.

A hectic day but a rather good one as all things planned were accomplished. The house was neat and tidy thanks to the caretaker and his wife. 

It took 239.3 km and 8 hours for me to reach Raj Nivas from The Quarterdeck. Phew!