The following day I took the car to Poona, the closest main city. It is about 1.5 hours drive away. When we had arrived the first night we had been lucky and been in the back a van which we couldn’t really see out of. This time I had a great view of what was really going on.

I like to think I am a seasoned travelling considering the expeditions faced in the last 2 months. Bus trips in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt with texting drivers and cliff face overtaking around blind corners etc. However all this was nothing in comparison to what I faced this trip. The only thing comparable was the Egypt man trying to catch up to the convoy because he thought the terrorists were about to blow us up.

At one stage I watched in fascination as the bus in front began to overtake the truck in front of him. It was a pretty ambitious venture in the first place seeing as there was another truck coming the other way. So our driver weighs up all the factors and decides the time is right to over take the bus overtaking the truck, thinking that the horn blowing was some sort of invisible force field capable of stopping a 10 tonne truck coming the other way. The truck coming the other way obviously had the same sort of idea and put up his force field furiously. The amazing thing was it worked. The truck on the far inside heard the horns and casually moved into the dirt to allow the bus between us and it to go into the left lane and us to squeeze between the truck coming the other way and the bus. All with about 2cm to spare between us all seeing as this was a 2 way road. I was about to tell the driver to whip that huge grin of his little face and stop thumping his knee with enthusiastic zeal but decided he might need all the concentration he could get seeing as he was about to go around a blind corner and overtake the car in front on the inside seeing as there was already two cars over taking it on the outside.

It was about this time that disaster befell me. One I had been expecting for possibly 2 years but had always managed to avoid somehow. I had been scouring the world for 2 years in preparation for such an event and in that time I had been to England, Wales, Scotland, France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Austria, Hungry, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. You see I had bought sunnies 2 years previous and about 4 days into owning said sunnies Peta had sat on them and crack the glass but I had used them anyway because they were impossible to find. Anyway while adjusting them in the car we hit a pot hole overtaking the cows who had decided to use the road as a resting place and snapped the arm off. I was heartbroken, sunny less and what was I going to do about my poor eyes. The sun it BURNNSSSS. Other sunnies just wouldn’t cut it. I had my reputation to uphold. I cant just wear any old sunnies, and I was never going to find another pair, which was exactly why I liked them so much. Well back then anyway. (Now I come back home and find all the damn emo’s wearing them which makes me not so keen on them anymore.)

Anyway we arrive at Poona relatively in one piece and I saw exactly how India fits its 1.2 billion people. I swear they are all in Poona. It was absolute chaos. I began my search for a replacement pair of sunnies without luck. They had gold ones but I needed silver ones with silver lens’s. I gave up and went in search with Ziggy for a basketball backboard. This was after all the reason for the trip. The day earlier while playing tunnel ball/run around wildly screaming and yelling, I had asked the lady in charge of social activities if they had a basketball hoop. To which she had replied yes they did have one but it was not set up. Apparently they had been given it 2 years ago but had never put it up, even though there is a maintenance staff. I assume their job is to sit around and hang out until something breaks or repair stuff not to actually improve the situation judging by the way the place was. The poles holding up the roof had rusted through at the bottom so to fix it they filled the rust with cement that was obviously mixed in some manner as to cause the most crumbling. I would love to go back there one day with my father or something and a small budget of a couple of grand, lots of time and get the place organised and train the staff.

Anyway I was aghast at the idea that it hadn’t been put up yet and seeing as Ziggy was a very clever handyman I got him on the job. We couldn’t find a backboard or anything closely resembling one lying around so we decided to buy one.

Whilst in the sports store I spotted some soccer balls. Anyone can go and give them money for essentials etc but I was getting no fun out of that so I decided to get 15 soccer balls instead. Then basically I was buying myself a present and if I wasn’t going to buy myself one, I don’t think anyone else will.

So I got the balls. Zyg was still waiting for his backboard so I went for a walk and found a shop that had my exact sunnies! The same shape and size and everything. Only difference was they weren’t cheap copies but the real Raybans. No more would my sight be distorted, no more would the evil sun’s rays infect my eyeballs with their deadly rays. It was so totally novel not to have the 3 tiger stripe cracks in the left eye. I was so excited.

My heart sang the whole way back even though I had 15 soccer balls, a basketball backboard and 300 packets of crisps on my lap. I didn’t, well actually I barely, noticed the numerous close calls of trucks and buses flying past, barely inches away.