Ben turned 19 today and his younger siblings spent the morning decorating the living room before he woke up. They inflated a whole heap of balloons and put up streamers and signs all around. Matthew even had the great plan of firing a confetti cannon at Ben when he first appeared. Fortunately for all the plan back fired and it took a bit of engineering prowess to get the cannon to fire – and given the velocity with which the confetti shot out, it was lucky that it wasn’t aimed at Ben. We spent the morning giving him his gifts which was a combination of actual gifts and also printouts of what is waiting for him at home.

Earlier in the week we visited the local South Indian restaurant and had some deep fried idlis which everyone liked so we embarked on an expedition to find a mini idly stand. We walked over to the local Big Bazaar which was across a couple of major roads which is difficult enough by yourself – but with 4 kids was quite a challenge. On the way we saw the Indian equivalent of a road train carrying drinking water as well as a car with more stickers and signs than you can imagine. At Big Bazaar we came across a Kit Kat robot that followed Thomas around telling him about a new flavour. It was quite creepy and funny at the same time. Ben was also enamoured by the huge packs of 2 minute noodles, but figured it wasn’t much cheaper than in Australia.

For lunch we had grand plans to go to a local Chat restaurant that had come highly recommended – Gupta Bros. Mimi had joined us as well and she headed out to the restaurant with my parents while we waited for the car to come back and pick us up. While there, they decided that the restaurant, firstly didn’t serve chat at lunchtime and also seemed very dark, dingy and unappetising. We changed course and headed to City Center instead. Unfortunately the food area at City Center has been replaced with a couple of restaurants and we ended up going to Chilis for Ben’s Birthday lunch. It seemed very strange and bizarre to have a meal at an American chain while in India, but there weren’t too many other options at the time. The food in itself was pretty good and we had a big central table which was well spaced, but small enough that we could talk to each other. Lunch was followed up with tea at Tea Junction which is a favourite of Ben, Matthew and mine. Mimi had bought a cake for Ben we then headed home for cake and afternoon tea.

It’s Ben and Bron’s final night tonight and they depart first thing tomorrow morning. They were only here for a week and even that time seems to have flown. After dinner they finalised their packing and had it all ready for the morning. Their flight departs at 6.30am and we have booked a car to pick us up at 4 to get there in time. Since it is going to be an early start, we had an early dinner and were in bed by 8. Just after a text came through from Air India notifying us that the flight had been delayed and now wouldn’t depart till 8.30 in the morning. While it is a better time, it did require us to ring around to the car company and try and get a replacement vehicle a couple of hours later.