Ploof

Living in India sometimes has major advantages to living in the west. For example, season 3 of Desperate Housewives is set to be released on DVD in September and yet I already have it, the whole thing. I don't mean to keep stepping over to the dark side, but Manuel made me go to Palika Bazaar which has become his mother ship and it is only due to my very loud protests that we do not set up house in the underground market... But anyway, there they were, my 5 favorite ladies staring at me, begging me to hold them, to take them home with me and make them my very own. Who am I to say no?

I am in the final stretch, taxiing like a private jet down the runway to 40 and just when I thought it was going to be lots of festivities on Sunday, I realized that almost everyone is deserting me for points beyond. Stephen and Pierre are off to the UK and Suzy is so desperate to avoid my birthday, she is actually flying economy. I'm not sure she realizes it will be a diamond-less, bubble-less flight all the way to Paris and not only will she not have her choice of entree, but she will eat what they have left over by the time they get to her row and it is sure to include some wrinkled peas.

Last night Stephen, Pierre, David, Oliver, Manuel and I were all out to dinner at my favorite seafood restaurant located just on the edge of the Rajhastani desert, hundreds if not thousands of miles from the nearest natural source of water dwellers. Normally that would be cause for alarm, but at Ploof, everything is always fantastic and fresh and it was a great setting for the first dinner of my birthday season. I got a great bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne which is chilling in the fridge at this very moment, waiting for just the right time to pop the cork.

Not sure what I will be doing to celebrate my birthday this year... Agra for a sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal? The pink city of Jaipur with their camels and decorated elephants? Or perhaps a train up to the bottom of the Himalayas to cool down and chill out. As long as I am out of Delhi, I don't really care. I need to see something different, something new (or very old) that I don't see on a daily or weekly basis. I guess the big dilemma is what backdrop and lighting I want as I step over to the other side.