Day 5 Ironing service

I spent this morning at the pool as I am moving inland tomorrow and wanted to make the most of it!
At around 1.30, after a rest to cool off under the AC, I decided to walk up to the post office, a mile away uphill via cardiac brae! I got there only to realise I had forgotten to take the card I was hoping to post... Duh! Fortunately there was a small art gallery next door that sold postcards, 5 times as expensive as the usual picture postcard, but they were of the artists work and the others were a mile round trip away. No choice really. Card safely written and posted I set off again to come back via the road on the other side of the bay which I was assured was s 3-4km walk. I had just set off when I came across this lady and with her consent took these pictures. The light would have been better had I been able to get to her other side, but it was through thick, thorny scrubland and common sense took over. She is doing something which is a common sight in India. She has a table on wheels and an iron and goes around the neighbourhood ironing people's washing for them. Bearing in mind it's 33' in the shade at the moment here and she is using a heavy brass iron filled with burning charcoal, it's a very tough job, she has to keep topping up the coals as they cool off too
I carried on with my walk and boy was it hot. I took to some of the narrow back paths again after I was about half way back as they were slightly more shady. I followed my nose half expecting to come out on the bay somewhere near the south end - my hotel is at the north end. To my delight though, I managed to thread my way to just behind the hotel and cut out at least a km by my reckoning which was no bad thing. It really was very hot.
Back for another swim then changed money to pay my bill tomorrow before going and having a very nice biryani at the Kingfisher restaurant, an old favourite.
I'll be leaving here tomorrow at lunch time, so I'll have time for a relaxing swim in the morning as I am all packed. Looking forward to seeing everybody in Tirunelveli and spending the next 3 weeks there.
Steps today a very well earned 12632.