It’s been about a month since my last update and there hasn’t been too many dull moments to speak of. Having got back to the family a couple of days after the first week of IPL, I was back on a plane to join them on a holiday to Hawaii for a week. Spending ten hours in an economy seat is not something that I am used to and the flight was the only downside of the holiday. Plenty of beach and pool time while it rained sunshine the whole trip. The people of Oahu were fantastic and the kids enjoyed the jeep ride around the island while observing the historical significance of places like Pearl Harbour.

A week at home to get the gardening done and house prepared for winter and then back to India for the rest of IPL. I arrived firstly in the Jaipur, the Pink City and spent a couple of days acclimatising to the new time zone and temperatures. 40 degree heat was offset by a great hotel in Jaipur and a little sightseeing in between match duties. I joined fellow umpire Johan Cloete and his family for a morning out seeing a few local places of interest.

Johan and his family enjoyed seeing the local elephants with their make-up

Myself with Johan's son John at the big lake

One of the "gates" to the city of Jaipur - that's why they call it the "Pink City" (well terracotta)

After umpiring the match in Jaipur, we then travelled to Mohali for a game, then on to Delhi and then on to Hyderabad. We are now in Kolkata and have done a match here already and have another match tonight. The schedule is reasonably busy with plenty of match days followed by travel days but you do get used to the system and routine. I’ve found some new fans here in Kolkata (below) and I’m more than happy to have them as friends rather than enemies!

It’s another day of 40 degree temperature here in Kolkata and we are expecting another large crowd at Eden Gardens – something close to 70 000 people. The noise and atmosphere is something else and we as umpires struggle to hear each other on the ground.

The quality of India’s hotels and airports has changed a lot over the past couple of years – they have improved massively. I used to come to India expecting to lose weight but so far, despite much work in the gym, we have been subject to some fine hospitality at every venue by some really nice people, and I have actually not lost any weight at all. The food has been first class and the dinners held pretty late at night – it’s a real challenge to say no when our hosts keep ordering food on our behalf. My breakfasts are now reduced to a bowl of fruit and a couple of pieces of toast with vegemite – not much else is required until dinner time!

Back to work now, hope all is well with you and I trust that all the mothers were appreciated and honoured last Sunday for Mother’s Day. Thanks Mum!

Take care, Simon.