17th December 2010 - Coming back for Christmas

Sitting at the airport now, just waiting for our flight to be called. Its been an exciting,emotional,exhausting 7 months in India. Can't wait to land in the UK, although not looking forward to the cold as I think it will be a real shock to the system!

One last observation from the streets of Mumbai before we hit normality. I've mentioned the huge amount of pipe laying going on at the moment and the way the workers dig the trench manually. So starting point is a heavy metal pole around 2m long which has a spike on the end to break the road surface up. Lift pole up above your head and slam it, spike first, into the road. A very skillful job, maximum concentration required especially as the man working and the one standing next to him are all wearing flip flops! What could possible go wrong. It reminds me of the slapstick films where the action is predictable. I imagine that of the three guys standing round the main man all have jobs too - two to free the man from the road surface when he spears his foot and the other one to pull it out as the guy would have passed out! The two can then take the injured man to the side of the road whilst the other gets on with breaking through the road surfacen in a seemless example of efficency!

16th December 2010 - Indian tow rope

Passed a little van being towed by another on the way to work today. The vans were tied together with around 20 - 30 short coloured rags all tied together, the sort of thing you used to read about as a child for knotting together sheets to escape from your bedroom window when you should be in bed.

14th December 2010 - Near miss

I remember a number of years back when I was working with Susie's cousin, we engaged a health and safety consultant to assess our working practices. One aspect he noted was the 'near miss'. This isn't actually an accident, simply an accident waiting to happen! Today at work the window cleaners returned for their monthly glass cleaning session. The offices extend over 8 stories and the central reception/lift shafts are connected to Tower 1 (left) and Tower 2(right) by a series of glass clad ariel walkways. These connecting walkways get very dirty and are part of the monthly cleaning program. As they are suspended above the ground and there is no way of getting from the walkways to clean the glass this has to be done from the outside. The cleaning crew use a portable scaffold tower which they build up to reach all 8 stories (approx height 100 feet). However, they are not completely mad, they do tie it onto the ariel walkway, well at least to one of the glass walkways...using string. Although this isn't the worse 'near miss' of this whole exercise, it is the cleaner who climbs off the scaffold tower and walks along the top of the glass walkway with a mop, washing the glass on top, with nothing more than an orange jumpsuit and a pair of oversized wellies on, now that really is an accident waiting to happen.

11th December 2010 - Christmas Drinks

Think I must have eaten something dodgy last night as I have a poorly tum today. Susie, caring as ever, sends me off to the shops with a massive shopping list of drink and food for our Christmas drinks party. I made it to the coffee shop before having to run to the washroom - phew! About an hour later I was in the nice little supermarket which stocks lots of imported products. I really need to run to the washroom again and was led out of the shop, round the side of the building along the rear of the building and to the gents. Horrific is the first word that sprung to mind, not a chance I was going to sit on the toilet seat and there was no toilet paper, just a bucket with water in it to clear yourself afterwards. I had heard about this before but not seen/experienced it. So, massive dilema - do you accept the fact that if you don't 'get on with it' you are going to sh*t your pants in about 30 seconds or try and somehow crouch over the toilet and accept the fact that shortly after the relief you are going to have to wipe your ar*e with your hand?

Our drinks party was a great success, lots of people, lots of happy banter, few drinks and lovely food, had a very happy evening, even with my badly burnt arm.

Burnt arm? Yup, whilst I was letting the pressure out of a pressure cooker, Susie helpfully opened the top which blew the scalding, high pressure water and chickpeas up my arm, burning my wrist - lots of pain only made worse by the fact that following about an hour with my arm in ice cold water, Susie helpfully applied Savlon cream and the pain was dreadful! Feeling better now, and arm is recovering well although sticking to using Aloe from our Aloe Vera plant.

10th December 2010 - Paaarty

Christmas party Mumbai style. But first a group of us went to a local school which opens its doors after hours to a charity who provide education for kids whose parents can't afford to send their children to school. Called the Udaan School, there are about 300 pupils who come in at 3.30pm until around 6pm. Full set of lessons taugh and even one of the expupils has been awarded a scolarship place at college. So, Capita amoungst others, provide funding for the school and also extra effort at Christmas so that presents can be purchased. So we pitched up complete with 300+ goodie bags and a friend of mine acting as Father Christmas. The kids were delighted and it was a great experience to think that some of the money raised was used to make them feel special.

Still weird to be in a classroom with the sun flooding through the windows, a christmas tree in the corner and kids getting presents from Santa!

In the evening we went across to Juhu beach and had a Christmas party at the Novatel. Very nice hotel right on the beach front. Party was standard Indian fare - thumping tunes very early in the evening, 90% of the dance floor filled up with sweaty men but a good laugh! I took it upon myself to try and get into every photo that was being taken, which was good fun and no one seemed to mind!

15th December 2010 - Plates

Been trying to find a comment to sum up Mumbai. One thought is 'it will be nice when it is finished' although it still won't. One new one is maybe to liken Mumbai to spinning plates. There is so much development going on, whether it be housing, road building, pipe laying not to mention redoing what was done before there is always something in a state of completion. So taking the plate spinning idea it is like they are spinning plates but when they don't keep them spinning, they just spin some more instead and never clear up the broken plates either.

13th December 2010 - Many uses

Amoungst all the concrete in Mumbai, one natural material stands out - Bamboo. The construction industry use it for creating massively tall scaffolding for building, painting and other renovation work due to its lightweight yet strong properties. One the shortcut into work there was complete gridlock and to start with the problem wasn't clear. As we eventally crept forward the problem became apparent. A drain in the middle of the road has collapsed leaving a massive hole in the road. Some helpful soul had covered the hole with strips of bamboo...which had promptly caved in when a bus had tried to drive over it! There are moments here where you wonder!

9th December 2010 - Manpower

December is obviously cable laying time in Mumbai, it seems everywhere I go the road is beinmg dug up (by hand) and electrical or communication cables are being laid. This creates huge traffic problems as there is little in the way of traffic control. This morning a group of around 40 workers were hauling a huge cable off of a equally huge cable drum. In the UK this would be mechanised, here, like the act of digging up the road, they simply rely on huge number of labourers to do it. Question is, who is right?

A little while back I mentioned the multi purpose trees. Today one such tree was laying on its side, the trench that had been dug to take the new cables had undermined it! The tree, still complete with all of its cables and signs laying uselessly on the floor not even being good at being a tree anymore let alone all its other roles.

8th December 2010 - Christmas is coming

Getting excited about Christmas, back in England to see all of our friends and family and marking the end of what has been a roler coaster year full of landmarks - moving to India, 40th birthday, new baby on the way, not to mention actually coping with life in India! Don't want to sound negative as it has been truely amazing!

Poor Darcy has a new injury to add to her list of minor illnesses. Yesterday at school a teacher opened the classroom door over her toe, almost taken the nail off and lifted a large flap of skin. She has been amazing, must have been truely painful. I took one look at it when I reached home last night and took her to the hospital to get it checked. The Dr had a look changed the dressing and referred her to a Surgeon, appointment made for this evening. In all this she hasn't really blinked, few tears at school but stayed on to complete the morning. Meeting her teacher this morning we spent longer consoling her that all was ok than we did with Darcy!

Susie started Christmas shopping yesterday, the flat now filling up with decorations, even the car has a hanging father christmas from the rear view mirror - slightly weird to see him and the brilliant sunshine together!

8th December 2010 - Christmas is coming

Getting excited about Christmas, back in England to see all of our friends and family and marking the end of what has been a roler coaster year full of landmarks - moving to India, 40th birthday, new baby on the way, not to mention actually coping with life in India! Don't want to sound negative as it has been truely amazing!

Poor Darcy has a new injury to add to her list of minor illnesses. Yesterday at school a teacher opened the classroom door over her toe, almost taken the nail off and lifted a large flap of skin. She has been amazing, must have been truely painful. I took one look at it when I reached home last night and took her to the hospital to get it checked. The Dr had a look changed the dressing and referred her to a Surgeon, appointment made for this evening. In all this she hasn't really blinked, few tears at school but stayed on to complete the morning. Meeting her teacher this morning we spent longer consoling her that all was ok than we did with Darcy!

Susie started Christmas shopping yesterday, the flat now filling up with decorations, even the car has a hanging father christmas from the rear view mirror - slightly weird to see him and the brilliant sunshine together!

7th December 2010 - Tripping the light

Having been out and about more during the evenings recently, both on nights out and getting home later from work, I've noticed more and more vehicles with additional lights. Obviously there are still vehicles which either don't use the ones they have or the lights are broken and don't work but some carry additional LED lights in various colours adorning the underside of the vehicles, around the mirrors, around the number plate etc. These lights turn these battered vehicles into a mobile light show. And then this evening, on my way back from the hospital with Darcy, I saw my favourite so far. The owner had rigged up red LED lights around the front and rear door handles which lit up when the brakes were applied. Funny thing was that I can only assume he had used the feed from the rear lights as they didn't light up at the same time!

3rd December 2010 - Kites

I'd always been taught that flying kites near overhead electrical cables was a dangerous thing. Obviously they have never had the benefit of the 'Charlie says' safety campaigns of the 70's and 80's. The number of small kites you see stuck in overhead powerlines is truely amazing, almost as if the kids have gone out of their way to try and tangle them up there. I haven't seen any resultant ash piles on the ground (actually to be fair I'm not sure they would stand out much anyway) so maybe the 'safety' advice dished out by Charlie was well meaning but ultimately misguided!

2nd December 2010 - Multitasking tree

Even the trees work hard here. Jobs include carrying advertising sign, supporting various shops/house structures, places to worship, carrying phone and electricity cables. I'd noticed that all of the trees that lined the main road have also now been painted. Bottom 1m of the trunk is an earthy brown followed by a white band. The white band is to ensure the tree is easier to spot at night and the brown colour? This ensures that people who chew pan and spit can do so against the lower trunk and it doesn't show up - brilliant!

1st December 2010 - What no advent calendar!

Susie and I went to the Oberoi International School today to have a look at an alternative school for Max. Great school, lovely surroundings and amazing facilities, only problem is the £9,000 required to fund the last 5 months of the 5th Year! On the way to the school we were stuck in traffic and I was made to jump when a knock at the window made me turn around to come face to face with a man dressed up as a woman begging for money! As we waited and waited a small group of children walked past, they lived on the street under the flyover and seemed a happy bunch, who spotted Susie and I in the car and want money too. Not given any money yet as we have been warned not to but these guys seemed genuine so we gave them a handful of change which they seemed delighted with. We then spent the next few minutes face pulling and making them laugh which was a good way to spend time and they seemed very happy. Must be hard to grow up so fast on the side of a busy road with nothing more than you stand up in.

Leaving the office tonight I had a great idea, rather than sit in the traffic on leaving work for 20 minutes to arrive back roughly where we started, I would get Aftab to leave 20 minutes ahead of me and I would then leave work and cross 2 lanes of anywhere between 8 and 12 lanes of traffic (lack of lane discipline) and meet him on the other side of the main crossroads - genius! However crossing that much traffic in the dark, all moving at different speeds, sometimes in the wrong direction was less than a joke and I'm sure I won't be doing it again in a hurry....although I did manage to shave 30 minutes of my journey time so maybe, just maybe I will take my life in my hands again and try again tomorrow night!