31st March 2011 - Simple

With the pace of life and all the multi-tasking we all do day
in day out it is easy to forget the simple pleasures in life. I've woken up and spent the last 10 mins watching Vesper sleep.

"What is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare"

Reminders like this come every now and again and we all vow to stop what we are doing and take more time to be with those we love and care about - do it today, do it now - I bet it will make you smaile.

30th March 2011 - Testing

On one of my slow journeys from the ground floor to the 12th floor maternity suite, the lift stopped at floor 7. When the doors opened there was a big sign stating that it was the 'Executive Diagnostic Floor'. Here they have tests and packages of tests for every conceivable illness and ailment all available for the price of a cup of tea (in England). Having a few spares I booked up for a BMI test, which also covered things like abdominal fat %, muscle tone etc, just because I could and it was cheap...and because it will tell me what bad shape I'm in so I'll cut down on the chocolate biscuits!

30th March 2011 - Testing

On one of my slow journeys from the ground floor to the 12th floor maternity suite, the lift stopped at floor 7. When the doors opened there was a big sign stating that it was the 'Executive Diagnostic Floor'. Here they have tests and packages of tests for every conceivable illness and ailment all available for the price of a cup of tea (in England). Having a few spares I booked up for a BMI test, which also covered things like abdominal fat %, muscle tone etc, just because I could and it was cheap...and because it will tell me what bad shape I'm in so I'll cut down on the chocolate biscuits!

29th March 2011 - Hello Vesper Indira Hillary Thomlinson

Think the castor oil Susie took yesterday helped things along. Susie woke me at around 2.30am as contractions had started properly. Like a well oiled machine, we quietly went about collecting up the packed bags and made our way down to lower parking. I fired up the Innova and got the aircon on as even at that time of the morning it is warm now. Arrived at the hospital in 5 minutes and tried to drive into Casulty but an old truck delivering liquid nitrogen was in the way so I blocked it in and left the car whilst we went inside. The guard woke up and tried to get me to move the car although to his credit he realised quickly that this a mistake and rushed to get a wheelchair! So the process should have been to relax in Casulty, transfer to the NICU, have the baby, then transfer to the 12th floor to the suite I'd booked.

But this is India....Having convinced the guard that I wasn't going to move the car until I'd got Susie safely booked in, the Dr attending then started to fill out a mountain of paperwork before she thought it might be a good idea to check on progress! Needless to say when she did come back only 10 minutes later, Susie was fully dialated and Vesper was on her way! This created an alarming amount of panic in the department as the team then desperately tried to shift Susie, who was on all fours at the time, out of Casulty to the Maternity ward 2 fllors further up! At this point I stepped in and stopped the move, informed the Dr that if Susie wanted to deliver on all fours then that is what was going to happen and set about controlling the process. Head out, I coulkd see that Vesper was blue and not breathing, the Dr just not coping so I took over and delivered her, rubbing her back vigorously until she started to cry. I can't tell you the relief I felt and how stressful it was to have to take over and see trainned medical staff panic. The Dr then topped of her treatment by trying to cut the abilical cord straightaway, which I stopped and also to try and pull the placenta out with the abilical cord! All over in 30 minutes we even beat the consultants who turned up after the fun was over ;-)

Anyway the result is a beautiful little 3.85 kg (8.5lb) baby girl and we are all very happy.

20th March 2011 - Holi

Whilst last night was all about the religious part of the festival with massive bonfires burning in the street - yup, actually built and set on fire in the street! When the fires were lit and the people we dancing round them it was a tight squeeze for the trucks, buses, cars, motorbike and autoriks to get past. The celebrations were dedicated to the fire gods and it involved, dancing round the fire, breaking coconuts on the ground, tipping the coconut water on the ground then throwing one half or just pieces of coconut on the fire. It is mean to ensure a good harvest at the start of summer.

Sunday then is all about having a party. Water and coloured powder fights, food and very loud music. Our apartment block's water fight party started at 9.30am, the start signified by thumping dance music starting up. You just know it is going to be a good water fight when you turn up in reception and there is a 20,000 litre water tanker staioned on site to keep you topped up!

21st March 2011 - Water

It was Holi this weekend, Sunday was the day for water fights and throwing coloured powder. As I mentioned in Yesterdays blog, we had a 20,000 litre water tanker turn up to supply water for our water fight. So today I pass a poster announcing that tomorrow is 'World Water Day' where you are supposed to think about saving water! I love the dedication to celebrating here, don't worry about water shortages and the lack of supply, just celebrate life and worry another day.

22nd March 2011 - Due Date

Today is D-Day. No sign of baby Thompy yet. Really want to get the baby delivered and get on with the next step of the adventure and to give Susie a break from being pregnant! Susie has done amazingly well, I am proud of her and love her so much - being pregnant out here has not been fun, I just hope that she has had enough of an 'India experience'.

When I mention the 'adventure' what I really mean is the trip into bureaucracy to try and get the birth certificate, new passport and visa all sorted in 7 weeks to allow us all to leave India around mid May. I think this will be one of the most stressful times in our lives as on top of this we also have pack up the flat and ship our belongings back, look after 3 children, hold down a job, move back to the Lakeside appartments, arrange a temporary place to stay in the UK as our house will still be rented out, sort out Max's school, Darcy's nursery, extend all of our Visas, my work contract (even though I'm not staying), sort out tax returns in India and UK, find a car and find a job!

19th March 2011 - Ganja

Over in Khar today, just had a bite to eat at the Juice Bar and a procession came past. Usual manic drumming and dancing and colourful floats. It was only then I noticed that the floats were being pulled by half naked men, steel poles through their cheeks and the ropes for the floats were attached to the skin of their backs by two large hooks. The guys were clearly high (presumably to numb the pain) and seemed to be pretty stressed. I was busy taking pictures and the group of lads called me over to take closer photos. I found myself caught up in the carnival like procession in the middle of the road with cars and bikes and autoriks all around. I suddenly realised I'd travelled quite a long way up the road. The lads I was with asked me to carry on with the procession and even offered me a smoke of their drugs - such friendly people! Gotta love India ;-)

18th March 2011 - Drop in

On our way to buy some fabric to have some covers made up for one of our sofas, I saw a Leprosy Referal Centre. Strange sight and brings home the fact that in most parts of the world there are still some pretty horrible things you can catch!

13th March 2011 - Properly hot

Another first today. Susie had spent a luxurious night at the Renaissance hotel and I was at home with the kids. That isn't the 'first' by the way! No, I decided that rather than take an Autorik (Aftab had the day off) I would take our car and drive myself and the kids over to the hotel. Max seems to think that I have forgotten how to drive and protested 'but you can't drive Dad'! Charming. Undetered I strapped Darcy into her seat and headed off round the lake. Arriving in one piece we went to find Susie and then laze around the pool for what should have been the whole afternoon. How ever we didn't last more than two hours as the temperature hit 40'C and we literally fried, the tiles too hot to walk on in bare feet and even the temperature in the shade was burning. Hopefully this was just a freak temperature spike but with 42'C forcast for Monday I'm not so sure!

12th March 2011 - Little things

I'm not really a 'bath person' but even I miss not being able to have a bath as we only have showers in the apartment. I knew that Susie was particularly struggling so I packed her off to the Renaissance Hotel for the night to pamper herself whilst I took the kids to the American School of Bombay family fun day. Thankfully it started at 4pm but even so the sun was ferocious so glad when the building provided some shade. Even though ASB is one of the most expensive schools they were still at the mercy of the dodgy Indian fairground ride providers with some scary worn out rides and a candyfloss machine that spat flames out of the centre, burning the sugar rather than melting it!

15th March 2011 - CNG

Impressive queues at the petrol stations stretching miles this morning as Autoriks fight to get filled up with Compressed Natural Gas. The BMC drilled through a supply pipe yesterday and no new supplies have made it into Mumbai. More chaos on the roads as more people then jump in their cars so more people who can't drive on the roads!

I read a study at the weekend, seems that burning CNG in a 2 stroke Autorik engine polutes more than if they used petrol, one step forward and two steps back.

7th March 2011 - Presidential suite

Susie and I went to the Dr L H Hiranandani hospital on Monday to check out the maternity rooms and generally have a look around. First stop floor 12 where the suites are located, complete with room price menu in hand. Waited an age for the lift, when it finally came it stopped at every floor and at one point the hospital porters tried to ram a poor patient in a bed into the lift! Arriving on the 12th floor we were shown to the delux suite Rs7500 a day. Not bad, bed, sitting area, sofa, tea and coffe maker, bathroom etc. On the way out I asked to see the Presidential suite Rs25000 per night just to see what a suite 3x the price was like. I can't tell you the answer as they haven't built it yet!

Ok so far, although where is the baby actually born? Oh for that you need to go down to the 2nd floor. Once the lift arrived, we went down to the second floor and I could feel Susie starting to stress as we walked in. Dark and pokey, basic and with some scary looking contraptions, however the straw that broke the camels back was being shown the 'common delivery room' - at this point Susie lost the plot and stormed off - not sure I blame her, the thought of laying next to 3 other women in labour wouldn't appeal to me either!

Good news in that the common delivery room doesn't have to be used by us, phew!

10th March 2011 - Public Information

Amoungst the range of signs you see about the place, some are informative 'no ox carts permitted' some are funny 'No plucking flowers' and some are just down right curious - bear in mind that it is currently 30'C in the shade - I've just seen an electronic road sign what stated 'In the event of road icing, help your fellow motorist in distress' Huh?! If it was a fixed sign, which was commissioned during the last Ice Age fair enough, but this was a new electronic road sign (like the ones you see on the M25), so I can only assume they've lost the instructions?

24th February 2011 - Scrambled Egg

I've been feeling a little rough for the last few days, must have eaten something that didn't agree with me! At work today I decided to order something simple for lunch - plain scambled egg and a white roll (no butter). Having tried to make myself understood to the guy taking the orders I then enlisted some help from an Indian colleague. She duely explained 'scrambled eggs' in Hindi to the chap by using the word 'scrambled egg'. This didn't work either, so she moved on to explain (in Hindi) how to make scrambled egg! This is made all the more strange as the canteen not only have cooked me proper Indian scrambled egg before but I then noticed it on the menu.

19th February 2011 - You'll never guess.....

My sister and her daugther arrived to stay yesterday. Lots of things planned to show them to give them a feel of the place. There was one thing that wasn't planned and that I haven't even seen yet. Susie went to pick up Sarah and Hannah from the airport and on the way back my sister pointed out a zebra crossing, to which Susie replied 'on no there aren't any zebra crossings in India you just take you life in your hands and try and cross the road'. 'No, look a Zebra crossing' and sure enough crossing the road in front of the car was a Zebra walking across the road!

18th February 2011 - Wedding band

I think we have got used to the 101 different sounds that might wake you up or disturb the peace and quiet, e.g. Fireworks, car horns, calls to prayer, cows, squealing truck brakes, workmen, festivals, parties, planes, birds, bird scarer bangs, huge PA systems (you get the picture!). This morning at 8am we were treated to a wedding band starting up. Not an uncommon sound but never at 8am in the morning! The best way to explain an Indian wedding band is LOUD. Around 10 'musicians' with the emphasis on trupets, blast out a rythemic tune which reminds me a bit of Jazz as each musician appears to be playing a slightly different tune, or slightly behind the others or in a slightly different key. The result is a toe tapping sound with no idea what the tune or song might be! Personally, I love it and boy does it make a wedding feel like a real celebration - British weddings are so grey compared to the colour and energy of an Indian wedding!

17th February 2011 - PAN

Three and a half months ago I filled out a simple application form to obtain my Indian PAN number. A PAN number is important as without it you can't sort out your tax affairs and you can't actually leave the country! Today I tried and failed to complete the form for the third time, my second attempt has already been rejected as I hadn't put brackets round one of the words in the office address. My third attempt today I was concentrating so hard on not messing it up....that I messed it up! Think I'll try again in the morning!

On leaving the office, I mentioned the Management teams inability to complete a simple form, the response was 'that is why we use an agent'. It is funny to think that a whole industry is supported by the pen pushing bureaucracy, however it does create jobs and move money round the system and when I have a heart attack from the stress bought on by trying to complete a simple form I'll keep the Dr and Nurses in work too!

Today is Muslim festival Eid (again). To be precise it is Eid U Malad, the birthday of one of the Muslim gods. All the Muslim areas are marked out by the tonnes of flags and decorated archways. Later a load of decorated flat bed trucks will drive about packed with celebrating Muslims, before they do some praying and then party into the night. There is something really nice about all of the near constant festivals and celebrations, it always gives people something to look forward to something to be passionate about and the decorations certainly help brighten up the place!

It is also Darcy's 3rd birthay, our little girl growing up fast.

13th February 2011 - Jobs for life

In a Country with a population of around 1 billion plus there is always going to be a need to find things for people to do. A good example of this is what I saw this morning on our early Sunday morning cycle. A truck had dropped off a load of large pieces of stone and a group of around 8 men were sitting on the ground with hammer and bolster cutting the stone up into small shale like pieces. Looked like they had a good couple of days work ahead of them. A simple crushing machine may have taken around 5 mins to crush it all!

10th January 2011 - Driver skills

The drivers that we use have to be very skillful as they negociate the heavy traffic, maintaining their space on the road, edging out tuk tuks, lorries, bikes etc to make progress. This morning I jad a call from Teri, Pramod her driver, had locked the keys in her car and could she have a lift? No more than 5 mins later I had another call from Teri, car now open no need for a lift. Speaking to Aftab in the car this morning he proudly explained how they broke into the car to rescue Teri - add breaking into cars to the list of skills they possess!

9th February 2011 - There be Pirates

I guess World geography was never my strong point, but I had missed the fact that between Somalia and India there is only Indian Ocean! The news stories for the last few weeks has been the increasing number of attacks just off the West Indian coast. Any romantic, Jack Sparrow, idea of swashbuckling pirates goes out the window when you read that they are just a bunch of Somali Bandits riding around in speedboats armed with AK47s. What does surprise me is how these guys manage to hijack huge oil tankers? Fishing boats, yes but an oil tanker carrying 200 million dollars worth of crude oil is not going to be a small ship so how do they stop them and how do they board? Reason for mentioning this in the blog? In the latest story, the pirates tried to hijack a ship off the Lakshadweep Islands off south west India, the ship managed to evade capture so the pirates gave up and looked for another target. The target they selected turned out to be an Indian Navy ship out looking for pirates - all 28 pirates arrested and face trial in Mumbai!

5th February 2011 - End of the (potholed) road?

Looks like the end of the road for India. A real shame as we had focused on staying until the end of the year, which now doesn't look possible. The programme I am working on looks like it will be cancelled and therefore there really isn't the work to keep us all out in India. Very disappointed as we really love being here, yes a few ups and downs but in the main it is a fascinating place and the warm weather is bloody lovely! New baby complicates things some what as we can't fly out of India now and getting a passport looks like it will take 3 months (at least) after the birth so we are still looking at end June at the earliest so at least 5 more months to enjoy life out here. Question is what next and where? Living abroad is very enjoyable and whilst we miss all of our friends and family very much the life out here helps to make it bearable!

Just to add that if any of you were planning a trip to see us, might be worth making it sooner rather than later!

6th February 2011 - Bold and Beautiful

As part of Susie's birthday celebrations a group of us ventured down to the Malhalakshmi Horse Racing circuit in South Mumbai to watch the India Derby. I'd booked a table at the Gallops restaurant to start with, overlooking the course....actually, whilst it was nice, it overlooked the area where the horses slowed down after the race so wasn't quite what I had in mind for a base for the afternoon. Never mind, after lunch we ventured into the crowd and tried to watch some racing and place some bets. Step one, Tote or the betting pit? Betting pit - maybe not such a good idea, if I thought that everyday Indian life is chaos then it looks sane compared to the betting pit. Imagine a scrum of around 300 Indians, in a space of approx 40ft square, add in 10 bookies in betting cages plus staff (at least 4 per cage), sprinkle the pressure of trying to bet up to the time of the race and top it off with 35'C with us in shirt, tie and jackets! So having managed to get close to a bookie, waving our money high in the air, we then shouted the number of the horse and were give a slip of paper (handwritten) with a code on it. No name, no numbers that corresponded to the race or the horse didn't fill us with confidence that if we were to win that we would see any money! Call me a whimp but for the next race I went to the Tote!

8th February 2011 - Bike names

Two wheelers (motorbikes) are massively popular in India (as well as most parts of Asia). There are so many different models ranging from 100cc to 220cc. My favourites so far are the Honda Unicorn, the Hero Honda Splendid, the Honda Hulk, the Suzuki Pleasure and the Bajaj Activa to name a few!

4th February 2011 - Sad but true

I've been looking for some time now, actually since we got here, to see a post box. Today on the way over from Max's school I saw my first one since coming to India....and got a little flash of excitement. Can't explain why, feel a bit of a nerd to be honest but there you go!

3rd February 2011 - Happy Birthday

Susie' birthday today, we woke her up at 7am with a cup of tea and a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday' accompanied by music from Darcy's little keyboard - think she enjoyed it!

A morning spent shopping with our friend Paul, I picked up Max from school and we all went to the Renaissance cafe for tea and afternoon cake. I spoke to the guys behind the counter and they even managed to find a candle to put with Susie's cake...another round of 'Happy Birthday' singing just to let everyone know!

Finished off the day with a Chinese takeway, delivered by an Indian on a pushbike and watched Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino - brilliant film.

2nd February 2011 - I'll dig a hole and look into it!

I passed one of the many trenches being dug about the place to see what was in it. The mass of cabling in the trench already was significant how the labours managed to dig round them all is a mystery, although it does explain why the don't use mechanical diggers and why nothing works in Monsoon! So the purpose of digging the trench in the first place? TATA power are laying a cable to carry 33,000 volts of electricity which means that next time they dig up the road they might want to take it very carefully indeed!

1st February 2011 - Nee and indeed Nar

There are obviously a great many 'sad sights' in India and to some extent you get a bit numb to them as they are all about and so alien to life back in the UK. However, one which I always find disturbing, on the basis that I might need one one day, is how the ambulances sit pathetically in the traffic, yellow light lethargically turning on its roof and some sort of siren going and noone taking a blind bit of notice and certainly not clearing a path.

31st January 2011 - Bye Bye January

Can't believe we are already at the end of January already. I normally find January a pretty depressing month and whilst we've still had our ups and downs out here, i must admit that the wather being sunny and bright has helped the mood enormously!

So what were the ups and downs? Mainly worry about the new baby (coping with it!) and Susie's health as she has been feeling very sick when she eats, so not eating properly, feeling sick so eating less and round she goes. Looks like a cronic lack of Iron so it is another round of tablets....which make her feel sick! The birth cannot come soon enough, at least we then deal with having 3 kids and Susie gets her body back! Had a look at trying to squeeze in a last minute trip to Rajeshstan before Susie is unable to fly, feels like a step too far and so decided to keep it simple and stay put. Now looking at flights for a family of 5!

30th January 2011 - Gandhi anniversary

It is the anniversary of Gandhi's death today, certainly much quieter out and about. The ads in the papers didn't go as overboard as I thought they would, one private energy company shamelessly using Gandhi's picture and one of his quotes to flog their electricity and the other was a Govt office. I guess most organisations have too much respect, or they feel that people would see through the gimmic. Which ever way you look at it, the monsoon based advertising beats Gandhi - sign of the times!

28th January 2011 - Gard Dogs

Passed one of the many building sites on my way to work today and a new sign has been put up stating proudly that the site is protected by 'Gard Dogs'. No matter where you go in Mumbai there are street dogs everywhere. During the day they are sleepy and quiet but at night all hell breaks loose and they fight their corner as if their life depended on it (in most cases it does). So the thought that you would be any worse off by breaking into a compound and facing a Gard Dog rather than a pack of wild street dogs some what reduces the threat!

26th January 2011 - Republic Day

26th Jan 1950 the Indian Republic was formally recognised and the constitution accepted. Net result is an Indian Bank Holiday which was nice to have mid week, downside was that there was a great deal of celebrating going on late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning with music, parades and salute of the flag etc. Max had to get to school for 7.30am for his school's flag ceremony. It only lasted til 9am at which point he came home for the rest of the day.

26th January 2011 - Republic Day

26th Jan 1950 the Indian Republic was formally recognised and the constitution accepted. Net result is an Indian Bank Holiday which was nice to have mid week, downside was that there was a great deal of celebrating going on late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning with music, parades and salute of the flag etc. Max had to get to school for 7.30am for his school's flag ceremony. It only lasted til 9am at which point he came home for the rest of the day.

23rd January 2011 - R&R

After the stress of yesterday's day out, we decided to take it easy today. I left Susie having a snooze and took the kids out for a bike ride and a trip to the coffee shop and to check on the dog packs that Max had cataloged on the previous Thursday. Good start to the day as it is nice and quiet first thing and the sun isn't too hot.

Arrived back and Susie was up so we got ready to pick up her blood test results from the hospital. They weren't ready but she did pick up info on the birthing rooms available so we are making progress towards sorting the hospital birth.

Next step, over to the hotel pool for lunch and a nice relaxing afternoon by the pool in the sunshine - just what the Dr ordered!

And the second R? That stands for Roof, earlier in the week I'd managed to get hold of the key to the roof terrace of our appartment block. So having arrived back home, we all went straight to the roof to take pictures and enjoy the amazing view.

22nd January 2011 - Colaba

All planned to take a trip down to the far south of Mumbai today, however Susie not well, so having popped to the hospital so Susie could have some blood tests the kids and I took off for the day, leaving Susie to sleep.

I made the mistake of planning where we would go as we were going there so the ideas changed quite a lot until I settled upon Colaba area in the southern most tip of Mumbai as a place to start, followed by a large park, art gallery, the aquarium, 4 roads (tables) and then home. Something for everyone.

Having reached Colaba, the art gallery was impossible to find and when I did had turned into a toy shop. Still, at least we managed to get a cheap chess set for Max (Rs135). On the way to the gallery/toy shop, we'd past the entrance to the harbour. Decided that it would be good to look around as we were there. As we turned into the narrow one way lane which took us to the harbour we noticed a strong fishy smell, even with the windows up and the air vents closed! So when Max thought it would be funny to open the window and we were treated to the full impact we were all nearly sick. Needless to say, old fish, no ice and 30'C heat do not mix well! Passed a large group of ladies sitting on the road, in the sun shelling mountains of prawns, needless to say I'm not gonna eat prawns here ever again.

Went for a walk around a huge park, with about 40 cricket games going on, no swings or slides and Darcy running onto the pitch and trying to knock over the stumps so that part of the trip didn't last long! Followed by a massive (tiredness) Darcy trantrum, I decided that pushing onto the aqaurium was a step too far and called it a day and went home!

Topped the day off by watching 3 films in a row and collapsing into bed.

21st January 2011 - Dig a hole and look into it

Around where we live just about every road is being dug up to lay some sort of pipe or cable. I assume they are digging them in as all of the trees/lamp posts are already full!

The excavations vary between unguarded, unlit holes in the ground to the one I've just spotted which had what looked like sandbags around the hole, red and white guard rails and flashing red led lights! On closer inspection the sand bags turned out to be full of earth and matter from the hole they had dug. Clever system this as to fill in the hole they simply through all the bags back in the hole, top layer of grit, few new brick sets and good as new. Well, until the monsoon when the water will undermine and the heavy traffic will create potholes!

17th January 2011 - Max's School sports

Was going to say Sports Day but this is a full on event with and hour long opening ceremony, with games spread over 4 days. The precursor to this is a month of heats so effectively the 4 days is a set of finals! Imagine a sports field about the size of a football ground inc seating, floodlit (started at 6pm) with PA, video, large screen and I've just noticed the Flame a la Olympics! Simultaneous races and awards all presided over by the same MC - very slick! Max was only in the opening ceremoney (Marching) and I now sat enduring 2 hours of running races, no idea where Max is but as I can't take him away we are here for the evening getting bitten to bits!

15th January 2011 - Haircut

Up until now I've had my hair cut by Susie using a set of electric clippers. Today I thought I'd use one of the many barbers I see around the place. These range from the most basic - barber had a brick for his clients to sit on a pair of sissors and a comb to the full on salons found at the 5 star hotels. Even I'm not quite brave enough to sit on a brick yet so opted for a barber who at least had a shop with a door. Proper sissor cut, new blade on the cut throat razor, cape with fresh neck cover all topped off with a brief head massage. Price? Rs50 (75p) plus a Rs5 pack of sweets to keep Darcy quiet. Oh and the haircut? Very good with no need for Susie to cut it all off so I could start again! Result.

16th January 2011 - High as a kite

Obviously as it is the start if the kite flying session (!) You have to kick it off with a kite flying festival! Armed with 5 papers kites (Rs10 or 15p each) and a thousand metres of sharp thread* we set off to the Renaissance Hotel to get flying. First off we decided to prepare ourselves by lounging round the pool for a few hours, calm only broken by Darcy announcing that she'd poo'd her swimsuit! Our initial attempts to fly these little single string kites wasn't very successful although soon we had attracted some 'staff' who got our kites flying all we had to do was hang onto the rapidly spooling string as the kites hit the airstream. After about 30 mins flying we reached the end of our thousand metre string and I have to say completely lost sight of the kite too. We left Jason there still flying having reached the end of one lenght of string and well onto his second! We must have caused confusion for the real kites trying to catxch their fish supper on the lake, not to mention the water buffalo with kite string hanging off his horns!

*sharp string used for kite fighting, the idea being you cut through you opponents sting!

14th January 2011 - Saturday Night Fever

The dress code in India varies massively between ultra traditional dress, which varies by the state, any number of religious inspired getups, not to mention uniforms for just about every profession including my favourite of all which I think marks out the 'delivery boy'. These guys ride the very heavy old bikes, wear tight fitting jeans over their snake hips and all topped off with the most incredible disco shirts! I have stil not found the source of these shirts so I've no idea where they come from but boy do the colours, pattens and logos clash!

13th January 2011 - Gentleman's Cigar Club

I'm off to the Gentleman's Cigar Club tonight down in south Mumbai, not quite sure what to expect although I have visions of special handshakes and strange initiation processes...

Nothing of the sort, almost sadly, just a veey large group of varied people (women included) having a good time. Scary amount of people trying to make new ccontacts and the number of people who wouldn't lookb out of place in Skone Square!

Times like these that having a driver is bloody useful ad I'm piss as a fart and Aftab is getting me home safely!

11th January 2011 - All mod cons

I'm always interested in the unintentional funny signs you see around the place. Whilst in South Mumbai this weekend I found my new favourite for the Laximan lay-in Hospital. I love the thought of going to hospital for a lay-in. Guess it is preferable to going to hospital and being laid out!

10th January 2011 - Back to the chaos

There is definately something addictive about India, whilst it was great to see all friends and family it was great to be back home. Work was busy as ever, outside if work was busy as ever and apart from some new paths, roadways and buildings nothing else had changed - still the same crazy mess as when we left!

17th December 2010 - 9th January 2011 - Catch up

Bit of a cop out I suppose but this relates to the time we were in the UK.

Took off from Mumbai in 30'C heat and landed in London -5'C with snow on the ground which was refreshing to say the least!

The first 2 weeks were a blur of staying in different houses, in different places, sleeping in different rooms in different levels of cold. Great to see everyone but so tired by the end of it we need a holiday to recover!

The final week I was working in Cheltenham and Susie and the kids were rushing around cramming in more shopping and more visits.

Trip home was pretty smooth, our friend Lyndsay managed to change her flight and fly with us. She spent a few days with us then flew onto Sri Lanka for her holidays.

It is great to be back, sunshine everyday and temperatures back into the 30'C range which is so much more up lifting.