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?