One Month Down

In a way it feels like we have been here a lot longer than a month and both DP and I are showing the signs of a busy & frustrating month. To my horror I seemed to have gathered a few more wrinkles and DP has a lot more grey hair since leaving London only one month ago. I think an early night or two might help the situation.

I am really craving some peace and quiet in my own home but am not likely to get that any time soon with the demo team arriving this morning to re-tile the downstairs bathroom which looked like a grubby public toilet in Brixton.
When I wake up the Driver is here to take DP to work, next up the Rubbish man arrives then it's the Ironing man coming to collect the clothes, the electrician, the carpenter and on and on it goes all day and just when I think I might get some quite time;  in comes the Cook and her "sister" (but really cousin) who cleans the floors. It really does feel like Waterloo Station around here. I reckon Western women are pretty amazing to do the work of at least half a dozen people in India.

But this week I have realised it is pointless to complain about such trivial things especially as family and friends come to terms with the devastation of the Christchurch earthquake. Thankfully they are all safe but other's not so lucky. It is heart breaking to think of what some families are going through right now : (

Funny little things that made me laugh & highlights of the week:

• Only in India can you reverse down main streets, back into roundabouts (circles) and double park outside a shop that you fancy popping into. It's like we own the road or something.
• I love how the washing dries in 3 minutes compared to 3 days in London
• Most big shops have so many shop assistants its kinda ridiculous as they all stand around gossiping or each doing a small part of a simple job that makes buying anything a long and painful process. 
• On the other hand shopping in smaller local shops can be a bit embarrassing as assistants jump the counter to come and assist and as much as I try and inconspicuously wait in the queue they serve me first and make everyone else wait - I would be so annoyed at me if I was the other shoppers!
• I brought an ultra colourful Indian bed sheet to wrap up my daily ironing in at the recommendation of the Cook. The man counts the items then ties it up into a colourful parcel. Its is delivered back the next day for 2.5 INR per item. So 5 shirts is 15p compared to 10 quid in London.
• I find Indian's can be quite brutally honest... the Cook was looking at some of our photos and when she saw one of me holding Izzie at 4 weeks old she said "you are very fat" ha made me laugh out loud!
• I asked the cook to make a spicy spaghetti bolognaise. She tasted it and nearly threw up cause it wasn't salty enough. In her interview she told me she cooked pasta for the previous Swiss family - I now know it was the Maggie all in one packet variety - note to self next time ask more in-depth questions.
• I wanted to walk Izzie in the buggy when I was out shopping in Powai so she could have a nap before Playgroup.  I didn't know the way to the Nature's Basket shop so the Driver drove ahead slowly so I could follow - I guess  you had to be there but I felt like such a princess.
• The dishwasher finally got installed after 10 days of false starts but later that evening a pipe starting leaking and we had to shut the water off until the next afternoon - back to washing dishes in the bathroom sink!
• The toddler pool at the "Club House" is also a giant pigeon bath ... I wonder should I really be bothering to put swim nappies on Izzie when the whole pool is already a cesspit. Anyway have decided to avoid it altogether after reading about the many diseases we could catch...eeeewhhhhhh
• DP had to get weighed for his medical.  They did not have enough weight on the scales to measure him so they had to run off and find some heavy objects to get an accurate reading.  Apparently he needs to either lose 40kg or grow 19 inches - not sure that is going to happen any time soon with all this good Indian food.
• I went out and brought a load of different brooms, mops and products in preparation for the Cleaner starting this week. She however is not impressed and prefers to squat down and hand wash the floor with a rag. She requested a traditional Indian coconut broom for 50p.
• So finally after the Dishwasher was actually installed the man gave me a "lesson" on how to work it.  I couldn't help giggling as he was earnestly explaining how the glasses go here and the plates here and this is where the detergent goes. The Cook and Cleaner are scared of the dishwasher and think it's a waste of time.
• Izzie has high jacked my laptop to watch CBeebies via Expat Shield http://expatshield.com/.  I am reduced to typing on the iPhone. 2 year olds!!!
• Everything is a bit wonky in our apartment - the tradesmen have tried their hardest I am sure but some of the curtains are 6 inches off the floor and some are not, the electrical sockets & coat hooks are all screwif and the mosquito nets are there for decoration only.
• Tata Sky was installed this week and I watched TV last night for the first time in about 6 weeks
•  Izzie is toilet training at the moment - it's so cute to see her trundle off to the loo and thank god for tiled floors in India when she forgets.
• DP was speaking to someone in a local call centre the other night and they asked him to speak English and he said "but I am" and they said no speak English with an Indian accent.

Looking forward to a day out in central Mumbai tomorrow - haircuts, lunch & swimming at the Taj

Free From Carrot Cake

Izzie and I baked Delia's Ultimate Carrot Cake today and it was really delicious. Even with Brown Rice Flour which is the only gluten free flour I can find in our new country at the moment. Would be good as muffins also. I didn't even ice it as it was yummy enough.


This is how we made it:


200g Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2tsp of Cinnamon
2 tsp of Baking Soda (but I would put more next time as it didn't rise much)
175g Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Flaxseed mixed with 6 Tbsp of Water (Or could use any Egg Replacer)
150ml Sunflower Oil
Grated zest of 1 Orange
100g of Sultana's
200g of Carrots, peeled & grated
50g Desiccated Coconut

Preheat the oven to 325°F (170°C). To make the cake, whisk the sugar, flaxseed & water and oil together in a bowl with an electric hand whisk for 2-3 minutes, then check that there is no sugar left undissolved.

Sift the flour, Cinnamon and Baking Soda into the bowl.. Then stir all this in gently, followed by the remaining cake ingredients. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins and bake the cakes on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. They should be nicely risen, feel firm and springy to the touch when lightly pressed in the centre, and show signs of shrinking away from the sides of the tin. If not, give them another 2-3 minutes and test again.

Becoming One with Waiting

I am trying honest I am but man it's so frustrating waiting for this and waiting for that and waiting some more. I really need to find a way to become at peace with the great Indian past time of waiting.

Today I had 3 things on my list to do in town before we headed to check out works at the new apartment. We left the hotel at 10.30am and didn't arrive at the apartment until at 2.30pm.

First up we stopped at the Mosquito Zapper office and after a 30 minute conversation about who knows what; we were on our way with the answer being "No we don't sell them...."

Next to the sofa shop to choose new fabric for the sofa because somebody had been using it as an ironing board previously?? They were renovating the shop so they said they would send a man around to the house this afternoon with samples - still yet to see him. Perhaps they ment next Friday afternoon : )

Right next door was the mattress shop. The owner wasn't sure when he would be able to get the mattress delivered because it was located far away in a warehouse even tho we ordered it last week. However, when I told him if we didn't have it tonight that we would be coming to stay at his house the mattress miraculously appeared and was delivered to our door a few short hours later.

Popped into the next door home wares shop while we waited for the Mattress shop to make some phone calls and picked out a rug/mat for the floor.  It had a black mark on it so I said I would buy it if they spot cleaned it. 45 minutes later we were finally out the door.

We managed to locate the only Mozzie Zapper in the whole of Navi Mumbai and waited and waited some more for it to be brought from somewhere across town. I also picked out some light shades while we were waiting then had to wait some more while they were brought from somewhere.  I had had enough of waiting and said I will come back shortly.

So we popped in to InOrbitz Shopping Mall "quickly" to exchange the kettle/jug that was faulty. 6 staff had a turn to test it to make sure that it was in fact not working then after that who knows what happened. Perhaps they went to China to get a new one.  Izzie was ready to burst after an hour and started having a 2 year old tantrum and I really felt like joining her.  Thankfully we were saved by our Driver who has also taken on the role of  Executive PA. He came to see why we were taking so long. He held the fort and did the "waiting" while Izzie and I went off and downed some refreshments.

Back to the Lighting shop to pick up the light shades only to discover they only had half the order ready so we agreed to a delivery to the house later in the day.

In contrast DP got the VIP treatment at the clinic today after being initially told that he would need to wait 1.5 hours for his chest x-ray he was in and out within in 20 minutes. Apparently someone had rung ahead and pulled some strings for the big Kahuna.

We move into the new apartment tomorrow so hopefully all the running around getting bits and bobs will cease and I can embrace my new lifestyle. Namaste

Law of Averages

Some things happen so super quick it takes you by surprise and other things take forever & ever so following the law of averages it all evens out to be generally good service here in India.

Most events of the day are blog worthy as we navigate highly amusing situations and varying levels of frustration. Last night I rang Reception to ask for two tea towels for plates and promptly four plates arrived : ) they came back with 2 dinner napkins oh well they will do.

This morning we are waiting to go back to the police station to complete our FRRO application again. Izzie and I went last Thursday armed with a huge pile of paperwork & enough snacks to last a week only to be turned away after 2 hours of faffing cause DP had registered in central Mumbai rather than Navi Mumbai so he needed to get transferred to the correct place before we could make our applications. Fingers crossed we get out in under 4 hours with our new little blue registration books. (PS 6 days later we are still waiting for FRRO to be completed)

I have too many stories to tell so I shall just list a few quickly...

• I looked across the lawn and saw a bunch of ladies sitting & chatting ... on closer inspection they were manicuring the lawn with their bare hands & scissors!
• A lad at the hotel is cleaning our car everyday this week for pocket money (300 INR per week) Danny saw him washing the giant 4WD with a 500ml cup of water and a hankie.
• I busted the housekeeping guy cutting his finger nails with DP's nail clippers. (I hope DP is not reading this else he will go into toxic shock like the time he found out our UK cleaner was wearing his slippers ...Don't worry DP I disinfected them and boiled them for an hour). I wonder if the men have been having facials with my beauty products & shaving their faces with my lady shave also : )
• Izzie is such a novelty everyone loves her blond hair & blue eyes. We are thinking about charging for photos.
• A guy at DP's work was showing his colleagues some photos of a white lady and a blond baby that he took at the local mall and one of the guys said "Hey! That's the bosses wife!" Small town Mumbai - there is 16,000 people at DP's workplace.
• DP had his 2 seconds of fame today when he was filmed for the Indian news channel touching the Cricket World Cup.
• We were having a casual conversation about installing a security door at our new apartment and less than 2 minutes later a man arrived and measured the door out of no where.  The walls have ears!
• Every 6 months the car has to have a PUC (Pollution under Control) Certificate. Our driver was super worried about not having it and we looked around to see the smoky fires, trucks bellowing smoke and chemical plants 4 blocks away ... well at least it's a start India.
• DP now has a working phone but it has taken 4 weeks, 5 phones and 3 networks to actually get voice mail, international dialling and roaming all working at once but it still gets block every couple of days for random reasons.
• Kitchen cupboards are not a standard requirement in ones apartment???
• DP has brought his 3rd BBQ in as many countries since leaving Oz 5 years ago
• DP's friend Mukesh also nicknamed "Google Boy India" or "The Sourceor" has been amazing & looked after us like a brother - we ask and it appears.  He managed to locate some prime beef fillet and brought over the huge 1kg lump. It cost him 200 INR (2.75 quid or $4.35 AUD) for what would have cost at least 50 quid at the St Margaret's butcher. The BBQ boy is now beaming towards Mecca. 
• The washing disappears every morning at 9.30am and comes back freshly washed & ironed at 5pm. However it appears to shrink, fade & lose essential fastening components on each occasion.
• I was conducting an interview for a cook/cleaner yesterday. We sat down to begin and all six tradesmen in the apartment stopped work and gathered around to listen.
• One guy was cleaning the kitchen tiles with a toothbrush (Not DP's hopefully!) and two guys were supervising and telling him he was missing bits. 
• I tried to get the hotel kitchen to cooks some Izzie allergy friendly food ... DP was about to send out the search party after 45 minutes and 5 men later we agreed that they would cook chicken fried rice phew!
• Our driver likes to listen & sing to Hindi devotional songs. Every time he gets out of the car Izzie says in a very loud voice "turn off that music I don't like it!"
• After a few beverages at the Taj; DP was given a lecture from the driver about spirituality and how that booze is not the answer and he must meditate to relax. Ten minutes later DP woke himself up snoring (the meditation must have worked : )
• The IPod docking station has taken on a life of its own and if we accidentally leave it on it will blast out a random tune from the Grease musical somewhere between 1 and 4am
• The weather is currently 32oC during the day and about 22oC overnight - this is winter. Apparently the pool is not getting cleaned because it's too cold to swim and people are walking to work with their beanies & jackets on.
• Health & Safety where do I start?! The playground at the Hotel obviously hasn't had children playing in it since 1953.  We narrowly escaped A&E when Izzie and the large wooden Seesaw fell to the ground. Next day we were at a furniture expo and Izzie was testing out an outdoor swing which somehow fell 5ft and landed on my foot - Iz was fine thankfully. Then there is the everyday life happening around us with the families of four on a motorbike with no helmets, large gaping holes in the footpath with no barriers or signs and bamboo scaffolding & no safety harness.
• DP lost his dinner tonight cause he though he found the chef's finger nail in his Szechuan Chicken. Who would have thought he was a farmers son?!
• Indian's seem to love paperwork and the more the better. I am so over writing my personal details in triplicate.
• I put on 2kg in the first week and promptly lost it in 24 hours after a meal from a restaurant ironically called "Vicious Circle"
• I popped over to reception to ask for a can opener but they had never heard of such a contraption.  Out came a very large and blunt knife and they proceed to hack at the can until open.

DP and I have cried with laughter as we tried to remember all the funny things that have happened over the last 2.5 weeks. I can't begin to imagine the stories we will have after 2.5 years - bring it on India!