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!

Mumbai Magic

We moved to Mumbai on Monday!  Arriving in at 1am was a good plan as the airport & roads were a little less busy and the temperature just right for winter. Pancarsh picked us up along with our 10 suitcases and we were off through the night dodging cow's and rickshaw's.  Izzie was intrigued with the horn going beep beep every 2 seconds.

The hotel apartment was barely 3 star but twice as spacious as our London terrace - wouldn't be hard tho : )
I burst out laughing as I entered the kitchen -  the oven than Danny had especially requested was circa 1960 and very rusty and generally grotty.  It was powered by a giant & very old gas bottle hiding in the kitchen cupboard. It looked set to blow any minute!

Monday was a roller coaster with jetlag combined with the joy of finding a great supermarket in Powaii that stocks all the usual western products and also Natures Basket which has loads of gluten free, diary free, organic products for Izzie. We visited our new apartment at Seawoods later that evening and as expected it was a complete building site after being promised it would be ready last Friday.  I can see the potential amongst the wires, broken concrete & dirt so must be patient and sit tight for another couple of days, weeks, months ...who knows : )

So with the oven a complete health & safety risk Mukesh and Asha took us to the Reliance Electrical store in Vashi.  It had all the brand names and the prices to match.  We choose a multi purpose convection microwave oven for about 100 pounds. It was like any normal transaction until they took it out of the box and plugged into a socket to show me it worked ok - everyone knows you shouldn't start a microwave with nothing in it!!  About 10 people gathered at the check out to ensure the credit card went through - much to my horror it was 3rd card lucky.  Next we walked 5 metres to another check out accompanied with our small crowd of helpers to get the receipt stamped then finally we were allowed to take the very large box to the very small car.
This morning the front gate called but I had no idea what they were saying. I have since learned it was an agent from the appliance store coming to give me a demonstration on my fancy new gadget. Service like no other : )

All set to try out the new oven Izzie and I whipped up a gluten free, egg free, diary free cake today but doh we don't have a cake tin so we microwaved it....Lucky she isn't fussy when it comes to cake!

Free From Scones

As it fast approaches winter here in the UK I find myself dreaming of hot scones & bottomless pots of tea.  Here is a recipe that I adapted so Izzie can eat them as well.

Free From Lemonade Scones

3 Cups Self Raising Gluten Free Flour (I used Doves Farm)
50g Dairy Free Butter (I used Pure Margarine)
2 Tbsp of Caster Sugar
1 Cup of Lemonade (Sprite/7Up)
1 Cup of Diary Free Cream (I used Oatly Cream)

Rub butter into flour to form fine crumbs, add remaining ingredients and mix lightly, turn onto floured board & knead lightly. Use your fingers to flatten out to about 5cm high then use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds. Put on a baking tray and brush with dairy free milk. Cook for 15mins or so at 180oC.

Spread with dairy free butter and raspberry jam - Enjoy!!

Yummy Free From Savoury Muffins

Danny is away at the moment so I must be trying to keep busy with baking plus Izzie just loves to "help".....

Creamed Corn & Bacon Free From Muffins

• 6 rashers bacon, diced or could use ham
• ½ spanish onion, diced
• 2 cups Gluten free plain flour
• ½ tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp gluten free baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg replacer
• ½ cup diary free milk (I used Oatly)
• 60g diary free butter, melted (I used "Pure" Margarine)
• 300g creamed corn

Preheat oven to 220C. Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin tin with butter or line with paper cups.

Cook the bacon and onion in a frying pan over medium-high heat until crispy. Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.

In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, butter and creamed corn, and mix well. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients; the batter should be lumpy. Add the bacon mixture and fold through.

Spoon the batter into the tins and bake for 20 minutes, until the muffins are risen and golden coloured. Set aside for five minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Birthday Free From Jam Sponge Cake

Izzie has her bff birthday party tomorrow. Miss Olivia Wheeler will be 2! She is having a Pepper Pig cake so I am going to try this Doves Farm Sponge Cake recipe so Izzie doesn't feel left out.

• 125g Sugar
• 6 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Small Ripe Banana
• 150g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
• 4 Tbsp Cold Water
• 1 tsp Oil
• 2 Tbsp Jam
• 1 tsp Icing Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 190oC or 170oC Fanbake
2. Lightly oil a 18cm round cake tin
3. In a bowl beat together the sugar, oil & vanilla
4. Peel & mash half the banana then beat into the sugar mixture
5. Add the flour & water & mix well
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin & smooth top
7. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes
8. Cool the sponge on a wire rack
9. Cut the sponge in half with a bread knife and spread with jam put top back on and dust with icing sugar

Even tho Izzie is allergic to banana she seemed to be ok with this small amount of highly cooked banana. Banana is used in a lot of recipes instead of egg as a good binding agent.

Izzie adored the cake but next time I would make two sponges and jam them together as it didn't rise as much as expected.

Awesome Free From Pancakes

I came across this egg free pancake recipe from a blog (Art of Dessert) today and adapted it to be also wheat free and dairy free.

Horray they turned out just like proper pancakes. I have popped a few in the freezer as they might be good for quick snacks.

Love that Izzie won't miss out on one of my childhood favourite treats. We used to make pancakes with lemon & sugar on Sunday evenings using juicy fresh lemons from my mums tree's.

2 cups gluten free flour (I used Doves Farm)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups diary free milk (I used Oatly)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup melted dairy free butter (I used Pure)

Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, oil and orange juice. Slowly add in the melted butter. Pour about 1/2 cup of batter onto a hot nonstick pan. Cook until you see a few bubbles rise to the surface and it's dry around the edges, then flip over to cook the other side until lightly browned. Serve syrup, jam or fresh fruit etc