The Run up to Christmas

It's busy, busy here with loads of events during the run up to Christmas.

Last week I went on a Christmas Cookie Baking course! I'm sure we ate more than we should have especially the fudge pictured here with Debbie (who it turns out grew up 10 miles from me in the UK!)

This Monday Con sang with the Elementary School choir at the Tree Lighting ceremony at the Grand Hyatt. The choir sounded great and the tree looked amazing. We were very excited to see Santa come to Mumbai! He arrived in a rickshaw (cabriolet) as I think it is too hot here for reindeer.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw me at charity coffee mornings (how stereotypical) then Thursday was a trip to the supermarket and Friday a day at home trying to catch up paperwork before we go back to the UK for Christmas.

On Saturday we had Family Fun Day at the school. Like a school fayre, the children had various stalls set up and all proceeds from the day went to local charities. I spent a stressful half hour manning the indoor bouncy castle - all the time trying to restrict the number of children on the inflatable to a vaguely safe situation; shouting at children to stop climbing over the edge and trying to get children off after they'd had their allotted time. In the back of my mind I had the voice of Sarah, a statistician I used to work with who had trawled through figures for the NHS and knew that bouncy castles are the major cause of spinal injuries in children in the UK .....great.

Unfortunately on Friday night, our building experienced its first burglary. Someone scaled over the wall (easy, Ian has done it when he was locked out of the compound once) and then climbed onto the first floor balcony and broke in. Although very little was taken, the family there obviously feel vulnerable and shaken. We had a residents meeting today about ways to tighten up security. Lots of time was spent debating how to keep the security guards awake in the early hours of the morning, which I would say is an impossible task.

On Saturday evening we spent a lovely time with a group of friends celebrating Pat's 40th birthday. His birthday was a week ago and we spent it relaxing at our club playing croquet on the lawn! This Saturday we ate at the Italian restaurant in the Leela and I had imported Aberdeen Angus steak which was truly delicious. Apparently back bacon is in at Sante, a delicatessen in Bandra so I may well make a trip there this coming week. The Christmas decorations at the Leela were very opulent and the ones in out apartment don't look too bad either but on a rather pathetic scale. All in all I'm getting very excited about Christmas.

Gone to Goa

Towards the middle of November we went to Goa with some friends Jane and Cyrus and their daughter Alia. Con and I flew down on the Thursday and then Ian joined us on Saturday. There are early flights from Mumbai so Ian was with us "in resort" by 9am.

We stayed in a very quiet, unspoilt part of Goa called Aswem, near Morjim. The first night we stayed at Ku a beautiful, tranquil place with an Asian feel and just 2 rooms. (see right).

When Ian came we moved to Tellytubbyland! It's actually a group of bamboo huts called Yabyum. They also have a couple of cottages. http://www.yabyumresort.com/

The beach was beautiful with amazing waves that we could jump and body surf on. Every morning a herd of cows would meander down and along the beach and there were a few shacks where we could get drinks and food. The local beer is called Kings and cost 20 or 25 rupees (30p!) a bottle. Although there were just a few shacks there, Maria who runs Ku told us that a coupl eof years ago there was just one and, like the rest of Goa, Aswem is starting to attract investors looking to bring more tourists in. It will be a shame as it was so peaceful and unspolit.

The beach was also a last bastion for the crusty hippy. Many crusties were limbering up of a morning on the beach doing their sun salutations and I got some great pictures!

Marvellous Maldives

We had a great time in the Maldives staying at Medhufushi with the Fieldsends. It was half term in the UK and we took Con out of school for a week.

The resort was absolutely idyllic and the staff very friendly and good with the children.



Unfortunately we had lots of squalls and wind. The high season is from the start of November and we went in the last week of October.....This is us waiting for a storm to clear so that we could leave on the seaplane from Male to Medhufushi. The Male seaplane departure lounge is the best I've ever been in - all wood and relaxed.

50mph winds meant that the hatches were battened down quite frequently on the
bar/restaurant (see below), then after 15 minutes up the blinds would come again and we'd go back to watching the fishies.

I had a spa treatment (the solo water hut in the picture below) and watched turtles paddling around in the water in front of me. Bliss....

Lots to report on the blog and I'm getting behind on it all so I'm going to keep them short until I catch up. Next installment - Goa.

http://www.aaaresortsmaldives.com/

What does an expat brat do all day?

Life here is very different for Conor. His school life provides plenty of structure but there are many opportunities to be spontaneous. I'll take you through some recent activities so that you can get a taste of expat brat life.

School starts at 8am so we are up and out of the house pretty early. School ends at 3pm and Conor generally has an after school activity. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays he has been having swim practice. This is leading up to a swim gala at the beginning of December. When he isn't doing swimming he does multi-sport and yoga after school with Mr Prasad (see links to other places on the right of this page.)

It seems to be birthday season at the moment so Conor has had a couple of parties to go to. These are generally big events with lots of children and are often outdoors at a club such as the Breach Candy or The Club. Although it may take several months to get a hole drilled in the wall, personalised party gifts can be produced within minutes on the spot at the parties! A photo on a water bottle was taken during a recent party, transferred on to the bottle in a few moments and then given as a party gift. Conor also has a lovely mug with his mug on it and a personalised backpack....

I received an out of the blue phone call asking if Conor would like to do a voice over for a Bollywood film. The film is Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, to be released on November 23rd and starring Bollywood heart-throb John Abraham. http://nowrunning.com/film/preview.asp?movieNo=4093 Some of the scenes have to be dubbed over after the film has been completed as the outdoor sound quality was not good enough. There is a scene where some English boys are playing football in a playground and John Abraham comes to play with them. Conor is the voice of "Awesone, Great, Wow, cool etc...". Sir Larry did a tremendous job, following instruction well and importantly to him it was his first paid work!

Immediately after the film debut, Conor came down with a nasty chest infection and we had our first experience of visiting a doctor. It was far more flexible than the UK system, extremely cheap and fast. A friend recommended a paediatrician who I called on his mobile phone. (Apparently we can call him any time on that.) He said if we could make it to a local maternity hospital in the next 15 minutes then he could see Conor before he performed a caesarian. The consultation cost 500 rupees (6 UK pounds) and he said we should get a chest xray and blood test. We walked 10 minutes to a nearby clinic were seen within 5 minutes and paid 450 rupees for both of the above. The results were ready by 7pm that evening! It took a while for Conor to get better and it is pretty certain that the Mumbai pollution is having a detrimental effect on his respiratory system. A couple of trips away (see other posts) have helped but after a few days back in Mumbai he has started wheezing again.

Halloween and Diwali celebrations at the school were superb. The elementary school held a parade when all the students paraded around the school hall in costume, then they had a party. Two days later the Diwali celebrations meant the school was decorated with lanterns and beautiful rangoli - floor art using coloured powders. Diwali meant more parties at school and Conor came home with some great works of art he had created.

Fashion Shows, Friends and Food

On Thursday 4th October I was invited to a fashion show held at another expat wife's house. http://www.deepikagehani.com/ This is the first time I've ever been to a fashion show and I was eased into it gently, as the models were fellow Mums from the school. Conor did ask why I hadn't been asked to model and was very supportive when I said I must be too ugly.

The whole event was catered by Olive which is a great restaurant in Bandra/Khar very close to where we live. When Mum and Dad visited in March and the coven visited in April we went there for Sunday brunch and I've posted a couple of photos so you can get the Mediterranean feel of the cuisine. We had Australian white wine and martinis to drink and some lovely nibbles. When we left we all received box of mini desserts from Olive! Australian white wine may not sound too exciting to some readers but due to the high import taxes, it's a rarish and expensive commodity....so I was thrilled!

A red carpet had been rolled out through the centre of the lounge and this was the "runway". Some confident and some nervous mums strutted their stuff and it was great fun. The designer donated a chunk of profits from the evening (for any sales made) to an Aids orphanage just outside Mumbai. The orphanage houses children suffering from HIV/Aids providing them with accommodation and education. My good friend Shannon is very involved with the orphanage and the other week they took a big white sheet and a projector up there. They then put on a film show for the children and it was the first time many had seen a film. Sadly, since Shannon has been visiting a couple of the children have died and a couple of new children admitted. The new children are girls aged 9 who have been infected in the past few years through child abuse.

We had a busy weekend: Conor was invited for a sleepover in South Mumbai; the man with a drill finally came and drilled some holes for us in the apartment and we managed to hook up the desktop pc to the interweb! What with our recently installed wireless network, it has only taken us a year to get connected. Our next challenge is to get Tata Sky so we can watch some English TV channels.

The week that followed was full of expat daytime social events. I hosted Bandra coffee on Tuesday. Bandra coffee is an informal group of expat women who take it in turns to hold coffee mornings every Tuesday in the Bandra/Juhu area. At first this was a terrifying prospect but we've now got it down to a fine art. Jessie cooks some delicious cakes, we get the hot water flasks full and it's all set out on the dining room table with the best china.

Wednesday meant a trip to South Mumbai to an American Women's Club coffee morning. The hostess was an Indian lady who had an amazing selection of food on offer. Lovely samosas, yoghurty things with almonds and other interesting delicacies. After the coffee morning I went along to a Crossword bookstore nearby (like Waterstones in the UK) for lunch with a dozen of the ladies and had a toasted sandwich. So all in all a food filled day. I went to yoga in the afternoon so felt a little virtuous.

After getting my hair coloured on Friday, Conor and I went to South Mumbai to the Breach Candy club to see my friend Jane from the UK. Jane moved here in May and we lived in the same town when we were teenagers so always have lots of reminiscing when we meet up. It took forever to get there because of the Mahalaxmi festival near Haji Ali. Mahalaxmi has a temple that thousands of ladies were queuing to visit and it caused some very slow traffic. It was also the run up to Eid ul Fitr a Muslim celebration to mark the end of Ramadan plus it was the start of Navratri a 9 day Hindi festival. For Navratri nine forms of the goddess are worshipped and there are some amazing statues of the goddess Durga to see. (There are probably statues of others too but I haven't seen any yet!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navratri The photo here is of the Shiva (Durga) at the end of our road. Ravi is standing there to give you an idea of the scale.

Fortunately we were invited to stay over at Jane's so didn't have to suffer the traffic back until Saturday morning (when it was just as bad!)

Conor has several parties coming up - he really has a great social life so the next post on here will be dedicated to what he's been up to.

Weekend Break to Dubai

We set off for Dubai on the 7pm flight on Friday. There was another family from Conor's school making a bolt for it too.

We stayed at the Jumeirah Beach hotel which was enormous. It was in a great location, very close to the things we wanted to do. On the left is the view from our window of the Burj Al Arab hotel. You can see Ian waving from our hotel window (see right) - 13th floor.

On the Saturday we headed off to the Wild Wadi water park. http://www.wildwadi.com/ The hotel provided buggy carts as transport around the area and a free transfer to the park was advertised. We jumped in the buggy and were deposited about 200 yards away! If we'd have only known we really would have used our legs! We spent the whole day being thrown around water chutes in inflatable tyres, except for the times when we floated down the lazy river.

Richard and Adriana Williams and their 2 girls have just moved to Dubai and they met up with us at the water park. It was lovely to see them because it's been about 3 years since we last met up. Adriana lent me her car and driver so I could get across town to my beloved Gap and I had a glimpse of expat life in Dubai - very different to Mumbai! The main difference is the sheer number of expats in Dubai. Here in Mumbai it's difficult not to know everyone! There it would take you a whole year just to meet the fellow Brits.

We managed to pack lots in to our break: Dinner at a fantastic tapas restaurant with some excellent sangria with the Williams, boat trips along the waterways of the Madinat hotel http://www.madinatjumeirah.com/ , desert safaris, shopping in the mighty Mall of the Emirates, but best of all was our trip to Ski Dubai!! incredibly, there is an indoor ski centre inside the mall of the Emirates with chair lift, a couple of slopes, alpine lookey-likey cafe and some great snow created every night and maintained at -4 degrees C. We enjoyed ourselves so much. the chair lifts allowed for great views of our fellow skiers - a couple of Australians (I think) had obviously never been skiing but were quite prepared to tackle the expert slope. They spent most of the time on their bottoms but their laughter was infectious. For some reason known only to him Ian had to wear his sunglasses for the duration. Apparently the indoor snow was blinding.

The Ski Dubai experience made us realise how much we had missed not going skiing this year, so we're going to make a big effort next spring to get back.

Ian and Conor managed some down time in the hotel games room.

School Trip to Lonawala

On Friday I was up bright and early with Conor as he had a field trip to Lonawala. We were up at 5.30am and at school at 6.45am. The children have been studying "Big Bad Body" which has been a study of the human body, different body systems, healthy living etc. The field trip was to get them out of the pollution of Mumbai and out to the countryside for a hike!

Lonawala is about 2 hours out of Mumbai on the main Pune road. As we were off to Dubai for the long weekend (Gandhi Jayanti on Tuesday so a public holiday and no school on Monday and Tuesday) we had to be at the airport at 4pm. As the coach was due back at the school at 4pm Conor's teacher said I could come along on the trip in our car with Ravi. We could then leave early from Lonawala and go directly to the airport. Luckily Shannon (my good ol' Texan friend here) was chaperoning the trip too and so she came in the car with me and we had a natter and a gossip.

One of Conor's teachers has a weekend house on the outskirts of Lonawala and so all 3 classes descended on her house before setting of on the hike. The weather was disappointing though-the clouds didn't lift so the hike was shortened because we couldn't see all the children! The hill was steep and slippy and I think it was the first time some of the children had ever walked in the countryside! We had a few tears and a few falls but I'm sure it was character building.

The person who had the best time was Ravi! When we got back to the teacher's house he told me that they had a "very good arrangement for the drivers". They'd been given breakfast and were looking forward to mutton and chicken for lunch. They were also watching a "very funny" Hindi comedy film on the caoch video. It was difficult to drag Ravi away when we had to leave early for the airport!

The children got very excited about the crystals they could find on the hillside and some of them came home with water melon sized chunks of rock! There were also loads of furry caterpillars that we had to avoid as they make you itch if you touch them.

It was a great day out and made such a change. As you drive out of Mumbai you can feel your spirits lifting as you see all the greenery and lose the traffic.

Expat wife goes techy

Welcome to the world of high tech expat wife. Not wanting to be outshone by my husband, I've decided to do a crash course in website design and blogging, thanks to Blogger.com

I'm sitting in the Business centre of the Grand Hyatt hotel penning this first "post". http://www.mumbai.grand.hyatt.com/ But why are you swanning around in a hotel doing this, I hear you cry! Well, perhaps that will explain what an expat wife does all day......

I had a hair appointment booked with the nice hotel hairdresser Christiaan Georgio (Greek/Australian, trained in UK at Vidal Sassoon in the eighties. Could he be the very trainee responsible for the Duran Duran asymmetric cut of 1985? Only my parents Kate, Poppy and Fiona will probably remember that.) When I arrived we looked at my hair and noticed that, unbelievably, the grey hadn't come through yet. He said there was no point in colouring it so we just cut it instead. So here I am at the Grand Hyatt with several hours to spare.

Why don't you go back home then and do something useful?



Well, today we have torrential rain. Khar Subway is flooded and when I called Ian as I came out of the hairdressers, he was still on his way to work having been stuck in big traffic jams after dropping me off. (The photo is taken from the entrance to Khar Subway, a road tunnel under the main railway line and one of the few crossing points West to East.)

Better to ask Ravi, our driver, to pick me up from the hotel which is only a 15 min drive to school and save both me and Ravi a lot of sitting-in-traffic stress. But of course that means I have two and a half hours to kill at a hotel.

Not wanting to be accused of wasting time....what do you DO all day? I went through my things to do list, came here to the business centre and set to on some American Women's Club emails. Then looked at my personal emails and then turned my thoughts to this.

As I understand it, a blog is a type of diary entry so I won't go on much longer. Better to work on the blog design and template and ask for your feedback....what do you think of it so far?