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.
