Carrying on as normal

So much has happened in the New Year that I need to post another entry to catch up! Almost all of the last blog was dedicated to Kerala and I could have written more.....

Today was Elementary School Sports Day and in stark contrast to last year, Conor's team came first in the Grade 4B relay! Hurrah. The event ran from 8.30am to noon and was superbly organised with students rotating through c.17 different challenges. One of Conor's best friends, Tristan from the US, was on the opposing team (Reds) and the Dodgeball challenge was extremely competitive with Tristan picking up the rules rather more quickly than Conor. After thinking that sports day was heading the same way as last year, Conor showed that he's a year older, got over the stress and took a more sporting approach to the events.

Yesterday, I went to a stereotypical expat ladies event which was great fun.....an expat ladies' lunch! A friend is moving to Kuala Lumpur after a very short posting of 7 months. We had a great lunch with about 20 of us eating a delicious buffet at the JW Marriott. On the whole I have found expat women to be good fun. To move to a new location and get your family settled quickly, I've found that the women need to be quite outgoing and persistent. Things won't get accomplished unless you keep on top of them and stay organised. This means that expat women do a lot! If something needs to be done they are resourceful and find a way to sort things out. When it comes to a social life, there are always people ready to meet up, swap tips and help out. It's a very open and supportive. This is my first posting so I only have Mumbai to base this on but I would guess it's the same in other locations too.

Once a month I meet up with some other women and we identify organisations that could use our services, financial or other. At our last get together we met some representatives from One International. This is a Canadian-based charity that runs a couple of schools in Mumbai for slum children. One of the schools is very close to where we live. (Visitors may remember the sea front near our home where fish is dried - pretty smelly!) It was very interesting to hear about the school. Many children in slums have no birth certificate/legal documents and without this a child cannot enrol in the government school system. With 50 plus children per class in the government schools most quality education is provided through private tuition which, of course, is not an option for slum children whose families do not even have the basics; food,warmth, shelter. It was an eye-opener and I've added a link for any readers interested in doing or learning more.

In stark contrast (which sums up life in Mumbai) we have the school Gala Ball tomorrow night. A chance for us all to dress up in our finery and dine and dance at one of the 5 star hotels.

Since Mum and Dad left I have been catching up with emails and getting ready to hand over my responsibilities on the American Women's Club. Apart from that Conor and I have been mainly watching series 2 of My Name is Earl (v. funny) and Princess Mononoke (see Studio Ghibli in the links section on this page.) Conor started swimming lessons yesterday and loved them. After half an hour he was swimming faster with fewer strokes....the right way to go. Con has signed up for an Aquathon with his English classmate Owen. Conor is doing the swimming part then Owen the running. Ian and I are thinking about participating......I haven't told Ian yet that it starts at 7.30am on a Sunday morning. Next post will probably be after the Aquathon so I'll let you know how it went and who entered!