First Visitors and First Baby

These are the lively vivacious girls, friends of G's from uni, who were our first visitors at the house. V grateful for everything from a cooked english breakfast to having their laundry done to relaxing by the pool. They are off exploring Incredible India.




And Shiva our driver who has just become a daddy to a baby girl. C is green with envy. Shiva asking C what makes male babies. It's a funny ol world
.

A month old

We have been in Delhi for just over a month
No delhi belly
No car accidents
No power outs
No lack of water
No floods, one rooftop waterfall
No temper tantrums, well only little ones
Not bad

Bedtime Stories

Our Kenyan bed finally died. Do I hear a couple of concealed giggles ? Well it led a productive and bouncy life but it was always going to be the product of a technical college on the outskirts of Nairobi and creaked and groaned for years. The fact that it survived for a quarter of a century is not short of a miracle.
So as soon as I arrived I went in search of a bed. Found not king size but maharajah size beds, 7ft x 7ft ( you would seriously have to look for your partner in a bed like that )beds with leopard headrests, others with shiny red Formica sides and hidden lighting that came on when you lay on the bed. Beds with gold bits and extensions the sides of which you would never believe so when I found one that seemed modest and acceptable I placed an order immediately. There was an awful lot of measuring and re-measuring because here they do everything in feet and inches and I have just come from a decade of centimetres. The instructions were, like my needs, modest. Queen size please and one where I could find a mattress locally to match the new bed. "No problem ma'am" I was told.
The bed arrived and was too short for our current old European mattress. I was in Delhi so when I arrived back home they had set it all up and squeezed the current mattress willy nilly into the bed so that it looked like a tidal wave was about to emerge from the bottom of the bed. "Hmmm" I thought "oh well I will just have to buy the new mattress and all will be well." Meantime I untucked the bed from its prison and it flopped happily and a little heavily over the edge of the bed but believe me when my head hits the pillow it thinks little of the position of my feet.
So off I went this morning to buy a mattress. Took my measuring tape and did the needful through all the pillow talk of the various hangers on. Found one that I thought was acceptable and paid a deposit and asked for it to be delivered. Well I could have almost smiled this seemed like an easy straightforward operation.
As I was sitting at my computer a few hours later the doorbell went and this is my mattress arriving ! I was thrilled. The mali and the delivery boy helped take it into the bedroom and put it on my new bed and oh no oh no oh no it is too short.
We looked at each other in disbelief and the shop man was rung. I had to pay for "cartage" back to the shop and now I am waiting for another man to come and measure. Meantime old mattress lolling over edge seems strangely comforting and appealling.

Connectivity

Connectivity

So how did we survive all those years back in Africa and other far off destinations? Here am I in this tropical paradise surrounded by hundreds of birds, chipmunks and monkeys and I have been Antsy ( superb word introduced to me by Catherine) because I did not have instant access to the outside world. We have become so used to it and so dependant on it, it is almost frightening and I understand that in parts of China computer addiction is being recognized and treated as yet another ailment of the modern world.
I am so grateful for the gang of men who came and in broken English explained how they were going to build a mast and set it up at the back of our garden and then connect us to the outside world. I was hopeful but also a little doubtful.They worked hard but also sat around a lot. Maybe they were hot and fed up like I was occasionally and it seemed to take forever but here I am online and deliriously happy about it and this is a picture of what it took. At one point there was one on the mast, one in the tree and one on the roof. They climbed with an incredible agility and seemed to be unconcerned at the possibility of falling or having an accident.The mast may not be the greenest thing around but it is already offering perches to lots of passing birds. It all went exceedingly well and we are wonderfully WIFI.Occasional hiccups, monsoons and tropical storms expected.

British Council

Off to the British Council for a book launch by Mark Tully who has been the BBC correspondent in India for many years. Now retired I believe but spending a large part of his time in India. Recently knighted. Met some interesting locals who were there. A very respectable gentleman in a blue and white stripped suit telling us how his grandfather had taken the ship to travel to the UK around the 1900's and then headed up to Cambridge by train. Was greeted by an admission's tutor who chatted to him and pronounced that he was a "smart fellow" and therefore could be granted admittance to Downing College. However the grandfather had other ideas, strolled around Cambridge and thought the pond in Emma was more attractive and went to Emma instead. A far cry from the rigours and tests young people have to go through these days !

Hell's Kitchen - India Style -

This is the material of all good contemporary TV programmes on making improvements to your home. If it wasnt so lamentable it would be hysterically funny.
My landlady, bless her, decided to modernise my kitchen so she brought in an outfit called Italian Kitchens Indianised. The name says it all. Several weeks into the project we move into the house and there is a beautiful black granite work surface which looks fab. Just dont look too closely at what is below.The drawers are so flimsy you think they will buckle with the weight of your knives and forks and kitchen implements. Within a week of being in the house, the wooden trim on a drawer is coming unstuck, the handle has dropped off another and one of the lower cupboards has decided that life is far better open than shut. No amount of shifting the items in it or the centre of gravity will persuade it to close.The cupboard under the sink was fitted with a bin but it wont close as it bumps into the other half of the door. Meantime the sink is leaking already. The edges of the cupboards have got gaps because well, because they do, and the measurements didnt quite reach that far.The skirting boards are made from left over wood of some other project and some cupboards are recessed while others are aligned. Even she rang to complain to them and now we are waiting in the vain hope of a makeover ....

These are the additions to the family

As we were walking in the field the other day with Tara accompanied by the new additions George turned to me and said "Chini is Tara's personal trainer!"
The second picture is of Yogi the stray who has adopted us and looks like yoghurt.