We got ready to go out and Tyagi picked us up at 10 a.m. The traffic was absolutely horrendous and it took us nearly an hour to get to the supermarket! When we got there I knew I didn't have long to do the shopping as Penri needed the car for a meeting at 12 so I literally had to whizz around and get everything off my list as quickly as possible. Luckily, the shop was pretty much completely empty so there were no people holding me up. The great thing about there not being anyone else in the shop was I was able to push the shopping trolley and pushchair alongside each other. I actually got pretty good at steering them both together!
I grabbed everything off my list and managed to make it to the tills within 10 minutes of being in the shop. I even picked up one or two extra items that weren't on my list. I found a really cool t-shirt for DJ (the sleeveless kind that he wears every day here) and it was really reasonably priced! When I got to the tills, there were two open and both had a customer being served and one person waiting. I got in the queue and because of rushing around like crazy, I was gasping for a drink. I opened one of my drinks from the trolley and gave DJ one too. We got some very odd looks from the people who worked there, but because I was as thirsty as I was, I just didn't care! The man behind the till was taking ages! In my mind, I was willing him to move faster. When he did finally finish adding everything up, just as he got to the last couple of items, the lady's (customer) phone rang. She answered it and then turned away from the till to talk to whoever was on the end of the phone. I was getting a bit frustrated by this point and I really had to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying anything. She eventually paid and then there was another customer before it was our turn.
As soon as we were done, I tried to put my pushchair and trolley alongside each other again so I could walk back to the car, but the security wouldn't let me leave the supermarket with the trolley. I had to have a supermarket guy push my trolley, I guess to make sure I didn't steal it. We got back to the car and Tyagi was waiting for us. It was 11.20 and off we went to go home. I forgot to mention before – when we arrived in the car park, there was a man whose job it was, was to stand at the ticket machine in the entrance to the car park and push the button, take the ticket out and give it to the driver. It made me laugh! I wonder what he would do if someone lent out and pushed the button themselves? The lift guys (who I mentioned in a previous post whose job it is, is to press the buttons in the lift) get very upset if you touch the buttons. Anyway, got slightly carried away there. As we were leaving the car park, Tyagi paid and went to drive up the ramp out of the car park and he couldn't make it. He had to reverse the car back down the ramp and the car behind us who was paying to leave the car park had to reverse back and we literally had to have a run up to the ramp in order to get up it.
Leaving the mall, there was hardly any traffic on the roads and we made it home in about 10 minutes! Penri was getting ready to go as we got in. I unpacked all the shopping which turned out to be quite a bit. It's amazing how much stuff you can buy in a short space of time … I'd be brilliant on that TV show, Supermarket Sweep …
Anyway, I unpacked all the shopping, washed and changed the kids and then made DJ some lunch. He had pasta with vegetables and then a yoghurt. After which, I tidied up a bit, did some washing and pottered around. Raj Kumar turned up at 3 to clean and then half an hour later a plumber turned up to fix the water in our bathroom. It was really funny because about 5 minutes before the plumber arrived I had a phone call from Penri's office to tell me that there was someone on his way to build the shelves in the kitchen. So, when the plumber arrived both Raj Kumar and I assumed he was the carpenter and took him in the kitchen. It was only when he turned on the taps and said 'working madam' that I realised who he was. Oops. He was so confused with why we'd taken him in the kitchen in the first place lol.
I spoke to Debs on Skype and then to Sam but during my call with Sam, it was all go at this end and I didn't get to sit down for two minutes at a time to talk to her. With the cleaner arriving, the plumber, the carpenter, the kids interrupting me, it was madness! In the middle of it all, Laura phoned too and I promised I would ring her back.
The carpenters did arrive and set to work on building our kitchen shelves. When they were half way through, I realised they were only putting one shelf in each space when I had asked for three! I phoned the contact at Penri's office to ask him whether they had more shelves to put (as the carpenter didn't speak a word of English). He told me to put the carpenter on the phone, which I did and then I spoke to him afterwards. He said that was it. We were just having three shelves total – one in each space. He asked me if that was enough, to which I replied 'no, we agreed three in each space'. I was getting really irate now, more so because the carpenters had taken three hours to build one and a half shelves! The guy from Pen's office said he would come on Monday to have a look.
While all this was going on, Penri asked me to chase up our cargo and find out what is happening with it. I did so and after calling the woman three times, I finally got through. She told me that it has been through customs and we just need to make the payment for the customs clearance tomorrow morning and then it should be dispatched on Monday, which means we will probably get it on Friday or the following Monday. 4-5 days to get from Mumbai to Delhi. Madness!
At this point, I was beyond help. I was having a really bad 'I hate India day' although it's my first since we got here (which is nearly a month ago now) so I'm doing pretty well. Anyone who had been to India will understand why and how easy it is to have an 'I hate India' day because things here don't happen quickly. And nothing you do will make things happen quicker because it's always out of your control. Anyway, I did call Penri's mum back but unfortunately, I was in no mood to talk because I was just ready to melt down!
The carpenters left at 7.30 and by then I had to get the kids ready for bed so we didn't even make it to the swimming pool. I was disappointed about not going swimming as we haven't been for a couple of days now and I know both kids really enjoy it. I will definitely have to take them tomorrow.
On a positive note, it looks like Penri may have been successful in finding a car for us to buy (fingers crossed). He went this afternoon and seems to have found something. Just need to sort out finance now :) Please pray that we get it sorted soon. It'll be lovely to have our own freedom and independence. As nice as it is having a driver and not having to think about driving, I think we'll both feel happier when we can get in the car and go!
So, that's about it from us here. I do have a few photos to post but will do that in a separate blog post because it's easier than trying to add them in here. Yey, it's the weekend, Pen's at home so we'll hopefully go out somewhere fun tomorrow! Night night from me x
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