Day Three - Wednesday 16th June

This morning we were awake super early again. Dylan woke us all up at 5.30 by coming to my room and telling me he needed a nappy change (that's the polite way of saying what he actually told me lol). I need to start potty training and will do as soon as our cargo arrives and I have a potty for him.

I got up and got the children washed, dressed and fed. Penri went back to sleep as he had to go to work at 11 and he didn't come home until late last night. After breakfast I took the children to the playground. Dylan had a whale of a time playing on the swings and slides and Abigail even went in the baby swing! She seemed to enjoy it! I was quite impressed actually as she was holding herself up in a sitting position in the swing for about 10 minutes and even stayed completely upright when the swing was moving! Clever girl! :)

I took some photos in the playground and then when we got back to the apartment I took photos of the inside as so many people have asked to see where we live. It is still very minimalistic at the moment as we don't have any of our belongings here. On the plus side, it's easier to keep clean and tidy, but on the downside, Dylan is getting bored with the very few toys we brought with us. It won't be long now anyway (I hope!)

Pictures from the playground:

























One of the negatives of living in India is the cockroaches! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!!!! I went in the bedroom this afternoon to check on Abi who was sleeping and there was this huge brown ugly cockroach which scuttled under my bed as I came into the room. I RAN to the kitchen to get the sweeping brush and by the time I came back into the room and looked under the bed, he had gone! I went to tell Penri and asked him to come and help me find the roach (I'm itching now as I'm typing this – I hate them!) Pen said to just leave it and he'll turn up again, which he was right about. About an hour later I was putting my washing away when sure enough, the cockroach scuttled across the floor and under my suitcase. This time the brush was to hand so I grabbed it, lifted the suitcase and pushed the cockroach across the floor and then squished him. They're really hardy insects and in the end I literally had to batter him with the brush a few times to kill him! Obviously, me banging a brush on the wooden floor woke poor little Abi up from her nap. Anyway, I was so relieved to have killed the bug as it was playing on my mind and I know I wouldn't have slept well tonight if he was still creeping around my room.

From negative to positive … I had a lovely chat with my friend Debs on Skype this afternoon and we were talking about the whole 'servant' thing. I was telling her about sorting out a driver, maid, cleaner etc when my doorbell rang. It was a guy called Sanjay, who works on our compound and he basically collects your clean washing, takes it away, irons it, wraps it in cellophane and delivers it back to you. For this service, we pay 15 pence per shirt and you get everything back the same day he takes it! Penri's shirts that he brought back yesterday were so well ironed and wrapped in cellophane that they look like new! Impressive or what?!

I was so tired by 7 p.m that once the children went to bed at 8.30, I went straight to sleep too!

Day Two - Tuesday 15th June

We had a bit more interesting of a day today; we actually left the apartment and went out shopping! We asked the driver to pick us up at 10.30, which he did and Penri, me and the two babies went the shopping mall. It was amazing!!

There are a whole range of shops – Debenhams, M&S, Mothercare, Body Shop, Mango, Nine West, Next, Pumpkin Patch … the list is endless! It is really nice and really clean which I was so surprised about. There was also a shop called Big Bazaar which is like a huge supermarket/clothes shop/furniture shop/electronics/pretty much everything and anything. I was so impressed! I forgot how much Penri hates shopping though. He is such a typical bloke … into the shop, pick up exactly what you need and get out as quickly as possible! Anything more than that and he starts to get stressed! I, on the other hand, LOVE shopping. I can browse for hours although not so much since having the children as my time is a lot more limited, however, I still like to have a good look around.

So, the shopping experience was very positive and made me feel very happy even though Penri wanted to get stuff done and quickly. Pen also had to be in the office for 1 p.m so we didn't have long. We did what we needed to while we were there which was – get our passport photos taken, pick up a few groceries and I bought myself some men's shorts. In the Big Bazaar shop they have a huge range of clothes but they don't sell shorts for women. I guess it's cause they're not really worn here by women so it's not a big seller. But, I'm happy with the ones I got anyway. We also picked up a pair of flip-flops for Dylan because his crocs (that he loved so much) broke while we were on holiday. We left the mall at 12.30 and dropped Pen off at work and then the driver (who is called Tyagi which I can only remember cause it rhymes with Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid films), brought me and the children home.

I asked Tyagi to come back and pick us at 2 p.m because I needed to go back to the shopping mall to pick up the passport photos and to buy a mobile phone sim card (because I needed my passport with me to get it). I also need to buy a swimming cap as there are strict rules in our swimming pool on our compound which say anyone with long hair must wear a swimming cap!

At 1.30, some guys from Penri's office turned up to fix the a/c in the dining room as it was leaking water. Tyagi turned up at 2 (as requested) but I had to ask him to wait until the guys had finished their work. We left home just after 3 p.m and went back to the big shopping mall (which is called Ambience Mall). I went straight to the Big Bazaar shop and picked up our passport photos, my new mobile sim card (which doesn't work in my English phone so I now need to buy a new mobile) and I picked up a couple of other bits too. I had arranged to meet the driver in the basement car park at 5 p.m. I actually had finished by 20 to 5 so decided to go downstairs. Abi was getting restless anyway and needed feeding and DJ had fallen asleep sitting up in the pushchair (bless him).

When we got down the the basement, I couldn't get my bearings at all and got completely lost. It was baking hot down there and the whole car park just looked the same. I couldn't find the car and I was starting to get very hot, bothered and stressed. It didn't help that by now Abi was screaming to be fed and making herself hot and bothered too. Luckily, one of the security guards in the car park recognised me and took me back to the car. The driver wasn't there (because I was early) and I had no way of contacting him, so I sat on the floor in the corner of the car park and fed Abi. DJ had woken up by this point and was itching to get out of the pushchair. Anyway, the driver returned a few minutes later and brought us all back home. Both kids crashed out as soon as we got in and that was them for the night then.

We got our internet connected so I was up until 4 a.m on the internet making up for the last two and a half weeks of having very limited access to it. I must say here – I am so happy that finally my Dad is on Skype so I can talk to him, and also Debs … great to catch up with you on Skype! I'm so happy that we can keep in touch regularly and I still get to see you on a weekly basis :)

Holiday in Dominican Republic

We had a really lovely holiday and enjoyed our two weeks in the D.R. (28th May - 11th June). We spent most days in the same way – having breakfast and then straight to the swimming pool for an hour or so, back to the room for a shower and then Abigail had her nap between 10 and 12 while Dylan played with his toys and watched cartoons on the laptop. In the afternoons we would go to the children's playground or go swimming again, or sometimes for a walk on the beach and then have an early ish dinner (normally around 6 p.m) and then back to the room for the evening.

We took a hard drive with us which was full of TV shows, cartoons and films. My sister gave it to me for Christmas and it was such a help to us whilst on holiday to be able to have the option of watching English TV. We used it loads (Thank you Mel)! Dylan started watching this cartoon called 'Wibbly Pig', which he has just fallen in love with! Unfortunately, there are only 10 episodes of it on the hard drive so we had to play the same episodes over and over again. It was starting to drive us mad but on the bright side, we had a break from 'Peppa Pig' for a while. What is it with the pig cartoons?! He seems to love them!

Both Dylan and Abigail loved the swimming pool and DJ (for those of you who don't know, DJ is Dylan's nickname, it's his initials) was so confident by the end of our two week holiday. He wears arm bands but he can swim quite well with them and his little legs kick like crazy! I am hoping that once we get settled here in India, I'll be able to take him swimming a lot and he will soon learn to swim without the aid of arm bands.

Whilst on holiday we went on one outing to a place called 'Ocean World'. It was the best day of the holiday (by far). We got to go in the water with a dolphin and were able to stroke her, hug and kiss her, feed her and even dance with her! DJ initially was really scared of her because when we first got in the pool the trainer asked us to stand together so we could all have a photo with the dolphin kissing one of us. Dylan, at this point, hadn't realised there was a dolphin in the water. So, we were standing there on this ledge in the water, me holding Abi and Penri holding DJ, and they told us to look at the camera. All of a sudden, the dolphin came up out of the water and went to kiss Dylan. He was so shocked by it that he immediately started crying and wanting to get out of the water. We had to switch positions so that the dolphin could kiss Penri for the photo instead of Dylan. It was an amazing experience which Abi slept all the way through! Both DJ and Abi had to wear life jackets and because Abi's was so big on her, she was hidden inside it. She was obviously very cosy because she fell asleep pretty much straight away and stayed asleep even when the dolphin was standing right in front of her talking to us (and it was really loud!) We got some nice photos which I will scan when our cargo arrives and I get my scanner, and I'll add them on here.

Whilst at Ocean World we also got to see sharks, sea lions, parrots and swim in a coral reef tank, which Penri loved! There were also two tigers in an enclosure. There was a swimming pool where the tigers were separated by glass from us swimming in the water. It was really lovely and we spent a lot of time in that tiger pool.

We (as a family) didn't do any other outings but Penri did an entire Open Water Scuba Diving Course which he really enjoyed. It was an intensive course with an exam at the end of it. He's very proud (rightly so) to have passed with 98%. So now he just has to send off the papers in order to get his Scuba ID card which means he can go diving anywhere he wants to now (I think a trip to the Andaman Islands is in our future).

The resort was lovely and we all had a nice, relaxing break. We left Dominican Republic on Friday 11th at midday and arrived in Gatwick at 6. a.m on Saturday morning. We then got a bus down to Heathrow and then a flight in the evening to Delhi. It seemed crazy and manic to do it all in one go, but I am so glad that we did; it really made sense. We did actually have a break in the middle of our trip, in that, when we got to Heathrow we checked into the Hilton Hotel so we could all freshen up and have a little sleep. It was a great idea on Penri's part and we all appreciated not having to sit in the airport for 11 hours! Also, whilst we were at the Hilton, Indeg and my friend, Debbie came to see us which was really lovely! It was so nice to see them both and get to relax, chat and catch up before leaving.

The children are still recovering from the long journey, but they both travelled so well, especially on the flight to Delhi. Kingfisher airlines were really good - I was very impressed!

I'm attaching holiday photos in a new post as it's easier than messing about with the layout of the blog. Plus, I have so many photos to attach; will try to choose the best ones :)