We were awake bright and early this morning at 6 a.m! Luckily I had gone to sleep at 10 and Abi was only up a couple of times during the night so I slept fairly well.
I decided that we're having a day at home today because we were out yesterday and we're going out tomorrow so it's good to have a day just chilling. Going out in India is so much harder than going out in UK. Things just seem to take so much longer, I guess the traffic being horrendous doesn't help but even just going to the supermarket takes twice as long! Also, the heat really wears you out and even just a trip out for a couple of hours leaves us all exhausted. So, as I was saying I decided to stay in today.
We had a fairly uneventful morning and just played and watched some TV and tidied up a bit. I put up the first one of the posters from Laura in DJ's room. It had to be the Peppa Pig one! We decided that we are going to put the majority of the posters in Abi's room as that is going to be the playroom but I couldn't not put the Peppa one in his room. He loved it and spent ages looking at it, naming the characters and pointing things out on it. It was so funny, when Raj Kumar was cleaning DJ's room in the afternoon, he pointed at the poster which has ABC written in the window. He said 'A is for Apple, B is for ball, C is for Cat and E is for Elephant'. It was so funny and very sweet. He told me he took six classes in English. It's the most English I've heard him speak in one go!
Both DJ and Abi went to sleep at 2.45 which is not what I planned, but DJ was so tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. I only let him sleep for 40 minutes because I was worried he wouldn't sleep at bedtime. I was right to be worried! It took me two and a half hours to get both children to sleep and by the time they were both asleep it was 10.30 and I was absolutely exhausted! Pen was late home too so we all had a very late night!!
We woke up this morning (Friday) at 7 p.m. I brought Abi into our bed and laid her between us with loads of toys and tried to close my eyes for 10 minutes more. A few minutes later DJ appeared in our room so chances of sleep after that were impossible! He was climbing all over everyone! So, I got up and started getting children washed, dressed, fed, usual routine :)
Dylan watched a bit of TV while I tidied up and then at about 10.30, I started getting things ready to go out. Pen dropped us at Melinda's house at 12 and we stayed there for lunch and a couple of hours play time. At quarter to 3, we all went in Mel's car to another lady, Kristen's house. There was a play group on from 3-5 p.m for under 4's. DJ had a brilliant time! The great thing about going all these different places is, he is getting more and more comfortable playing with other children and playing without checking that I'm there every 5 minutes! In fact, today at Kristen's house, he didn't even look for me once! I kept going to check on him but he was just really happy which was lovely!
Kristen lives in an apartment within the Golf Course and it is a beautiful place – both the grounds and the actual apartment. It's by far the loveliest apartment I have seen in India and is decorated really beautifully. It made me a bit sad that our apartment is still so bare and doesn't have anything in it! Although I am working on that! Since being here, I have bought the chests of drawers, a pair of long brown curtains, a stair gate and this evening I bought an oven! The lady selling it isn't leaving till the end of the month so I have a couple of weeks to wait for it but it'll be worth it just to be able to cook a roast or a casserole or even to grill things!
Our cargo has now left Mumbai and is en route to Delhi. You would think I would be jumping up and down for joy at this news but I must admit – I'm feeling very pessimistic about it. I guess I don't want to get my hopes up only to be sorely disappointed. At least I know it's somewhere on the way :)
Anyway, back to what I was saying – at 4.30 Kristen ordered me a taxi as we still don't have car seats for the car which means I can't drive and I still don't have a mobile, which means I couldn't call a taxi. The taxi finally turned up at 5.05 and we were the last ones to leave the play group. It took an hour and a half to get home because of the traffic and because of the distance to our apartment. We live on the other side of the highway to all the other apartment buildings so it's quite a distance to go, however, our apartment is on the same side of the big highway as Pen's office, which makes it easy for him to get to and from work. That's a real bonus as Penri hates commuting.
The taxi driver spoke excellent English and told me that his normal job was as a chauffeur for the Sheraton Hotel and he drove a Mercedes for them. He said when it is quiet at the hotel, he takes breaks and does taxi work to make extra money. Not sure how much I believed him on that note. He was chatting to me all the way home and he said something that I must write on here because it made me laugh. He said 'You need three things to drive in India … a good horn, a good head and lots of luck'. He followed it up by saying 'Anything is possible in India' which a few seconds later was just the case. One side of the dual carriageway was closed so all the traffic from the other side was driving head on towards us on the wrong side of the road! It was crazy and probably didn't help the traffic!
We got home and I made Dylan some dinner then I fed Abi and washed and dressed both the children for bed. I couldn't believe it was already 8 p.m! Abigail fell asleep immediately and then I took Dylan to his bedroom. Within 10 minutes he too was asleep. Exhausted after a very busy, very fun filled day. Looking forward to the weekend and spending some time as a family :)
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Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Friday, July 16, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday 9th July
It was a very busy day for us today (again!) I knew that I had to go out first thing in the morning because Pen needed the car from midday and we had run out of some cruicial things – nappies, washing powder, cheese etc. We woke up late this morning (at about 8.30) and I didn't actually get out of bed until 9 because Abigail was happy playing in her cot with her new caterpillar toy and DJ still hadn't come through to our room.
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
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
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wednesday 7th July
I woke up this morning at 6.30 and tried to go back to sleep but I think Abigail sensed I was awake and she got up too. Then within half an hour Dylan came through as well. I didn't mind as I had wanted to be up early because I planned on taking the children to a coffee morning hosted by the expat club here. We got showered, dressed and had breakfast and Tyagi picked us up at 9.30. The event actually started at 9.30 but he was late in picking us and we arrived there at 10.
There must have been between 20 and 30 women there and I got chatting to quite a few. There was a lady there called Melinda who had her two children with her. A little girl, who is nearly 3 and then a 4 month old baby. She's really nice and has been in Delhi for 10 days (after moving here from Mumbai). She invited us to go over to her house tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to. It'll be nice for DJ to have Charlotte (her 3 year old) to play with. The event this morning was held in a beauty salon so there wasn't much for DJ and Charlotte to do. I had taken a bag of toys with me, but in the end they had more fun running around chasing each other. There were a few other babies there and it was nice to get chatting to some other expat women.
We came home at 12 and the traffic was horrendous! Abigail fell asleep on my shoulder in the car and DJ was also extremely tired. Not too tired to tell me what he wanted for lunch though. While we were sitting in traffic, he asked me for chicken nuggets (or muggas as he calls them) and chips (he has no problem saying that word!). When we got in I made his lunch straight away and then he went to sleep. It's now 3.30 and they're both asleep so I'm enjoying my quiet time. Will be back later to write more …
Yesterday afternoon the kids woke up at 4 and we played in my bedroom for a while. Raj Kumar came and cleaned and then after he left we went for a walk. I was going to take the children swimming but we were having a bad thunderstorm so we went for a walk in the rain instead. We went to the shop first and then over to the playground. On the way back we played at being Peppa Pig and jumped in all the puddles. I figured we were went through anyway and we were going home to shower and get ready for bed so we may as well enjoy the puddles. Dylan loved it!
I got the children ready for bed and then started the wind down routine. It took ages to get them settled last night and they weren't asleep till 9 (for Abi) and about 9.45 (for DJ).
Abigail has really started moving around now. I have had to start placing her on the floor because the bed is just not safe for her any more. I lay a big towel down and place her in the middle but she can now roll over (and over and over), turn herself completely around 3600 and she's started wiggling forward on her bottom! I know I've said this so many times before but I cannot wait for our cargo to arrive!!!
DJ is doing great! He had a couple of phone conversations yesterday. One with Nan, one with Daddy and one with someone else. I've no idea who the third one was so if you phoned us and got DJ, I apologise! He was chattering away to somebody!
Thank you so much Laura for the lovely parcel! It was like Christmas when we opened it. DJ was so excited to get into it and find out what was inside. It was really funny because everything we took out the parcel, he kept saying 'for DJ, for DJ' and looking up at me. I was trying not to laugh as I explained that some things were for Abi and some were for mummy. He replied with a very serious face saying 'no mummy'. That was only until he saw the name plaques and he realised the pink one was Abi's and the blue one was his without me even saying so.
Anyway, I have to go now and get on with things but will write more tomorrow :)
There must have been between 20 and 30 women there and I got chatting to quite a few. There was a lady there called Melinda who had her two children with her. A little girl, who is nearly 3 and then a 4 month old baby. She's really nice and has been in Delhi for 10 days (after moving here from Mumbai). She invited us to go over to her house tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to. It'll be nice for DJ to have Charlotte (her 3 year old) to play with. The event this morning was held in a beauty salon so there wasn't much for DJ and Charlotte to do. I had taken a bag of toys with me, but in the end they had more fun running around chasing each other. There were a few other babies there and it was nice to get chatting to some other expat women.
We came home at 12 and the traffic was horrendous! Abigail fell asleep on my shoulder in the car and DJ was also extremely tired. Not too tired to tell me what he wanted for lunch though. While we were sitting in traffic, he asked me for chicken nuggets (or muggas as he calls them) and chips (he has no problem saying that word!). When we got in I made his lunch straight away and then he went to sleep. It's now 3.30 and they're both asleep so I'm enjoying my quiet time. Will be back later to write more …
Yesterday afternoon the kids woke up at 4 and we played in my bedroom for a while. Raj Kumar came and cleaned and then after he left we went for a walk. I was going to take the children swimming but we were having a bad thunderstorm so we went for a walk in the rain instead. We went to the shop first and then over to the playground. On the way back we played at being Peppa Pig and jumped in all the puddles. I figured we were went through anyway and we were going home to shower and get ready for bed so we may as well enjoy the puddles. Dylan loved it!
I got the children ready for bed and then started the wind down routine. It took ages to get them settled last night and they weren't asleep till 9 (for Abi) and about 9.45 (for DJ).
Abigail has really started moving around now. I have had to start placing her on the floor because the bed is just not safe for her any more. I lay a big towel down and place her in the middle but she can now roll over (and over and over), turn herself completely around 3600 and she's started wiggling forward on her bottom! I know I've said this so many times before but I cannot wait for our cargo to arrive!!!
DJ is doing great! He had a couple of phone conversations yesterday. One with Nan, one with Daddy and one with someone else. I've no idea who the third one was so if you phoned us and got DJ, I apologise! He was chattering away to somebody!
Thank you so much Laura for the lovely parcel! It was like Christmas when we opened it. DJ was so excited to get into it and find out what was inside. It was really funny because everything we took out the parcel, he kept saying 'for DJ, for DJ' and looking up at me. I was trying not to laugh as I explained that some things were for Abi and some were for mummy. He replied with a very serious face saying 'no mummy'. That was only until he saw the name plaques and he realised the pink one was Abi's and the blue one was his without me even saying so.
Anyway, I have to go now and get on with things but will write more tomorrow :)
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