A week in Perth, WA

I am pretty sure we walked around with the same facial expression the whole week

Our first posting was in Karratha, Western Australia. It is still the only posting I have been homesick for. I cried when the airplane took off from Perth International Airport to take us back to the Netherlands. We had had 4 wonderful years in Karratha, had 2 children and no. 3 on the way, made friends for life and memories to last a lifetime.

Our boys have no memories of living in Australia, they were 3 years, 18 months and unborn when we left and we have always said we would take them back some day to show them this beautiful country down under.

Unfortunately the Easter holiday was only 1 week long, so there was limited time. We decided to keep our visit to Karratha for another, longer, holiday and stay in Perth for the whole week. Why Perth? Because some of the nicest people in the world live there, and they are our friends!

We rented a house around the corner from our friends, a huge house, with 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and most important of all: free wifi!

Our not so humble abode for the week

It was a fantastic week. We made daytrips, swam in the sea, patted kangaroos and koalas, had bbqs and picnics and spent a lot of time with our friends. My idea of a perfect holiday.
On top of it all we had lovely weather, a lot cooler than the summer heat in India and no rain.

Of course we took a gazillion pictures:

Cottesloe Beach

Patting Kangaroos at Caversham Wildlife Park

Cute little Joeys

Imagine that: 20 hours of sleep a day!

They had a huge Guinea Pig (aka a wombat)

Lots of lovely birds

On penguin Island we saw some penguins, but mainly seagulls and pelicans and a group of very playful sealions

We had lots of fun together!

Thank you Bernie and Anto Keane, for making this an unforgettable week!

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

We are back home in India, after a week in Perth, Australia. We had a fantastic time, thanks to our dear friends Bernie and Anto Keane.

I am busy sorting out the photographs, so I can post them on this blog to brag about/bore you with tell you all about our week down under.

Have a happy Easter :-)

Health is wealth

We are in the middle of some medical issues in our family and I am quite pleased with the Indian health care so far. Of course we are lucky in the sense that we can afford to go to good clinics and pay for specialists, medication and treatment. The majority of the Indian population is not that lucky. They can only afford to go to free clinics or doctors with a questionable reputation. Or they go to Ayurvedic Camps like this:

 an Ayurvedic camp along Old Airport Road

Ayurveda is the ancient Indian system of natural and holistic medicine. When translated from Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “the science of life” (the Sanskrit root Ayur means “longevity” or “life” and veda means “science”).

It has proven it's benefits and celebrities from all over the world come to India (Camilla comes to Bangalore on a regular basis), to stay in Ayurvedic spa's or ashrams for meditation, massages and special diets. Again not something everybody can afford.

A solution for every problem!

I always wonder what is in those jars and bottles. Ayurveda is all about natural ingredients, so it should be healthy and safe, right? I personally never trust anything like this if they can't get the spelling on their banners correct, but if you have no money where else can you go?

Keeping myself busy

There are days that I am bored silly,  mainly lately when I had to spend the majority of my day flat on my back in bed, but usually I can't imaging how I could get bored here in India.

Take today, the day that my new chair would finally be delivered. I was looking forward to having my new chair, so I would be able so sit properly again. Our couches and chairs in the living room have a great 'lounge' quality, but are not very good at supporting your back while sitting upright.
So when the main gate called me to announce there was a delivery van on it's way, I was all smiles and happy....till I saw a small box being offloaded that could never fit the chair I had ordered and paid for. When they opened the box it was obvious this was not what I had ordered, it showed purple fabric and my chair was supposed to be green.

So off they went again with the box back in the van and the promise to sort things out with the store.

I was not too convinced that things would be solved as easily and as fast as I wanted them to be, so I decided to go to the store myself. Luckily I had been smart enough to take a picture of the chair when we had ordered it so it was a bit easier to explain what had gone wrong and what it was that I had actually ordered.
I don't know how many shop attendants looked at my photo, checked my receipt and typed some things into the computer, just to walk off and find someone to do the same thing all over again, but in the end we figured out that there was actually something wrong with the order number on my receipt.

In the mean time a friend of mine spotted me in the store and came to keep me company. That helped a great deal to keep me sane!

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing we found out 'my chair' was actually still on display, so we walked over to make sure we all were on the same page about the model and the colour and had the order number correct this time.
My friend had the brilliant idea to ask if I could take this exact chair home with me. No, that was not possible, a new one had to be ordered. Then it was possible, but only in 2 days. Then it was possible, but not till tomorrow morning.
While all this was going on I sat in my chair and got all the more reluctant to go home again without it. My car was parked in front and it would be all to easy to just take it with me.
We begged and pleaded and I explained about my back and how desperate I was to have a proper chair to sit in.
In the end we managed to convince the right person, the chair fitted nicely in the back of my car and it looks lovely in it's new spot in our living room. :-)

All in all this took me a few hours, so that answers the question for today.

It was worth all the hassle!

Cute kids and natural beauty

Part two of yesterday's photo trip.

Some cute little children were wandering around at the dhobi ghat. As a mum I always see all the dangers around, not in the least the water basins...

Pretty scary ;-)

It looked so nice, the children all gathered around grandma/auntie, but seconds after I took this photo she started yelling at them and wacked one of the children pretty hard...

Most little children wear ankle bracelets. Usually they are real silver.

When we left the dhobi ghat, we passed a very colourful group of temples. One of them had a large carriage out front. Those carriages are used to parade the statue of the temple God during festivals.

Colourful temples

Ruben commented that the Nandi (bull) has a mustache ;-) and I think the horses on the carriage could well be characters in a Shrek movie with those facial expressions.

We also stopped at the Mallaswaram market. That's where the natural beauty from this blog's title could be found. Lots of fragrant, fresh flowers and fruit and vegetables galore.

Colour and fragrance

Bananas

Fruit and vegetables

Dhobi Ghat

Today I went to a dhobi ghat in Malleswaram with my friend Sheri. A dhobi ghat is a place where washer man (dhobis) do the laundry for hotels and hospitals.
We left at 7 this morning to be in time for the actual washing. I made over 200 photos and deleted more than half of them (o, the joy of digital cameras). So here's an impression of our morning:



The laundry arrived in big bundles and gets thrown in a basin to soak. I can't really see what good it does, as the water in this basin was really filthy.

Some more soaking going on and it looks like it is more colour coordinated.

And then it is scrubbing, slapping, rinse and repeat if necessary, before it is hung out to dry on the endless lines.

This was only the first dhobi ghat we visited, we found another one right behind here. Be prepared for a photo overload...

We are used to cows and dogs going through the trash, but dhobi donkeys do it too.

The flies didn't seem to bother him too much.

Baby donkey

Baby donkey

The donkeys are used by the dhobi to carry the heavy bundles with laundry.

I have lots more photos, but I will leave it at this for today... To be continued!

Moral Dilemma

It is Ash Wednesday today, the first day of lent and it presented me with a moral dilemma. For me, as a Roman Catholic, today is supposed to be a day of fasting and abstinence, but a few weeks ago I had bought a ticket for the CISB Charity Fundraiser Tea Party at the Ritz Carlton today, without realising.

 

 

 

 

 

The funny thing is that I could easily convince myself that it would be ok to go, since it is a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity and giving money to help the less fortunate is a Christian thing to do, isn't it? But in the back of my mind I wasn't too convinced and it still bothers me a bit...

 

So I did go and enjoyed a lovely High Tea with a group of friends, while raising money for a good cause. I won't eat any meat today and I am giving up my evening snack for lent (i.e. I won't be stuffing my face with candy while watching Boston Legal) and believe you me, that is quite a sacrifice for me and it will be VERY hard.

The first of many serves of delicious food that we shared (there is no alcohol in the glass!)