Packing my bags (and some more)

Today I will finally have time to pack for our holidays. The week has been very busy so far and today is the only day I have nothing scheduled.
Monday was filled with having coffee with two friends from Adarsh Vista at Leela Palace, then on to a French diner for a birthday lunch of a friend with a group of Dutch ladies, topping it off with coffee and real Dutch home made apple pie at the birthday girl's house.

Tuesday morning I went to the slum with Liset to learn the ropes of teaching English to the ladies at the ANU project. It was a particularly chaotic morning but we did manage to get the lessons in somehow. In the new year I will be filling in for Liset when she is not in town.

Yesterday I went to the hair dresser to get a cut and colour and have my eye brows done. I always go together with a friend and afterwards we check out the shops and have lunch.

Tomorrow I have to be in school at 9:00 o'clock for the Christmas concert. Simon will be playing with the school band (trompet) and his class will do a play.

I guess I better get started packing those bags and suitcases.... Looking forward to the holidays!

It is starting to feel like Christmas

Inside our house the Christmas tree is helping us to get into the Christmas mood and outside the Christmas rose is blooming.
The tree and all the decorations were given to us!!!! Thank you Liset!!!!! :-)

Getting ready for the holidays

The last weeks before the holidays always seem to be hectic. This year is no exception to that rule. First the preparations and celebrations of Sinterklaas. Then straight into preparations for Christmas. All sorts of end-of-year-celebrations, Christmas concerts and get together. In between I have to buy the souvenirs for our friends and family in NL, pack suitcases for NL and for our trip to Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, go to the slum with Liset to learn the ropes to take over her English classes when she is out of town, book our trip with my parents to Mysore and Kabini in January AND have coffee and/or lunches with friends.

Only one more week to go.

Have a nice weekend

Sinterklaas in Bangalore

Yesterday Adriaan was Sinterklaas and Joshua and Ruben were Zwarte Pieten for the Dutch Club Saint Nicolas party.

Sint-stress

Last minute preparations for our Sinterklaas party are starting to stress me out a bit. I have bought the presents, made a poem/rhyme but still need to make a 'surprise' (a gift/gift wrapping that is a joke). Not a lot of inspiration unfortunately, so I am hoping something brilliant will come to mind today.

I am going to a new mall this morning with a friend to have coffee and lunch to buy extra sminck/make up, black tights and beard-glue for Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Pieten. Adriaan will be Saint Nicolas coming Sunday at the Dutch Club Sinterklaas Party and Joshua, Ruben and another Dutch boy will be the black Peters. Here's hoping and praying we will find it all.

Kavitha and I made pepernoten yesterday (special little Sinterklaas cookies) and they turned our quite nice. Will have to bake a new batch tomorrow because they were all eaten in no time when the boys came home from school.

Have a nice weekend!

Career options

Every day I drive past this shop and I wonder how the owner came to this choice of career. He must have woken up one day and thought: I will be a coconut merchant!
A great choice in India, since coconuts are easy to find and easy to sell. Coconuts are used to quench a thirst, to eat the sweet 'meat' inside, for cooking and for Pudjaa (offering). So Mr. Tiptur started his business.
After a while he must have gone bored with the single produce to sell and found an addition to his coconuts: real estate.... makes sense doesn't it?

"Good morning sir, would you like a coconut or a house?"

Proud owner with friend

By the looks of it neither the coconuts nor the real estate are selling well, so again Mr. Tiptur found an addition to his produce: onions and garlic!

Most of the days Mr. Tiptur opens his shop after lunch time and just sits there playing chess with a friend, no coconut, real estate, onion or garlic in sight.

What do you think his story is?



The Real Expat House Wife

Last Wednesday, in the car on the way to a (work) dinner party, Adriaan told me colleague W. was over from NL and could he ask him over for dinner the next night?
"Sure honey, why not?!" {How am I going to organise that with all the arrangements I have already made for tomorrow?????} But then the light bulb came on: I can be a Real Expat House Wife!

On Thursday morning I wrote the menu down for Kavitha and a shopping list for Baburaj. Babu dropped me of at a friend's house to get some Sinterklaas things organised, then I picked up another friend to go to a mall. We had a great time shopping for Christmas outfits and found some very nice clothes.
At 13:00 hr. we had a lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant to celebrate a friends birthday.
When I came home around 16:00 hr. the house was clean, the dinner cooked and the kitchen spotless. I had pulled it off! I had been a Real Expat House Wife for a day!!!
I have to say it was great to have all the cake AND eat it, it won't become my everyday routine but it might happen again in future ;-) Maybe I should go and find my pearl necklace to match my new life style....