Thursday, 21 June 2012
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Simon and the Oompa Loompas
After months of rehearsals it was finally time to perform. Simon has been casted for the role of Charley in the end of year production: Willy Wonka Jr.
Somehow Simon loves to be on stage and I have to say he has a talent for acting. Both nights he did very well and enjoyed every minute in the spot lights. He was great as Charley and the Oompa Loompas were just too cute.
Somehow Simon loves to be on stage and I have to say he has a talent for acting. Both nights he did very well and enjoyed every minute in the spot lights. He was great as Charley and the Oompa Loompas were just too cute.
Last week before the holidays
FINALLY! The school holidays have started.
It has been a busy week the past week. On Monday and Tuesday there were still exams, on Wednesday we went to the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office), to extend our residence permits for another year. Simon had his long awaited performance as Charley in Willy Wonka Jr. on Wednesday and Thursday night. Yesterday was a half day in school, with an awards ceremony and class parties. The boys have really good report cards, Simon has straight A's, Ruben scored an average of 81% and Joshua was best in class for Chemistry, Physics and PE. We are proud parents.
Last Sunday we had the yearly 'Bitterballen competitie' from the Dutch Club. Bitterballen are a typical Dutch snack, a deep fried ball filled with beef/chicken ragout. Four brave Dutchies made bitterballen and I was one of the three lucky members of the panel to taste and judge the balls.
(Adriaan is working on the photos he took of Simon's performance, as soon as he is finished I will post some here)
Saturday, 9 June 2012
How boring it must be.
Somehow, when the holidays are approaching, I get easily irritated by some of the typical local flavours. It is not that I don't like living there and I am not walking around in a constant state of dislike, but things start to bother me. Things that I usually don't even notice or don't mind as much.
In Australia it was the remote location we were in, in Nigeria it was the confined compound life, in Libya the traffic. Here in Bangalore it is the chaos and noise.
The road just outside Vista has been dug up, AGAIN. It has been so in several places over the last few months to lay new sewage pipes. Huge holes get dug, piles of dirt deposited in the middle of the road and traffic has to find a way through it. It is a small two way street at the best of times, but when work is going on it is reduced to hardly one proper lane. When the work is finished the dirt gets shovelled back into the hole and that's that. No levelling, no resurfacing, just dirt. Bumpy, dusty/muddy dirt, that no one wants to drive on, so traffic keeps pushing each other out of the way to use the small strip of tarmac that is left.
While the road work is going on, there is nobody to organise traffic, nobody to make sure things stay safe for the road workers either. Traffic gets stuck because everybody is pushing to get through instead of taking turns and giving each other some space. One lane, traffic on both sides pushing in or blocking whatever space there could be by standing 2 or 3 wide, so oncoming traffic can't go anywhere. Motorbikes and rickshaws jumping the queue and everybody honking their horns (like that would make the traffic jam magically disappear...).
It always amazes me when I see a closed railway crossing with traffic waiting on both sides standing along the whole width of the road. How do they think this will make things go faster when the booms go up????
If only all road users would play by the rules, if only they would use some logic, if only they would use lane discipline, if only road work would be coordinated and properly announced and traffic guided through detours. If only traffic was more like it is at home it wouldn't take an hour to get through 50 meters of road!!!
India is never, ever, quiet. EVER. Days are filled with traffic noise (the constant honking of horns), people talking at the top of their voice on their cellphones and children screaming at each other while playing in the street. Nights are filled with barking dogs, honking horns, people talking very loudly on their cellphones and children screaming while playing outside.... At home the nights are quiet, honking your car horn is an offence and children are told to keep it down when they get too loud.
This week, while irritated by the noise and chaos around me, and thinking it is so much more organised and peaceful at home, I realised how boring and bland life must be for Indians living in The Netherlands. Everything is overly organised, life is mostly inside the house and you have to stick by the rules. Life for them must be like the Dutch food, bland and colourless.
I am looking forward to our holiday in NL, but I know I will miss India too. When we arrive back the Indian way of live will still be noisy and chaotic, but we will be able to enjoy it again.
O, and the fact that several snakes have been caught on Vista in the last few days, doesn't help make me feel good...... (baby Cobras and Russel Vipers)
In Australia it was the remote location we were in, in Nigeria it was the confined compound life, in Libya the traffic. Here in Bangalore it is the chaos and noise.
The road just outside Vista has been dug up, AGAIN. It has been so in several places over the last few months to lay new sewage pipes. Huge holes get dug, piles of dirt deposited in the middle of the road and traffic has to find a way through it. It is a small two way street at the best of times, but when work is going on it is reduced to hardly one proper lane. When the work is finished the dirt gets shovelled back into the hole and that's that. No levelling, no resurfacing, just dirt. Bumpy, dusty/muddy dirt, that no one wants to drive on, so traffic keeps pushing each other out of the way to use the small strip of tarmac that is left.
While the road work is going on, there is nobody to organise traffic, nobody to make sure things stay safe for the road workers either. Traffic gets stuck because everybody is pushing to get through instead of taking turns and giving each other some space. One lane, traffic on both sides pushing in or blocking whatever space there could be by standing 2 or 3 wide, so oncoming traffic can't go anywhere. Motorbikes and rickshaws jumping the queue and everybody honking their horns (like that would make the traffic jam magically disappear...).
It always amazes me when I see a closed railway crossing with traffic waiting on both sides standing along the whole width of the road. How do they think this will make things go faster when the booms go up????
If only all road users would play by the rules, if only they would use some logic, if only they would use lane discipline, if only road work would be coordinated and properly announced and traffic guided through detours. If only traffic was more like it is at home it wouldn't take an hour to get through 50 meters of road!!!
India is never, ever, quiet. EVER. Days are filled with traffic noise (the constant honking of horns), people talking at the top of their voice on their cellphones and children screaming at each other while playing in the street. Nights are filled with barking dogs, honking horns, people talking very loudly on their cellphones and children screaming while playing outside.... At home the nights are quiet, honking your car horn is an offence and children are told to keep it down when they get too loud.
This week, while irritated by the noise and chaos around me, and thinking it is so much more organised and peaceful at home, I realised how boring and bland life must be for Indians living in The Netherlands. Everything is overly organised, life is mostly inside the house and you have to stick by the rules. Life for them must be like the Dutch food, bland and colourless.
I am looking forward to our holiday in NL, but I know I will miss India too. When we arrive back the Indian way of live will still be noisy and chaotic, but we will be able to enjoy it again.
O, and the fact that several snakes have been caught on Vista in the last few days, doesn't help make me feel good...... (baby Cobras and Russel Vipers)
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Almost done...
We can see the end of the school year coming closer and closer and with that our trip to NL, but before we can pack our bags there is exam week to get through.
I have always been nervous for exams, so much so that I had mayor black outs and had to repeat a year in high school. Those days are far behind me, but now my boys have to sit exams. This week it are 'only' the end of year exams, but next year Joshua will have to sit his IGCSE exams.
The boys don't seem to be too fussed, but I am... Especially after yesterday. They had a day off from school, so a full day to do their revising and studying.
Ruben felt like sleeping and lounging, not at all like putting some serious effort into learning, while Joshua worked hard on his Chemistry all day.
So I forced Ruben into doing some work by threatening to take all his electronic devices away, while I tried to help Josh with things like mol and the Avogadro number. Boy, I had to dig deep into the dusty parts of my brain to remember what it was all about! Thank God my brother studied Chemistry, so there was some elaborate texting and emailing going on.
I emailed Adriaan about all our hard work and my brother helping us, and he was disappointed we hadn't asked him. So he emailed a long explanation for Joshua. I love how involved he is with the kids, even when he is slaving away over sushi in Japan.
With some breaks for drinks and snacks and a longer break at the pool, we managed to get a lot of work done. Now it is up to them, but I am sitting at home being nervous.
Will it ever stop this exam stress of mine?
6.022 141 99 X 1023
Thanks to Wikipedia
This large number is approximately equal to the number of protons in a gram of pure protons. It is customary to introduce the term 'gram molecule' into explanations of the importance of this number:
a gram molecule is a mole of the molecules:
y grams of a molecule whose relative molecular mass is y, will contain 6.022 x 1023 molecules.
y grams of a molecule whose relative molecular mass is y, will contain 6.022 x 1023 molecules.
Thanks to Wikipedia
Friday, 1 June 2012
Bad Timing
Adriaan sent me a text this morning: 'to Japan this weekend'.
Apparently there is a delegation from China coming to Japan and A has to accompany them. He will be away for a whole week. The week that we are supposed to go to the FRRO (foreign registration), the week that Josh and Ruben have end of year exams and need dad to help them with revising their Math and Sciences.
We can't do the FRRO without A, so it has to be postponed. The tricky thing is that we are travelling on the 18th and the FRRO has to be sorted before that. Unfortunately the rules, regulations and requirements tend to change overnight, so there is always the possibility that we have to submit even more paperwork and proof of whatever they want proof of.... With our luck....
Apparently there is a delegation from China coming to Japan and A has to accompany them. He will be away for a whole week. The week that we are supposed to go to the FRRO (foreign registration), the week that Josh and Ruben have end of year exams and need dad to help them with revising their Math and Sciences.
We can't do the FRRO without A, so it has to be postponed. The tricky thing is that we are travelling on the 18th and the FRRO has to be sorted before that. Unfortunately the rules, regulations and requirements tend to change overnight, so there is always the possibility that we have to submit even more paperwork and proof of whatever they want proof of.... With our luck....
Monday, 28 May 2012
Having a haircut and then some...
I have had some traumatic experiences when it comes to having my hair done. I remember a perm that my mum set at home, leaving me walk this earth like a cloned sheep. We also did some hair colouring at home that turned out dramatic.
I still cringe when I see the photos that were taken on Schiphol, when we arrived back in The Netherlands after 4 years in Australia. From the back you can't tell my brother and me apart (and no, my brother did not have long hair!).
Living abroad makes going to the hairdressers a leap of faith. It is a lot harder to explain what you want exactly if it is not in your mother tongue or even in your second language. When we lived in Nigeria, on a small Island, I only went to the hairdressers on our home leaves in The Netherlands. The Nigerians have such different hair from my thin, straight, straw, that I didn't trust that they could turn it into anything representational.
In Libya it was hard to find hairdressers at all, since the women should not be seen from the street without their head scarf. We went on home leave 3 times a year, so I coloured it myself and had my haircuts in NL. Men on the other hand could go to the hairdressers in Libya for a cut and a shave and all sorts of skin treatments and massages too, on almost every street corner. One of the first outings my father had in Tripoli, was to the hairdressers with Adriaan and the boys.
Here in India I do go to the hairdressers regularly. Not just to have my hair cut and coloured, but also to have my eyebrows treaded and coloured and to have a manicure and pedicure. ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!
The first time I saw an Indian lady at the hair dressers with 4 people working on her at the same time, I thought it looked ridiculous and not very relaxing. I could not see myself like that. I couldn't even remember the last mani/pedi I had had. But now, just a few months later, I have turned into a proper Indian lady:
We went with 5 women and we had so much fun! Lunch before and coffee after, what a tough life we have.
PS
My hair turned out nicely! ;-)
I still cringe when I see the photos that were taken on Schiphol, when we arrived back in The Netherlands after 4 years in Australia. From the back you can't tell my brother and me apart (and no, my brother did not have long hair!).
Living abroad makes going to the hairdressers a leap of faith. It is a lot harder to explain what you want exactly if it is not in your mother tongue or even in your second language. When we lived in Nigeria, on a small Island, I only went to the hairdressers on our home leaves in The Netherlands. The Nigerians have such different hair from my thin, straight, straw, that I didn't trust that they could turn it into anything representational.
In Libya it was hard to find hairdressers at all, since the women should not be seen from the street without their head scarf. We went on home leave 3 times a year, so I coloured it myself and had my haircuts in NL. Men on the other hand could go to the hairdressers in Libya for a cut and a shave and all sorts of skin treatments and massages too, on almost every street corner. One of the first outings my father had in Tripoli, was to the hairdressers with Adriaan and the boys.
Here in India I do go to the hairdressers regularly. Not just to have my hair cut and coloured, but also to have my eyebrows treaded and coloured and to have a manicure and pedicure. ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!
The first time I saw an Indian lady at the hair dressers with 4 people working on her at the same time, I thought it looked ridiculous and not very relaxing. I could not see myself like that. I couldn't even remember the last mani/pedi I had had. But now, just a few months later, I have turned into a proper Indian lady:
Look at me acting the real upper class Indian lady the typical expat wife
We went with 5 women and we had so much fun! Lunch before and coffee after, what a tough life we have.
PS
My hair turned out nicely! ;-)
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