Along the road today

I always carry my camera with me and snap quite some photos while I am driving around Bangalore (in the back seat, with my driver at the wheel, just in case you were wondering). Most of the photos I take from the car get deleted, because they didn't work out. It is not easy to take a good photo from a moving car, getting the window down in time and everything in focus. It happens many times that I see a perfect photo opportunity, when right at that moment there's a pot hole/speed bump in the road, a bus gets in the way of a good shot or something else happens to completely ruin the pretty picture I had in mind.

Today a friend and I drove through an area where they had celebrated a festival last night and the floats were still standing in the street. We go out and took some nice photos.

Decorated tractor

A huge structure completely decorated with flowers

All those little flowers were tied to small strips of wood

Remnants of the party

Colours

Another master piece

Cleaning the pots and pans at the temple 

Garlands 

Colourful roses

Scary dolls

Merry go round, not so merry

Food and friends, what else do you need?

Fun with friends

Share!

Going Home

Adriaan found a new job and with it comes a new posting. This one might be one of the hardest we have done so far: we are moving to The Netherlands. We are going home, back to our base country, but it doesn't feel that way.
We have lived abroad for 16 years and have loved (most of) it. Moving back to a 'normal' life will take some adjusting.

I will miss the sense of adventure that comes with being an expat. Getting to know new countries and cultures, making friends from all over the world. The sense of achievement that comes with being able to find your way around a new city, to fit in as best you can and to participate in local festivals.
I will miss so many things, but I have also missed a lot of things from home in those 16 years.

We left in 1996, the two of us, on an adventure. Little did we know what was in store for us. We have had high highs and rock bottom lows, we have made friends for life and met people we hope we'll never set eyes on again.
We had 3 beautiful boys that are growing into wonderful young men (if you don't believe me, ask their grandparents!). Those boys have Dutch passports, but they are not Dutch, not really. They have grown up in 5 different countries and went to 6 different schools. English is their first language, even though we speak Dutch at home.
I have boys that know the ins and outs of air travel, but have no clue about public transport. They have a lot to learn.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if we did the right thing by dragging them along on this adventure, that they never chose, not giving them a sense of belonging by uprooting them every few years. But it did make us very close as a family. We are the only ones that have gone through it all, us 5, we did it together! They have become true world citizens with respect and understanding of other cultures and religions. They know full well what it is like to be the odd one out, to be the foreigner, however hard you try to blend in.

It will be great to live in a country where I can speak my mother tongue, a country where I know the culture and will automatically fit in. We will be able to spend more time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and with many friends that we neglected a bit over the years.

The biggest bonus for Adriaan and me is that we will be together as a family. Joshua will go to university and he will move out, but he won't be far away.

I am sure I will shed some tears in the weeks to come, but I am also looking forward to move back home. I am happy and sad at the same time.

Hard work

All set for hard labour

Today is day 6 of the Mock exams. Two of my boys have been studying hard on their IGCSE and IB subjects. Child number 3 is not stressing at all about his exams, he claims he knows it all, so we are expecting straight A's from him...

Three more months and this school year is done for my boys. Big changes are ahead with our eldest moving back to the Netherlands to go to university and we might be moving too. Our 4 years here are almost done so we are looking at possible new postings. Exciting times, stressful too.

Watermelons

It is watermelon season and we have had 'Mango rains' (rain that should help the mango trees to get lots of blossoms to grow a lot of fruit).

I saw these two signs along the road:

Indeed!

'she for strength'

With all the stress around here, I think I need to get this flag: Om!

Sunday afternoon

We really like the walk around the lake. Yesterday our friend Inge came along and we took some pictures along the way.

Catch of the day

Termite hill next to a temple

Eating

On their way home

Cute kitten at the 'go down'

Look there (photo by Inge)

photo by Inge



Lake Walkathon

This morning we participated in the Lake Walkathon, a walk around lake Doddanekundi (behind Adarsh Vista) to create awareness of all the work that has been done to preserve the lake.
About a year ago the whole lake was emptied, islands were created and sewage inlets closed. The sides of the lake were reinforced with stone blocks and drains and walkways are being created.
There used to be a lot more lakes around Bangalore, that served as water reservoirs, and rain water would flow to the lakes through the storm water drains during monsoon season. Unfortunately many lakes have been drained and the land is used to build houses or apartment blocks on. That, in combination with the lack of maintenance on the drainage systems, leads to more and more flooding during the monsoon season. Not a good development.

Doddanekundi lake looks nice, but it has caused a fair bit of discomfort to us too. The smell can be almost unbearable at times (caused by the sewage) and the mosquitos that breed in the stagnant water are a real pest. Let's hope that the work that is being done will solve those problems.

The walk this morning was very nice and we plan to go for a walk around 'our' lake more often.

The official ceremony was still in full swing when we arrived: speeches. We decided to start our walk before the whole crowd would go and we went in the opposite direction.

Valentines heart in the lake?

A different view on Adarsh Vista

Adriaan



The part where the sewage is still flowing (not into the lake anymore) and garbage is being dumped

Adarsh Vista from the other side of the lake

A workers' camp along the railroad

Fast asleep

Clothes are being sorted to be ironed

A little temple at the side of the road

TG for duct tape!

Our house here in India is huge and has super high ceilings (up to 8 meters!). Those high ceilings are great in summer, since warm air rises and it keeps the house a bit cooler, but they are a pain in the @#$ when it comes to changing light bulbs or cleaning the fans.
We have a window in our bedroom that is leaking when it rains. I have had it 'fixed' a few years ago, but that event still gives me nightmares (people hanging upside down from the roof top) so now we just put some towels under it when it rains.
It turns out that the window is made out of two pieces. I figured that out on a windy night this week, when I heard it rattle and saw it move back and forth. It looked like it could break or fall down any minute, so something needed to be done about it.

I don't know much about DIY, but I do know that everything can be fixed with duct tape :-)

Only problem: the window is at four meters and we don't own a ladder that is long enough to reach. So out we went to rent a bamboo ladder down the street at the sum of INR 250/= (3,50 euro) and took it home. That was the easy part...


The ladder-rental place down the road ('our' ladder is the one on the left)

That roof rack was a great investment

The first puzzle was to get the ladder inside the house and upstairs. We decided it would be best to haul it up to the balcony instead of going through the house.

Joshua and Vincent, wondering what they have gotten themselves in to

And it is upstairs

and inside

They say men are bad at estimating length, but I am not that good at it either apparently. It turned out the ladder was a bit too tall to stand upright....

How are we going to do this?

Almost there

So we finally got the ladder in the right position, the top leaning on the windowsill and the bottom firmly against the wall. The only thing left for me was to climb up there with the duct tape and scissors to fix the problem.
I got half way up the ladder and it started to bend so much that I decided to send one of the boys up, since they are much lighter than I (aren't I a great mother to leave the scary and dangerous stuff to my kids?).

Ruben went up and managed to put the tape on the glass.

Child labour

Beautiful!

PS

In case you are wondering why the boys are home on a Friday: it's sportsday at school and the smart @#$-es made sure they didn't get selected for any of the events... I am such a good mother for keeping them home and out of the sun.