HAPPY DAYS

Arriving at KL airport at 6am it didn't take us long to spot a Starbucks cafe and did we think we had hit the jackpot. Even the fact that it was only 6am didn't stop us. Kl airport was amazing. Great shops to browse, not purchase, as most things I drooled over would be the cost of feeding a family for a year. Prada and Burberry handbags (Dream). So our Starbucks coffee went down very well and we even came across two more Starbucks in Langkawi. Mind you it's not a cheap shout when you are buying 5 drinks, but heh, we don't get these treats very often.

A Toffee-nut Frappachino for Eliza

A hot chocolate for Mac (which he wore most of)

A vanilla latte for Sam ( A boy after his mothers heart. I have taught him well)

And a Toffee-nut Latte for me. Always have to try their Christmas range. Was ok but I do LOVE a Vanilla Latte. (Please excuse this delightful photo of me but I was sleep deprived)

Our next indulgence was breakfast at Burger king at 7am. No breakfast menu, just some French fries. No doubt about us, we can always find the good things in life and when you have a few hours to fill in at an airport, you make the most of it.

Travel Warnings

Just letting you all know we are not planning to fly out and around India this weekend.
Andrew came home last night and said that he had read an article in the Age newspaper about the apparent threat of hijacks happening to the country's airports. As we wake here this morning the papers are full of the story and one article said there are now armed military bunkered down outside the Chennai airport. So any plans of travel are definitely on the back burner for the time being. In saying that, Andrew is due to head off next week up north to work for 4 weeks (gasp) and our Christmas plans for Thailand at Christmas are on hold, due to the issues over there. Looking on the Smart traveler website they have a "DO NOT TRAVEL" warning to both India and Thailand. Great and we are living here....
Once again I say "What is this world coming to".

Trials and Tribulations

Well here I am back in lovely Chennai and once again after enjoying a weeks R&R I am struggling to get my mo-jo back.
It's really hard coming back to the reality of living in this exasperating country. Sure, I am very lucky to have my dear Margaret who has single handedly ironed so many of our clothes this week I am embarrassed. And of course then there Victor who gets us where we need to go when we need to go there, not always in the most round about way but always safely. But you know how much I long to get behind the wheel of a car and DRIVE.......
This week things have changed somewhat. It became apparent that we needed Victor to go and pick the kids up from school now as we have had a few interesting moments with the bus. A couple of weeks before our vacation we had the kids come home and tell us that the bus driver was DRUNK. Yes this is the man responsible for getting our kids to school safely and he was drunk, so much so that he sideswiped a truck, not a good thing to have an accident with a bus full of kids who couldn't wait to get home and dob on him...The other issue with driving in India is if you have an accident quite often here it will end in the driver responsible to be dragged out of the vehicle and beaten up. This will not be happening in front of my kids if I can help it...So with that bus driver needing to be replaced we have a new driver who is hopeless. Monday night Andrew needed Victor to pick him up from work which meant that I had to walk down to the bus stop to get the kids, it's only a 10 min walk and I am enjoying the fact that the days are starting to get a bit cooler so a walk is quite nice (if you can stand being stared at) but the problem was that the bus ended up being 75mins late. Yep I was left standing on the corner of a very busy main road feeling like I was the main attraction at the zoo. And anyone who knows me will know that I was there 10 mins before the bus was due, just in case. So when the bus finally came flying past the bus stop, only to stop 200mts away with me running after it with Mac in the pram, ready to kill the bus driver, I wasn't happy, oh I forgot to say it was now DARK. Hence the need to have the kids picked up by Victor.
At least the kids are home 45 mins earlier than they would have been home, but it also means that I now have about a 4 hour time frame in the middle of the day to do what I need to do, and in a city of 8 million people things take a long time to get done. So life just keeps throwing these challenges at us but we are still the lucky ones. We have a roof over our head and food on the table, which is more that I can say for a lot of people here.
Last week while we were away the city was bombarded by a cyclone, which brought with it 21 inches of rain in 3 days. Needless to say it brought the city to a standstill. Schools and business's closed and many people had water so deep around their homes they where housebound with no power for the 3 days.
Yep we are lucky. Sometimes you just need to be reminded of that.

Safe and well

Just an update to let everyone know we are all safe and well. With all of the terrible news out of Mumbai at the moment we have had loads of emails wondering if we are ok.
The truth is that we aren't even in India right now as we are enjoying a week on the beautiful island of Langkawi. We are all very relaxed and having fun by the pool and at the beach each day.
We head back to Chennai this weekend and we hope to arrive there and find all is peaceful and quiet. Well, as quiet as a city of 7 million people can be.
For all of you whose geography is not great, Chennai is along way from Mumbai, Chennai being on the southern east coast and Mumbai on the northern west cost (sort of) so we are not near any of the trouble. But in saying that I suppose we don't really know what can happen. We plan to stay away from the big hotels, like the Meridian where we go to the pool. Most of the hotels now do a bomb check all cars when entering the car park, which has kind of freaked us out at the start but you just get used to it after a while.
So thank you all for you concern. Its comforting to know we are in every ones thoughts. And we will try to stay as safe as possible. God willing.

Christmas?

Help, I cant find Christmas!

It seems to me that Christmas in India is non-existent.

I cant believe that it is nearly the end of November and Christmas is just around the corner.

If this is so, where are all the Christmas decorations in the shops, Advent calenders with goodies in them, Christmas cards and wrapping by the box load, beautiful big ham on the bone in every butchers fridge, junk mail bulging out of the letter box, box's of bonbons adorning the top of supermarket shelves and those catchy carols playing in shopping centers everywhere.

My life is so different here in India and the fact that I'm not working is probably the hardest thing to get used to. My life at home would be frantic right about now, madly shopping trying to get all the presents bought now, as the salon would be keeping me working long hours with not much time left to shop come closer to the big day.

So here I am in India with all this time on my hands and no clients to squeeze in and no Kmart, Target, Big W to fill in my days. About the only thing to worry about is where we are going to spend Christmas. The options seemed endless, but the time factor for Andrews work schedule was tricky. So the kids and I are off to Thailand for 11 days, with Andrew joining us for 4 days over Christmas. How different this year will be with no family to share it with. (also no broken ankle this year to hinder my plans, I hope)

The next few weeks will be spent in a very different way to normal, I will be decorating the house with a very minimal supply of decorations, doing some Christmas baking in my new but very small oven and hopefully getting some Christmas cards in the post, lets hope Indian Post will look after me and they all arrive home.

So as you are all madly racing around getting stressed to the max with the pressure of the festive season, spare a thought for us and know that our thoughts and prayers will be with you all when you are stuck in that queue trying to get into the Bay City Plaza car park.

Oh, the other thing the kids are worried about is whether Santa will find them...........I do believe he only comes to good boys and girls.

Yoga

Last week some friends and I took our first Yoga class and I am happy to say I am going back for more.
We have met another expat wife who, since coming here 3 years ago has taken classes to become a Yoga instructor. So she kindly offered her services to us to try out one of her lessons. The 3 of us were a bit worried about how we would cope with it but she was very kind and started us off with a beginner class. It was pretty easy but still took some effort to slow down and let the mind relax enough to concentrate on breathing properly.
You know how much STUFF is constantly going through your head,

1. What's for tea?
2. How is Mac going at his new school?
3. Does my bum look really big in these track pants?
4. I need to buy milk and bread.
5. Must post of that parcel that has been waiting to posted for 2 weeks now.
6. Gotta pay the phone bill
7. Gee my hips hurt sitting cross legged for the last 5 mins.
8. Hope Victor isn't sick of waiting for me
9. Oh I really need to paint my toe nails
10. I wonder if I will ever be able to sit cross legged Yoga style and it not REALLY hurt.
11. Stop thinking brain and relax.
12. BREATH.

So 1 hour later we were all nicely relaxed and keen to continue with our classes next week. Although I did have grand plans of doing a couple more classes in between but with Mac not being well and not wanting to let me out of his sight that wasn't going to happen. So I look forward to next Tuesday and my hour of "ME" time, relaxing. (Please God let Mac be well)

Amazing

Heh I just got on to the blog to do a post and I am amazed that it is warmer in Melbourne than it is in Chennai today.
It is very overcast and is trying to rain.
We are having a quiet day at home as little Mac is still not feeling well at all. Just had him to the Doctors and we are off to a pediatrician latter today, he has high temp and cant stop coughing. He hasn't moved from the floor in the playroom all day, thank heavens for cable TV and kids shows all day.
Yesterday I read in the paper that we where to have our power disrupted today and the power was to be off all day...... But guess what, it's 1pm and we still have power. AMAZING