Meet Indian Mac

Look at my handsome boy.

We went shopping a couple of weeks ago to get ourselves decked out in some traditional Indian garb. Mac was very keen to get into the change room and try his on. Sam on the other hand had to be dragged in there kicking and screaming.....

So Saturday night we were going out for dinner and out came Mac in his new clothes. How cute is he?

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. (wink)

Nearly a Teenager

My Baby Girl has turned twelve and I cant believe where the last 12 years have gone.

The kids were very excited to have the day off for Eliza's birthday due to yet again another public holiday. This time it was Bakrid, a Muslim holiday. Andrew, of course had to go to work so he missed out on going for birthday lunch.

We decided that we would give Eliza her presents the night before her birthday as Andrew leaves soooo early that we daren't all be up to open gifts at some ungodly hour. Eliza could also justify this as 8pm Indian time was 1:30 am Australian time, so officially she was already 12.

She was very spoilt (as usual) but I think her favourite gift was the 2 blocks of Australian Cadbury's she received. One from Aunty Kerrie and the other that I had paid through the leg for at our local grocery store ($9) but you cant put a price on chocolate, can you?

"Heh Sam. Check this out, The Camp Rock CD."

"OH, I don't believe you found this new J.K. Rowling book!"

And doesn't every bear need a blonde Hannah Montana wig?

I think she had a good birthday, but one thing for sure, she really did miss celebrating with all her friends from back home.

This Is It!

Myer window's this certainly is not.

This is the Christmas shop I was so excited to find. (Desperate heh)

I love these stars. I could have one in every colour.

It's Begining To Look A "BIT" Like Christmas

Amazing Grace, Yesterday on the way home from school we came across a shop selling loads of Christmas decorations. Tinsel, green garlands, more tinsel (and don't I just LOVE the stuff) and stars galore. Mind you that was as much as I could get a look at as we drove by, can't wait to get back there to have a fossick around.

One of my favorite hangouts here is a cafe called "Eco Cafe" and of course they just happen to have a lovely gift shop there as well. I must say that the mention of going to this particular cafe sends Mac into a major hissy fit. Just goes to show how much time the poor little thing has had to endure in going there in the last 5 months. But heh, a girls gotta do anything she can to survive here. So after being away for the week I was hanging for a Pina colada (no-alcoholic) and a chicken quesidilla, my favorite menu items, so found my way there to meet a friend for lunch (Mac free). And to my delight they have a small range of Christmas decorations, so the tree has a couple of new additions this year.

Speaking of decorating, we hadn't even finished unpacking and I had Andrew up in the cupboard getting the boxes down so the kids and I could get into that Chrissy spirit, on went the Hi 5 Christmas Album and we have titivated the old place up quite well. Although Margaret did ask me why my tree was white and was I going to get a green one. (Back off little lady, I am the decorating queen in this house)

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.