Thursday 31 March 2011

Nice food and great weather

It has been very strange coming here, but we both love it so far!
Over the last week we have tried great food. Stephen have a few work mates over from Norway for meetings here in Delhi this week, so we have been out with them in the evenings. It is me, Stephen and then 15 other men, I feel like the only woman in the world! Why can't they bring their wife’s so we can have a chat?
Last night we went to a place called Backara, it is an Indian restaurant and quite famous. They ask if anyone is Veggie and then give you a green napkin/dress that you put around your neck, if you are a meat eater they give you a red one. Then you order lots of little dishes and eat it with your hands, it is quite tricky because some dishes are quite saucy. Stephen and the boys ordered lamb, and it came on the bone, so you would have to pull pieces of meat of with your fingers to put on your plate first then pass it on.
It was really good and we will go there again.

We have no news what so ever about the apartment...! Frustrating.
We have got the thumbs up from the owner to move in, but now it is Stephens company that is taking their time writing contracts, checking the security etc. They say that maybe we can move in the 15th or so, but they don't know! That is another two weeks!! What is taking them so long???And also if we wait that long we might loose the place.

We have had nice weather the last few days, well the whole week really, but the last two days we have had a little breeze as well. It is about 35 degrees and it is getting warmer each day. Stephen is in an aircon room all day but I'm out shopping, meeting other wife’s for lunch and lying by the pool. Life is good.

Next week I'm meeting a man who runs a place for the children on the street, so hopefully I can go and help out a couple of days a week there. That will be very interesting and probably quite hard as well, I am very weak when it comes to children!

Monday 28 March 2011

For richer and poorer...

We have been here a couple of days now and are getting around a bit.
We spent the weekend in the beautiful Lodi Garden, the Nehru Place and also in the National Museum. The Nehru place was a crazy,dirty, busy area to buy electronics, we thought that maybe we could by a new camera lens but they had mostly computers. In the afternoon we went to The Lodi Garden, it was so pretty, had parotts flying about, temples, tombs and also schoolgirls everywhere that wanted to take pictures with me.
On Sunday we went to the National Museum, we spent about three hours there with a guide which made it more interesting. I wasn't aloud to take any picture's though.
Then in the evening it was Earth hours and we went down stairs to celebrate with the hotel and to drink green cocktails on the lawn :)

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 Two gaurds having a chat along the road.
 Big bird,just outside our hotel window.
 Icecream man:)
 Cow on the road, my favourite!
 Children and their  family in their home next to a very busy road.
 Electronic market.
 Little man on his bike.
 Lodi garden, Stephen infront of one of the tombs
 Me and the schoolgirls.
 Stephen jumping for joy!
 Not jumping...
 Parrot on the wall.
 Stephen waving to the gaurds that tells him to go down, haha.
 Temple.
 Tomb.
 Earth hour in Delhi.

Saturday 26 March 2011

First day.

Today was Stephen's first day at work, so he left with a colleague from the hotel at 7.30 to share a car. As usual the hotel called at 9 to ask where Mr Wines was because his car was waiting outside, you try to tell the driver that no he doesn't need to be here just yet as we told him yesterday. I told them again that I needed the car at 1300 and hoped that they would be there then.
At 10.30 my friend called to ask if I wanted to come along for a coffemeeting with all the expat ladies in Delhi. So I called the driver and said can you come at 11,not 1300, that confused him even more. But he was there at 11 so everything went ok!
So I spent the morning meeting new people and getting to know the area we are hopefully gonna live in, the driver also took me for a drive after and showed me some sights.  One of the ladies was returning to the USA next month and asked if i was looking for a maid as she highly recommended hers.  We will interview her next week, maybe ask her to cook us a meal so we can sample her cooking.  House almost sorted yesterday and a maid today, it all seems so simple!

Tonight we went out for a meal and a few drinks and we are doing some sightseeing tomorrow!
Here are some pictures from tonight and one from the airport coming here!


Me at the check-in with half of the bags.

Stephen at tonights dinner.

Us in a tuk-tuk on the way home, little blurry, it was a bumpy ride!

Thursday 24 March 2011

Good bye England, Hello India!

It has been a long day..
It started yesterday with us going to the airport,checking in our bags. In the check-in que there were a family in front of us with one screaming child, I just prayed that they would not be seated next to us!
We had a nice meal and then boarded the flight, no child in sight, phew.
Only had a hot chocolate then fell asleep, that is nearly a waste of a business class ticket but we were both so tired.
Woke up when we had an hour to go and then landed nicely. We got off and waited for our bags, last time we got one of our bags and was waiting and waiting for the last one, I thought that it was lost but it turned out that one of the staff at the airport had lifted it of around the corner, so 45min later when Stephen went for a walk he found it sitting on the floor. This time we only waited 10 min before I went for a walk around the carousel to find all our bags sitting on the floor, waiting for us! Who does that??? Takes the bags off and expects us to know they have done it? Not cool! Anyhow we only waited 10min today so only looked a little bit stupid.

We then got into our car and it took us to our hotel, it is lovely. Got a suite: two bathrooms, a bedroom and a living room, love it!
Hopefully we wont live here too long tho, we want to move into "our" apartment.
That was the weirdest thing: we had a meeting with the owner of the apartment we want to rent, apparently it's how they do it. We went to the owners apartment, which is underneath the one we want, with our estate agent. All of us went inside where we were met by his wife, she asked us to sit down and wait for the owner. He came after a while and we had a chat for 1,5 hours!
He was super nice, but asked us all kinds of things, what we did, if we were married, what kind of interior we liked, if we liked India etc. We drank iced tea, then real tea and we had a second look at the apartment while he went on how good it was and took notes on how we wanted it furnished.
Don't know who was selling it to who in the end, I mean, we wanted it to start with!
In the end he seamed happy with us, so fingers crossed he'll come back and allow us to move in as soon as possible.

We have now had a drink and are going to bed, tomorrow I'm off to find some shopping malls while Stephen is working, I mean that is why I'm here, no?! :)

Some pictures, they are not great but this way in our car from the airport.
 Police car.
 
 
View from our window.
Don't know if you can see, but there is a cow in the middle of the road!

Wednesday 23 March 2011

London Heathrow - Delhi,India

In a few hours we will have packed all our bags, locked up our house and are on our way to India!

The flight is about 8,5 hours, but that is OK as being Mrs Wines means traveling business class; you get different options of food, a separate drinks menu,a bar and the seats goes down to a bed. I was super excited about it last time we travelled in style but as Stephen always does it and he thinks I'm silly. It is so much better that travelling at the back with the animals! The best thing of it all is you can ask for anything, I asked for popcorn last time, and they came as you get them in the cinemas, super impressed!

The first week or two we will stay in a hotel and then we'll see when we are moving in to our apartment. We are meeting the owners tomorrow night, to see if they approve of us! slightly nervous, what if they don't,then we'll have to start looking all over again and it could take ages!

All in all we packed four big cases, two small carry on bags and a golf bag, I think we have got way too much with us!! The funny things is that it is mostly Stephens shoes!!! He has seven pairs with him,I have three!!
Well we will only go if it all fits into the car!!!


Here is me last time we flew.

Monday 21 March 2011

We are moving!

Stephen and me are packing up the last bits and pieces in our house in U.K to go and live a year (or so) in New Delhi in India.
Stephens’s work takes us all over the place and they have now decided that India would be a great idea.
We went last week to see if I liked it, Stephen has been there a few times before for work and he just wanted to make sure I would be ok!
We spent 4 days looking to find a nice apartment for us to live, it is very difficult to find anything that are up to our standards and not super expensive! I mean, money is everything, if you have it you will be ok! They would do anything if you give them a little bit extra. We looked at about 35 apartments all together, and that is after Stephen looked at a that many again when he was over a few weeks ago.
In the end they kind of got that we didn't want a kitchen thats falling apart (but you don't cook, your maid does!) or a bathroom that I wouldn't even want my dog to have a shower in. In the end we decided on a nice two-bedroom apartment, that has big windows, a little terrace that no one can see you on, a nice new (!) kitchen and two bathrooms. We are happy, but now the negotiations begin. Our estate agent is talking to the owners to see if they are happy with an European couple living there and then if they are happy with what we want to pay for it, being non-indian he will of course charge us far more.
Our apartment, well I say our because I do really hope we'll get it, is situated in an area that is called the Defence Colony, which is about 20 minutes from the heart of Delhi, there are lots of expats ,like us, and a lively area.
I am very excited to move and can't wait for the flight to take off on Wednesday!