Reservations Please?

We left for Singapore on the morning of the 16th and got to the airport in time to leisurely make our way to the plane. We got there early enough that we thought, Hey - we're flying a "Star Alliance" flight and Rich has Gold status on his frequent flyer miles with Lufthansa - a member of the Star Alliance. This means we can sit in the business class lounge, have a coffee and some breakfast. Well, THEORETICALLY, it means we should be able to. When we went to the Maldives, they told us we couldn't sit in there because we weren't flying with at Star Alliance Carrier. This time we were flying Jet Airways (See previous post) who is a member. We go to the lounge and the man turns us away because Rich's card is Lufthansa and we are flying Jet. We were so furious. Basically it comes down to - if they can save a buck they will anyway they can. The lounge is only valid for certain flights as they are preparing to board, not a Star Alliance lounge. we told them, "Anywhere else in the world, this would be honored." His response, "Yes, but here in Chennai we are different." NO KIDDING!
Anyway - we wait and then board our flight to Singapore. The pilot speaks to us as usual, but tells us the fasten seat belt sign will be on for most of the flight as we were going so see quite a bit of turbulence. Apparently the majority of the passengers felt this only applied to the other people, not them. I have never seen such an unruly group of people on a plane! They were constantly up and would wait until the attendant was 2 rows in front of them, buzz her and demand a soda. Not ask - they would say - Give me a Coke. She eventually informed one man, "If you wait 2 minutes, I will be right with you. I'm just serving the row ahead of you." Then it was everybody up and trying to get around the drink carts to use the toilet. (Did I mention this was economy class? - Not much room and the fight is only 4 hours!). All the while this was going on, the fasten seat belt sign was on as there were quite a few pockets of turbulence. Eventually the captain of the plane came back on and ordered everyone to their seats.
We got to Singapore and made our way to the hotel. At this point we're all tired and just want to unwind in the room and have some dinner. We go to check in and the lady looks and looks and looks again. I ask if there was a problem and she said, "I can't seem to find you in our system. Do you have your reservation confirmation?" We did, but I start panicking as I have no idea where we will find a room in Singapore the week leading up to Christmas! They had us sit in the lounge, and they worked something out and got us to our room apologizing for not being able to locate our reservation. She said they'd keep looking into why there seemed to be an issue. Turned out - They had entered us as arriving on Dec. 15th at midnight. Error on their part. Big sigh from me!
We settled into our room and Sophia put on her gift from the hotel - At Kuda Huraa she had the back pack. Since the lights theme was a "Fairytale Christmas" they gave her a PINK fairy dress with wings and a tiara. She was really pumped!
All in all - our stay at the Four Seasons was lovely and Singapore was a much needed break!

Sports Day

The day before we left for Singapore - we attended Sophia's Sports Day at Billabong High/Kangaroo Kids. This is an annual event held at Sophia's school for the kids to have a chance to do something athletic. Sophia won a gold medal last year in her race and was looking forward to running again!
This year's theme was The Animal Kingdom. Each race had a different animal and was in some way - usually with a placard or head gear showing they were that animal. Sophia was in the bear race and Mommy had do color her bear face for her to wear on her head. Each day I would pick her up she would be so excited and tell me, "Mommy, Mommy, today I runned and runned and runned and winned the race!" I didn't doubt her because I've chased after her and I know she's pretty quick. Oh yeah and if you're waiting for her to run out of gas, good luck- she has stamina too!
We got her to the school that morning and she wanted nothing to do with her class and only wanted to be with us. We left her in her in her classroom with her teachers and went to get good seats for pictures. They marched out and she wanted to come running to us. We told her she needed to stay with her class and run her race and then she could come with us.
Finally her turn to race came and she couldn't have been more disinterested. Her teacher put her in front of her lane and she just stood there. Looking around and everything like she really didn't care one way or the other. They told them, "on your marks, get set, GO!" and she was off like a shot. She came to the first stop where she had to pick up a bowl and then to the second where she got the goodies to put in the bowl. Then was so excited she almost forgot to run to the finish line. She took first place and got to hold a flag with the number one on it and received a gold medal. She was so proud, and so were Mommy and Daddy!

Time to Socialize!

This past week we've been to some really lovely parties! The whirls started on the 8th with a fantastic rooftop party given by Doug and Jo. (With decoration help from Robert!) We had great food, friends, dancing and plenty of Christmas cheer!

The following Wednesday we were invited to a reception in honor of the Emperor of Japan for his birthday. This was hosted by the Japanese consular and his wife. The garden was fully decorated in lights and there were so many people there! Lan, the hostess, made sure I tried all of the Japanese food they had. I also found out that I like sushi! Yup - for those of you who know me well, before I moved to India, I was not open to new experiences with food. Meat and Potatoes with either corn, green beans or peas were about the extent of it. Now I eat more veggies than I ever thought I would and even enjoy them. Sushi was something I was definitely holding out on. As Rich and I were raiding the sushi bar, we had a gentleman come up to us and introduce himself as Ali. He went on to tell us his family had ruled South India for thousands of years before the British came and took over. We were visiting and the Consular General for the US came over and shook hands with our new friend and addressed him as, Your Highness. Uh,Oh! Who were we really talking to? We went on visiting with Ali and he asked us for Rich's card and said he would call us to come by his home sometime. He then gave us his card, Nawab Muhammed Abdul Ali, Prince of Arcot. I guess you just never know who you're going to meet here!
Thursday evening brought about the Christmas reception at the British Deputy High Commission. We knew more people here and there were no surprise self introductions but we had fun all in the same!
Will we get to go to all of these parties again next year? I hope so, but most likely not. This is one of the perks of being President of the OWC. Oh well, we'll always have the memories!

Santa Brunch

Today was the day Sophia had waited for! We were going to Santa Brunch and would see Santa. She had made her list and told Santa what a good girl she had been. We had gotten her all dressed up in the little green and red plaid dress my Grandma Mitzel had made for Nicole. Complete with tights and little black shoes. We were off and she was pumped. We got to about 4 blocks within the hotel and Sophia got carsick. All over the dress. It was not good. We went ahead to the hotel so we could get the dress off and get her somewhat cleaned up. But then she didn't want to leave. Luckily, we were able to borrow an apron from the bake sale and she wore that until Daddy got back from shopping to get her a new outfit.

Wanna know what's open on a Saturday morning in Madras at 9:30? NADA! Rich ended up going to Spencer Plaza and eventually found a shop open that had a really cute skirt and blouse. He got that and made it back in time for Santa Claus.

Here's what we found out about Santa - Sophia loves the idea of Santa and presents, but when confronted with Santa, she freaks out! As soon as we took her in to see him, she freaked out and decided she wanted to go home!

Daddy calmed her down and got her to do some crafts while we waited for her name to be called to go up and get her gift from Santa. Once her name was called - she freaked out again. Mommy carried her up and told her if she cried, Santa wouldn't give her the gift. We went and she was really cautious, not crying, but really giving the old man the eye. It was as if she was thinking - Oh I really want the present, but I really don't like you! She got her gift and opened it. She loved her Pocahontas doll and after we were home and the next day she told everyone she saw Santa. She left out the scary part, but we'll see how it goes come closer to Christmas!

We Need a Little Christmas....

So - Right now we need a little Christmas, right this very minute, candles in the window....You know the song. Anyway - We got out the Christmas tree and started decorating. Actually, tried to decorate is the better term! Sophia is so pumped up for Christmas this year. We could hardly keep her hands off of the tree.

We went out to let her pick out some fun ornaments and she helped put them on the tree while Daddy decorated the pillars in the living room. I have to say I think it looks quite festive here! Rich did a great job of hanging lights and the tree is fun - even if Sophia keeps moving the ornaments! We've also added white lights to the garland wrapped around the beam.

Sophia keeps saying, "I need to decorate the tree so it will snow and Santa can come." We've explained it's not going to snow here, but Santa will still find her so we need to write a letter to let him know what she wants. We can now threaten, you'd better be good or Santa won't come. This however backfired on me when I was scolding her for something and said, "Sophia, that was very naughty. What would Santa say?" She responded so innocently, "Ho, Ho, Ho?!" I know - it's very hard not to laugh! So the next time you try to scold someone - or thinking of doing something naughty - just remember what Santa would say -----

HO HO HO!

Thanksgiving Madras Style

So - what do you do when you're in a different country for Thanksgiving? Answer - find a group of Americans celebrating and eat really well!!!!

We were invited to our friend Thom's home to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner - complete with US Turkey! (The turkeys you get here tend to taste like fish). Thom makes the birds, potatoes, corn, stuffing and then asks the rest of us to bring something to go along with the meal. Since I had pumpkin, my task was pumpkin pie. This shouldn't be a big deal, but remember I have always in the past used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust. (I love that little dough boy!) This time - I had to make my own. I dug out Rich's mom's recipie and got to work.

Rich helped me with the mixing and I worked on it the next day so we had fresh crusts. They turned out pretty good. At least, Thom was happy with it, so all's well!

There was, as usual, too much food and lots of fun. The only thing missing was FOOTBALL! Oh well - can't have everything!

Maintenance

OK, OK I know, I've slacked off again. It's most likely because I don't think I have much of anything to say. Anyway - I'll try to be better about posting.

Our latest fun has been dealing with the Maintenance Supervisor our landlord has hired. I'll just refer to him with his first name. Vela. This has become a name that makes me tear my hair out and causes many giggles from my drivers. They know I just hate to hear his name mentioned because it's going to cause more work for a very simple thing. Case in point - a new ladder needed for our water tank.

We are now contacting our landlord directly instead of going through two other people as they just seemed to muddy the water. The ladder was replaced fairly quickly - really only took about a week, record time for Vela. Then I asked him about the roof over the patio as it is now like a sieve. He said the landlord is looking into permanent roofing for it and he is waiting for him to respond with a decision and money. Then Vela starts talking about the tall windows we have looking out to the sea and saying they all needed to come out and be replaced with 4ft. windows and these were quite bad and causing so many issues.

Here's the kicker - We haven't complained about the windows. In fact - this was one of the key points to the house and what gives it it's wonderful airiness. I told him there are no issues with the windows. Vela responds - oh yes, there are, Much leaking and many problems. I reminded him all of our leaks last year were due to the holes in the roof that our company engineers pointed out to him. Since the roof has been fixed there haven't been any issues. He said oh, it will only take about 1 1/2 months to get the windows changed out. (Do you note the broken record syndrome here?) I came unglued and informed him as long as sir and I are in this house - these windows stay. There is no way in hell we are going to allow him to do that type of work while we are living here. Then I basically told him to work on fixing the patio roof and making sure the electrical wiring in the garden is straight and showed him out of the house.

I had Rich contact the landlord about the windows to make sure he knew what Vela was up to. He said the windows are not even an issue and are not to be removed. What Rich and I think is - Vela is working on another house who wants the large windows and instead of ponying up the dough - he's going to take ours and buy smaller less expensive windows to put in here. NOT HAPPENING.

This brings us to the pool pump. It has gone out. We again contacted the landlord since this needs to be replaced and we don't have stagnant water sitting for a long time (Mosi breeding grounds). The landlord contacted Vela (are you cringing at the sound of his name yet?) and he sent his electrician, who pretended not to speak or understand English and talked to Rich through the drivers. He told us he was sent to get the pump, but needed payment before he would do so. We told him, no - this is a capital issue and this was to be handled with Vela and the landlord. The electrician said that Vela said it was maintenance and we were to pay. Rich blew his stack and went off - this is when he realized the electrician understood every word. To put it simply, Rich told him - he's tired of Vela lining his pockets - we pay the electrician, and the landlord pays Vela. Vela pockets the money or splits it with the electrician. This will no longer happen. Either he takes it now - or we contact the landlord. The guy left without the pump. Rich told his driver to have our electrician come and get the pump and we would bill the landlord. BUT, lo and behold - Vela's guy turned up in the evening and got the pump. I guess he figured we caught on and if he wanted to keep working, he'd better get it fixed. For our next trick - we need to get it installed!

Stay tuned!

Customer Service???

Ok, I'm going to have to vent a bit, but I think I've had adequate time to cool off about it - a week or so to be exact. We have planned to take our next R&R trip to Singapore. I know - we went there last year, but we couldn't decide where else to go for a few days, and after it seemed bombings were becoming more frequent in the North, we decided not to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The big kicker is the airport in Agra is not in service right now. The best option to get there is to fly to Delhi then take a train - (2 1/2hr. ride) or rent a car for a 5-6hr. drive to Agra. Since the car would be expensive and mass transit seems to be where they like to bomb the most, we decided to not go there right now.

I then went online to book our hotel. Since we had a great time at The Four Seasons in Maldives, we've chosen to stay at one in Singapore too. I booked the room and then we went in search of airfare. Singapore is only a 4hr flight from Madras. The two best airlines to take a direct flight from here to there are SingAir and JetAirways. SingAir is quite a bit higher and JetAirways showed that we could take a flight for Rs. 7500 per leg. (US$185 per leg). This was listed as Special Economy - while regular economy was around 22,000. No brainer right, I thought the same. We then tried to search the site to find out what "special economy" entailed. There was nothing listed except some long alphabet soup saying, "Classes K,G,H,I, etc. cannot have xyz" and so on and so forth. No where on the site could we find out what ticket class the Special Economy was - so I decided it would be best to call Jet and find out what the fare restrictions were before we had purchased the tickets.

I call Jet and get a gentleman in Ticketing and Bookings. He informs me the services received are the same as economy, except the fare restrictions were different and these are listed on the site. I told him, we had searched the site and couldn't find the information, which was why I was calling. He was unable to give me an answer, but instead gave me a number to call to get help.

I call the next number, "Special Packages". I explained what I needed to know and she said, "I am not ticketing and booking, you should call there." I told her I had and they referred me to her. She was then going to give me another number to call. I said, "I don't want to have to call another number where they still will not have an answer and will give me yet another number and so on and so forth." She then said, give me your number and I will try to have someone contact you. I told her to never mind. I would go to the local ticket office to get my answers there.

My first clue that this was not going to be a good trip should've been when I arrived and there were approximately 10 men waiting to be helped, none of them looking very happy. I added my name to the list and sat down with my iPod. There was only 1 clerk working the desk and she wasn't moving with any sense of urgency. Eventually there were 4 men that got together and decided to complain, very loudly. Apparently, they had been waiting there since before 2pm. (It was now 2:45) There were told everyone was at lunch until 2 and would then return and be able to help more people. They went into a tirade about how is this customer service, isn't our time as valuable as theirs? They just said, "please sit down and someone will help you soon." The lady then left and there was no one at the counter for about 5 minutes. She did eventually come back with reinforcements and things started moving along. My name was called and I came forward.

He then asked my name again and started looking for a booking. I advised him I didn't yet have one since I needed some clarification. He had a mad look of panic on his face and his floor manager rushed over. (You see, I asked a question that didn't have an answer on the computer screen in front of him and it wasn't in any manual that he had read to prep for this job.) She told him to look at the routes and fares available and we would go from there. The lowest price he had was Rs. 9500 per leg plus taxes. I asked what happened to the Rs. 7500 rate. He said it doesn't exist. I asked how the rate could disappear in just 3 hours. He had no answer. The manager came to his rescue and said this is most likely an Internet rate that they cannot offer there. I explained I didn't want to book a ticket without knowing all of the rules and restrictions and end up with tickets we couldn't use or refund.

She told me that the fare rules and restrictions were very clearly stated on the site and I could find them there as she did not have access to this information. (Did I mention I was at the Jet office?) I informed her that both my husband and I searched the site thoroughly and could not find the answer which is why we called Delhi, who had us call special packages and they were going to refer us to another number, most likely this office. She said again, "It's very clearly stated on the site under terms and conditions." I told her, " we looked and unless you know the booking class - A,B,D G,K, etc. - I have not been able to find it. Could you please tell me the booking class?" She just repeated, "It's CLEARLY STATED on the site." I said, "My husband is an engineer with an MBA, I have 2 degrees and a Masters. We are not stupid and understand how to search a site. The answer is not there." She just looked disbelievingly at me. I then asked her to show me on the site where the answer was. She said, "I do not have access to this information here and cannot show this to you." BIG HELP THERE! I asked, "Have you looked at your site recently, because the information is not clearly stated." She just repeated herself again that it is CLEARLY STATED ON THE SITE. Now is the point where I come unglued.

I said to her, "Do you want to know why all of these gentlemen are upset with you? This is exactly why. You are supposed to be customer service and be able to assist the customer. None of what you have done today reflects any of this. This is exactly why you are losing customers to SingAir and other airlines. No one can give any answers from any office. No one tries to think outside of the box an help customers." She repeated again how all information is clearly stated on the site and she was sorry she couldn't help me. I started walking out and said, "No, you aren't sorry. Because if you were you would be able to help me instead of repeating yourself over and over. Not one of you actually know what is going on here and you are useless!"

So in conclusion - did I get the tickets to get to Singapore. Yes I did. About one week later online from JetAirways. The best part was it was at the original rate we found AND I did not have to go into the office to get the tickets. For the first time I was able to pay online and get an e-ticket.

I can't wait to get to The Four Seasons where they truly know the meaning of Customer Service!

Trick or Treat - Madras Style

Halloween is not an Indian holiday, but any holiday that involves sweets is definitely one they will look into! Each year the OWC Madras puts on a Halloween Craft Day and Trick or Treating the day following. The children's committee will pick a neighborhood in Chennai with many expat and/or Indian neighbors that are willing to help out. The route is planned and voila, Trick or Treat is good to go!

Sophia decided this year she would be a princess - I know, you're all shocked! I got her dressed up at home and added a little bit of mascara, eye shadow, blusher and of course lipstick. She also didn't want to leave without getting a spritz of Mommy's Versace perfume. She truly is a little princess!!

We practiced how to say - Trick or Treat and also thank you. She was pumped up and ready to go. She was even more excited that she was going to get to see her friends Manni and Julien. She's already boy crazy - we are in sooooooo much trouble when she's older!

We got to Boat Club where we were having the trick or treat route and as luck would have it, Manni hadn't left yet, so they were going to get to go together.

In the picture above, she's with Manni - her own personal Superman to keep her safe. the next one is her getting some goodies. It took a while to get her to warm up and get the treats. As when we arrived there was a boy wearing a white mask with black hood and cape. There was red splashed all over the mask to look like blood. Sophia freaked out and said, "I want to go home - RIGHT NOW!" The boy's mom said the costume was actually supposed to spurt fake blood, but fortunately that part wasn't working properly.

After this happened I convinced Sophia it was Ok and the scary ones weren't going to get her. She wasn't truly convinced until I saw a boy in a Spiderman costume and told her that Spiderman would scare away all of the scary guys! This seemed to work and as long as we stayed a ways behind the large group of older children, we were ok.

Off we went again to several other houses. I think the best treats were at Danie's house. You can click on her name to get her take on everything! She did a great job and Sophia especially liked that Danie let her go through and pick out a bunch of purple and pink Starbursts. Which she did eat and loved.

All in all - I think she had a pretty good time. I wonder what she will think someday when she gets to have Halloween back in the states. It will probably be a complete shock and she will most likely still want to be a princess, or somedays, SPIDERMAN!

Maldives - This is living

Want to know what paradise looks like? This is a photo from our lanai at sunset. Oh yeah baby - This was the life. We arrived in Male after an 8hr. layover in Columbo, Sri Lanka. We got off the plane, picked up our luggage and was escorted directly to the speed boat taking us to The Four Seasons at Kuda Huraa. About 1/2hr. Later, we arrived at our island. We were escorted to the open air reception area where Sophia received a backpack with a starfish, stuffed dolphin, crayons and coloring book. We were all given welcome drinks and they checked us in while we were sitting on the couch there. After we finished our juices, we were escorted to a golf cart which drove us to our bungalow. Sophia was loving all the attention to be sure!

We got there checked in and were in awe, then shortly thereafter, fell asleep. The next morning was pretty much spent the same every day. We got up, went to breakfast, came back and went and sat on the beach in front of our bungalow or hung out on the lanai and played in our splash pool. Then it was either going to lunch or ordering lunch in the bungalow. It cost about the same either way.

In the afternoons we would hang out in the room watching kids videos we borrowed from the hotel or we would take Sophia to Kudamas - Kid's club. There she played with toys, painted, colored, played in the sand some more, got her nails done by a lady at the spa. She also got to go to a touch tank where she touched a pincushion starfish and a sea cucumber that spit water. She thought that was hilarious, but wasn't so much into touching them.

A couple of the afternoons she got to feed the fish off of the main jetty. She saw a huge jack fish and lots of damsel fish. She loved throwing the tuna in and watching all of the fish scramble to get it. It was fun for us to watch her! She didn't like it when we were on the beach and small fish would be near or when we had a baby ray swimming along our beach! Daddy and I thought it was pretty cool! Daddy even had his first snorkeling adventures. I think it's something we may try to do more of!

One evening we went to the crab races. There are quite a few hermit crabs on the island so you always had to check the shells you picked up on the beach to make sure it wasn't some one's home. Both Sophia and I got surprised at different times! Anyway - they caught some, put numbers on the shells and drew circles in the sand. Sophia won 2 of 3 and won a drink. She got - guess what - apple juice!!! There's a close up picture of one of the winning crabs. Mine never even left it's shell. I got the dud!!!

We also took a dolphin cruise. W went to a talk about spinner dolphins and whales. Sophia was pseudo interested but really enjoyed the boat ride and watching the dolphins jump up and spin around. It was definitely worth the money to do this. We were there during the season when the dolphins were most active and got to go on a calm night so there was a lot of activity.

So in summary - would be want to come back here? Most definitely! My advice - try to get here at least once in your life as it was a truly relaxing trip!

Long Time No Post

OK, OK, I know I've waited waaaayyy too long to get back to posting. We went away to the Maldives, got back and I had all sorts of craziness getting ready for the OWC Fire and Ice Ball, then It's been a week of time relaxing from that. But anyway, I'm back and will have to back track on postings. Instead of doing 1 giant post, I'll be splitting them up. Glad to be back and have you all reading.... Now like a good girl, I'm off to do my homework!

A New Form of Stress Relief

As you may or may not know, I started taking Tae Kwon Do (TKD) classes here about a year ago. The school I study at is and ATA and WTTU affiliated school. This means that no matter where I am in the world, as long as the tournament, or school is an ATA school, my belt stands. As of now, I have a purple belt. The progression of colors in this school is: white, orange, yellow, cammo, green, purple, blue, brown, red, red-black, black. Progression only moves slower once you are to the red belt level. Full body sparring begins only at cammo belt and at Purple belt, you begin board breaks.

I've been working on my form (a set move of techniques) and have almost got that down. I also had to add a jump roundhouse kick. (Seemed to get the grasp of this yesterday). Did some sparring with legs (no pads - which means you need to have greater control), and thought class was over. Nope, it was time for my first attempt at a board break.

I've been trying to psych myself up for this for some time and was a bit apprehensive. First I was worried I wouldn't be able to break the board and we only get 3 attempts (or you repeat your belt.) Secondly, with the break I was required to do, forearm, if you hit wrong you could break your wrist, elbow or damage the nerve we know as the funny bone. I defiantly did not want the pins and needles feeling or the blast of pain any of those would bring. My classmate did her first break (she's a red belt - had 2 breaks). First was forearm. No problems - she went right through. Her second was a jump front kick - she broke the board no issues, but also broke off a good portion of her big toenail. This is why we are told always to keep the nails trimmed! She was off to get a band aid and it was my turn.

I had about 2-3 minutes of practice. At this point you make contact with the board, but don't break it. Once I was confident with my placement, I gave the ready signal. I made my move, and "Ky-yah" right though the board. I was so giddy! He said to make sure we had some massage or something to ease the soreness that would develop. I was on such a high, I didn't notice anything until this morning. My whole right shoulder and down my arm was stiff. Oh well, small price to pay!

Imagine - what a way to take out frustrations and get exercise with out hurting anyone, but occasionally myself.

Sickness in India

Being ill is not much fun. Neither is being really ill. It's even less fun when you live in the tropics.

It all started with a cold for Rich and I. Friday he said he was just worn out. So we stayed home and I worked on Sophia's cake. Saturday he seemed to be doing better. I think self medication with gimmlets helped! Then Sunday he wasn't very good at all. By Monday, he was staying in bed and there wasn't much moving him.

Sunday night - he did not sleep. His coughing kept him up and made him miserable. When he decided not to go into work and was sleeping most of the morning. I decided to call the company Dr. I gave him the symptoms (since to me, he sounded like he did when he had walking pneumonia) and the Dr. sent me a text message with the medications to get him. Also as part of the regimen here, no headbaths (don't get your head or face wet) and no cold water as this makes you sick. I went out and got the medications.

I got to the pharmacy nearest us. I had to repeat myself a couple of times and waited for them to get the requested meds. The lady came back and said, "No TusQ". No sorry or anything. I told them I required this medications and they said "I have three of the four medications you need. No TusQ." To which I replied, "so before I traipse all over this city, could you call the nearest Apollo pharmacy near her to see if they have it?" Apparently this thought never crossed their minds. After about 5 minutes of waiting. The guy comes back and says, they have in Adyar - 7 tablets. I told him I needed 10. To which he replied, "They have 7". I asked when the next shipment was coming in to this location. The answer, "Maybe 8pm tonight." (Translation - I have no idea). I get back into my car and told Senthil I needed to go to another Pharmacy. His response "Kottapuram, madame?" Yup - take me to another village. This pharmacy is connected to an Apollo clinic so it is better stocked and I got the TusQ, all 10 tablets, there.

I get home, we dose Rich and hope for the best. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep well that night either. He felt a bit better, but stayed home from work. He talked to his boss and even he said he sounded awful and to work from home.

Wednesday - he went to work and saw the Dr. out at the plant. He said he has a nasty virus as well as infection. He then added codine cough syrup to the mix. If that doesn't take care of the cough, I have no idea what will!

Here's hoping he's better for our trip to Maldives and that Sophia and I don't catch it!

Sophia's 3rd Birthday Party

Hello! Sophia had her third birthday party on Saturday the 15th. It was a blast and to make it nicer, all I had to do was bake and decorate the cakes and get the goodie bags ready. This year we decided to go all out and hired Raja's Entertainments to come and set up a bouncy castle, a giant bouncy slide, a ball pit, and a popcorn machine. We also had them do 100 primary colored gas balloons. the put these on strings and we had small pillars of balloons all over the patio, near the front door and over our gate on a wire. They also set up, manned the equipment and tore down. Pretty nice! They also did a great job and were very reasonably priced. For example, I couldn't have bought 1 of the entertainments for what they charged us.

Next we have the caterer. We hired Sparky's to come and do the food - beef burgers, veg burgers, chicken hot dogs, baked beans and country potatoes. It was awesome- oh yeah - they set up and tore down too!

Finally we had the body paint lady, she painted "tattoos" on the kids that wanted them. Some had necklaces, arm paintings, earrings, scorpions, you name it, she did it. Sophia had Fishies and Stars this time, but it was so hot out that she sweated all of them off by the time we sang Happy Birthday.

The cake was chocolate with butter cream icing. I then put a pink princess castle on it. I think it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. In fact, I just took the rest of the icing to a friend of mine so she could use it. I think she ended up eating it on croissants! I also had a confetti angel food cake since it's Sophia's favorite. Lots of the Indian mothers have been asking me for the recipe. This is an issue since I used good ol' Betty Crocker for the cakes. I only made the icing. Oh well, just goes to show - box cakes have come a long way! Most of the cakes you get here from the bakeries don't have much flavor and the icing is pretty waxy. They just aren't the best things in the world. Everyone was so shocked I did them myself and Thom, from Sparky's, said he was going to have me do all of the restaurant cakes from now on. We'll just have to see about that!

Everyone seemed to have a great time. Sophia looked like she had been thrown in the pool because she was so sweaty and she just didn't want to slow down to stop and drink water. We would just go get her - make sure she drank a bunch and then poured some on her head. My goal was to avoid heat stroke and dehydration. She had a blast and didn't want them to take the inflatable castle and slide away. We had to explain these were just borrowed, not bought.

After the guest left, she opened her presents. She got so many lovely gifts and has added to her Barbie collection. There is no doubt, she is like my sister, Barbies and toy cars are her passions! Nicole, I may have to send her to you and Steve, especially for the teen years, do we have a deal?

Our baby is no longer a baby. She's growing up much too quickly, but I have to say, we enjoy it and love watching her grow!

Sophia Loves to Swim, but.....

This week was a bit calmer for us. Rich is still busy with work and I had my usual round of meetings for OWC. One of the things I find interesting with Sophia's school is the lack of planning. For example, the majority of the Indian schools had Tuesday the 4th off because of Krishna's birthday. Not Sophia's school since they hadn't published it in the book and hadn't had time to send a note out. Therefore - she had Wednesday off and they called it Teacher's Day.

Yesterday we decided to take another walk on the beach. Sophia was all gung ho on the idea until we got close to the water. For some odd reason she's scared of the waves on the sand. She loves getting wet and splashing in puddles, but not the ocean. We ran through some of the water as it was shallow when the waves were just receding, but she still seemed scared. I hope she breaks out of this cycle when we go to Maldives as the whole week will be spent on the beach! On the upside, we are growing a pretty cool seashell collection!

The biggest plans are set for this Saturday, the 15th when we will have Sophia's birthday party. We have hired a guy from Raja's Entertainment to come and put up a jumping castle, ball pit, inflatable slide, helium balloons, and popcorn machine. We are having Sparky's cater and another lady coming to do the body painting. I think it will be a lovely day. The part I'm stressing about is the cake!

Sophia has been changing her mind on an hourly basis as to what she wants for a cake. I'm beginning to think I'll just draw a castle and write Happy Birthday Sophia on it! We'll just have to see what I come up with and how frazzled my nerves will be.

Labor Day Beach Party

So - what do you do on Labor Day in India? Well, usually just go to work. We don't get the US holidays! This year though, Rich thought since most of the other ISE's on his team were taking the day off to be with their families, so would he. (The American International School here does observe US holidays.)

We got up and took Sophia to school. She was so proud to show him she walks to class by herself and knows the way. Then we went off in search of good red apples. This can be a fun trick since all of the Red apples Sophia likes are Washington Reds imported from the US. Which why is it I can get them cheaper here then in the states at times? That's one I've yet to figure out. Then a quick stop at Another shop where we got her some sand toys to take on our trip to the Maldives at the end of September. A cup of cappuccino at Cafe Coffee Day and then waited for the Chief Minister and his entourage to go past us on his way to a meeting in Mamahallapuram.

Sophia was so excited to see us! She screamed Mommy! DADDY! We then played on the playground for a bit. Went home changed clothes (for her) and went to have lunch with Robert. From there began the search for auqa socks. Something we have found doesn't exsist in this city. The idea was to get these for Sophia since she freaks out when she has sand in her shoes and we wanted to go down to walk the beach in front of our house. After many stops and all afternoon in shops, we finally found a pair of shoes that would work and in her size (that's often the next trick!)

We got home and got her a small bucket and off we went to the beach. We had to walk to one end of our road to get beach access and go through a small fishing village. It was at this point I wished we had a camera. Children came flocking from everywhere to say "Hello Uncle, Hello Aunty" and look at Sophia. When we finally got past all of the children there was a group of men who were in awe of Sophia. Usually this involves a lot of snapping and clicking to get her attention and then out come the camera phones to take pictures of the blonde girl. Usually she's pretty good about it, other times crabby. They all want to hold her too...This is something she was not going to allow.

We had a blast looking for shells - especially when we went down to the waterline where the beach was cleaner and the water could come up around our feet. Sophia walked part way and then Daddy had to carry her because she was afraid of the water coming in and out. He stood and let the waves wash up around his ankles while holding her and you should've seen the look on her face. She went from "Mommy! Don't let the water take you!" to "Go out and get that shell Mommy!"

The walk truly was relaxing and somethingwe weill probably do again and again. My advice, if you're ever stressed out - go for a walk on the beach!

Time is Getting Away from Me

Wow - I've gone awhile without a post, but I have to admit time has gotten away from me this week. It seems I have been on the go all this week and I just looked up and it's Thursday already! Let's start from Richard getting home.

He got back late Sunday night from St. Petersburg. Russia. To the left is a picture of the Church of the Spilled Blood. It's a beautiful piece of architecture. He told me up until recently (within the past years) it had been used as a warehouse to store potatoes and onions. They have since worked to restore it to what it once was. He had some pictures of the interior too, and they are amazing! The tops of this church are what our friends who live there see out of their window every morning. What a view! He also brought back more nesting dolls! Sophia got a Snow White version and a Dora the Explorer one. I got one that is both wood burned and painted. It's a bit more crude than the two he's brought but also beautiful. My biggest surprise was Amber jewellery. I have always loved jewellery, but since we have been here I've started wearing a lot more and more often. I've really bugged for original amber, but it can get a bit pricey here. When we were in Spain, it was higher still. On that note - I figured - forget it, I'm not getting any. He's brought back a beautiful necklace and earrings. I just love these pieces. He still knows how to surprise me! Did I mention how much he loves St. Petersburg? I really think this is one of his favorite work places to go and go early to see the sights! One of these days, I'll get to go too.......I hope!

So Sunday was spent hanging around the house with Daddy! It is sooo great to have him home. We got up made pancakes and lounged around for most of the day. On to Monday (Onam - no school for Sophia)- I got ready for my TKD class, but it was cancelled due to lack of people and no keys for the loo and changing rooms. I then went into the city and met some friends for lunch. After lunch it was off to the Lufthansa office to check about upgrading some legs of our flight to San Diego in April for my sister's wedding. Luckily, this time, the office visit was quite painless and I got the information easily!

Tuesday -(still no school for Sophia - Raska Bandhan) I had a meeting with some ladies from OWC about the up coming ball. I think it will go well and we've got some things delegated to very capable ladies. Then I had a Marathon lunch with Danie and another friend Joanne. This is where I was taunted with a horrible looking picture of a spider! That's right - Me the arachnophobe - seeing this and then having the darn photo blown up and shown to me again so I can see the glowing eyes. Not good! You can read all about this spider on Danie's blog - www.EarthtoDanie.blogspot.com listed on the right hand column. I'm glad it was in her house and not mine! I then went home to Sophia and we had Mac and Cheese since Daddy had a business dinner.

Wednesday, took Sophia to school and picked up Julie for a coffee with a new ISE. We had all of the CAT ladies there and it was nice for her to see so many different levels of people here. Some new, some here starting their 3rd year. I think she got a good overview. When the poor woman asked what we do all day, I had to respond, "you're lookin' at it!" Half joking, Half not. It got a lot of good giggles and we did have fun. I then met friends for lunch and headed home.

Last night we had some horrible lightening/thunder. Somehow in the midst of it all - Sophia stayed asleep and out step up/step down power converter died along with a US power strip! This translates to no TV/DVD player in the living room. I will have to go out and see what I can find for a power converter here. We have a 1000KW one for the computer, but would like to have something bigger for the TV - the search is on!!! Wish me luck!

Itsy Bitsy Spider Day

The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the waterspout! Thursday was Itsy Bitsy Spider day and Sophia got the be a spider for her class. Luckily, our neighbor had a spider costume from last year and she needed pink pants to dress her boy as a pig. We did a swap and Sophia had a great time! If you asked her if she was the Itsy Bitsy Spider, she quickly responded - "NO! I'm SPIDERMAN! -SHHHHHH (shooting her web)! She was quite proud and I had trouble getting her to relinquish the costume.

Friday I got her up and ready to go, got to school and then remembered - It's Varalakshmi Puja, no school. In fact - there's no school until Wednesday because of Onam and some other pujas that need to happen. As someone had told us, you may not get all of the holidays off you are familiar with, but it will more than be made up in other days!

We went home and got busy entertaining her with other things since she was really upset she didn't have school. Then I left for a going away luncheon for one of my friends. When we asked her what she was going to miss most - she wasn't sure, but Luncheons were at the top of her list!

I've had lots of great feedback about the Welcome Back Luncheon, so that is a big relief! I know someone said, It went well and I responded with, "well, they haven't fired me yet!" The also heard quickly from another lady responding - "and we're not about to!" I hope this is a good omen for the ball to come.

This morning I helped with auditions for a kid's theatre club - MADRAS Kids. We had about 36 kids to audition. I thought it would take all morning, but surprisingly, they did much better this year and it went quickly. After the auditions, I sang a song for them from Yeston's Phantom. They were impressed and had even invited the parents in to hear me. I had lots of questions asked afterwards including, how do you breathe? How do you sing that high? How long have you been singing? How old are you? And lots of questions of that sort. It was fun and they seemed to enjoy it. I had to also tell them when they asked that I had never really had a lead in any show. They were pretty floored, but I don't think they realize all the politics involved! They will eventually learn.

Tonight Richard comes home and I can't wait to see him. Sophia will probably be up very early as she and I have been counting nighttime sleeps until he comes home. Tonight is her last sleep and she's planning on jumping into the bed and saying hello. I'm sure morning will come way too early for him!

Our Tattoo Princess

Well - the insanity is over for me for a couple of days. I am the current president of the Overseas Women's Club here and we just had our first "big" event of the year. I tried to keep telling myself - I will be panicked beforehand and everything will go just fine. It did and now I can breathe. Only for a little while, we have the annual ball coming up in Oct. and this is the biggest fundraiser of the year - Let the meetings begin.

As for the past weekend - Rich left on Friday night for Russia and got there just fine. He has called a couple of times and it seems they are getting to do quite a bit of site seeing as well as work at the plant. It's always nice to visit a city when there are people you know living there. You really get the ins and outs this way. They had gone to one of the palaces that is out on an island. I'll have to apologize, I don't know the name of it, but I do know that it is basically their version of Martha's Vineyard. Tonight they are going to a blues club. Who would've thought that you could find one in St. Petersburg!

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for one of Sophia's friend Freddie. She had a great time playing with all of the other kids (it was in conjunction with the OWC playgroup) and also collection goodies from the pinata and singing happy birthday. What was really nice is that instead of bringing gifts. His mother asked we all bring some fruit. They then took this to The Cheshire Home which is right across the street. This is a home for developmentally and physically handicapped people (all ages) and fruit is quite a treat! It made us feel good to be doing something for others.

As you can see here - there was a lady doing "tattoos" with body paint. Our usually rambunctious daughter stood amazingly still while the lady painted not 1, not 2 but 4 designs on Sophia. She first had the one with the hearts down her arm. Then the flowers on the other. She went back and asked for more. The lady for lack of another place to put a picture painted earrings on her! Not only was there paint involved, but also Glitter. I spoke with the lady doing the work and found out she does this for all sorts of parties and is available if we were interested. Since Sophia had so much fun. I booked her for Sophia's birthday party. The lady told me she will need to bring 16 pots of pink paint just for Sophia! I guess she's got her figured out. After we got home - Sophia wasn't going to let me wash it off before bed, because Daddy didn't get to see it. I had already taken some pictures, but she wouldn't budge until I promised the lady would be at her birthday party and would paint more pictures then. I'm sure she's already planning in her mind how much pink she will get the lady to put on her!

Daddy's comment was - let's be glad she hasn't yet decided to make them permanent!

Long Time - No Post

I guess it's been too long since my last post - at least in my mind anyway. I really should try to post everyday even if there isn't much to say. I don't want anyone to think something bad has happened to us.

First and foremost we finally have our curtains up. They look fantastic! It's also so nice to have some form of privacy!

Curtains in the living room

Curtains in Sophia's Room

Blinds in our room

This has basically been the big excitement around the house.

Wednesday was Independence day here. We didn't do much of anything except go up to Sparky's for lunch and then picked up some DVD's for Richard to take to friends in Russia. When we asked which movies they wanted - he said ANYTHING!

Then yesterday as I was coming from TKD and trying to decide how to clean up and change as quickly as possible for a lunch date with the American Consulate Community Liaison Officer, my phone rings. It's the A/C servicemen. They are going to come today no later than 11:30am to clean the a/c's. I figure fine - my maid will be there. Shock of all shocks, they show up at 11:15. (Amazing, I know). They start to work on the A/C units first in our room. after they move to work on the other units, I take a really quick shower. As I'm finishing getting ready, the doorbell rings. Josephine comes up to inform me it's the guy from the curtain place to collect on the bill. My reply was, "well of course it is." I told her he could wait for 5 minutes while I finished getting ready. I come down, pay him and we're off to the luncheon.

Sophia had fun playing with someonelse's toys and was so well behaved at the lunch. Then it was off to meet a new OWC member at the Park Sheraton. She was so well behaved. I have to say she certainly is growing up. She waited to be excused to the bathroom before she threw a temper tantrum. I guess this is somewhat of a start!

Richard leaves for Russia tonight and he will be gone for a week. I know he has a wonderful time there, but we sure miss him!

UNIFORMS!!!!!!

Guess what. On Monday I let the Uniform thing go. I didn't ask the administrator anything. On Tuesday, I approached the desk to ask, and he immediately replied, "The uniforms have come. I have put 2 size fours in my office for you." Knowing full well if I asked to get them right away, I would be told to wait and pick them up Saturday. We come to Wednesday, "Madam Thompson - please come, we have your uniforms." I thanked the administrator, gladly paid my Rs.500 for the two uniforms and was on my way. Thursday - Sophia was in a nice clean uniform - HURRAH!

What's been so upsetting about the whole ordeal is you shouldn't have to berate people in order to get anything accomplished. I actually had an Indian mother tell me that this is the only way you can get any action. Unfortunate, but true. It frustrates me that if you are nice to someone, staff, school administration, they take advantage of you. If you act like a raving lunatic, they do what they should. (By the way - this is an Indian run school and claims to be International only because they teach in English).

Today after my OWC executive meeting, I had to go to Immigration. If you recall, they had somehow mysteriously lost my letter, but had Rich's. Strange, but true. (After reading about my other trials, this should come as no shock to you!). I had a visa that expired on Sept. 8. If it didn't get renewed, I wouldn't be able to get back into the country if I left. Since we have booked our next trip to the Maldives (oh yeah!) at the end of Sept. this could cause troubles. Luckily - today was my day to go. The office where they actually process/stamp/sign your documents is very small and not well ventilated. When filled with people, it just gets worse. About 1 hour after waiting, I had my Visa extension in hand. I'm now good to go until June 8, 2008. Then we get to do this ALL OVER AGAIN. Part of the joys of expat life.

I've started back to my Tae Kwan Do classes yesterday and Rich would tell you it's none too soon! Apparently - it's obvious it's my stress relief. I got to start In Wah 1 - purple belt. No more Songahms. I only have a few more belts before I get to red when things start to slow down and take longer. From here I go to blue, then Brown then Red. After a year or so at Red, it's on to Red/Black and then Black recommended and so forth. Long process but one I'm willing to follow. Finding an ATA class here has been great!

Other than that, it's business as usual here. I hope everything is well with you too.

Administration Woes

Where to begin? Yesterday morning was not my morning, and at the rate we were going, the afternoon didn't look good either. Things were humming along fine until I went to Sophia's school to pick up her uniform and shoes.

Let me set the stage on the uniform saga. I went on June 8, as requested to get the shoes we had to order in April and her uniform. When I got there, there were no small sizes available. I told them I needed a 3 or 4 and they kept offering 5 or 6 madam? This is a behavior that really irritates me. If they don't have what you are asking for, they keep offering the next size up or something else they have that isn't even related. Frustrated I saw Sophia's teacher from last year who was handling uniform orders. I ordered 2 size 4 uniforms and asked who her teacher would be. I got giggles, head wobbling and, I can't say. As if it's some big secret. I told her I want to know who it is and who her classmates are so I can talk to her about what's going to happen. I get she'll find out on the 15th. I told her I hope it's the 14th because that's when school starts! She suggested I talk with the administrator.

I go to the office and state It's unbelievable to have 4 sections of playschool and 4 - 5 sections of nursery students and not have enough small size uniforms ordered to meet needs. When I ask who her teacher is - he asks 'Have you paid your fees and can I see your receipt?" As if I carry that around with me in case of emergencies. I told him I came in on May 10th as you had informed all parents this was the compulsory day to pay fees and I in fact sat in front of him and paid him directly. (Anger is now bubbling) When I asked who her teacher is, he went to get the principal. I then lay into her as to why I'm not happy and she says she cannot say who the teacher is as they have not yet finished putting students into class groups as enrollment is an on-going thing. Get this - School starts in 6 days and they don't have class lists or enough required uniforms. I get really indignant and tell them this is exactly why more ex-patriots do not attend this school and will pay USD 18,000 to send their pre schooler to the American school. She told me to call on Saturday and she would tell me her teacher then, would that make me happy? I said no, it wouldn't and I needed to leave before I really got angry. Oh yeah, and the shoes would be there the first Saturday after school started.

Anyway - Eventually I got the timings (which we were told several different things) and her teacher sorted out. I go to get the shoes on the "compulsary" day. I take "Sir" (Richard) with me because I already know this is going to be bad. It's also the last Sat. we are in town before we went on home leave. We get there and you guessed it "NO SHOES" they will be in next Sat along with the uniforms we were promised for that day. Mayham ensues. The assistant principal comes in and Sir talks to her. After much discussion, mostly us being angry at the lack of communication and wasted time, she promises us she will set aside both pairs of shoes (size 6 & 7) and 2 size four uniforms. They will be here when we get back from home leave.

Now - keep in mind we are only able to purchase the uniforms on Saturdays between 9 and 12. And Sophia was sick the first Sat. we were back and I wasn't up to par the 2nd one. So now we are to yesterday and I go to get her shoes and uniform.

I go down to the uniform piles and ask the people there - I was to have 2 size 4 uniforms set aside for Sophia Thompson. They look at me and say - no small sizes. I start looking in the boxes for a size 4. They say - here 6. I said "no 4 and hold up four fingers" They say - Here 8. I say "NO FOUR "- and hold up 4 fingers again. Then I get, "here - 5". No I'm getting ticked off. I just say I'm going to the office and will discuss it there. And Add - "Now why would I take a 5 when I specifically asked for a size 4?" I go to the office and tell the girl there how there were to be 2 size 4 girls uniforms set aside for Sophia. She looks at me and says, "Why are you just coming now?" I stopped and didn't say anything. They said "madam?" I replied, "you need to give me a minute to count to 10 and calm myself down before I explode." I explain the whole home leave situation and illness thing to her along with the promise from the asst. principal. I then tell them - you have sold my uniforms. She takes me down to where the uniforms are.

As we are slowly, and I mean Slowly walking down to where they are, she is speaking in Tamil with some of the maids who are giggling and head bobbling (sizes hehehe). I stop and say, "Don't talk about me in Tamil in front of me." She stops, "madam?" I said I know enough to know when I'm being talked about and I don't appreciate it. We get down there and we again go through - here's a 5. This infuriates me. She said we have no small sizes as they have not yet come from Mumbai. Take the 5 or 6. I then blow up and call her dishonest and a bald faced liar. I know a shipment has come in because children my daughter's size are in them and they are not from last year's stock as one of the children I know of wasn't here when they were sold. You have sold my uniforms.

On to the shoe stand - they first have us appearing as if we have already gotten the shoe. Mistake 1. Then they get the 7's and wander around like the three stooges for the next 5 minutes. No size 6. Even though we ordered them in April and were told in April they would get them. They finally say - they don't make this shoe in a toddler size 6. (Information that would 've been good to have in, oh, I don't know, APRIL!) I grab the shoes and storm to the administrator's office. I don't wait for the girl as she creeps around at a snail's pace (because she know's I've caught her in a lie).

With the administrator I go back over the situation and the promises that were made. I then asked did you or did you not already receive 1 shipment of uniforms in small sizes already. He said yes we did. I told him his girl lied about this and said they have not yet received any. I also told him I'm sick of being told things and by the Asst. Principal none the less only to find out they are lies. No one communicates and also I don't appreciate being talked about in front of me in another language. I said, I may not speak Tamil, but I know enough to know when people are talking about me. He said not to go to anyone else. He would handle this personally and with in 7-10 days I'd have my uniforms. I'm thinking I'm going to go to the Asst. Principal anyway to discuss the lies I got from her.

I ask him how much for the shoes. He said I needed to go down and pay the shoe guy (Again information that should've been shared oh, at the shoe stand?). He says Rs.250. I said when I ordered them they said Rs.178. After some conferring - they say ok Rs.185 (Which is the price stamped, stamped I say, into the shoe.) I leave quite aggrivated knowing that when I get home Josephine has made our favorite coconut rice and cinnamon beef curry.

You would think this ended my bad morning. Oh no such luck. While Rich and I were on our way into the city, I get a call from my consultant doing my curtains. There seemed to be some issue with the tailoring place and I needed to stop in and give some prepayment before they would deliver all of my curtains and blinds on Monday morning. I get there and they said, yes here are the curtains. I said "I don't want to take them with me. I was told there was an issue." He said yes, madam wants Rs.10,000 in advance payment. Keep in mind I have never received a proforma invoice for the stitching and had never been asked for a partial advance payment. He then says everything is finished but the Master Bedroom blinds. They would start these on Monday. This is they day they were all to be delivered. We decide to give then Rs.5,000 and tell them to deliver all of the curtains together at which time they will receive the balance of funds. Now they are supposed to come hang them Tuesday morning. We'll wait and see.

The saving grace of the day was going to dinner at a friends house. Lovely steaks, salads, coffee, liquor, desserts, converstation and time with the doggie. Need I say more? I was a great way to wind up what otherwise could've been a horrible day!

Stay posted for the continuing saga of ----THE UNIFORMS THAT NEVER WERE!

Rainy Days and Mondays

You know, it's like the Carpenter's song - Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down. Ok. it's Friday and I'm dating myself with the song reference, but the rain is getting to me. Don't get me wrong, we need the rain, it's just some blue sky would be nice.

Everyone in this house is healthy as of today. However, today when we got to school a little boy was sitting there and vomiting. His mother said it was because he gets car sick. He looked pretty lethargic and every other morning it's fine, so I think he may have what is going around. Boy won't it be fun to go through that again. Luckily, he's a year older than Sophia and not in her class!

Sophia is loving school and spending time with her friends. Her teacher this year is Divya. She's young and is very cheerful and energetic. Sophia seems to really like her. They are working on drawing straight lines and she practices this at home. Last night, she drew a smiley face all by herself. She was so proud and we were so excited!

The American School opens again Monday - so this means a lot of people are just getting back into town. It'll be nice to see some old friends and get back to Tae Kwan Do! I can tell I haven't been moving around as much and need the tension release it provides. I'll be at purple belt and I plan to get to brown this year. (Maybe red, but that's pretty ambitious!) I'll just have to see where time takes me.

Doing Better

Let's see - I believe I'm back to 100%. Ok, maybe not 100% but doing much better. Thank Goodness that I didn't have it hang on as long as poor Sophia. Now I'm just tired. I guess one of the joys of Tropical Living is tropical illnesses! The best thing I have found to do is refer to your maid or other staff that have lived here all their lives. They usually have the best advice for how to handle things.

Since we are coming into monsoon season (it's early this year if you ask me), we are having quite a bit of rain. Fortunately most of it has fallen during the night and we just wake up to a wet and very green garden. However, yesterday it rained all morning. This put a damper on the coffee I was hosting for someone looking to move to Chennai! First off, it took me 1 1/2hrs to go a distance that usually takes me 30-40min. Oh yeah. Rain does delay things that much! Most of the people here ride motorcycles. They are all trying to dodge the puddles along with all the cars, buses, trucks, and autorickshaws on the road. Let's not forget to mention all of the people walking around. It makes for very interesting travelling. Thank Goodness for iPods! This has been a savior in bogged down traffic.

Because I had to be in the city with the driver, I arranged for an Autorickshaw to take our maid to Sophia's school to pick her up. Sophia had a ball riding in it. She told me they bump, bump, bumped on the road, and Auntie held her tight so she wouldn't fall out. I think we may end up having to take her again.

The big fun now is trying to decide where to go for our next R & R trip. It has been up in the air since we don't know what we want to do. We've narrowed down to going up north to Agra and seeing the Taj Mahal and other palaces or going to the Maldives and relaxing on a beach in our own bungalow. I think the beach and relaxing with doing not much of anything is winning out!

End of the month here also brings salary time for me. This involves getting the salaries together for our maid, gardeners and pool guy. This also brings about - I have been here 1 year so do I get a raise. Hadn't thought about all of that, but to be fair, we get yearly raises therefore so should they. My maid was happy with the increase Rich and I decided on so, I guess we get her for 1 more year. (Thank Goodness!) I don't think she'd go too far though - she is very attached to Sophia and is already saying she wants to come back to the US with us. When we go - this could get interesting, but that is a post for a whole other day and time!

I Spoke Too Soon...

Ok Last post - everyone healthy? Yeah right. I posted that too soon! I am now going through what both Richard and Sophia went through the past week, but I get to have both of their symptoms. It started Saturday night when I felt a bit nauseous and my back felt like it had been struck by a 2 x 4. Not Good. I took a Doan's PM and Richard was kind enough to take care of Sophia yesterday morning.

I woke up Sunday morning, feeling better. We went about our business and had lunch as scheduled with some potential new Ex-pats to Chennai and then Richard went to get his tattoo re-inked as it had faded pretty badly. I still felt OK. Sophia and I had gone home to let her run around a bit and then we headed back into the city to get Rich. He called us at 6:00 to say they had just finished the touch-up and said to go get something to eat while they started working on his new one. Sophia and I went to Sparky's and got our food. I felt a bit queasy and rumbly, but thought it was probably just hunger. WRONG!

We get food for Rich and head over to Irezumi (tattoo/piercing parlor here). We wait for Rich to get finished and then head home. When we are almost home - cramps kicked in. Not good. We get home. I tuck Sophia in and run to the bathroom. This by the way is where I spent most of the night. Again - Not good.

Thinking Sophia would wake me up about 7am this morning I kind of dozed off. I wake up at 8am. She has to be to school at 8:30 and she's snoozing away. After a mad dash around the house, I get her ready and me stable enough to take her to school. It looks like another fun day ahead! Let's hope this doesn't hang on all week!

All's Well!!!

Yesterday Sophia finally started acting like herself. And NO VOMITING! She is once again yelling to get our attention and giving orders. Yup, back to herself! She even ate 2 slices of pizza last night.

Richard has begun ayurvedic treatments for his sinuses and today is also getting a massage. You wouldn't believe the gunk that is coming out! He was so clogged up at the last treatment, they told him he will need to come back a couple of times to get it completely cleared up. Hey, if it's working that well, I may need to try it!

Other than that - not much to report. We're simply glad to have everyone happy and healthy again! Let's hope it stays this way for awhile.

All That's fit to Print

Yesterday I went on an interview with the New Indian Times to do a piece about OWC. What I didn't expect is a photographer there the whole time snapping pictures while I was answering her questions about OWC and what we do. I have to say it was a bit unnerving and then everyone else in the cafe kept looking at me wondering just who and the heck I was! I think the interview went well though and we should get some good press of OWC.

On the home side - Sophia is still battling tummy troubles. I'm not sure what else to do for her other than keep her home. I make sure she sips liquids and try to get her to eat some bland solids, but she doesn't seem to want to eat. Last night she seemed fine and even ate dinner really well. After dinner, we played and had a bath, still fine. But right after she wanted to go to bed is when the fun began. The poor girl had it coming from both sides. I hope whatever this is gets out of her system soon!

Houston We Have a Problem.

Off to Immigration I went. iPod and fan in hand to patiently wait our turn to go up and get our Visa Extensions stamped. When I got into the van the first thing I notice is the fumes. I think when our driver went to get diesel for the generator - there was a bit of spillage in the back. Not good. I crack the window as much as I dare and slowly start to feel the effects of the fumes.

I get to immigration early and Rich arrives shortly after. Our agent gets there and goes in to get our visas. She comes out a while later and says, they have Richard's but not yours. They were stating that the letter was written only to extend his visa, not mine. She told them to hunt down the letter to Delhi proving this was the case, but somehow the gentlemen who had this letter and the letter had disappeared. Rich was able to go ahead and get his stamped and is set to go until June 7, 2008.

Luckily, my visa is currently good until September and our agent said that wit should be resolved in the next couple weeks. Especially since Rich had received his visa and Sophia hers - this proves there was a communication glitch with the Delhi office. She will work on this and contact us when it's resolved. Oh the joys of Bureaucracy! That being said, I'm told the US Immigration office is just as bad if not worse, somehow, I don't doubt this!

Home again, Home again. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We warmed up left over chili and made some eggs for Sophia. She fell asleep in the chair at 8pm and Rich wasn't far behind. The best part - we get to do it all over again!

Weekend Update with....

When we arrived back we were told monsoon fever was going around. What this amounts to is lots of viral fever and nausea related to the weather change and all of the dampness. I thought we might be able to avoid it as we didn't seem to have any issues last year....No Such luck!

Friday night we were supposed to attend a BBSC event, but Rich came home and looked like death. He was nauseous and said his whole body ached. He went to bed at about 8 and fell asleep. Sophia wasn't far behind him. At 2am Sophia woke screaming. I went in and she felt warm. I took her temp - 102.2F. I got out the Motrin and cuddled her until she fell asleep.

Saturday - Rich was feeling better and we did end up going out to a going away dinner for one of his co-workers. Sophia still battled fever off and on but we kept it at bay with Tylenol and Motrin. (Thanks Dr. Patel for that little trick!). She stayed the evening with Josephine and she was fine.

Sunday - Sophia seemed better. Rich seemed better. R came over for dinner that night. We made Chili, cornbread and brownies. Afterwards Sophia started watching Aladdin and while I was picking up the dishes started screaming bloody murder. Daddy came running with her. When she hasn't fallen and is screaming like that, it means you have about 30 seconds to get to a bathroom for her to throw up. She threw up and then cuddled with me the rest of the night.

Today I'm keeping her home and letter her just take things at her own pace. Later I have to meet Richard at Immigration to get our extension on our Visas - let's hope this all goes with out a glitch!

The Best Kept Secrets In India

Ok - I don't like to be too negative as this only gets things on a roll, but I do have to tell about my biggest gripe here in India.

The manuals for any appliance or piece of equipment in the US are usually very detailed as of all the error that can appear or issues that may happen. It will say when you get this error - do this to remedy the situation. In India - if you look to a manual for troubleshooting they usually have a few questions - is the power connected? Is the water connected (in the case of the washing machine) and have you tried it in another outlet? If any of these do not fix the issue, please contact your service provider.

When you do contact the service provider, they state they will have someone call to set up an appt. with you within 24 hrs. For those of you who have ever lived in India - time is not relevant. I had specifically told the washing machine guy and the Tata Sky guy the repairmen need to be here before 12pm. It's now 12:30 - no calls, no repairmen.

When I spoke with them on the phone yesterday I already had issues. With the Whirlpool people, I asked what the f3 error meant. No one could seem to tell me, only thing they would say is that there would be a Rs.285 inspection fee. They gave me another number to call saying they could tell me what the error was. This person said we'll send someone to come fix. I asked what the error meant, and they said, we will send someone to come fix. When I pressed to get an answer they told me to call the service center, who just told me to call them. (Do you see where this is going?) I told them I need to know what this error is so when the servicemen come to fix it and there is a cost I have an estimate of the cost to be sure I can pay them. I received the answer of I'll call you back in 10min. No one ever did.

I talked then with Tata sky. They gave me the run around asking if I had checked the outlet, plugged it in somewhere else, etc. I told them I have done everything his repair person had done in the past and they needed to send someone with yet our 3rd box. They promised me we'd have someone here between 10am-12pm the next day.

Fast forward to today. I start making calls. The Tata sky people tell me their system is down and they are not able to access my complaint. I need to call back in 30min. and they will be able to assist me at that time. OK, fine - timer has begun.

I call the whirlpool quality people (the people actually responsible for coming to our place.) I asked why no one has come. They first act as though they have no idea what this about, and then tell me all of the supervisors are in meeting and they will call me back in 10min. Another timer running. I told them if I did not hear back from them, I would be calling as their 10min. the previous day resulted in no phone call.

Time passes - No call - I call Whirlpool. They have taken the phone off the hook. I then call the mobile number I have for that location. He acts oblivious and tells me I should call the service center. I told him wrong answer, he need to answer to why I was lied to 10min. ago. He says he will look into in and then call back in 5min. I told him if we didn't receive a call back, he would be hearing from us and then he would have to speak with my husband.

30 mins. from Tata sky call - I call back. I said, "before I get into the explanation, are your systems up and running to where you could research my complaint." He said "no ma'am, we are having technical difficulties, please call back in 30mins." After everything that has been happening I hit the roof. I said "I was told call in 30 mins., 30 mins. ago." He said, "technical difficulties, call back in 30min." I said, "do you even know what the problem is and when it will be fixed?" He stared into some long round about answer that was truly no answer at all. I stopped him and said, "I simply want to know, yes or no - do you know what the problem is and how long it will take to get fixed." My answer was call back 30mins. from now. I repeated I want a yes or no answer - he finally admitted they had no idea what the problem was or when they would be able to access the system. I said, "Simply tell me that instead of lying with 30min." I also stated I was amazed that this is the computer help center of the world and they can't even get their own systems running. Basically I had lost hope for seeing this repairman at all.

Time is up for Whirlpool. I called the man back and informed him his 5mins. were up and I now have my husband to talk to him. Boy did Rich lay into him and he got sent to another person. When he talked with the manager he said someone would be coming between 2-3pm. (Translation 5pm or later). Rich laid into him how he wasn't keeping a promised appt. and that if someone wasn't here in 1/2hr how then he would get a call and then be really irate! He also informed the guy we would not be paying the inspection fee.

While he's dealing with them...other land line rings. Tata sky repairman, I will be there in 2hrs. I asked why he missed the 10-12 appt. he said, I will be there 2-3hrs. I asked him if he had been told to be here between 10-12. He said yes. "Look at your watch, what time is it now?" "1:30 madam." "Where are you now?" "in an auto" "No, where in the auto are you?" "Mount Road." "It takes 30-40minutes to get to our home from there. You have this amount of time to arrive and fix the problem."

Moving forward- Tata Sky guy arrives - goes over all the things we told him we already did and replaces the box. Shortly after, Whirlpool guys arrive. They look at the machine and say - oh, your water intake filter is plugged, and drain it into a bucket and hook it back up. Amazing! Rich said, you know, we asked yesterday what this error meant and if someone had simply told us to do this yesterday, you could have saved a trip. They did put in a water softener for the machine and that will help keep the dinginess out of the clothes, so I am ok with that.

All the repairs are now finished and we can finally get ready to go out and have a nice anniversary dinner!

Keep in mind the best kept secret in India - if you can fix it yourself, we don't have jobs!