Mango dal and aloo chaat

This is our first real meal that I have cooked in India. I loved every minute of it. The kitchen smelled of mint, coriander, cumin and mangoes.
Aloo Chaat
Dice 3 potatoes into cubes and fry until golden and cooked through. Place potatoes in a bowl and toss with red chilli powder, cumin powder and chaat masala (premix of salt, mango powder, cumin, black pepper,mint leaf, ginger,chilli, caraway,clove, nutmeg, pomegranate seed, coriander and bishop's weed). Add tamarind and mint chutney to taste. I could only find tamarind paste and it did the trick.
Mango Dal
Wash and soak one cup of toorvar dal for one hour. Add salt and 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder. Cook until half cooked. Peel an unripe mango and cut into big chunks and add to the dal. Cook until dal is soft and mango pieces are cooked to a pulp. In a small saucepan heat oil and and fry 1/2 tsp mustard seeds until they splutter. Add in a finely chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic and fry until brown. Add in red chilli and soem curry leaves. Mix into dal.
So delicious is might be dinner again tonight! 

My kitchen!

We moved into our new apartment on Monday morning. Hopefully this is our last move. It is a lovely bright apartment on the 7th floor of a resort type complex. There are lots ofex pats living here. They are mainly of Indian origin but with American accents. I think there are about 15-20 little towers in this complex each about 7 storeys. There is a swimming pool, gym, resturant, grocery store, tennis court, basketball court and a childrens playground. There is also lots of grass to sit on which seems to be a rarity here. Most playgrounds are dirt. There is an english speaking maid that comes in for a couple of hours each day to clean and organise things. She seems lovely and has promised to teach me how to cook rotis and use the pressure cooker. The kitchen is well stocked with a little bench top oven, a microwave and gas cooker. There is a big fridge/freezer so I will be able to get back into freezing meals for Daisy. The weather is hot but not hot enough for the air conditioner during the day. We turned it on last night as the three of us in a little bed were churning out some heat! The first meal I cooked here was just lovely. I was surrounded by fresh herbs, which wilted a bit after being soaked in milton, and the smell of mangoes! We had mango dal and aloo chaat (chunks of potato cooked and then dusted with curry spices) with a bit of spinach. I washed the spinach in mineral water and hoped for the best. We seem to still be here this morning so it musthave been okay. We get a big bottle of water delivered when we need it. The complex apparently filters and cleans it own water and this is in the big bottles. I use it to boil water but not to drink and not for Daisy. I now have to trust the bottles of water that I get from the supermarket for her. i think the quality of bottled waterr over here has improved over the last few years. The other mums use it and their babies seem fine! Daisy and I are spending the day in the apartment. We have told our driver that we will ring him if we need him, otherwise he will sit outside and just wait in case we need him. Daisy has an earache and her fifth tooth is coming through so a quiet day will not be wasted. Also we have organised for our air shipment to arrive this afternoon and that will be very exciting. Even unpacking our suitcase has made it feel like home and we seem to have settled in very quickly. My 'Harrods' teapot is on the table so all is well with the world! 

Our New Flat

Today we moved into our new flat in Bangalore's Diamond District. This is the name for a large complex of apartments that surround a pool, park and leisure complex. The photo above shows the layout. You can see our flats by clicking here and my office by clicking here. It took me about 7 mins to walk the distance today, and about 40 mins to drive it. The traffic here is really really bad!
We've just had an amazing curry, Daisy's asleep and we're about to catch the end of a movie. Later this week Daisy's cot will arrive and we'll really move in, but the place feels like home already.

More from Leanne later... 

Our first autorickshaw ride!

We have had quite the week so we have been looking forward to having a quiet weekend jsut the three of us. Sautrday morning started out well with tea, coffee and bottles in bed. We are getting used to sleeping in one big bed, though I do wake up to see Chris and I lying right on the edges with Daisy sprawled out in between. I am getting used to the arm being flung across my face and I soon settle back to sleep. Still, again we say that we can't wait for her cot to arrive. i managed to do some washing out of a bucket and have various bits of clothing strung up around the apartment. Our clothes get so dusty and dirty here. Our new apartment has a washing machine and I can't wait to get hold of it. We have been living out of suitcases and there is a blurred line between clean and dirty clothes. I seem to have Daisy's breakfast sorted out, being cerealac (baby porridge) with stewed apples followed by promite on toast. Our breakfast is filter coffee for Chris from an indian coffee filter that he thinks is very cool, a glass of cold mango juice (tropicana) and either cereal with longlife milk or if you can't face the milk we have toast. They don't have decaf coffee here at all so I am drinking earl grey tea form breakfast. Doesn't have quite the same effect as coffee, even decaf, in the mornings. We don't have lunch yet as they don't have sandwiches or salads or anything like that. It is curry, curry, curry all the way. When we get our kitchen then I will work something out. For lunch Daisy is having a jar of food or baked beans. I have bought avocadoes but they aren't ripe yet and she can have that with stewed apples. Before I cut the avocaodes or bananas or oranges, I wash them in milton sterilising solution for a little while. All my vegetables get the bleach treatment. Where we are staying at the moment there is an electric water filter. I don't really trust it but I use it instead of tap water to cook with or boil or for the sterilising solution. I have Daisy's microwave steriliser with us that is a god send and her bottles get sterilised. I was paranoid when I first arrived but seem to have settled a bit now after speaking to other mums. i wash her dishes in filtered water and detergent, let them dry and then just before I use them pour boiling water over them. I am relaxing a bit now with our dishes and utensils. We wash them in detergent and tap water adn then let them air dry. When we get to our new place and i have my own kitchen I will be able to work out some routine for our dishes that makes mebelieve that they are clean. Speaking to other mums of babies has helped tremendously. We are all blundering along but every little bit helps. Anyway..... back to our day. It took us over half an hour to order a taxi. Eventually we rang a workmate of Chris's to find that you have to put a prefix before the telephone number. We are on a steep learning curve here. We waited an hour to find that the taxi company really didn't have a clue so our only options were to stay put in the apartment or try out the auto rickshaws. We decided on the latter and made a plan to find the oldest driver because we hoped that he had lasted the longest. We found a lovely driver and soon found ourselves zipping in and out and through the traffic. Daisy loved the wind in her hair and seemed to tolerate the dust and fumes up her nose! We even managed to get to where we wanted to go. We wandered through a park, amongst the biggest clumps of bamboo I have ever seen. They were magnificent and in the wind the branches knocked against each other and made an eerie yet calming noise. We wandered around the high court buildings and the houses of parliment until hunger had gotten the best of us. It was after three and Daisy needed sustanence. We were quite a walk from anywhere so again into a rickshaw. This guy wasn't anywhere near as good as our previous driver. We made sure that he put his meter on when we set off but he still tried to do us over at our destination. We jsut got out and paid just above the meter and refused to be hassled. Well that's the impression we gave, inside it spooked us a bit. We found a pizza hut and lunch all round. Daisy ate her fruit puree followed by mega pizza crust which she found to her liking. We then wandered the shopping district. Daisy gets carried most of the time as there really isn't a footpath to speak of. We found a bazaar full of handicraft and much to Chris's delight, nothing really caught my eye. I told him not to worry that I am sure that I will manage to spend all his money on 'stuff' before we leave. There was some beautiful silk pashminas that I will buy eventually. We then piled into another rickshaw and headed off into the sunset. It is lovely to return to the same place for a change and not have to move about. Daisy is already in bed and we are not too far behind. Let's see what tomorrow may bring! 

A good day had by all!

This photo is of Daisy playing with her newfound friends. This weekend we will kick back and relax. On Monday we plan to move into our new flat; the one we'll stay in for the remainder of our stay.
More from Leanne later... 

A photo of a boy running an ironing stand close to our current flat. 

I just spent a half hour writing this blog entry, and there was some sort of error that caused it all to be lost. So, here we go again!

Since our last blog entry, we had quite a desperate couple of days. Things are back to normal now, but this entry is devoted to the our diem horribilis.

It all started on Monday morning when we game down to reception to find that the receptionist expected us to check out. It turned out that the relocation company (and at this point I should mention that there's two relocation companies working with us: one in Britain and one in India. I can't say good enough things about the British firm, but I wonder how the employees of the Indian firm manage to find their way out of the house in the morning. Anyway... I digress) had only booked us in for a week, not the month that they were supposed to. They'd also failed to arrange payment and so the apartment manager was expecting me to pay the bill.

After a few phone calls we got the relocation company to pay the bill and we were put up in the room next door for that night. It only had one room, but as Daisy's cot hadn't arrived she was sleeping with us so we only really needed one room anyhow.

So, the next morning we arose, filled the car with our stuff and headed off to another apartment block in a dfferent part of town. The new area was pretty crummy and not the kind of place I wanted Daisy and Leanne to be out walking in during the day, but that wasn't the worst of it. The room that had been arranged was just that: a hotel room. There were two single beds, and an ensuite shower/toilet. No kitchen. No space for our car-full of stuff and no space for Daisy to sleep. It was about as unsuitable as you could imagine.

The relocation girl hadn't accompanied us here but we soon had her on the phone and finding us somewhere else. Sat in the reception of the hotel was the low point of our travels so far, and it was quite an emotional time. It was then that we had to talk about what our contingency plan was. If things hadn't got better (which they have) then Lea and Daisy would have been on a flight straight to Australia. I would have stayed on here in India as it's a very good deal and it's far easier to house a single bloke than a family. I would have travelled to Oz for Daisy and Leanne's birthdays which are only a few days apart, and Nic's wedding but it was still far from ideal. Anyhow, that's all been shelved but if we find ourselves in the same situation again that plan may have to be revived.

After what felt like two hours in the hotel reception we headed off to meet the relocation girl at the place we're in now. It's a nice place in a nice part of town. Not great for Daisy as the marble surfaces don't go well with her experiments with standing and walking but there's a playground nearby and they can always get the driver to take them to a park if they want a bit of green.

This afternoon, Lea went to see two more apartments in the complex we want, but they were awful. Both were dingy and one overlooked a rubbish dump. It also turned out that one place that we'd expressed an interest in wasn't available at all and so we've no idea what they were up to in offering it to us. That leaves us with one place left that we like. If that turns out to be a red herring, we may have to hunt for places ourselves rather than relive the events of recent days.




The photo above is of a vegetable seller who was passing the apartment. In the background you can see a few stalls where people iron clothes. Everything here is done by hand. There's 10 storey buildings going up without a single crane in sight. Amazing. I'll post a picture soon that shows a boy who works one of the ironing stands.

So, we knew that there would be challenges, but we have to be extra-cautious with Daisy around. We must have a place to sterilise her bottles and prepare her food, and we must have a bed each. Camping out in pokey hotel rooms just ain't acceptable.

I think just about everyone else has been brilliant. The people who ran our first two apartments (including the one where we just sat in reception) were very professional and pleasant. Or relocation girl in Britain is brilliant at getting things done depite being thousands of miles away. Our driver Raj doesn't understand everything we say (and vice versa) but he loves Daisy and is the best driver I've seen since arriving. The people at the Dell office are pleasant and obliging and I know I'm going to enjoy working with them.

We're starting to understand how things work out here. It's a very different culture and we've still loads to learn. Tomorrow, Leanne's heading to the Bangalore Overseas Women's Group meeting at a local hotel. Aparently it's the only place to be (if you're a female visitor to Bangalore) and she's really looking forward to meeting people who are in the same boat as her.

So after a rocky couple of days we're looking forward to the coming months in India & all the travels and experiences we will have.
Thank you to everyone who's added comments to the site. It's great to know that you're all reading our posts and it's a real encouragement to keep the blog up to date. 

Our first Sunday, 18th June

 

Day Two!

 

First Day in Bangalore

Isn't jet-lag just great? It's half past midnight here in Bangalore and I'm still wide awake. Sorry there's no photo yet but today's been a bit of a blur.

Once we touched down at the airport, we saw a notice asking us to visit the British Airways desk. We couldn't see one anywhere and eventually we found our driver who put us in the car and drove us to the departures building where Lea went in search of BA. Turned out one of our bags went missing. At the time we couldn't figure which it was and so said it was probably a mistake, but now we know which one it is so it's back to the airport tomorrow to see whether it's arrived yet.

So, from the airport we came to our apartment. The driver was insistent that we provide a credit card number which wasn't great as it was supposed to be pre-payed. That plus the missing bag and the lack of sleep put a bit of a downer on that drive, but as soon as we got to our apartment it was soon forgotten.
It's a lovely two bedroomed flat with a small kitchenette and two en-suite shower rooms. There's cable telly in both rooms and the lounge with BBC News and a few American channels so there's stuff we can follow if we want to stay at home.

So, after getting to the flat we all went to sleep. We woke up at about 1pm and then went out exploring at 2. We had a few communication problems with the driver, and whilst we wanted to go shopping, he took us to Dell. So, as we were there, we thought we'd go in and meet the team I'll be working with for the coming months. It turned out that my office is on the other side of town, so we got back into the car and headed over there.
On the first journey, Daisy began vomiting which got us both worried and made us really think about the risks involved in bringing Daisy and ourselves to India for such a long period. Thankfully it turned out that she was just a little travel-sick and was right as rain once we'd stopped driving. On all subsequent drives we made sure she kept fairly still and faced forward. Not easy when you're only 11 months old and in an exciting new country!

Eventually we made it to the correct Dell office. It's pretty impressive. Bigger than my office in the UK and light and airy too. The team that I'm going to be working with were a lovely bunch and Daisy was soon whisked off by Mala to go meet people. Everywhere we go, people want to wiggle her cheeks or pick her up. It feels a bit odd for strangers on the street to do this (and we don't let strangers hold her) but it seems to be genuine so we go with the flow.


After the office, we headed out to do some groceries and get some rupees. It was when we were shopping that we realised that we don't have a hob in our flat and so everything that we cook with either be boiled with water from the kettle or done in the microwave. We'll have to see how this goes and if it doesn't work out we may have to look around for a different place which is a shame as this one has a lot going for it.

This evening we had a lovely chat with Grandparents Reynolds who have Skype and a webcam. Our webcam seems to have been lost in transit so they couldn't see us, but as we look pretty much the same as we did 48 hours previously it's not a great problem.

So, it's nearly 1am now. Daisy's been awake since the reception phoned at 10pm. She's just gone to sleep on a makeshift bed on the floor in our room. The crib that they supplied isn't big enough for her and our cot hasn't arrived yet so we're both going to be waking throughout the night to check on her.

Hopefully we'll get some photos of the streets of Bangalore tomorrow so be sure to check back soon!

Flying from London to Bangalore

The time has finally come to head to Heathrow. It was a bit disapointing to discover that the plane's so full that we're unable to sit next to each other, however they do manage to put me one row behind Leanne so we can still talk and pass Daisy between us so it wasn't too bad.
We went for a coffee and cake with Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds and then bid teary farewells as we headed through the departure gates and onto the plane.

The journey was quite uneventful. Daisy slept for about an hour after takeoff and we both used the opportunity to watch a movie (it was mid-afternoon, so there was no chance of getting sleep at that time). Unfortunately it turned out that this was the only sleep she'd manage for the whole flight and so we were a bit bleary-eyed by the time we touched down in balmy Bangalore.

The food on the flight was great. Curry for dinner (and Lea managed to score me an extra Chicken Cassarole because I'd missed lunch) and Curry for breakfast too! Based on this, I think I'm gonna like India!

The movies were alright. I managed to watch Firewall with Harrison Ford. Not a bad movie if you like that kinda thing. Thankfully I do, so it passed the time quite well. Didn't get a chance to watch any others as we spent most of the flight alternately walking Daisy up and down the aisles, greeting her fellow passengers as she goes. The Indians love kids and she was passed around a fair few of them to everyone's enjoyment. 

Daisy with her Bob the Builder walkalong digger that Grandma Reynolds bought her. She loves putting things in the box under the seat and spend the whole of the weekend walking along behind it. 

We had a party in Burnham on Saturday. Lucy had just finished her five-week intensive session at Sandhurst and was home for the weekend.
Daisy had a great day playing with everyone who attended. Grandma bought her a little push-along digger that she could use to walk around the garden and she absolutely loved it. Now she insists on walking behind her pushchair rather than in it!
Loads of people came along and there was heaps of good food and drink. The champagne was particularly nice!
The weather was magnificent and it was a good job that we had a Gazebo to provide some shade. 

The Air Shippers Arrive!

Saturday morning, bright and early, the packers arrive to take our air shipment to Bangalore. The packing's very efficient and they're soon on their way. 

Moving Day

It's Friday afternoon and the delivery men have just left. Tomorrow morning the shipping company will arrive in Burnham to take the our air freight package to Bangalore.
We fly out on Monday and arrive in India in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

As you can see in this photo, the weather's gorgeous and the house is sold (subject to contract).

Tonight we're leaving Alpine Street and moving to Burnham where we'll stay with my parents until we leave for India.
Tomorrow there's an all-day barbeque in Burnham for people to come say their final farewells.

It's been a big few weeks and we're really looking forward to getting settled into our apartment in India.