La Belle Vie



Lunch at La Belle Vie

Ava and her Admirers at La Belle Vie



Shopping in Coonoor

Shopping in Coonoor

Daisy Goes to the Market

Daisy after a trip to the market with Anandh, Fathima, Angel and Grace - with flower garlands, necklace, bracelets, hair slides and a big orange ice lolly!

Getting Settled In

 Neil is almost half way through his first Tutorial (what they call terms here) – there are 6 in a year – and we’re all feeling very settled here now.  At the moment it rains most days, but usually only for about an hour and it’s not cold.

We’ve started to fall into a comfortable daily routine, which begins with Anandh and Daisy taking Neil to College at around 8am.  On the way back, Anandh stops to get Daisy some biscuits, and he says that she’s becoming quite well known around Wellington now, especially as she insists on saying hello to everyone.  Apparently the milkman and the bread man look for her every morning!  Fathima starts work at 9am and makes Daisy a snack to take to nursery with her when she leaves at 9.30am.  Now that she is feeling comfortable there, she has started to go on her own with Anandh, and Louise is soon going to start walking to her tennis lessons (about 50 minutes all downhill!) at the Wellington Gymkhana Club (WGC).  Louise has a lesson at 10.30 from Tuesday to Saturday, and goes to the tennis courts with Elaine, who has a lesson before her at 10am.  30 minutes is long enough five times a week and their right arms are really beginning to ache now!

Daisy and Lujaine at Nursery

After they’ve both had their tennis lessons, they have a cup of tea on the verandah of the WGC, overlooking the golf course and local tea plantations.  Anandh picks Louise up on his way back to the Nursery and they collect Daisy at about 12.15pm, to take her home for lunch.  Neil doesn’t get back for lunch until about 1.45pm and Louise usually waits to eat lunch with him, if she can make it till then!  In the afternoon, we might go into Coonoor if we have some shopping to do and have a coffee/milkshake in Coffee Day (Indian Starbucks), and then it’s Power Yoga Tuesday to Friday from 4.30 – 5.30pm, back at the WGC.  Even Neil and Ian have started coming to it and are enjoying it too!  We are all really aching though! 

Fathima feeds both the girls and usually takes them for a walk or to the park every day with her children, Angel and Grace, whilst we’re at yoga, and then by-the-time we get home, it’s time for baths, stories and bed, before we have our dinner and Neil starts his evening work.

Ava and Fathima

This week we’ve had another cocktail party, this time a C Division one – the course is divided into 4 Divisions (A, B, C and D) – and an A and C Division Happy Hour in the WGC on Friday night.  We enjoyed the Cocktail Party and Louise got to meet all of the other students and their wives in Neil’s syndicate, but it was a really long night standing around, and we were glad to get home. 

The Happy hour was a great night – very Indian and a bit surreal, but we all had a really good time.  Happy Hour, we found, is compulsory here, is quite formal and doesn’t start till 7.30pm.  At least the usual tradition of cheap drinks for the first hour still holds true here – “to make us happy,” we were told! There were people everywhere, all dressed in there finery, and it felt more like a Summer Ball than a Happy Hour!  Children were invited too, although we felt that it was too late for Daisy and Ava and left them at home with Fathima, but there were children running round all over the place, and there was also a tombola and a disco.  We discovered that a tombola here is what we know as bingo.  We didn’t play, but most the women seemed to, and all sat in rows of chairs facing the same direction – it looked very organised.  The music was a mixture of western and Indian.  Everyone was dancing, no matter how old or young, and it felt a bit like being in a Bollywood film – we did lots of “unscrewing the lightbulb” hand movements!  The Australian couple here was also celebrating their promotions which made the night even better.

Heads were a bit sore after the Happy Hour, so Neil and Ian embarked on 10 holes of golf at 9 o’clock to clear their heads, after which Louise and Elaine met them at the WGC for what is becoming a Saturday morning ritual of tea and toast on the veranda.  The Inter-Division cricket tournament was taking so we all settled down to watch the game with our tea.  However, the warm-up was brutal, with a member of the directing staff literally slogging cricket balls at the Indian student officers from about 10 feet under the apparent name of fielding practice.  It was like death by cricket ball firing squad!  How there weren’t broken fingers, cracked shins or worse is something we couldn’t work out.  Neil had been thinking about taking up cricket here, but after watching that warm-up he said he’s going to stick to golf and yoga!

Death by Cricket Ball

But never mind all that, the main news of the week is that Ava is now crawling!  In all directions!  She has discovered the kitchen and the playroom, including Daisy’s kitchen and all of her toys, and follows Daisy around, whenever she can keep up.  It’s not long now till her first birthday and we can’t believe where the year has gone!

Ava Crawling

As for Daisy, she came to help Louise and Anandh choose some new plants for the garden this week, and in true Daisy-style, saw some mud and got stuck in!  She pulled up a stool and started helping out with putting soil into containers for cuttings.  The Indian owners thought it was hilarious, as did the other customers, but they didn’t offer us a discount!

Daisy at Work in the Garden Centre

Finally, we’re looking forward to our first visitors.  Jayne arrives on Thursday for a week and the Hancocks are booked in for 2 weeks in October.  JP and Doris and the Jones are also looking at coming out in the months after that, so Hotel Jones is now open for business…

Rain and Rats

Well the monsoon rains that we had been told so much about finally arrived in earnest this week.  The days normally start with bright warm sunshine, or a few low clouds hanging in the valley; a lot of the time we’re actually sat above the cloud.  But by around lunchtime the heat steadily builds and then the clouds grow darker.  Then around 1ish the heavens open and it just rains.  Not your normal rain, we’re talking absolutely deluges.  Within minutes there are fast flowing streams everywhere and the storm drains struggle to cope; after an hour or so, the rain eases and its sets into a steady patter for another hour, before clearing in the evening to normally give a lovely sunset.  It’s good that we’ve had rain as they use it to directly feed our water supply.  In fact, the rains started a little late this year, so they were talking about restricting our daily water supply, but thankfully this hasn’t happened so far.  As well as water restrictions, we also get limited on our electricity.  Power cuts are a regular occurrence, both planned and unplanned.  Luckily, we have an industrial sized generator that kicks in after a 30-second power cut to keep our needs supplied, but in a 7-day week, we’ll be running off the generator for at least 2 days.

Rain at the Golf Club

One of the other factors we’ve had in the last week is the wildlife.  I know we mentioned the spiders, monkeys and rats last week, so we thought we’d give you a running total of our ‘War against the Rats’.  In the last week we’ve caught 8, but living in a jungle hill station, it could be a continuous battle.  Neil was outside on Friday night, it was pitch dark and he was collecting Daisy’s toys.  He could hear no animal sounds, but right next to him one of the traps activated with a loud whoosh and a snap!  He came racing in, and he said it was the fastest he’d ever moved; even faster than when he used to play football!!  Anandh has said there is a King Rat out there somewhere who appears too smart to be caught so far, the victims we have caught are merely the foot soldiers; so we’ll keep trying.

The course has started for real this week, with Neil being joined by all the Indian Officers; the course now totals 447 officers, which is 1/3 bigger than the UK course.  Time has been short for Neil this week, with lots of lectures, in differing classrooms, with no time to get between them, so invariably the timetable slips.  Normally, Neil leaves the house at 0745, and lectures commence at 0830.  He has 10 mins for coffee at 1000, then comes home at 1400 for lunch.  Whilst not onerous, it is a challenge for the Western officers, pushing from 0800 to 1400 hrs with no food, as they are not allowed to snack or drink anything during lectures at all.  After lunch, beautifully prepared by Fatima, the college then expects each officer to spend 5-6 hours in the afternoon carrying out OTW or Own Time Work; this they do as well as complete various exercises, prep for presentations, dissertations etc.  It’s no more difficult, or time consuming than the UK course, but they do compress the time out here, and the power cuts make it more of a challenge, especially when trying to submit work via the Internet!  On top of this, a lot of work has to be submitted in hard copy, and quite a lot of it has to be hand written.  So again time is tight, to get the work completed, in the right format, in the right colour ink, in the right folder, with the staples in the right place and then drive the 10 miles to college to deliver it on time!   For those of you reading this that thinks that the UK military are sticklers for formatted writing, the UK has nothing on India!!

Daisy has also started nursery now and seems to be enjoying herself and making friends.  The nursery is quite similar to the ones she’s been to in the UK and English is the first language used there!  There’s lots of outdoor play, stories, singing and activities and she’s settling in well and looks forward to it each day.  Which gives Louise time to go for a tennis lesson every morning and then have a cup of tea with Elaine on the verandah at the tennis/golf club.  Meanwhile, Ava is at home being spoilt by Fatima and Vassa.

Daisy and her friend, Lujaine, at nursery

And talking of Daisy and Ava, of course we celebrated Father’s Day last weekend.  We had planned to take the Miniature Train (a UNESCO World Heritage attraction) to Ooty, but unfortunately it was fully booked so we had to drive there.  Anandh gave us a windscreen tour of the town, it’s lake and the race course (horse-racing) and then we had a bit of a Western day having a latte at ‘Coffee Day’, shopping for Heinz tomato ketchup and Schweppes Indian Tonic Water in ‘Modern Stores’, and finishing off with pizza at Dominos – the only Western fast-food outlet for miles around.  It’s got to be done every now and again!

The social life continues with a “Free Lindy (the dingos really DID take my baby)” party at the Australian house on Saturday night and another cocktail party at the Officers’ Mess earlier in the week.  The only major downer of the week was that Felicity, the 7-year old daughter of the Royal Navy family, had to spend 3 nights in hospital after she picked up an infection from somewhere which seriously affected her diabetes.  Thankfully, she is completely recovered now and back at school again today – although I think it might take her poor Mum a bit longer to get over the stress of it all!

First Cocktail Party

We were invited to our first Indian Cocktail Party in the Officers’ Mess last Friday night.  It was hosted by the 3-star Commandant of the College and attended by all the international students and their wives, and various members of the College DS.  All the western wives wore their saris for the first time and all had so many compliments from the Indian ladies who seemed to really appreciate it.  The men were all offered beer or whisky to drink and Neil wisely decided to stick to the beer!  We weren’t sure if ladies were allowed to drink, but when Louise saw a Brigadier’s wife having a glass of red wine, she followed her lead!  We were introduced to the Commandant who seemed very nice, and we all really enjoyed ourselves and were ready for making a bit of a night of it, but as soon as the Commandant left, so did everyone else, including all the bar staff!  Probably best really, as Neil has school on Saturday mornings as well.

Ready to go to our first Cocktail Party

Whilst Neil was at College the following morning, Louise and Daisy went with Chelsea (the Australian wife) and Elaine (the British Army wife) into Coonoor for a bit of retail therapy and coffee.  There is only 1 western-type shop in Coonoor, which is a small town, called ‘Fab India’.  It sells Indian-made clothes, jewellery, bedding, linen, furniture, toiletries etc, and is very nice.  Everybody bought something and Daisy was very well-behaved, so she had a strawberry milkshake upstairs in India’s Starbucks equivalent, ‘Coffee Day’.

Louise had a second visit to Coffee Day later the same day (it’s a shame they don’t have a loyalty card, but as there’s no other competition in Coonoor, you can understand why!) when we went back into Coonoor, after Neil had finished work for the day, to pick up his new tailor-made suit.  The suit looks great, as you can see in the picture, and only cost £62 plus the cost of the material.  Neil’s now planning what else he can have made before he goes home!

Neil's new suit

We were also very pleasantly surprised when we received our broken furniture back from the carpenter.  The damaged changing unit, blanket box and Daisy’s bike are all as good as new again, and in fact have been repaired with better materials than they were made with, in the first place.  We’re now just waiting to get the frames back and then we can forget about the whole Pickfords debacle.



The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet – dinner with the Navy family at La Belle Vie on Saturday night and afternoon tea with our new upstairs neighbours, who seem very nice and have a daughter whose around the same age as Daisy, so they had a great time running around the garden together.  We were also able to swap rat and spider stories with them, after Daisy had found a huge Huntsman spider outside the backdoor that morning, and Neil had come face-to-face with Roland Rat in our garden earlier in the afternoon!  Our neighbours trumped our stories though, after finding a rat and a Huntsman spider in their apartment over the weekend!  They heard some rattling in their cutlery draw and found Roland’s brother in there!  And they’re not sure where he is now!  Daisy was very funny when she found the spider too – she came to find Louise and said “Mummy, there’s a spider outside and it’s NOT a baby spider!”  The joys of living in the Indian countryside/jungle!  We’re buying some more rat-traps tomorrow – sorry, Doris!

Today was the first day of DSSC 68.  Up until now, it’s just been an introduction course for all the international students, but today was Neil’s first day with the full course of 450 students.  The wives were all invited for the Commandant’s opening address as well.  The address was only 10 minutes, but it was an impressive arrival in a classic car escorted by horses – it was a bit like the Queen arriving!  And then it was tea and biscuits on the lawn and an opportunity to meet a few of the Indian students and their wives, before we were home for lunch.   

Tea at the Opening Ceremony

Saris again tomorrow night for another cocktail party – this time an Air Wing one.  And Daisy starts at her new nursery on Wednesday.



The Jubliee Party

We’ve been watching all the Jubilee celebrations on the BBC and it looks like it’s been a great weekend in the UK.   We had our own Jubilee party on Saturday afternoon at the British Army house, based on a tea party with sandwiches, scones, cupcakes and Pimms.  Getting hold of Pimms, tonic (for gin and tonic) some of the sandwich fillings (cress!) and teaching one of the cooks to make scones was a bit of a challenge, but we managed it!  Felicity (7), part of the Royal Navy family made crowns for everyone, and even the ex-colonials (Aussies, Americans and Canadians) that we invited seemed to enjoy themselves.

Jubilee Party at the Army House

The following day we were up early for a DSSC trip to Pykora Lake and Ooty.  The weather was nice and we had a nice morning at the DSSC Boat Club on the lake, before the rain set in as we headed off to Ooty.  We had a washed out tour of the Botanical Gardens which was quite comical in how bad it was, with the tour guide and the DSSC staff member who’d accompanied us, arguing in Hindi about whether or not it was relevant to tell us about the Bollywood films that had been filmed there. Luckily we had a Hindi-speaking spy with us so that we could appreciate the full humour of the situation!  It was still raining as we were dropped off in the centre of Ooty, so we’ll have to go back as it’s supposed to be a lovely hill-station town.  Oh yes, and there’s a Domino’s Pizza there!

This week Neil has been working in a single-service syndicate with all the other international air force officers (of interest, there are 9 of them out of 36 international officers, and there are 95 air force officers in total, out of 450 officers on the course).   So we thought we’d take the opportunity before the course proper starts, to branch out of our current western social circle, and meet some new people.  We used the Dambusters anniversary (admittedly 2 weeks late) as an excuse for a party, and had all of the international air force officers and their families round on Tuesday afternoon.  We had a Ghanaian, a Namibian, a Bangladeshi, Saudis, Indians, a Malaysian, an American and an Indonesian here.  It was really interesting talking to them all, and Daisy enjoyed playing with all the other children that came, even though most of them didn’t speak the same language!

International Air Officers at our House

The main staff course starts next week with an opening ceremony on Monday which all the wives are invited to.  The Married Quarters are starting to fill up now as all the Indian officers arrive, and we have neighbours on all sides and above us.  Our closest neighbours are upstairs and are a naval commander, his wife and 2 daughters (3 ½ and 5 months), so maybe another friend for Daisy, although she’s having a great time playing with Fatima and Anandh’s daughters, Angel and Grace, at the moment.

An Indian Officers Furniture and Personal Effects Arriving

Meanwhile, Louise has been finding some places for lunch with the other wives, whilst Neil is at work.  So far, she’s found a nearby French restaurant with amazing views over the plains.  There may not be many more places to find, but she thinks she’ll be happy with ‘La Belle Vie’ for the time being.  She’s also starting tennis lessons next week and Daisy starts kindergarten for 2 ½ hours every morning, next Wednesday. 

Lunch at La Belle Vie with Nicola and Elaine, the other Brits

Tomorrow night, we’re going to our first cocktail party in the Officers’ Mess and it’ll be Louise’s first opportunity to wear a saree – picture to follow.....

The Course begins...

Well the first week of College seems to have gone well, although it’s not over yet, as they work on Saturdays here!  Neil has to wear suits 4 days a week and uniform for 2 days a week, and he’s really enjoying the requirement to wear a jacket and tie in a hot, stuffy lecture hall!  The wives were all invited for the first 2 days, which mainly covered information on India, Wellington, the course, and introductions from all the 34 international students, which were really interesting.  Tomorrow, Louise is invited again for 2 hours, this time to find out a bit about the local area, and learn some Hindi and Tamil!  And on Sunday we’re being taken on a trip to Ooty and Pykora, which should be fun. 

The other piece of excitement this week was a flood in the apartment upstairs from us.  We were woken by Daisy at 6 one morning, and when Louise got up to get her milk, she found water leaking through the kitchen ceiling.  From our back garden we could hear what sounded like the bath in full flow in the empty upstairs flat.  It turned out that the workmen who had been in the previous day had left all the taps open and when the local pump station had opened that morning, the flat had started flooding. Luckily, Anandh knew where an external stopcock was and managed to put a stop to the water which by now, was pouring out of every overflow pipe around our apartment.  He said that it looked like there was about 3 ft of water in the flat above. 

On the Golf Course with the Malaysian MiG 29 Pilot

So to the golf course.  Neil had been promised a lush green course, with challenging holes set in the tea hills of the Nilgiris Hills.  He has not been disappointed and has managed to play there 3 times already.  He was also told that the high altitude here would help his ball fly further, unfortunately he has to hit it straight first!!  The course itself is beautiful and was built by the British and is now a part of the Wellington Gymkhana Club.  It is an extremely challenging course with a number of the holes playing directly over the driving range, making those shots a form of suicide golf, particularly for those facing Neil’s shots!  The driving range also offers the opportunity to improve your game, but here they don’t have a buggy to collect the balls.  Young boys of 6 and 7 run around after the balls on the driving range and collect them, risking life and limb avoiding the balls raining in from everywhere.  To be a member of the course costs a staggering £4 a month, with Neil able to play all the golf he can for that cost alone!  The Directing Staff have said that the International Students should play as much golf as they can before the full course starts, so Neil has been trying to take up this challenge.  When he went for his first game, Neil found that there was a dedicated caddie for the RAF student!  Martin, the RAF Caddie, is also a qualified golf coach...so for £3 a round Martin caddies for Neil and for another £3 an hour, he gives golf lessons.  India is definitely the place to play golf!  During the evening, Bison wander down from the hills to the streams littering the course, and so unique rules are in play where you can replace your ball if it lands in a Bison footprint, or worse, Bison poo!!  Neil’s golf has taken a bit of battering since he’s been here, but he’s determined to improve with Martin’s help...otherwise he’s said he’s taking up darts when he gets back.

Jubilee party tomorrow with afternoon tea, so we’ll tell you all about that and the trip to Ooty next time....

Daisy helping Anandh wash the car