Daisy’s Birthday and the Navy Queen.

A very busy November time for all the Joneses saw Daisy celebrate her 3^rd Birthday; a major milestone.  Not only for Daisy, but also for Louise and I, as we celebrated the fact that we’d managed to keep her alive for the last 3 years!  Indian children’s parties are, just like the UK, a mad affair.  So Louise and Neil agreed that to keep their sanity the numbers would be kept relatively low, and so some of Daisy’s kindergarten friends were invited along with those children whom she had grown to know around DSSC.  16 children in all were invited, with some parents arriving and just leaving their children, much to Neil’s surprise.  The party went down very well, and Daisy had a great time playing with her friends. 

In the Midst of the Birthday Chaos

Ava enjoyed herself as well and both sisters’s loved all the attention.  Neil occupied himself with face painting giving each child a butterfly, star, flower or heart painted on their cheek or hand.  In fact, the face-painting went down so well, Neil has been commissioned to appear at another 2 children’s birthday parties; a blossoming second career perhaps.  The highlight of the party was the birthday cake made by Fathima.  Daisy’s current heroine is Peppa Pig, and so a cake in the form of her idol was commissioned and Fathima did a wonderful job creating a lifelike and almost life-size version of Peppa!  Louise feels that no matter what happens next year Daisy will be 'nothing but disappointed' on the cake front.  Daisy had a great time and received lots of cards and presents, and was absolutely exhausted at the end of the day and fell asleep on Louise’s lap a very contented little girl.

Daisy's fantastic Peppa Pig Birthday Cake



A very excited Daisy get ready to blow out Birthday Candles

An exhausted Daisy at the end of her Birthday

College life continues apace for Neil with a 2-week exercise with the Army dominating his time.  Ex GIRI SANGRAM, or ‘War in the Mountains’, took up his time for over 2 weeks, with early starts and late finishes.  The early part of the exercise was quite frustrating due to both Services working independently, despite the exercise being toted as being ‘Joint’.  This is one of the major issues with the Indian Military; their approach seems to mirror that of the UK some 20-30 years ago, when each service worked independently without concern for the other arms.  In the 21^st Century, this approach is a little antiquated and doesn’t seem to fit in the pattern of modern warfare. 

That said, the Indian officers do seem to recognise this and are working toward rectifying their approach.  In fact, by the end of the exercise the Air Force and Army were working much closer together and the message of jointery seemed to be getting through.  The exercise itself was very interesting for Neil, despite there being a few periods of frustration.  The scenario had both Red and Blue Forces fighting at heights of over 16,000 feet; something that the UK has a very limited capability of achieving, so it was certainly something new for Neil.  In the exercise Neil also got to use some of his logistic experience, but was again tasked to act as the Tactical Air Commander, and so spent his time plotting and bombing enemy targets, something that he has not had too much exposure to; so there was a good learning benefit.  Overall, Neil enjoyed the exercise, taking away the main lesson of fighting in the mountains at high altitude…..good luck....it seems too much like hard work!!!

Whilst the Army and Air Force were engaged in their battles in the mountains, the Navy Wing was busy working toward one of the highlights of the course, the Navy Queen Pageant.  It takes on the form of a Summer Ball, Christmas Draw and Beauty Show all in one!!  The whole affair took over 6 weeks to prepare, and at times involved all of the Navy Wing students.  At first, the idea seemed a little strange, with wives being offered the opportunity to enter the Beauty contest, and a series of knockout rounds being held through the month of November, before the final 10 were paraded on the night of 30^th November, in front of the entire student body and DSSC fraternity; a audience of over 1,000 people.  However, the Navy Queen Pageant is a huge event in the Indian Navy calendar, and the show they put on was befitting of the importance they place on it.  All the 10 finalists took the event very seriously, with them being asked a series of questions on stage, in front of a panel of judges; Eric Morley would have been proud. 

One of the contestants in the Navy Queen Pageant

Thankfully no one answered that they sought “world peace and eternal love for the nation” and the judges deliberated, whilst we were treated to a festival of Indian song and dance and a free prize draw.  The winner was finally announced after 2 hours as an international officer’s wife from Nigeria, wonderfully named Blessing!!  This cheered up all the international officers no end as we had beaten the Indian’s in their own backyard at their own game..!!!  The Pageant was then followed by a Ball in the Officers’ Mess, which was started by the Commandant rolling a gold sphere through the middle of the dance floor, so he could literally ‘get the ball rolling’!!  We danced and drank through the night, or till 11:30 pm at least, which is when most of the Indian officers left, and whilst most of the internationals were still a bit in awe of what they had seen throughout the evening they were all in agreement that Indian’s certainly know how to put on a good show, with Louise stating that “she had certainly been entertained”!!

The Winners in the Navy Queen Pageant

Louise has also been kept busy preparing a presentation for her ITOW class on “Communication in Marriage”.  It involved numerous meeting and rehearsals and at times the presentation seemed to be getting bigger than Ben Hur.  It also stopped Louise from attending her normal round of tennis lessons and yoga classes.  But after a number of script re-writes and changes to the presentations, the whole event went off very well and now Louise can get back to her sporting activities. 

Louise poses with her ITOW Group after her presentation

Neil has also been busy getting the students of DSSC to participate in a ‘Gangnam Style” video that he hopes to produce for the end-of-course bash.  This has involved him getting the students to dance at various locations throughout the college and film secretly away from the prying eyes of the Directing Staff.  The whole video is coming together nicely, and should be ready for an unveiling sometime in the New Year.

Both Daisy and Ava are doing well.  Daisy, as well as celebrating her own birthday has received a plethora of invites, so Neil and Louise are taking it in turns to take her to the many parties she needs to attend as a 3yr old socialite.  Ava is now toddling everywhere and can walk at quite a pace, even though she can appear a little unsteady on her feet.  Her walking is getting better and better and she continuously walks the corridors of the flat shouting ‘Daddddeeeeeee…….Daddddeeeeee’; Neil hope’s she learns another word soon!

Sisters giggling together

Ava getting ready to walk off on her own

Louise heard from the Desk Officer this last week and she is being posted to Minhad in the UAE for 6-months from July 13; just 8 weeks after we get back.  It’ll be a little tricky with the girls, particularly as we don’t know where Neil is posted, so it’s challenging to arrange nurseries and childcare, and we won’t find out Neil’s posting till next March.  But, we’ve faced bigger challenges before this, and it just means that as soon as we know where Neil is posted, it’ll be all hands to the pump to get everything sorted before Louise heads off to even warmer climes!

And so 2012 is drawing to close and we are more than half-way through our Indian adventure.  We’re still having a fabulous time out here; Neil says even more so at the moment as England are doing so well in the cricket!  We are now heading off on our South-Indian 18-day holiday adventure; we’ll try to keep the blog updated to let you know how things are going.  In the meantime, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  Lots of love from us all.

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us all