Christmas Holiday - Part I - Cochin

And so after 6 months in College the Mid-Term break finally arrived.  Unfortunately for the Indian Officers they had to continue studying till the 18^th of December as the course took a classified twist.  However, all the International Students broke for the Christmas holidays on the 8^th of December.  This saw all the International Students bomb-burst away from Wellington; some chose to go home such as the Maldives and USA, some opted to travel within the Indian Ocean Region, such as Singapore and Sri Lanka and some decided to stay to explore India.  We chose the Indian option, partially put off by the mountain of paperwork required to leave the country, but also attracted to the idea of such a wonderful country to explore.  Louise had spent the best part of 4 months planning our adventure and we headed off, via Coimbatore, to the west Coast of India for an 18-day extravaganza in Cochin, Allepey, Kovalam and finally South Goa.  We didn’t set off straight away and spent 3 days relaxing at Wellington.  Neil played as much golf as he could as the course was really quiet with all of the Indian officers still in College.  We were also invited to parties every night before we left; life at Wellington really is becoming a social whirl; we even managed to watch tje new james Bond movie, Skyfall, which was shown in the College cinema. The weather at Wellington is lovely at the moment, with the temperature normally around the 25 Degree mark in the day, with it becoming a little chilly in the evening; just like a UK summers day. 

So we set off on 11 December to the Taj Vivanta in Coimbatore, where we relaxed by the pool and had a nice cosy meal in the evening.  The following day we set course for Cochin, a Portuguese, Dutch and British old haunt that has lots of culture and history.  Our Hotel was another Taj Vivanta, right on the headland of Willingdon Island. 

The hotel is an old 1930s cruise passenger hostel, which is now a fantastic hotel.  The greeting we received on arrival was incredible, with Daisy and Ava, once again being treated as superstars.  In fact the attention they received enabled us to get an upgrade to a Heritage Room with a fabulous sea-view.  From now on we will be deploying Daisy and Ava on a charm offensive to enable us to get upgrades at any opportunity; how’s that for exploiting your kids!  They were showered with gifts and Daisy was enchanted by the huge Christmas Tree in the foyer.  This is the first Christmas decoration we’ve really seen this December, but with the warm temperature and sunshine it still doesn’t feel too Christmassy.

Daisy with the morning catch

A rare moment ashore

Our first full day in Cochin saw us visit the Cochin Fort; it’s not a real fort, but just an area of Old Cochin.  We wandered around the sea front, whilst Anandh looked after Ava snoozing in the car and this allowed us to visit one of the real icons of Cochin; the Chinese fishing nets.  These are huge cantilever contraptions that jut out over the estuary some 20 feet and are raised and lowered by a team of 10 men to catch passing fish. 



Fishing the old fashioned way



The Chinese Fishing Nets

They used to be the mainstay of the Cochin fishing industry but are now mainly a tourist attraction.  There are 10 to 20 of these nets along the shoreline and they are so large they seem to resemble some ancient creature of the past reaching into the sea to gather its daily feed.  We also drove around Old Cochin which was bustling with life and visited the Dutch Palace which had an excellent museum of the old Maharajas’ rein.  After lunch we headed to the pool, where both Daisy and Ava had a great time splashing and swimming.  In fact, Daisy loved it so much we couldn’t get her out of the water; this will be a theme for the duration of the holiday we think. 

Daisy's Second Home

At 5pm we all headed down for the hotel tea and tiffin and watched the ships cruise past the hotel.  The place where they serve the tea has everything.  Waiters, hosts, security guards with catapults to keep away the crows and even a pest control man with an electric tennis racket to zap the flies that dare to fly to close to the sandwiches and cake delights! 

Catapult at the ready for the crows

Ready to zap the any wandering fly

After our tea we went for a cruise around the Cochin headland and had a seaborne view of the Chinese Fishing Nets and watched a very red Indian sun set over the ocean; very pretty although Daisy wasn't too chuffed with the cruise or the life jacket! 

'Do I have to wear this Daddy?'

The nets catch the setting sun!

After all our travelling, touring and swimming we all settled in for a family night on the big bed watching Monsters Inc on the DVD.  However, Daisy, Ava and Neil all fell asleep before the end of the film, leaving Louise to tuck them all in for the night!

Flower Girl

The next day, Neil headed off to the Cochin Naval Base, as one of his colleagues on DSSC had arranged for him to play 18 holes of golf.  In fact it was better than that.  Neil was met by one of the station officers and shown to the course, where the resident professional and a young caddie were waiting to accompany Neil on his 18 holes.  Whilst the weather was much hotter than Wellington, the golf was good and Neil thoroughly enjoyed himself on what is a short, but very narrow and tight course.  Unsurprisingly, there were also a lot of water hazards which Neil did well to avoid; well most of them! 

Teeing off on the 18th.

The Golf Course atthe Naval Base in Cochin

When Neil got back to the hotel, he met with Loluise and the girls, who were enjoying the pool once again.  Today, Daisy managed just the 6 hrs constant swimming, jumping and splashing in the pool.  Anandh babysat in the evening, allowing Neil and Louise to head into Cochin to enjoy some of the local cuisine.  The next few days will be spent lounging around the pool, before head off to Allepey and a cruise around the Backwaters on a House Boats.  Let’s hope Daisy enjoys it more than the harbour cruise!

Sunset over Cochin

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

Diwali

We’ve been lucky enough to experience the biggest festival of the year in India over the last week – Diwali, the Festival of Lights.  Diwali marks the end of the Hindu year and is probably the most important festival of the year, across India.  It is called the Festival of Lights as it involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.  The lamps are kept on during the night and the house is also cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome.  Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and she is welcomed so that she brings luck and wealth for the coming year.  It’s a festival that is celebrated with family and friends by visiting each other, giving sweets and setting off A LOT of fireworks, or “firecrackers” as they call them here.  It’s a bit like bonfire night and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one, and we started the celebrations on the eve of Diwali with a fireworks display at the Madras Regiment Centre.  The display was fantastic, but what really made it was the drum and pipe marching band, who wore black uniforms and then appeared out of nowhere when they suddenly turned on rows of lights sewn all over their uniforms!

The Luminous Band!

Not being Hindus ourselves, we thought we’d just have a quiet day at home, but as usual we were overwhelmed by the generosity and hospitality of all our friends here.  Neil had the day off work and we gave Fathima, Anandh and Vasa the day off too.  The girls decided to have a bit of a lie-in too (well till 7.30am anyway!), so we had a lazy morning and bacon and eggs for breakfast.  We visited Ashleigh (one of the US officers) and Ian and Elaine before lunch, and then both girls were persuaded to have a sleep in the afternoon – bliss!!  The fireworks had been going off since 6.30am and we’d been invited round to a few people’s houses that night, so we set off at 6.30pm and visited as many friends as we could, whilst trying not to eat our body-weight in Indian sweets or get rocketed by stray fireworks as health and safety guidelines seemed to be non-existent!  We had a really great night and only came home at 11.30pm as Ava was falling asleep on people’s carpets!  We are now trying to prevent Daisy from eating sweets non-stop throughout the day, we were given so many!

Rangoli Decorations outside a Friend's House

Our Meagre Diwali Lights!

Diwali at Prashant and Aparna's House

Diwali Decorations

Last weekend we had a dinner party, British-style, and invited 3 Indian couples to join us: all British food, a couple of drinks before dinner, dinner at around 8.30pm, sitting around the table and chatting.  It was a good night and it was nice to sit down all together at the same time and talk over a shared meal, but we hoped that our guests didn’t find it a bit formal.  Hopefully, they enjoyed the “British Experience”!

For Neil, the exercise season is most definitely upon him.  He spent a week working with the Indian Navy hunting ships and destroying oil rigs, and now he’s working with the Army targeting bridges, fuel dumps and logistic storage areas, although he says he used smaller bombs on the last target in solidarity with the loggies.  The exercise with Neil’s colleagues in green involves both the Air and Army Wings and has over 300 students taking part.  At times it appears to be bedlam, with students racing everywhere to attend briefs and give presentations; yet through the chaos some semblance of order prevails and the work seems to get done.  The Army exercise started with Neil working in a joint syndicate to plan the resupply of a deployed Army Division and then move them, via strategic and tactical aircraft; something he’s had a little bit of experience of over the last few years.  However, when Neil first arrived in the new joint syndicate, a number of the Indian Army officers were concerned that they were being hamstrung as both he and another International Officer were in the Syndicate.  On hearing this, Neil used a few choice words and phrases to explain that he may be able to assist in the planning exercises, and if they didn’t need his help, he was more than happy to take the downtime.  After this ‘friendly’ exchange, everything worked well and the exercise completed on time; some members of the Indian Army can now say that they have a basic understanding of what an RAF Logistics Officer gets up to and they were also introduced to a new range of words within the English language!  As we write this, Neil is one week into a 2-week Joint Army exercise.  He is still smiling, but is looking forward to next Friday when the exercise draws to a close.

On the golfing scene, Neil’s handicap has dropped to 20 from the 24 score he had when he arrived.  For all you non-golfers out there, dropping 4 shots in 8 months is pretty good.  It also means that Neil can enter a number of tournaments at the WGC Golf Club.  Last weekend he played in the Indian Navy Golf Open and came third in the 15-18 Handicap category.  Neil was very pleased and he would have come second if he hadn’t been pipped to the post by a Maj General who shot a great round; although Neil feels that the General’s handicap should be slashed with immediate effect!  It’s good to see that all the practice time Neil spends on the golf course is really starting to pay off; he says that if he improves the same amount professionally, promotion to 2-star is assured!!

'Walking' to lunch at La Belle Vie

Latest Face-painting exploits - Butterfly!

Halloween Witch

US Halloween Party

Halloween!

Pondicherry and Remembrance Sunday

Well, while Neil was away enjoying himself on his trip to the north east of India, Nana and Grandad came to keep the rest of the family company in Wellington.  We had a lovely fortnight with them visiting Ooty, riding the Toy Train, going to Yoga (just Nana!) and generally showing them the sights of the Nilgiris.  Neil got back a few days before they left and we were all very sad to see them go, but at least we know that it’s only 6 months now until we’ll see them again.

Waiting for the Toy Train to Ooty, with Nana and Grandad

Louise took part in her big dance event at the last Ladies Meet.  It went very well and she didn’t embarrass herself too much.  There is a video of the whole thing, but this is under close guard at the moment!  Neil has also finished another term of his course (3 of 6) so he was allowed a long weekend off and we went to Pondicherry, on the east coast of Tamil Nadu, for a few days.  It was very hot and humid there, but we managed to see quite a lot of the town, which still has a very French influence.  We also visited Mamallapuram on the way there.  Mamallapuram is a UNESCO World Heritage site which has several historic temples and monuments all built between the 7^th and 9^th centuries.  We had a good look round one of the best of the sites, before the heat overcame the girls and their tempers, and we had to retreat to the air-conditioned comfort of the car again.  Pondicherry was lovely.  Quite small, but right on the coast and our hotel was on the beach-front promenade with a nice pool for Daisy.  The French influence also meant good food!  Steak and frites, croissant, baguettes, pain au chocolat, cheese, basil, proper ham and also sausages!  Lots of things that we don’t get very often in Wellington, or if we do, they’re not very authentic, but the bread especially, was amazing in Pondicherry.  Or maybe we’re just easily pleased after 6 months of living in a remote part of India!

Five Rathas site at Mamallapuram

Strolling along the Promenade at Night

For Neil the course has moved into the Joint Exercise phase, with the first combination of forces involving the Navy and the Air Force.  Neil was selected to be the 1 Star Officer in charge of all Maritime Air Operations, which was a challenge and one he enjoyed as he strutted around pretending to be a pilot.  That said, he was soon brought down to earth when he realised he had no staff, and all his inputs would require quite a lot of writing.  The exercise lasted a week, with quite long hours and rather a lot of frustration.  Initially the Navy and Air Force were working as separate entities, so the joint co-operation was very limited.  However, as the exercise progressed, so the integration improved, however, as the overall 2-star debriefing stated, on a scale of 1 to 10, we are at about 3!  And Neil thinks that was being generous.  There was quite a bit of hanging about as well, but Neil managed to amuse himself on one of the Samsung Mobile Phone games, carrying out Maritime Strikes in an F-18 and competing with a Mirage F2000 and Mig-29 Navy pilot on Carrier landings.  He didn’t do too badly in the competition; clearly his hours with the RAF MicroLight Association are paying off.  Next up for Neil is a 3-week exercise with the Indian Army.  He has promised his sponsor student, Kash that he will pay 50 Rupees for every time he swears in frustration at the Army and has set aside 5000 rupees for the occasion!

This weekend we should have been in Delhi for Remembrance Sunday, but for the first time in many years, the College wouldn’t allow the students the time off, so we did our best to mark the occasion here instead.  There are about 60 Commonwealth War Graves in Wellington Cemetery, so we went there on Sunday morning, along with the Australian and Canadian officers and their families, and had our own Remembrance Service, 2-minute silence at 11am and a wreath-laying ceremony.  It was a lovely ceremony, simple, but personal.  Each of the 5 officers on the course laid a wreath on a grave and on all the other graves of British servicemen we laid a small garland of jasmine.  The weather was quite misty and eerie during the service, but we all agreed that it was the warmest weather we’d ever experienced for a Remembrance Service before!  And after the Service, we all went back to the Army house for lunch and drinks and spent most of the afternoon there marking the occasion…

The Five Officers and Wreaths

About to lay our Wreath

Paying our Respects

The Battle of Britain Party

The big event of the last 10 days was our Battle of Britain party.  We invited about 50 adults plus kids, put a large awning up in the back garden, hired chairs, tables, lights and a sound system, and bought enough food and drink to feed, well, about 50 people!  Neil decorated the house with pictures of Battle of Britain aircraft, the infamous Spitfire Beer adverts and model Spitfires and Hurricanes, which hung around the house, frozen in battle!  Everyone loved the food, but I’m afraid, that apart from paying for it, we could take no credit.  Fathima spent 2 days marinating chicken, tiger prawns and steak, making salads, rice, chocolate brownies and mountains of parathas, and then Anandh spent all night working the BBQ.  

Preparing for the party - the Combat Air Patrol is airborne!

Apart from all the usual suspects, we had some surprise guests from the US Embassy who were visiting the 2 US officers on the course, and the manager of the local cordite factory also came along with the US attachés.  Neil made a short speech to remember the few, and of course he insisted on playing some war tunes and his usual 80s mix on the iPod, and much to Louise’s surprise and disappointment, everyone seemed to enjoy it!  Our Indian guests were unbelievably generous in the gifts they brought us – wall hangings, brass ornaments, silver ornaments, cushion covers, flowers, alcohol and boxes and boxes of chocolates, which we’ve had to hide from Daisy.  Daisy stayed up till about 11pm, before she was so exhausted that she had to go to bed, and was asleep before Louise had finished reading a bedtime story to her, but the party went on till about 2am, and it was a really great night, although we did miss Elaine, Chelsea and Chris, the RN officer, who was otherwise detained (more of that later…)

The party in full swing

We were also lucky enough to have Cate and Nige Driscoll visiting us over that weekend, who had come to see us for 3 nights midway through their holiday in India.  It was great to have some visitors from home as it seems a long time now since Jayne was here, and they bought us a whole bag full of much-needed rations.  Louise showed them round the market and the town (and shops) of Coonoor, which Nige was very patient with, and Neil gave them a quick tour of the College.  And the day after the party, we took them to Ooty for the afternoon, for a tour of the town, a bit more shopping and some Dominos pizza!  They left early on Sunday morning, and we were very sad to see them go, but looking forward to our next visitors this weekend - Nana and Grandad!

Cate, Louise and Ian enjoying a drink at the party

Nana and Grandad will be here for 2 weeks, over the period that Neil will be away on the Forward Area Tour for 10 days, so it’ll be nice for Louise and the girls to have some company whilst he’s away.  He’s off to Tezpur in the very north-east of the country, on the border with China, Nepal and Bhutan.  He’s really looking forward to this trip as it’s a very difficult place for tourists to get to and most Indians themselves have never been there.  He’s not looking forward to all the bus travel though, which begins with 11 hours in a bus (not a coach) to Bangalore airport, and includes long drives up to 18,000ft and back down again.  Louise isn’t sure how he’s going to cope with the reduced supply of oxygen to his brain at that height!  We’re hoping that he might be able to return some roving reports home for the blog whilst he’s away, but we’ll have to wait and see…

Here's a random picture of the girls in the garden wearing their new t-shirts from Nana and Bampa

The other news of the last week or so is that poor Chris, the RN officer, has had a boil on his bottom that has required 7 days of hospitalisation!  The infection unfortunately spread to his lymph glands and he needed intravenous antibiotics, so has had to stay bed-ridden in hospital whilst the swelling has been slowly reducing.  He has been allowed home for showers and some home-cooking, but only for an hour or two at a time, and he’s desperately hoping to be discharged today.  His poor wife, Nicola, is hoping that this will be their third and final piece of bad luck, after their diabetic daughter was hospitalised earlier on in the year, the sad death of their dog a few weeks ago, and now this!  Chris is in good spirits though and taking all the banter well – “sick note”, “weaker Service” and many bottom jokes etc etc…

No picture provided of Chris' bottom (thankfully!)

Mumbai and a Hike to Ralliah Dam

Neil is a third of the way through the course and we had a long weekend last weekend to mark the end of the 2^nd Tutorial.  We had decided to go to Mumbai with our friends, Elaine and Ian, and left for Coimbatore airport on Thursday afternoon, after Neil finished work at lunchtime.  The girls were great on the flight and we got to the airport later that evening and eventually made it to the hotel after a few transport difficulties (our booked taxi couldn’t find us, nor we him).  We stayed in a hotel just north of the city, and the staff were great as soon as we arrived, although having Daisy and Ava with us is certainly a help!  The receptionist who showed us to our room kept asking Daisy if she liked chocolate, to which, of course, the answer was “Yes”, and 5 minutes later they’d sent up a tray of brownies and ice cream with her name iced on the plate!!  Unfortunately, the brownies were too rich for Daisy, so we had to eat them, but she did enjoy the ice cream!  We finally got 2 hyper girls to bed at about 11pm and ordered 2 ridiculously expensive G&Ts, over £30, from room service.

Daisy and her Brownies and Ice-cream

The area we were staying in was about 30 minutes away from the city centre over the Bandra Worli Sealink bridge, but it was a very cosmopolitan area with lots of shops and restaurants and our hotel was right by the sea.  It also turned out to be the area where most of Bollywood’s stars live.  We even saw one in our hotel – a very glamorous lady in a red dress and with a large entourage – we can’t remember her name now unfortunately, though!

On the first of our 2 days in Mumbai we all did a driving tour of Mumbai, saw all the sights, had a walk around the Gandhi Museum, the Gateway to India and the infamous Taj Mahal hotel where 32 people were killed during the terrorist attacks of 2008.  We also had lunch in Leopold Cafe, where Neil and Ian were able to order a pitcher of beer (something you’d never get in Tamil Nadu) and the staff kindly pointed out the bullet holes in the wall and grenade hole in the floor – somewhat unnerving! 

Cheers!  Neil and Ian with their Pitcher of Beer

The following day was a bit wet in the morning, so we did a bit of shopping whilst Ava slept soundly in the backpack and most of the rest of the weekend was spent swimming with Daisy in the hotel pool.  We also got a baby-sitter for the 2 nights we were there, so that we were able to go out for dinner and drinks with Ian and Elaine – once in the hotel and once in a super cool Chinese restaurant close to the hotel. 

Ava sleeping through all the shopping

During our stay in the hotel the girls were also given toys and Belgian chocolates by the hotel staff and they became celebrities at breakfast, as usual.  We did have some competition from another family with 2 young, cute, blonde kids, but we think we won overall!

Louise is still taking part in the Institutionalised Training for Officers’ Wives course, which is up and down in the quality of its speakers and their subject matter.  However, the poorer speakers are made up for by the opportunity to go for lunch with some of the other wives afterwards.  Last Friday, we went to the Taj Gateway, a hotel in Coonoor, for cocktails and chicken burgers, and all came home a bit tipsy, but still able to make yoga later in the afternoon.

We had an addition to the family this week in the form of a kitten.  Neil heard Anandh and Fatima’s dog, Hannah, barking last Sunday night and went to the front door.  There was Hannah lying prone, looking straight ahead at a little kitten that was sat in the middle of our doorstep, crying for all it was worth; it couldn’t have been more than a week old.  Neil spoke to Anandh and asked what could be done.  Anandh was quite frank and said if the cat was left outside either the dogs or monkeys would eat it!  So what could we do?  We took her in.  She was underfed, cold and had a gammy eye.  So we gave her some milk and a warm bed in our laundry room.  To be fair to Hannah, we think she found the kitten, carried her to our doorstep and barked till Neil went to see what was going on; very Lassie like.  If Hannah had wanted to hurt the kitten, she could have done it at any time.  We’re glad to report that Lily, as she’s now called, is doing well.  Louise wanted to call her Lucky (boring), Neil wanted to call her Doorstep (even worse!).  She is growing fast, is being spoiled by all of us and her eye has cleared up.  We’ve even taken her for a check-up in the local animal hospital.  Long term, Lily will be a great addition to the family and is the ultimate rat repellent!!  However, one footnote.  After her visit to the hospital we found there is one major problem with Lily...it turns out she’s a HE.  So a re-think is needed on the name.  Grateful for any suggestions.

"Lily" the Cat sleeping in Anandh's shoe

This weekend we went on our first College-organised hike to a Toda village – the Toda are an indigenous tribe that still live in the Nilgiris hills.  It was a 12km hike through the jungle, interspersed with tea stops, shopping and a “cultural display” (dancing and a demonstration of marriageable eligibility by picking up huge boulders) at the Toda village.  It was a beautiful walk and very sociable – there must have been about 200 adults and children taking part, all strung along the path.  We didn’t take Daisy and Ava with us as we knew we’d end up carrying them, but there were plenty of small children on the walk.  The hike ended up back at the Officers’ Mess for lunch and beer on the lawns, and Anandh brought Daisy down for ice-cream, which she found very exciting!

In the Jungle

On Saturday night, after a bit of an afternoon snooze after the hike (it’s the Indian way apparently), we went to a new restaurant that we’d heard about in Ooty for dinner.  It’s called Kings Cliff and is very British Colonial in style, lots of dark panelling, open fireplaces and beautiful, old furniture, and serves very good continental as well as Indian food, so we had steaks and brownies to follow – it was lovely!!  And now that our wine delivery has arrived from the US officers (from their Embassy) we were able to take some nice wine with us for dinner too!

Sunday night was another dinner party at someone’s house, so it seems to have been a non-stop eat-a-thon this weekend!  Unfortunately the tummy troubles Neil has been facing are turning into a tale of woe.  Having been to the Doc’s again, it seems that he has a mild parasitic infection; Neil has named him Percy the parasite.  Hopefully after another set of antibiotics Neil will be rid of Percy once and for all and his stay in the family will be short lived!  The one thing that this has curtailed is Neil’s eating, as hasn’t been eating as much as Louise and is now 7 kgs lighter than when he arrived in India.

So it’s time to start planning the next Tutorial Break and the long Christmas holiday now, but before that Neil’s got another 8 weeks of hard toil and 2 trips away with the Course.  It’s a hard life for some!

And before we go, Neil's been doing a lot of face painting with Daisy recently, so here's one of his artworks...

Daisy the Tiger, with Daddy