Too many things to do

We have so many things to do and don't know where to start so we are sitting on the balcony for f the apartment thinking about it with a cup of tea. The furniture is coming tomorrow ! Hooray!

So it is all stations go packing the apartment while trying to help Max with his very tricky maths homework ( algebra) . Carla is so pleased that she is not home schooling any more because the maths is way too hard.
 Max is very excited about sports day on Friday as they do a regimental parade around the field with the horses from the stables following them all. Not sure what race he is in but he practised all morning and again one of our children has come home sunburnt. New all day sun cream supplies arriving at the end of the week ! Both boys need to be watched closely when they put the cream on as they are only doing a quick sweep .

Yesterday the maid started at the house. Her name is Mala ,she arrived on time and couldn't wait to get through the door to meet her new family. She was so excited and never stopped smiling all day. She will be working five days a week to do the cleaning , ironing (😀) and some cooking - she's going to teach us how to cook Indian food !She will start at 8 in the morning to avoid the traffic  otherwise she will have to spend 2 hours on the bus to get to us !  Mala worked really hard and when Carla attempted to clean ,she tutted and sent her off to make cups of coffee and write long lists of all the cleaning things she needs, including a new dishwasher ( don't know what Sir - Andrew- will say to that one !)
The boys were also at home yesterday as it was the festival of Pongal and their school had a day off as it has mainly Indian children and staff who go there . Needles to say , Max and Milo were very happy. We went to the swimming pool and played with the other children who were off too. In the evening we saw a drumming procession and a fancy bright float going down the street outside the shopping centre but we didn't have enough time to get down there before it passed by. Next time we will know better !
We had our first medical encounter . Andrew lost part of his tooth on Sunday evening eating pasta .Infact we had two things go wrong on Sunday. We had booked to go to lunch at a Beer garden ( Bangalore has lots of micro-breweries) and it was around the corner. When we got there Andreew realised that it was the wrong one ! But it was really lovely food and the beer was good ( we had to cancel the other place quickly !)
So , on Monday Andrew had an appointment at the dentist nearby. The dentist had sent a very sympathetic message to check on him which we were impressed with. Andrew came back quite pleased with a built up tooth and only £23 pounds worse off. Dentists are good here too!

End of the first school week

Milo jumped off the bus on Friday night , quite sunburnt ( he had put once a day suntan lotion on but obviously it wasn't high enough) and bursting with excitement. He declared that he goes to the best school in the world. Instead of Friday being spelling and maths test day as in Britain, he had gone on a zip wire , climbing and team building day. He'd been allowed chocolate and biscuits and has lots of new friends . He's not sure of most of their names but they've all got on well . Max was also very enthusiastic about his new friends and spent all evening chatting to them on the class chat site. He was pleased at lunch as there was pizza on offer so that made his day.
After a bit of a nervous and shaky start to the week in their new school , it has turned around and both are enjoying it. We are so proud of them both, they have been brave srarting something so drastically new.

Moving House.

Andrew and I had to spend another morning playing musical chairs at the immigration office as we need to change our address to the new one. It took an hour and a half to get there , even longer inside and a similar journey back . There was moment of alarm when the man behind the counter asked for a form we didn't have and we had visions of having to do the journey again on another day but after about 15 minutes he decided that we didn't need it and we were given the new forms. We were rather relieved .
I went back to the hotel to get the shopping and meet the boys and Andrew spent the afternoon at the customs office inspecting the container. It is opened in front of you and then various items are unpacked and logged . Of course, there is a price to pay for importing things such as TVs and they assess all the things they desire . You get a quote and then have to pay before they will release your furniture.

Fingers crossed the payment will go through quickly and we can possibly ( don't want to bewitch ourselves) move in on Wednesday or Thursday. That would be so much easier for getting the bus in the morning and at night as the bus stop in the complex is much calmer and does not have four lanes of  speeding traffic to negotiate , not to mention all the black smoke and fumes coming out of some of the lorries.

The new house and school

We have the keys to the new house and so we are very excited. It is in a cul del sac in a quiet street with four houses. All the neighbours are extremely kind and friendly.
 On Saturday we went to get the internet connected (that's a whole story in itself!) and ended up  gatecrashing a party which was very vibrant and fun. We had already been invited to a street bbq for the Sunday so felt rather cheeky when Julie came across and took the boys off our hands . Her kind offer ended up with us stopping much longer than we had anticipated.
There are a lot of different nationalities on Palm Meadows so it is very interesting trying to remember all the new names. There are French, Swedish , Belgian, Iranian and Indian families , not that many British ones though.
The next day ,we turned up again early ( to continue with the internet connection) , helped with the tables for the street, met another set of neighbours, plus some of the same ones and spent the rest of the day eating and socialising under the tree in the shade. It was so lovely.
The boys played with the other children on bikes and scooters and even disappeared into the next street to play.  They are in heaven with the amount of freedom they can have to play and roam.

The house is behind us


School Day 1

But they were not in heaven the next day when they had to get up at six o'clock to drive to their new school! They have joined Indus International School. It is a very relaxed and happy school.
It takes anywhere form half an hour to an hour to get there  according to the flow of the traffic. Arrival time is eight o' clock with lessons starting at 8:40
We arrived at school and were taken to the dining hall where the children can choose from a wide variety of breakfasts , both Indian and European. the teachers also have their breakfast too . They come on the buses with the children along with bus parents (spare staff) so each bus has four adults on to supervise. Then the children all go to their lessons.
After breakfast , the boys went to get their uniforms and then were taken off to their classes. Bless
them , they were rather nervous.
Meanwhile, we had to have our photos taken so that if we turn to take them out of school early they can match the boys up with us. Even our driver, Arjun , has to have this done.
 On leaving the campus, the guards even check the boot of the car to check you are not taking anyone you shouldn't.
We had a small window of time in the middle of the day to get jobs done then we had to do the journey again to fetch them back. Both of them had enjoyed their day although they both had been nervous and tearful at some point of the day. They said that they had missed us too much! Softies!

School Day 2

We were outside the hotel at 7:10 waiting for the bus.  No bus turned up! So at 8 o clock we rang and apparently they had told us the wrong bus which went a different way something like that. Even so this meant that we had to make the journey by car again .
The boys went off to lessons ( not quite as nervous) and we spent another hour waiting while they sorted out the correct bus. The school were very apologetic and in the end it was all sorted and we were reassured that the children would turn up in the evening.
Off we went again on the journey back. With most of the morning gone, Andrew went to get on with his work whilst Carla had to socialise with ladies that lunch.

Luckily the boys did turn up in the evening. Milo was reassured that Arjun and Andrew (notice the order of people)were both there to get him across the road. The boys had had a better day but produced a lot of homework which is not popular with either of them. They both went to bed early -the first time since we have been in India! On going to bed , Milo said " I don't think I can manage the curry at lunchtime any more and I'm so hungry" He went to sleep with the reassurance that he can have a sandwich as a pack up to help him tomorrow .

School

We have applied for a lovely school and should be due to start next week. This means that Max and Milo need to do some school work until they start. Max is doing business studies today and is Andrew's assistant. He has gone to work  looking very smart and ready for some action and report writing. Milo on the other hand is rolling around on the settee claiming that he doesn't need to do any school work as it is boring. Also nobody loves him as he has to do school work.  We have managed half an hour of spelling but I can see it is going to be a long day !