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 ! 

Bannerghatta National Park

We were in a reasonably organised way as our plan to see the wildlife started. Our driver Arjun arrived and off we set at 8.30 prompt to avoid some of the city traffic as we headed south. We arrived after about an hour of travelling (40kms) which was quite an achievement in Bangalore.

Our journey to the ticket office was one of slight confusion. Non air con bus, air con bus, jeep, car, etc etc. We opted for the air con jeep only to be told that it was sold out until later in the day, but the new helper who turned out to be the a/c bus driver decided to intervene and help with the ticket purchase. 1600 rupees later we were heading to his bus 🚌 which looked actually quite roadworthy! A promise of I'll save you a seat at the front was given, which immediately provoked what's a suitable tip in my mind!!

  

We set off in the a/c bus that appeared to have a temperature gauge setting but no a/c however the driver was to leave his window open all the way through even in the Lion and Tiger sections! I figured that if he got attacked he would be enough fresh meat to keep them busy...

The journey through allowed us to see deer (yes let's move on we know them from home!) getting a little more interesting when larger deer appeared but then the next section when we saw the elephant being ridden along the road it got more exciting. Shortly afterwards we reached the elephant park with perhaps 15 elephants visible. What a wonderful sight especially two getting washed by keepers in the shallows of the lake. Yes Milo wants one now as a pet.

Next area was the bear section - 60 rescued former 'dancing bears' - quite cute really. The driver took my phone and leant out to get more close up piccies...

The trip continued with a double gated entry to the Lion enclosure to which Max said to the driver 'your window is still open' I'm not sure that The driver's English/ Hindi and the Max's English had any form of equivalents. We carried on and found lions basking in the sun by their pond. Despite attempts from the driver to attract them over by revving his engine we couldn't convince them to move!

Tigers came next and we were again slightly disturbed that the double gated entrance was left open. Was this a lapse of security?!! We then saw keepers and maintenance people carrying out some work before arriving at the white tiger (being slightly camera shy but safely inside his enclosure!)

This was the best day of Milo's life he suggested as we headed back on the bumpy road to the zoo section.

Difficult to say too much about a zoo environment after we have experienced some of what are deemed to be the more natural ones like Chester Zoo but perhaps the most noteworthy were the wild monkeys that were raiding the bins and following tourist around much to Milo's annoyance.. A very large king cobra within an enclosure gave us an indication of what we might see in the garden!! Apparently they are reasonably common in the summer!

Finally a note about Carla's most feared experience - yes it was the stand up hole in the floor toilet...It's one to avoid if possible and the first thing done on our return was to have a big wash of feet and anything that was close to the offending piddle pit!

  

Editors Note: We think that this was the previous A/C coach before the driver fell off the road in it!