Sari Shopping

In a few weeks the local Overseas Women's Club hosts India night - in the hotel 300m from our house - so no excuse not to go and a great excuse to buy a Sari. As the top (Choli) needs to be made, and as it might take a bit to get it right (not too short or too tight) and because I am alone with the kids the next 2 weeks which will drastically reduce my opportunity to shop - this was the day to go. There is a very fancy silk emporium all the way downtown but as I did not quite have that kind of time we went closer by to a junction which has 2 big sari shops side by side. As we got there 5 min after they opened (11am) not many people around and we had all the attention.

The material that is supposed to become the top (chili) is actually attached to the Sari and they are all starched up so it is even harder to try it on. Fortunately they have someone helping with all that who can have it draped in 30 Seconds - over all the bulky trousers and clothes.

The above was a very fancy silk one - gorgeous but very expensive and maybe not quite festive enough so I also tried one on with more different colors.

My friend Yvonne, who has been here a little longer, has gotten a little wiser after wearing a sari a few times and she went for the much easier to wear Ghagra. A more northern style dress with more beading & sparkles. It is a long skirt with the same top as the sari but with a separate scarf.

I thought I would end up with silk but settles on one in a much softer more wearable material (Silk cotton mix) with nice embroidery, a little gold bling and party colors.

We also tried the second shop next door, but what you maybe cannot really see from the picture is that it was really a lot 'cheaper'. The bling and embellishment went a bit overboard - and more was not really better - just more.

Having made our choices we went straight to the taylor - a tiny shop on the 2nd floor in some building - where we got measured up, left our fancy purchases and in about 10 days we should be able to pick up our attire.

Lovely 3 hours. Think I may need a new sari for every new party such that I can go again. Now just make sure I get some good help on the day itself to put it on and nor haev any wardrobe malfunction on the evening itself!

Kaat at School

Kaat is at school in the same class as last year with the same teacher. In the US the daycare had classes from e.g. 2 - 3 and 2.5 - 3.5 as the school was so big so every kid always moves up. Kaat not being 3 yet before the start of this new school year therefor stayed in the lowest grade - nursery. So settling in after the summer has been no problem at all and the result is that in the first month's pictures we received from Kaat's teacher she is cleary very much at ease, happy and one of the 'big girls'.

 There are actually 2 nursery classes and it does look like they put the older nursery kids together.You can imagine that the difference between a just 2 year old and self confident Kaat with a big brother at 2.5 can still be a big difference.

At school they do lots of projects, music, art and sports.

Kaat also has swimming lessons at school and is one of the few in her group who get to go in the big pool already.

 Almost every day - at some point during the day - Rick decides to go check in on his sister. And they let him, and the whole school is in awe of cute Kaat and her super caring big brother.

 I am pleasantly surprised that actually the art work we get send home from school indeed looks like something Kaat could have made - and not something the teacher finished for her.

 Judging by the bathing suit - which Kaat does not fit anymore - this is actually a picture of swimming class before the summer. The blond boy is teh son of friends of ours and also has a big brother, making him and Kaat more evenly matched. Although they refuse to aknowledge each other outside school we realized at last Saturday's birthday party. AT school they clearly get along -:)

If we get Kaat potty trained we will have the option to move her up to the next group if she gets bored at this level or is too 'old' for the other kids in the group. It does not quite look like that yet.

Homework - "My weekend"

Yes, you read that right. Rick has homework. He is now in 'Prep1' in the International (British) School system meaning he gets homework once a week. We had forgotten about that again until I saw a note in Rick's school book telling us he had to come prepared to be able to do a show and tell of some kind about his weekend.....sigh! As we have no printer and I refuse to send him to school with an iPad or something I made an old fashioned pencil drawing, directed by Rick.

After school Friday I made the kids wash their wagon - the way Anbu washes the car.

They took they job serious, where totally useless at it, but got everything wet and kept Duuk entertained and did not give up easily as after they decided the wagon was 'clean' they also did all the bikes.

After that we took some toys in the wagon over to one of the other Villas where that evening we would have a 'Windmills vrijdag middag borrel' (a community pot luck / party).

On Saturday morning Rick & Kaat were invited to Tandia's birthday party. The theme (of at least the cake & goodie bags) was 'My little pony'. Both Rick & Kaat loved it as there was a lot of free play, lots of princessed around and Rick had all the hs favorite ladies from his class there plus one of his best buddies James (who was supposed to have left this summer but did not -:) ) and Tandia's big brother Keanan.

Pretty quickly James & Rick figured out there were fishies in the pond. So they decided to go fishing.

Literally with a boat.

After the party I had the whole afternoon at home with some sugar-hyper kids (Kaat ate no cake but 6 portions of rainbow icing on top of all the other snacks). So no time for pictures in between a Duuk who refused to sleep in the afternoon but is becoming very loud & rowdy, making guns from paper boxes for Rick and fighting off the sharks & pirates and serving milk, more milk and some more milk. The kids played all afternoon one story after another and it was actually great fun.

Rest is for the wicked so lying in till about 8 was enough for all (I by then had been banned to the foot end of the bed as there were 3 little people sweating in my place). As we had no plans and hence a whole day for playing & family time I decided to put up an old tent of ours for the kids. My supervisor also came out to oversee my progress.

Fortunately it was Eelco who was then invited into the tent. By then the clouds had gone and it was hot and sticky. All the fun took place in the tent and was secret. So no pictures.

In the afternoon we relaxed, went to the sports store, used the pool, sorted out stuff at home etc. I also got some more cute pictures of the happy kids - moments I will remember from the weekend but that did not make it into Rick's summary. 

Would love to hear Rick's story at school, but unfortunately, we will be at work. We have some idea though as whilst making the sheet Rick was drifting off into fantasyland regularly and so there are some things on the sheet Rick only encountered in his head. Somehow I think there is going to be a lot of talk about those pirates!

Innate Birthday skills

Before I went off for dinner with my mommy friends last Tuesday we celebrated Duuk's 1/2 Birthday at home. We got some cupcakes and candles and of course Rick & Kaat can tell us what to do next.

Well it turns out that Duuk needs no training on the subject of Birthdays and cupcakes either. The first licks he managed to take unnoticed when I was trying to help out Kaat with her cake, whilst holding Duuk and my cupcake in the same arm/hand. As the damage was done already we just let him.... 

Desperate Driver

I got a text message from our ex-driver today (the one that only worked for us 3-4 weeks).

""hi mam this is m**** how are you how is sir & kids mam now iam working for indians iam getting low salery ken you help me mam plese mam plese plese"

ehm,.....not sure I have an answer to this one.

6 Months - already....

Kids grow fast - everyone says so - but with Duuk it almost feels as if his life passes in lightning speed. Of course our life is very busy but the fact that Duuk is already 6 months today takes me still by surprise. 

I am happy with every new thing he does, but sad about every little thing that is already over, grateful he is so happy and healthy and sad at the little clothes that leave the house because he has outgrown them. His check up is not till next week, so no statistics but he is into a size 74 shirts wise and trousers more a 68. His head is noticeably bigger, he sleeps less, eats some solids, needs to have a larger diaper size soon, can almost sit up, can roll over, play for a while, almost hold his bottle and he is starting to giggle.

some days he is still very much a tiny baby.

 Other days I see a toddler coming

The ones who get the best laughs out of him are Rick & Kaat.

and when he sleeps he is still our baby.

a slightly skinnier version of the same

 Happy Duuk

 aka babu (cute little boy in Kannada and Tamil- the local dialects) or Chinnu (Hindu for little one / my dear / lovable)

We also refer to him as the boy without last name, about which I will write more some other time.

 Happy 1/2 birthday sweet Duuk! Mommy's going out for dinner with a bunch of other mommies who understand mixed mom's emotions are at a milestone like this.

Mysore - the other sights

Around Mysore there are a lot of things to do and see, such as wilderness safaris and hikes and waterfalls, the Tipu forts (of the Muslim ruler who was in charge for only a brief spell in the area) and much more, so many people come to Mysore for the palace and then head out of town during the day for the other attractions. We opted to cover Mysore itself instead. Any plans to stroll around town or visit any markets etc had been abandoned after the first hour there. But there is a Zoo in Mysore which is supposed to be one of the better ones in the country (because it is not run by the government - as a 2 colleagues claimed we ran into there), and as Rick has been asking about going to the zoo repeatedly in the past few months, the choice to go there was easily made.

The zoo was indeed pretty good. Online it gets a lot of horrible reviews but it appeared as if a lot of upgrades had just been made or were in progress. Most animals looked ok, apart from some very skinny lions, and decent accommodation with reasonable space. We have seen much, much worse in Russia and Japan paying at least 10 times what we paid here (100 INR = 2 USD for the whole family + camera). There was some wildlife also in the form of monkeys. And some lovely typical Indian-glish signs.

The only other animals we took pictures off was the enormous crowd of bats who also had taken up residence in the zoo. I was scared, as they where huge, made a lot of noise, were dropping poop etc but Eelco was intrigued.

Me with my own monkeys.

The tour through the zoo was about 3km so quite a hike. We again where touched, photographed and questioned all the time but as it was not silly busy, spacious and a one-way tour, so it was much more manageable.

The other place we visited was the railway museum. Tucked away in a corner near the train station was  this open air museum, costing a whopping 5 INR pp + 10 for the camera (total 20 INR = 0.40 USD). We saw more foreigners there then in any of the other places bizarrely enough.

The place at first sight did not look like much but it was nicely set up with signs like these:

Any trains on display we could get in apart from the carriages of the Maharani (the Maharadja's wife), making the whole place one big play ground.

There actually also was a real play ground.

With a family swing.

Rick & Kaat ran around and had lots of fun.

doing a pretend pipi in the train's toilet for instance. Kaat did hers also boys style and we were told to all wash our hands after too.

And we went on a pretend train ride for Duuk.

Daddy!!!!!

 Getting the engine fired up and to go faster:

 A very happy place - with the ticket desk also in an old carriage.

 Cute trains.

And big wheels

and train cars

After the train museum I drove us back through the very busy Saturday traffic to the Hotel. Fortunately Anbu, our driver, was there to take us back to Bangalore. After just 30 min in this traffic I was exhausted! And Anbu was happy as he had been in the fancy fast train - with AC Madam! And no stops! Guess he was ok with the deal too.

 Nice place Mysore. Next time we will pick one of the other fun places near there.