India Night

September 21st was India Night here in Bangalore for the non-Indians, organized by the OWC (Overseas Women's Club). The night is organized for charity with lots of raffles and silent auctions etc. The fun for us, apart from helping the charities, is mainly in the dressing up. 

I have posted some pictures before of the sari shopping. A few days before the event during lunch time I went out with the nanny, driver & Duuk to go to the little shops on Whitefield main road to buy the required accessories such as Bangles (bracelets) and a petticoat (under skirt). I had no real say in the matter of course and just got told what to buy. That was exactly why I brought everyone so no problem. Meat also it was all sorted including driving there in back in < 1 hr.

It is not easy to put on a sari yourself. Fortunately the actual event was at the hotel next door and they had people on site to help us dress. So I went over with 2 packs of safety pins and all my clothes ad my princess daughter to get dressed. 15 min later and with the help of just 3 safety pins I looked like this:

Once back at the house dressed up both Rick looked at us and said: "You both look like Indians!". Target achieved, and it feels right having a son who was born here who obviously likes the shiny clothes with happy colors.

Father & Daughter dressed in shiny itchy fabrics;

Everyone had made a huge effort and so we all looked really good:

Sparkles everywhere:

 The lady next to Eelco is Rick's Dutch teacher.

 With no pockets we all only brought our compact camera's and phone camera's which did not do the outfits any justice, especially not later on in the evening in disco lighting. Fortunately one of our friends brought a decent camera and made us a few portraits.

We did not win anything in the raffles nor did we bid high enough in the silent auctions. It did not matter. We had a great time!

Banter

Duuk has gotten into more of a routine. He goes to bed not long after we come home, but then when the other 2 have gone to bed and he knows he can get some dedicated attention from us he usually wakes up for another hour of banter before retiring for the night.

No escape form the yellow arches

So we lived in the US for 4 years, with kids, and managed to stay away from the Macdonalds pretty easily. Apart from some late desperate hours on road trips we never made it there. Now we have moved to India where the food is healthier, the kids learn Yoga at school (yes Rick has a Yoga class 2x per week) and where there are no endless entertainment parks with gift stores and just less consumerism in general. And then we received the first invitation for a birthday party this school year:

Oh well, 'unfortunately' for Rick - we cannot make it as we will be on an Island in the Pacific, playing pirates in the sand, swimming with fishies and drinking fresh fruit cocktails -:)

Big boy

In the weekend I cut Rick's hair. He looks very different now. Also because he has grown a lot again in the last few weeks. Handsome & happy!

Shoes party at the door

Last friday we had about 50 people over from Windmills, the compound where we live, to celebrate the weekend (vrijdagmiddagborrel) and have some social time with our neighbors. As everyone here leaves there shoes at the door, this is how you recognize something social going on somewhere:

And this was only about 30 min into the party with not even 50% of the people there yet -:)

Maharadja of Windmills

Duuk our little king is being carried around all day by the ladies. If not his own 2 nannies then one of my friends, any of the other Windmills nannies, teachers at school, visitors and hotel or restaurant staff. On the rarer occasions he does sit by himself, in his own seat, he has a wicked grin on his face, as if he is up to no good at all. 

There is 1 man apart from Eelco who also dotes on Duuk and can carry him around for hours on end, showing him the world: our driver Anbu. As he is well over 2m being on his arm gives Duuk the best viewing platform of all and he clearly takes inspection of his surroundings serious!

These pictures were taken in a small local shop (selling everything and all sorts) - where I went in my lunch break with Duuk and his nanny to buy bangles & a petticoat for my sari. 

Funny signs

There are many funny signs in this city. There is advertising for dinning halls and leeky soup and the quality of the signs are not an indication on the quality of the English. 

Although I like the verb....upgradation.