I write this in our last night at the hotel, as we will be moving into our apartment tomorrow morning. As much as we love the hotel, we are ready to have our own home again, although will have a rather barren couple of weeks between moving in and our shipment arriving. We'll be without an iron for a few days so have a good excuse for being a bit scruffy for a while at least.
We've been tracking our ship online - it's currently in the Straight of Hormuz so closing in on India. We were told a few days ago that it's due to arrive on Tuesday next week, so I hope it gets a move on and arrives soon. Every time he looks Phil tells me it's still in the Middle East which the ship seems to be taking a long time to traverse. All shipment arrivals have to sit in a customs warehouse for a week or so before being released so, with any luck, we'll only have two weeks without our possessions and furniture. The apartment has a decent amount of furniture in it anyway; we've got enough to live with before the rest of our things arrives.
This week has consisted mainly of work and preparing to move into the apartment. I solved my bedding conundrum after finding beautiful cotton quilts and sheets from a little shop in Bandra called Anokhi. Shopping here is more effort, requiring finding little shops that have what you want, but the rewards are well worth it.
Further, we've found that there are lots of really excellent bakeries and cake shops in Bandra, all at much lower prices than in the UK. We wanted to get a gift for our hotel housekeeper, who is generally wonderful, but weren't sure about the tipping protocol (and whether he'd be able to keep this himself) so bought a big blueberry cheesecake for him instead. He seemed really pleased when we handed this over earlier this evening, and ran me a second bath of the day whilst Phil and I were having dinner (a two bath day for me, I didn't want to offend him by not using it!). The process of him being allowed to keep this cake was complex. It turns out that staff cannot take anything from the hotel and so we had to write a note to say that the cake is for him (including our room number) and provide a signature. He's gone home now so I hope he's enjoying it!
We had our last hotel meal in the Indian restaurant tonight; they seemed to know that we'd be checking out and brought us a bonus dessert.
It's nearly 2300 here and we haven't done any packing yet; a job for the morning.
Outside the world of the hotel...
...an exciting event of yesterday was our car being stopped by the police for the first time. I'd be warned about this. I just sat quietly in the car whilst my driver went to speak with them. He returned a few minutes later, completely unperturbed, having paid his 100 rupee fine (we're not quite sure what for). I'm told that you can expect this to happen every month or two, and that 100 rupees is the standard payment for a quiet resolution...
Further, we had a bit of stress earlier this week after our apartment deposit transfer from a UK account got blocked with some questions from the Indian authorities (the rupee is a closed currency so significant transfers in can be stopped), which wasn't a problem in itself, but became one when my bank didn't tell us for a week despite me phoning every day to find out why the money hadn't arrived. We couldn't move in to the apartment until our deposit arrived with the owner, but thankfully it finally got there a couple of days ago. HSBC are in my bad books. I feel like I've become an expert on overseas money transfers in the last few days, but am looking forward to getting paid in India at the end of the month and not fussing with that any more.
Looking ahead...
...we've done a lot of holiday planning over the last few days. Given that the last month has flown by, we're in danger of two years rushing by if we don't get a few things into the diary. Current plans include a weekend in Murud (coastal town south of Mumbai, beautiful beach, historic fort and on) at the end of July, Hyderabad on the 10th/11th and a trip to Chittorgarh / Udaipur (palace on the lake) at the end of August. We've booked flights for a long weekend in Goa over Diwali (a five day weekend) as well as a short trip back to the UK in October for wedding focus.
We've also done something slightly less sensible today and registered for the Mumbai Marathon in January. Phil's put his name down for the marathon, I've registered for the half marathon. Given that I tend to overheat on a cold day at the Parkrun, I'm not quite sure how this will work out, but will be an great challenge and the race itself is supposed to be a fantastic occasion. We don't know yet whether we've been allocated places, but have our fingers crossed. Mum and Dad - I'm anticipating you making disapproving noises about this!
That's all for now. We're unlikely to have internet for a few days but will blog again with apartment updates when we do.
We've been tracking our ship online - it's currently in the Straight of Hormuz so closing in on India. We were told a few days ago that it's due to arrive on Tuesday next week, so I hope it gets a move on and arrives soon. Every time he looks Phil tells me it's still in the Middle East which the ship seems to be taking a long time to traverse. All shipment arrivals have to sit in a customs warehouse for a week or so before being released so, with any luck, we'll only have two weeks without our possessions and furniture. The apartment has a decent amount of furniture in it anyway; we've got enough to live with before the rest of our things arrives.
This week has consisted mainly of work and preparing to move into the apartment. I solved my bedding conundrum after finding beautiful cotton quilts and sheets from a little shop in Bandra called Anokhi. Shopping here is more effort, requiring finding little shops that have what you want, but the rewards are well worth it.
Further, we've found that there are lots of really excellent bakeries and cake shops in Bandra, all at much lower prices than in the UK. We wanted to get a gift for our hotel housekeeper, who is generally wonderful, but weren't sure about the tipping protocol (and whether he'd be able to keep this himself) so bought a big blueberry cheesecake for him instead. He seemed really pleased when we handed this over earlier this evening, and ran me a second bath of the day whilst Phil and I were having dinner (a two bath day for me, I didn't want to offend him by not using it!). The process of him being allowed to keep this cake was complex. It turns out that staff cannot take anything from the hotel and so we had to write a note to say that the cake is for him (including our room number) and provide a signature. He's gone home now so I hope he's enjoying it!
We had our last hotel meal in the Indian restaurant tonight; they seemed to know that we'd be checking out and brought us a bonus dessert.
Our voyage is only a couple of miles up the road, but it was a nice gesture non-the-less.
It's nearly 2300 here and we haven't done any packing yet; a job for the morning.
Outside the world of the hotel...
...an exciting event of yesterday was our car being stopped by the police for the first time. I'd be warned about this. I just sat quietly in the car whilst my driver went to speak with them. He returned a few minutes later, completely unperturbed, having paid his 100 rupee fine (we're not quite sure what for). I'm told that you can expect this to happen every month or two, and that 100 rupees is the standard payment for a quiet resolution...
Further, we had a bit of stress earlier this week after our apartment deposit transfer from a UK account got blocked with some questions from the Indian authorities (the rupee is a closed currency so significant transfers in can be stopped), which wasn't a problem in itself, but became one when my bank didn't tell us for a week despite me phoning every day to find out why the money hadn't arrived. We couldn't move in to the apartment until our deposit arrived with the owner, but thankfully it finally got there a couple of days ago. HSBC are in my bad books. I feel like I've become an expert on overseas money transfers in the last few days, but am looking forward to getting paid in India at the end of the month and not fussing with that any more.
Looking ahead...
...we've done a lot of holiday planning over the last few days. Given that the last month has flown by, we're in danger of two years rushing by if we don't get a few things into the diary. Current plans include a weekend in Murud (coastal town south of Mumbai, beautiful beach, historic fort and on) at the end of July, Hyderabad on the 10th/11th and a trip to Chittorgarh / Udaipur (palace on the lake) at the end of August. We've booked flights for a long weekend in Goa over Diwali (a five day weekend) as well as a short trip back to the UK in October for wedding focus.
We've also done something slightly less sensible today and registered for the Mumbai Marathon in January. Phil's put his name down for the marathon, I've registered for the half marathon. Given that I tend to overheat on a cold day at the Parkrun, I'm not quite sure how this will work out, but will be an great challenge and the race itself is supposed to be a fantastic occasion. We don't know yet whether we've been allocated places, but have our fingers crossed. Mum and Dad - I'm anticipating you making disapproving noises about this!
That's all for now. We're unlikely to have internet for a few days but will blog again with apartment updates when we do.
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