We're back! After a month's hiatus I am blogging again as our Indian adventures continue. The last month has been busy, including a visit to Mumbai from the Linford family and a two week holiday in the UK seeing friends and family. We arrived back in Mumbai on Sunday and after a week settling back in at home and work, life has returned to normal in India.
So what's going on? A few things...
Our apartment block is being renovated, including full re-painting of all exteriors which is rather exciting. Very wonky wooden scaffolding surrounds our building and we frequently see workmen swinging deftly past the windows. Our pigeon netting had to come down so we have lots of feathered (and messy) friends on our balcony. Here's a picture of two woodmen sanding down the existing paint in the parking area (by hand...) prior to applying a new coat.
Everything on the ground floor is covered in dust, it looks like the aftermath of a volcanic eruption.
We also have to decide for how much longer we'll be staying in India. It looks like this will be for a year longer than originally planned, until June 2016, but this is yet to be confirmed. On top of that, my office location is moving in April so we need to decide whether to move apartment to be closer to the new location further north in Mumbai. Again, we think it's unlikely that we'll move, but it's another thing for us to think about.
Phil is keeping busy with his environmental projects and making contacts and plans around the city. We're also busy planning our next set of travel plans in India, making a fresh start for the New Year. We have plans to travel to Goa, Madhya Pradesh. Gurujat and Delhi in the next three months and are busy making sure that we don't lose momentum in our quest to see as much of the country as possible.
In the shorter term, it's the annual Mumbai half and full marathon on Sunday 18 January for which Phil has done considerably more training than me! In light of this impending race, we went to the National Park in Boravali for a 11k run this morning though it was a little hot for me as we didn't start until 10am. There was some excitement on the way back as we almost ran of petrol (which would have been rather problematic on the Western Express Highway in Mumbai) but found a petrol station in the nick of time.
We went to the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) today to pick up our running goodie bag (which intriguingly contains 12 sachets of shampoo...) and race timing chip at the "Expo" which, as you would expect, also includes lots of stands with sponsors and sporty retailers selling things. The main attraction was a man attempting to break the world record for the longest period of time / distance covered on a treadmill without a break (I'm not sure about the fine detail). We saw him 23 minutes in and he seemed to be doing alright then but with a very long way to go...
The marathon has a new feature this year where every runner can choose a personalised message / slogan which will then be displayed on a screen when they run through a certain timing point. This message can be anything but, when put on the spot, Phil chose "Keep Going". Really. I would have expected a bit more imagination, especially from Phil!
As we were in the area, we had lunch at a nearby hotel which was also hosting the Indian Wine Consumer Choice Awards for which we had registered to be judges. This turned out to be a very well organised tasting session where we sampled over 30 wines in total, including sparkling, viognier, red blends, merlot and shiraz. There were over 100 wines being tested overall, so not all wines came to us, but it was a good selection and a fun afternoon meeting new people. Thankfully they had spittoons (not guaranteed in India) and were actively encouraging spitting out the wine when judging. This suited us well, we're off alcohol until after the race next week, although looking around we could see that not everyone was sticking to this!
We liked several of the wines on offer, the standard of Indian wine is noticeably increasing over time, although there were a couple of undrinkable clangers too. We were sure that they must be off but the organisers didn't seem sure...
We're now relaxing back at home with Phil watching the football (we are lucky/unlucky enough to get three back-to-back Premiership matches on the TV on a Saturday evening) and eating a vegetable biriyani which caused trouble yesterday. Phil had a craving for biriyani last night so ordered a takeaway from a local restaurant at 1730 in the hope that this would arrive within an hour. At 1900, we gave up on this so reordered a biriyani from a different restaurant that was supposed to arrive within 45 minutes. At 2045 we sadly gave up on that and had a rather meagre Friday night dinner of cheese on toast. And, yes, the biriyani (second one) finally turned up at 2115, more than two hours after we'd ordered it. Phil is now enjoying his biriyani, just a little later than expected!
So what's going on? A few things...
Our apartment block is being renovated, including full re-painting of all exteriors which is rather exciting. Very wonky wooden scaffolding surrounds our building and we frequently see workmen swinging deftly past the windows. Our pigeon netting had to come down so we have lots of feathered (and messy) friends on our balcony. Here's a picture of two woodmen sanding down the existing paint in the parking area (by hand...) prior to applying a new coat.
A cheerful sander
We also have to decide for how much longer we'll be staying in India. It looks like this will be for a year longer than originally planned, until June 2016, but this is yet to be confirmed. On top of that, my office location is moving in April so we need to decide whether to move apartment to be closer to the new location further north in Mumbai. Again, we think it's unlikely that we'll move, but it's another thing for us to think about.
Phil is keeping busy with his environmental projects and making contacts and plans around the city. We're also busy planning our next set of travel plans in India, making a fresh start for the New Year. We have plans to travel to Goa, Madhya Pradesh. Gurujat and Delhi in the next three months and are busy making sure that we don't lose momentum in our quest to see as much of the country as possible.
In the shorter term, it's the annual Mumbai half and full marathon on Sunday 18 January for which Phil has done considerably more training than me! In light of this impending race, we went to the National Park in Boravali for a 11k run this morning though it was a little hot for me as we didn't start until 10am. There was some excitement on the way back as we almost ran of petrol (which would have been rather problematic on the Western Express Highway in Mumbai) but found a petrol station in the nick of time.
We went to the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) today to pick up our running goodie bag (which intriguingly contains 12 sachets of shampoo...) and race timing chip at the "Expo" which, as you would expect, also includes lots of stands with sponsors and sporty retailers selling things. The main attraction was a man attempting to break the world record for the longest period of time / distance covered on a treadmill without a break (I'm not sure about the fine detail). We saw him 23 minutes in and he seemed to be doing alright then but with a very long way to go...
The marathon has a new feature this year where every runner can choose a personalised message / slogan which will then be displayed on a screen when they run through a certain timing point. This message can be anything but, when put on the spot, Phil chose "Keep Going". Really. I would have expected a bit more imagination, especially from Phil!
As we were in the area, we had lunch at a nearby hotel which was also hosting the Indian Wine Consumer Choice Awards for which we had registered to be judges. This turned out to be a very well organised tasting session where we sampled over 30 wines in total, including sparkling, viognier, red blends, merlot and shiraz. There were over 100 wines being tested overall, so not all wines came to us, but it was a good selection and a fun afternoon meeting new people. Thankfully they had spittoons (not guaranteed in India) and were actively encouraging spitting out the wine when judging. This suited us well, we're off alcohol until after the race next week, although looking around we could see that not everyone was sticking to this!
Me judging, sitting next to a friendly restaurant owner
The view down the table
Phil enjoying his viognier
All the wines on offer, covered up to stop anyone peeking
We liked several of the wines on offer, the standard of Indian wine is noticeably increasing over time, although there were a couple of undrinkable clangers too. We were sure that they must be off but the organisers didn't seem sure...
We're now relaxing back at home with Phil watching the football (we are lucky/unlucky enough to get three back-to-back Premiership matches on the TV on a Saturday evening) and eating a vegetable biriyani which caused trouble yesterday. Phil had a craving for biriyani last night so ordered a takeaway from a local restaurant at 1730 in the hope that this would arrive within an hour. At 1900, we gave up on this so reordered a biriyani from a different restaurant that was supposed to arrive within 45 minutes. At 2045 we sadly gave up on that and had a rather meagre Friday night dinner of cheese on toast. And, yes, the biriyani (second one) finally turned up at 2115, more than two hours after we'd ordered it. Phil is now enjoying his biriyani, just a little later than expected!
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