Choc Chip Bagels

Mini ones.... they are small, aromatic, delicious when toasted, melt in the mouth, filling yet that doesn't seem to matter, it's heart over head .....they are quite possibly evil.

London

Dec 2005

Escape from Bangalore - I loved my time in India. Until of course I came back from Nepal, where things were a lot calmer and the locals do not put you up on a pedestal. Nepal reminded me that India was not 'normal', and being in the very early stages of pregnancy didn't help matters. All of a sudden the smells were totally repulsive and the daily necessary travel was extremely tiring, it was time to go. I had a friend make me some lovely chicken soup as I "wasn't feeling well" - sure when I told her later that we were pregnant, she said "of course you were!" Thanks Suzi. So we planned to move on, and Tele2 planned not to work from Bangalore anymore, so we were headed to Stockholm, head office of Tele2 where teh work would now be done. But before we got there we had a few things to organise, like visas etc. We went to Dublin to spend Christmas with some friends from Bangalore and then we headed to Stockholm, on boxing day. Chavvah came over, for a week I think, from Scotland, that was fun and bloody cold. Oh at this point it was very novel to want to go outside so we could put on our coats, gloves, beanies, scarves etc That is until the snow just didn't stop. It ended up being the coldest winter in 15 years.

The Golden Triangle - Delhi * Agra * Jaipur

3 Nov - 8 Nov 2005

As soon as my trek to Everest base camp ended, I flew to Delhi to meet up with Nic and his parents. We then did a tour of what is known as the Golden Triangle: Delhi, Agra & Jaipur. The Taj Mahal was just an awesome place to visit. There was just us and a mere 10, 000 other visitors.

Nepal

11 Oct - 3 Nov 2005


Well when we left for India everything really was decided at the last minute and I had completely forgotten about this trek to Nepal that I had entertained briefly once before. But after I settled into India - I decided that I should do the trek as India was so close and I may not be back this way for a while.

So that was in August - I emailed the trek leader - (back in Brisbane) and started planning. Anyway the trek was in October - 10 days after returning from the Maldives - yessssss most people would do it the other way around - and in hindsight I would too. Anyway I had roughly 2 months to train for this trek, which was from Lukla to Everest Base Camp - roughly 100km (gotta check that with Rode, our map happy co-trekker) but ALL uphill. The trek was also roughly 3 weeks - 2 weeks up and 1 week down and was during the Nepalese autumn.

I found a gym in Koramangala and they organised a program - lets just say that (I think) I know a little bit about muscles and how they work and I decided that their program was too intensive - so I adjusted it. From memory the program they had designed was for me to do weights 6 days a week - I could be wrong, but I just listened to my body, and I am happy to report that my body did not fail me.

I arrived in Kathmandu 2 days before the trek - Carol met me at the airport, with Chitra, and it was very nice to see her - after all the emailing back and forth over the last couple of months it was lovely to put a face to the name. We then went to our accommodation at The Moonlight Hotel - I got to meet all of the other trekkers - Evan (Townsville), Annissa (Brisbane), Leeanne (Brisbane), Rod otherwise known as 'Rode' (Melbourne) and god help us all Lorraine and Nigel (Brisbane). I knew I was in trouble when after talking to Nigel for about 5 minutes he said "Well, when in Rome..........." He said this a LOT and I'd only just met him - but how could he be that bad when his lovely partner Lorraine was by his side - so I gave him another chance and also consoled myself with the thought that he would walk up the front of the group and I would hang to the back. Oh Nigel - I do love ya!

Unfortunately this did not happen - we were both up the front of the walking group, and happy to be there. Of course there was lots of shit stirring throughout the day, along with lots of swearing - but every day we all made it to our goal. It was not always easy, each day actually got harder and harder - along with each bed and apparently the pillows (this was one of Rode's comments - Nigel and I just laughed). There was a lot of laughing and the whole group got along really well, I thought.

Personally I had 2 bad days on the way up and none on the way down. The first 'bad' day was at Tengboche - of course!!! And that damn frikin' HILL - my fellow trekkers know the one I am talking about and some affectionately refer to it as Little Everest. So I'd like to say that I have never had any aspirations to climb Mt Everest so why would I want to climb its Junior??? Well I learnt a thing or two that day. FIRST - never trust your group leader and SECOND death did not come that day.

The day started out just lovely - we were at Tengboche - where there is the largest Tibetan monastery outside of Tibet and on top of a hill, with a bakery and a view to Mt Everest - spectacular, what more could you want??? It was also a rest day - disguised as an acclimitisation day but commonly known as 'just another trekking day'. So we all set out to do this climb that shouldn't take that long and in the words of the Kajiman "WHY NOT" its a lovely day....

So off we went and it really was one of those 'how much further?' and 'are we there yet?' days. And of course the trusted leaders were ever obliging with pointing up there and saying 'just there, not much further' - hence 'never trust your group leader'. It went on forever - the weather turned nasty until eventually we could not see the pretty picture of Tengboche anymore- so surely it must be time to go down??? I mean it was now snowing and you could just see the foot in front of you - some of us (most of us) were not expecting this - oh but just a bit further, plus our group leader had a memorial to build, so we must trudge on.....

I am not afraid of heights and I am not afraid of hard work or lots of walking or lots of hard, long walking at heights - but currently I am afraid of death. Not the actual being dead part, but the part where I know its going to happen and I don't want it to happen. Up there on THAT HILL - as the weather got worse, and the path wetter and more slippery - a path that was so narrow that you could only put one foot after the other, and a path that took you higher and higher with each of those steps - I thought I was going to die. I was uncomfortable with this.

It was the first time in my life that I have ever had that feeling - so you can imagine that while having this feeling and being told that we must continue why I would be rather hesitant. Yes I could understand that this climb is an acclimitisation climb and I knew the importance of that - but quite frankly I was about to die - so the acclimitisation didn't seem that importatn anymore!We had come quite a height and I was satisfied that I would be ok, altitude wise, with the height I had done - but well it was dangerous and as much as I wanted to go down ( I was not alone in this kind of thinking) I also knew that it would not be the best idea for me to go down alone - so what does one do - they must keep going!!

But let it be known that with each step I got angrier, as I still believed I was going to die - and I had a lot of livin' to do.

We got to the top (I think) and the Nepalese guides and porters went about building the memorial - the memorial was then done and we were allowed to do down. Thankfully we were assisted down by some very talented, happy porters - our porters. I have never held anyone's hand so tightly before - and he never let go of my hand until we arrived at our accommodation. Hence death did not come that day :)

We were all completely soaked through, cold to the inside and not too happy.... It was some time later before Carol and the Kajiman managed to find the Teahouse - so much time had passed that we had all managed to dry most of our soaked clothes by the fire - so by the time Carol and Kaji showed we were all back to being happy. When Carol walked in soaked through, like we had been and just wanting to get out of her clothes and shower and most likely be left alone - it was like looking in the mirror and not appropriate to laugh at Kaji's mistake of walking right past the teahouse about an hour ago. But today, well its funny :)

Maldives

24 Sept - 4 Oct 2005


Well 'The Maldives' certianly lives up to all the picture perfect postcards you have seen. Its simply divine and I would go back in an instant. We had 10 days on Sun Island at the end of September, beginning of October 2005. The island was considered to be quite a large island compared with some of the others. We hired pcuhbikes for our time there and could ride around the whole Island in a very leisurely 15 minutes!!! So its not that big at all. We had an air conditioned unit with our own beachfront and a bathroom that also had an outdoor shower in its own garden - Nic really liked that one :)


First up we flew into Male at night time, and no boats or planes go out to any of the Islands late at night so we were ferried over to some accomodation on Male. We awoke early the next morning to get the ferry back so that we could catch the seaplane to our Island. The seaplane was not a cheap option, but we had heard that the boat ride was 3 hours, as they stop off at several Islands on the way - and considering the last time Nic and I were on a boat together - Nic with well used vomit bag and very pale, we went for the plane option.

The ride took about 40 minutes and then we were ferried to our Island. It was gorgeous - the water is so clear we could see little fishies form the jetty as we walked by and even have a photo of this that is a pretty clear picture.

One funny part of our trip - we brought with us our own bottled water - as we had heard that 1 litre was $3USD and well we drink at least 2 litres each a day. Anyway it was no hassle to bring and the nasty rumour turned out to be true - so that was a little saving of $120USD jsut for one of lifes essentials....

Anyway hope you enjoy the photos - I do plan on getting some of them enlarged and framed when I have some wall space somewhere one day that I am allowed to put a hole in. The photos really sum up the Island - there is only as much to do there as you want to. Otherwise its water as far as your eyes can see, lots of sand, lots of sunbaking, swimming in the pool, and of course eating, eating and eating.

Oh and of course I did manage to find the beautiful Day Spa on the Island and got to enjoy a pretty good massage outdoors, under a Gazebo in my own private garden - oh la la :)

Bangalore

July - Dec 2005

Nic and I have quite different views on India, so his seperate entry will follow this one.

Nic set off for Bangalore in the south of India, leaving on our first wedding anniversary of all dates. With the house all packed into a storage shed, and the car at Dads, I joined him 2 days later. At first I found Bangalore very intimidating, just the sheer number of people in the one country was daunting. The constant stares that I was getting bothered me a lot - and took some months to get over. Most times I felt flourescent no matter what clothing I wore or how I acted - it was like I was the first white person to ever enter India. One day I remembered how many of 'them' there were (in Bangalore the population was around 7 million, with room and infrastructure - that would be Indian infrastructure :) for only a million!) and realised that perhaps for those staring at me on that day that I was the first white person they had seen. It just never stopped, until I decided that it wasn't going to ever change, so I decided to get over it.

It took about two weeks before I started to settle in, and I actually started to think I could live there forever. There was always some action going on - life was never boring, but when you stopped long enough to observe, it was just the hussle and bussle, cos the action was just the noise of survial for the locals. A type of survial that you and I are just not accustomed to. India is often described as the country of contradiction and it is one great way to describe it. For me things were simple, yet so so confusing, practical yet disturbing, and clean yet dirty. The list can go on forever, but these sum up my experience. The way that they live their daily life just kinda makes sense and its what they need to do in order to survive, yet at the same time, what they are doing is not really helping them at all - but they do it with a smile, so it must be good for them, right?

We found a place to live in Koramangala - a 'really nice' suburb. Now what this means is that there were a couple of trees in the area - and boy do they make a difference. The apartment was the first floor of a house - the owners lived on the bottom floor - but they were entirely seperate houses. We were lucky enough to find a landlord who helps expats out in Africa, where he is based, and was willing to let us rent his house without providing the 11 month deposit that is standard for tenants to hand over! Now the rent was cheap at 25000 rupees (inr) a month - but thats a huge deposit. So we paid the 3 months rent upfront and moved in. We did end up staying for 6, in the same place.

We hired a maid to cook and clean for us. I know what all you ladies out there are thinking and trust me, having a miad is not what you are thinking - not in India anyway! As much a I do appreciate the work she did, from the day she started I could not wait to get rid of her. Servants in India do not have a good reputation for being honest, nor loyal, nor trustworthy. They lack initiative, are constantly late, never (no matter how many times you might ask them) refer to you by anything except Madam/Sir - they say they understand things and then do the exact opposite, possibly for their own personal amusement... Most disturbing is that they do not understand why they must by hygenic - remember they are not trustworthy, so you can't be sure they are being hygenice when you aren't there! They generally are very poor and do not enjoy an average/normal/satisfactory level of health - so put the two points together and you have good reason to be concerned for your own health.

Now on the upside, for the last 6 months, I pretty much never washed a dish, never made my bed (I had to get out of it so she could make it though), no sweeping, mopping, dusting, I never cleaned any of the bathrooms and didn't have to do the laundry. Ohhhhh and the best was just outside our house was a Dhobi, which is an ironing person (usually a man), who charges an astounding 2.5 INR per item. Roughly 7 cents!! Now this is the price for foreigners - the locals pay 2 INR. He was worth every rupee, and he is sorely missed. Nic ironed his work shirt the other day and said he 'did not enjoy the experience'...

We also hired a driver to help us get around the streets of Bangalore. This was pretty neat. Although I did have the occassional thought that I could seriously manage the streets behind the wheel, I doubt that the car would have come out unscathed. The traffic is just manic, as I said earlier there are 7 mill people and only room for 1 mill of them. There are trucks, buses, cars of all different sizes, rickshaws of all different speeds, scooters galore (the most dangerous), motorbikes, stray dogs, cows and of course pedestrians. Oh and no such thing really as a pedestrain crossing - survival of the fittest/fastest/bravest/stupidist!!!

We had the experience of firing our first driver and the second driver stayed with us to the end. He was extrememly patient and never got angry with the conditions he had to put up with. I have to say that given the conditions that they do drive in there is a very very low, almost non existent amount of road rage. Just a damn lot of horn honking! Our driver was extremely patient and pretty careful driver. Sure he had his days where he didn't appear to be as observant as he was the day before (I'll blame Glenny and his late night partying for these moments) - but you just knew that he would never have a bingle, as it wouldn't be worth his job. So the nerves of the first few weeks of being a passenger in a car just settle and it all becomes normal, including that cow that insists you go around, cos it was there first!

There aren't many good roads within the city of Bangalore - they are mainly red dirt with a bit of loose rock thrown in, if you're lucky. When it rains you really should just stay at home for a few days - cos you won't be going anywhere fast. This is the cycle - rain=potholes=traffic avoiding said potholes= backed up traffic = horn honking (more than usual) = headache = getting to your destination 2 hours after planned and the NEED to find a toilet NOW = I can't be bothered = turn around and go home = potholes = traffic avoiding....

I often came up with the theory that no one has bothered to show them how to make roads, and its not a silly suggestion. They would serioulsy fill the potholes up with loose rocks (not peebles) and that was it. Oh once I saw them pour tar in on top of the rocks, which was actually impressive, so I did feel for them briefly when the pothole got rained out again a few days later. Anyway the roads are a big problem, in short there is too much traffic and lack of maintenance makes travelling slow and bumpy. Accidents don't happen often as its rare for you to get above 20km/hr - another reason that helps the nerves settle.

We did do a couple of road trips and I can tell you that they do also have some sealed roads, with slightly less traffic. We went to Mysore which is 150km south of Bangalore, a trip that takes 3 hours one way! I KNOW!!

Brisbane

The choice to pack up and leave Brissy came pretty easy. We had a very difficult end to 2004 with the passing of Nic's wonderful best friend Paulie and not long after we experienced a Molar pregnancy, and were not 'allowed' to try again for another year. So both 'events' ended up being a blessing in disguise as we recognise that we never would have travelled the way that we are without both of these things happening.

Nic & Paul were extremely close, so much so that Nic had often said he could never move from Brisbane unless Paulie came with us :) Maybe funny, but so true!

Anyway moving along - this blog is for our family and friends to help us keep in touch with one another - we aim to give you a glimpse of what we've been up to - for you to chose to read at your leisure..