Namaste from Delhi

Here we are back in Hotel Ajanta.  

A familiar place in Delhi we like.  Our trip to get here was long but everything went smoothly.  There was no hold ups along the way.  I calculated we were awake for 30 hours.  We arrived at 4pm yesterday afternoon.  Took a sleeping tablet last night at 9pm and woke at 10am this morning.  Felt a bit groggy at first but spent a few hours after breakfast sitting on the hotel roof soaking up the sun and the never-ending sounds and smells that Delhi offers.  

We were keen to visit the market a few streets away to look for a brass hanging bell and incense holder for our front door.  I know that sounds strange considering we don’t’ even have a front door but one day we will.  We started out on foot and thought we’d take the shortcut to prevent walking past the train station because it is extremely busy with people (and beggars), we couldn't remember our way in the maze of streets so we jumped in a auto rickshaw and caught a bicycle rickshaw back.  It is lazy but it is giving someone a job.  Found the hangers, haggled as you have to and agreed on a price.  I will carry them in my daypack, as we have to watch our weight for our trip home.

 It is now 5.30pm and we are sitting on the hotel’s roof café soaking up the last of the afternoon winter sun and starting to flag a bit.  Tomorrow morning Saturday we head back to the airport very early.  We have to leave the hotel at 3am.  My plane leaves for Trivandrum at 6.15am and Jim’s leaves for Srinagar at 10.45am.  Jim's flight is only 1.5hour but I have go via Mumbai which is 2 hours wait 45-minutes and then fly another 2 hours to Trivandrum.  Then I have an hours drive to the ashram.  I can pay for a prepaid taxi or rickshaw before I leave the airport terminal.  It makes it easier than feeling bamboozled trying to settle on a fare outside the terminal. 

The joint efforts on our blog: me as writer and Jim as photographer/proofreader will probably be on hold for the next month or two.  The ashram has ‘limited Internet access’ (quoted from their website), not sure what this means exactly.  Could be due to intermittent power cuts, limited Internet package and hundreds of ashram attendees trying to use it at the one time.  It is India after all and rural India at that. 

I have one day off per week.  I think it is Friday so I plan to check my email then.  The days agenda at the ashram is long, starting with a 5.20am wake up call and lights out at 10pm with a full day of classes in between and only two meals a day.  No time for communicating either by electronic means or mobile phone, the latter have to be handed in at reception on arrival.  Some people are saying 'you paid for this by choice'. 

Jim will organize a SIM for his mobile on arrival in Gulmarg and he will have normal Internet access at Grand Mumtaz – the hotel we stayed at last season so he will be up and running again in a few days.  He will email me his phone number.  The ashram has a phone/Internet centre so I can always ring him if Internet access  & wifi is unsuccessful.

So until next time - bye for now!  

PS. Jim was keen to take photos with his camera instead of his iPhone like previous.  Check out Flickr for the latest photos downloaded

View from the hotels' rooftop

Looking down to the compound below

Looking down to the street in front of the hotel

On our way to the market

Cross Roads in Life

Early mid life crisis, mature aged gap year: you can call it what you want.  I am sure our family and friends each have their own thoughts on why and what we are doing. 

I prefer to call it ‘living abroad for a year’.  

We have been living (not in the conventional way) in a few different countries with sightseeing along the way.  Catching up with friends from Australia living abroad (I love saying that – abroad, sounds posh) and with friends met over the years travelling who are from abroad: spending time with them on their home ground.

It all started with Lisa and Kenny in Dubai.  We stayed with them for a few weeks.  A big ask - their work lives are demanding and stressful, then having to return home in the evening to people in your apartment.  I’d like to think we added light relief even if it seemed a bit much at the time.  We also got to share holidays with them in Kovalam and San Sebastian both which were good fun.  Sharing my 49th birthday in Kovalam with them will remain one of the highlights of this trip. 

In the UK we have Karen and Dave our English friends who we met in Fiji 10 years ago.  They provided us with a base to come and go from in Cornwall.  They supported us from the day we landed in the UK with their generosity.  They shared everything they have with us:  family, friends and possessions.  

In France we have to thank Carolyn & John (ex Falls Creek people) who let us stay for a few weeks and live with them as part of their family.  Another big ask - to have a couple in your house with the normal day-to-day happenings.  It was nice to belong and we were thankful for that.

We had many laughs with them all along the way and would happily share our home and lives with them whenever we can.

Once again we have to thank Laurel (a good friend from Qld) for sharing her holidays with us.  Giving Jim and I a reprieve from each other.  It was brave of her to agree to spend nearly a month with a couple no matter how good friends they are.  Lucky for us she knows how to deal with us both as a couple and as individuals.  

Then there is Wendi (a good friend from Tawonga) who spent a few days with us in Bramford, UK.  She was a lifesaver or should I say weight gainer.  Wendi is a naturopath and bought some tonics for me all the way from Tawonga to help me rid myself of the pesky Indian worm which, I always seem to pick up there.  I have the remainder of the tonics in my bag so I am armed and ready for this visit.  Shame really, I like being a bit thinner but not at the expense of the worm eating up the nutrients which I should be getting from my food. 

I know a few of you will be thinking ‘Happy is being all touchy feely again’ and I am, like I said in the previous blog the thought of being without Jim for the next two months is making me emotional.

The hardest part of our time away will be returning to Australia to set up home and find work. 

The reasons we left are still there – the cross roads of life – which way to go – work vs lifestyle.  Something we chose to put aside for this period of time in our lives.  Take a year or so off from the daily grind.  I know a few of you will be thinking ‘aren’t they lucky they can do it’ and yes we are but it comes at a price.  The obvious being financial, it is probably not the smartest move financially but once again we chose to do this knowing the consequences.  It has definitely been worth it.  We will have to remember to tell ourselves this come April when we are struggling to settle and find work.

The valley, for many years (20+) offered the perfect lifestyle for us but then something changed.  The balance of work and lifestyle shifted causing an imbalance more so for Jim than me.  Let’s face it - I had a great life.  For the past few years only working part time, being able to study the things I wanted to, skiing whenever it suited me, surrounded by a great group of like-minded friends.  All my lifestyle choices were fulfilled.  Jim’s career at Falls Creek had gone as far as he could go – he was questioning himself and his life hence the move to Sydney.  Looking back the move was perhaps a bit too extreme for us after so many years in quiet and laid back surroundings.   Hence another decision - time out - let’s put our normal or what is considered normal lives on hold.  Now that time out is coming to an end, we are making our way home.  Time to resume our 'normal lives’. 

The big decision ‘ the cross roads of life’ - which way to go!

We (more so me pushing Jim because of the work options) have decided to give Point Lonsdale a go.  We are both hoping Geelong will provide work opportunities that the valley can’t give us.  It is not the mountains but the quiet seaside atmosphere is more to our liking than the never-ending noise of Sydney.  Our year in Sydney was a comfortable one which, wouldn't have been affordable without Stu & Rita's generosity.  Most people would think we were mad to give it up.  We tried to make it happen but our hearts just weren't into it. 

We aren't doing Pt L alone; we have a couple of good friends and Nan & Ed, Jim’s elderly (sorry Nan, she will hate me using that word, I am using it to explain to others) aunty and uncle.  They are very happy we will be close by for younger company (Nan's words not mine -  hard to believe I know but compared to being 80+) and to help them out with IT and household problems.  It will be good for us to give back, not having had any kids of our own.  Both my parents and Jim’s are sad we are not heading north but the timing is not right at the moment. 

The enthusiasm from our family and friends has also made this trip enjoyable for us.  Having weekly Skype sessions with our parents, being able to share with them our home for that week or night.  Without their emotional support and encouragement it wouldn’t have been as much fun. 

I will post another blog tonight from Delhi to say goodbye, at least for the next month or two.

Happy New Year – 1st January (Goodbye to Europe)

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes for the New Year. 

We wish all our family and friends a healthy, wealthy and happy 2014.

Yesterday morning we took the girls for their final walk, finished packing, cleaned our room, washed towels etc.  The girls were sitting on the lounge as usual when were brought our bags down from the bedroom.  They sat to attention, too lazy to stand and looked at our bags.  Another change of guard they were probably thinking. 

We invited Julian a friend of Melinda’s (house sit homeowner) for lunch.  I cooked a mushroom & chicken risotto. Julian will stay with the girls till Melinda returns from the UK tomorrow.  It was a nice way to end our stay at the house.  I got a bit teary saying goodbye to the girls.  I am hopeless at saying goodbye.

Saying goodbye

Julian & the girls

We arrived in Bergerac at our hotel at 4.30pm.  Lucky we weren’t planning on seeing in the New Year in a big way.  Bergerac literally shut shop for the evening.  At 7pm we walked into the town square, only a 5-mintue walk to find a restaurant for dinner. 

We were dumbstruck the only place we could find open was a Vietnamese restaurant.  It was either that or return to the hotel and hope the pizza restaurant advertised on the flyer in the room was open.  We decided on the restaurant.  The Vietnamese looking waitress didn’t speak English.  We tried our best to order in French.  Not surprising we didn’t’ get what we ordered.  The food was yummy.  We ended up with chicken & prawns in a peanut sauce – Jim ordered crispy chicken.  The steamed rice and sautéed bean shoots was correct.  My order of steamed pancakes and grilled scallop kebabs was never going to happen.  I said to Jim I will have what you’re having. 

As you can imagine we didn’t see the New Year in, we turned the lights off at 9pm.  I woke up at 12.30pm to noise in the hallway, a couple returning to the hotel perhaps.  I looked out the window and the streets below were as quiet as quiet.

This would make a good funny home video (pick the lost in translation wording)

Streetscape outside the train station at 8am 

Bergerac train station - leaving on train, don't know when I'll be back again.

I am writing this on the train to Paris. 

Jim is listening to his iPod ‘Leaving on a jet plane’.  He shares an earphone with me – I cry.  I am quite emotional at the moment because we will be saying goodbye in two days.  We won’t be seeing each other again for two months. 

Many people say we must be looking forward to this time apart after spending so much time with each other over the past year.  Of course there have been many times when we have gotten on each other’s nerves but each day is a new day and we have learnt (probably me more so than Jim) to leave the previous days events where they belong – in the past. 

PS. sorry for the poor quality of the photos - that is because I took them on the iphone in the rain

Time to say goodbye to the girls

Our dinner with the English couple, John & Jean on Boxing Day night was good fun.  Their daughter Christine and another English couple Roy & Linda were also invited.  When Roy walked in the door he baulked, he appeared stunned for a moment.  As it turned out he has a friend who lives in Australia.  His name is Ron Beasley and looks like Jim.  For a moment Roy said he thought Jim was Ron.  He was a funny guy.  The night passed quickly with quite a few bottles of red wine being drunk and lots of laughs.  One disappointment, the promise of plum pudding didn’t come to fruition but there was a yummy baked cheesecake with dried fruit and lemon. 

Lunch on Friday, our Christmas treat at La Bruceliere in Issiegeac was delicious.  The food was typically French.  Lucky I translated the menu before we went so we had a good idea of what we wanted but the waitress was very accommodating and spoke good English.  

The first course at La Bruceliere - the start

The attack

The finish

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we’re going to stay the night in Bergerac at a hotel, not to see the New Year in but for easy access to the train station.  It is a five-minute walk from our hotel.  Our train for Paris leaves at 8.30am on Wednesday morning.  It is 6-hour train trip.  It is the only train to get us to the airport in time for our flight at 9pm.  We fly to Delhi via Dubai, arriving in Delhi at 2.45pm on Thursday 2 January. 

Jim and I will spend Thursday and Friday nights in Delhi together before we say goodbye for 2 months.  Jim will fly to Srinagar and make his way to Gulmarg for the winter while I fly to Trivandrum in Kerala to stay at the Sivananda ashram for a yoga course for the month of January. 

http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam/yogavacation.html

On February 3rd I’ll meet my parents in Surin Beach, Thailand for two weeks then my friend Sharon from Melbourne will join me for a week before Jim arrives on February 26 for a few days.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g1224250-d2433800-Phuket_Vacation_Apartments_Baan_Puri_Resort-Choeng_Thale_Thalang_District_Phuket.html

On March 1^st we go to Koh Lanta for a week where we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on March 5th. Whew! lucky we made it.  

We have rented a house on the beach for the week.

http://amazinglanta.com/koh-lanta-pool-villa-klong-khong/

We are ready to say goodbye to the girls.  They are lovely but have been naughty at times.  For the past few days we have been taking turns getting up to them during the night - 3am and then again at 5am or 6am to prevent any mishaps over night.  Not sure what is worse – getting up twice through the night and having interrupted sleep or waking up to mess in the morning if we don’t.   

Lone apple - Jim's arty shot

Our 'penultimate' walk together this afternoon

Christmas Day in Larocal

Queen Fizz (wearing the crown of the traditional Three Kings cake)

It was like being children again.  We were up at the crack of dawn but not for presents from Santa but to Skype with our families.  We set the alarm for 5am but were both awake at 1am because of the silly rooster who lives across the road.  His timing is always out but especially early this morning.

At 6am after our Skype sessions with family we went back to bed till 8am to get up again to Skype with Mary-lou and family in Tawonga – short but sweet due to a bad connection. 

Mid morning I am growling ‘I don’t want to be doing this on Christmas Day’.  I was cleaning up after Fizz who is on heat and totally lost the plot.  Jim is hopeless at helping, he keeps heaving.  She is leaving little presents around the house (coming out of every orifice) not the type that Santa leaves.  Poor girl, she is suffering extreme PMT – I Googled it, apparently a dog’s behaviour can alter and become erratic and that she is.  Lola is normally the more dominant of the two but even she is keeping her distance.

I wish that piece of information (the dogs being on heat) was in the ad on the Trusted Housesitters site and the bit about mice living in the house.  Another growl.

Meanwhile back to Christmas morning, the stuffed chicken roll is in the oven cooking nicely with the roast vegetables, the table is set and the prawns and champagne are on ice ready to go. 

It is now Boxing Day.

Our Christmas Day turned out quite an unusual one – in and out of bed basically.  Up at 5am back in at 6am, up again at 8am and so it went throughout the day.

  

Jim and I shared a bottle of champagne (our last from our Dormans housesit) over the first course of prawns.  We were having a fun time. 

With our second course of chicken and roast veggies we opened a bottle of local red.  I spilt my first glass while trying to rescue our Christmas dinner out of Fizz’s reach.  I poured and successfully drank a second glass.  By the time our dessert of chocolate torte and vanilla yoghurt was eaten I was thinking, “Oh, I need to lie down, I don’t feel so well.”  I put myself to bed and Jim had a snooze on the lounge.  Later in the afternoon I felt a tad better so we took the dogs for a walk.  Returning home I felt the need to return to bed.  I got up for a bowl of soup for dinner about 6.30pm and by 8pm we were both in bed.  We watched the final episode of Miss Fisher Murders.  

Lights out, that is Christmas Day over or so we thought.

The dogs woke us up with their barking at 11.30pm and then again at 3am – we took turns to let them out to prevent further little (or big) presents being left for us to find in the morning. 

Five sleeps to go, no more dog sitting or should I say babysitting.  I need to go to the ashram to dry out. 

First course 

Jim doing what he does - in between courses

Second course, having trouble keeping my crown on  - I wonder why

Third & final course - time for bed

Merry Christmas from Larocal

To all our family and friends we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. 

Our Christmas decorations & cards

Tomorrow, Sunday we are off to the Issigeac market to buy goodies for our Christmas lunch.  Can't wait.

We have a dinner date.  How funny is that!
We have been invited to dinner on Boxing Day by an English couple (John & Jean) who live down the road and around the corner.  We have noticed their place as it is large, more like a small farm.  They passed us the other day on their bikes when we were walking the girls.  They recognised the girls as they know Melinda.  Anyway, they stopped to chat and they must have liked us because this morning they turned up at the front door to invite us for dinner.  That's nice isn't it and guess what,  the best part is there will be plum pudding for dessert - another English couple is bringing that along.
Now, that is a Christmas present.

Returning to Larocal

Eze to Larocal – Sunday 15 December

It is another beautiful winters day and our last sunrise in Eze this morning was as spectacular as ever.

It is now 11am and we are on the train enroute to Bordeaux.  We have just left Cannes train station.  We will arrive in Bordeaux tonight at 7.15pm where we change trains for Bergerac.  We will arrive at Bergerac at 9.30pm.  From there we’ll catch a taxi to the airport to pick up Melinda’s car and drive to Larocal.

This part of the train trip runs along the coast, literally following the sea.  It is very pleasant with the sun streaming in through the windows.  The train has few passengers today and SNCF (French railways) haven’t bothered lighting up the seat numbers so everyone is sitting wherever they like which is great because we can spread out. 

I saw the sign this morning on the train from Eze to Nice in regards to travelling without a ticket and I quote ‘ you can approach the conductor on the platform before boarding the train OR on the train’ Grrrr!!! wish we had enough courage the other day to find the sign and point this out to the nasty blonde.  I must let it go!

Yesterday we caught the train to Monaco.  What an interesting place with an interesting history.  It was only a 15-minute trip round the coastline from Eze.  We went on the open bus tour which is always worthwhile.  It was a great way to have a quick and informative look around the place.  Lucky for us we were in time to watch the changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace.  

In the harbour area a Christmas park was set up similar to the one in Nice.  We had lunch there – Jim had a hamburger that he really enjoyed and I had French onion soup.  Thought I should try it at least once before we leave France.  It was yummy not like eating a bowl of onions as Jim thought it would although I admit it did repeat on me later again and again.

Tuesday 17 December

Here we are back in Larocal.  We arrived 10.30pm on Sunday night as planned.  No hiccups - Whew!  The girls, Lola & Fizz were happy to see us even at that late hour.

The weather seems milder than when we were here three weeks ago.  It has been frosty in the mornings but the days have been reaching 9 degrees and the sun has been out for part of the day, that helps.  Melinda turned the central heating on while we were away, what a big difference it makes to our comfort level. 

 

Yesterday morning the girls were keen to go for a walk remembering that is what we do together.  It is now Tuesday afternoon and time for our afternoons walk, so off we go.  Talk again soon. 

Have a look at Flickr; we have loaded photos of Grasse, VillaFranche and Monaco.

View from the look out from the Prince's Palace

The Prince's Palace

The French Foreign Legion wandering sightseeing

Christmas decorations with the Monte Carlo Casino in the background