A Happy (Thanksgiving) Day

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and it's my favorite holiday. Unfortunately, Xavier was in Sri Lanka on business and Dorian's school doesn't celebrate it so I was at a loss of what to do. I didn't feel like make a huge Thanksgiving meal for just Dorian and I, honestly, right now I'm just too tired for that but, I did decide to keep Dorian home from school anyway. After all, Thanksgiving is about spending time with the ones you love. So, in the morning we traced our hands and made turkeys:


Then we made some brownies, it's not apple pie but we had fun:


Just before noon, two of my favorite people in the world came to see us...Susy and Dave, our first visitors! We stopped by the market to get picnic supplies, then spend a wonderfully fun afternoon at Lodi Garden:



They were only here for two short days, but we enjoyed every minute of being with them and Dorian treated them to a special show:

Dave joined in:


To finish off a great day, we had a pasta dinner with Susy's fabulous homemade pesto and some Indian wine. I'm so thankful for our fun day and for our great friends who brought us happiness and laughter for Thanksgiving.

House Monkey

Over the past few days, we've noticed that winter is quickly approaching. Chilly mornings and cold nights. We have been spoiled, living in tropical climates for the past five years, and our boys do not really know what winter is. Dorian once saw a bit of melting snow on a trip to Connecticut in March 2008, but for him snow and ice are where the penguins live. Our apartment does not have heat. We just bought four radiators (on wheels!) that will be in the bedrooms and anywhere else we like since they are very conveniently mobile. While I miss the warm climate and ocean view, it is nice to have a change of season. Dorian doesn't seem to mind it either. He found his own way of staying warm:





I bought the costume for Halloween two years ago and it was way too big for Dorian. When the boxes arrived here I couldn't find it and thought it was lost. Now it fits him perfectly and, yes, he is using his tail as a microphone. I wonder what our neighborhood monkey would think of that?

Off the beaten track...

This morning the babysitter came to watch Arthur so I could run some errands. My first task was to go to see the travel agent who is planning a little trip for us next month. I am very excited at the thought of exploring outside Delhi. But, after my outing today, I realize how much of this huge city I have not yet seen. The travel agency was in a part of town that I have driven by many times but never visited. A busy road runs by and the market area is bordered by high-end shops, but as the taxi drove further and further off the main road, I felt like I was seeing another side of Delhi. The street narrowed, shops spilled out on the the road, people, cows, cars and rickshaws mingled.



I got out of the taxi and tried to find the street number, but one thing I have learned here is that not everything follows a logical, or numerical, order. The number I wanted was a number on the main road but it was actually around the corner and back a bit. Luckily, there were some nice people to point me in the right direction. Along the way, I saw some interesting things.



Hiding behind the motorcycles, baby cows...


My morning adventures continued when I went to the address the babysitter gave me for a tailor of women's clothing. Background: I brought some clothes to wear, but in my terrible, tired and confused post-birth-moving-around-the-world mind, the things I packed do not go with each other and I have nothing for an evening out. So, I met a really nice lady who showed me several catalogues that I could choose from both Indian and Western styles, then she hopped in the taxi with me to go to yet another, but nearby, market so I could pick out fabric. Very exciting. So to start with, I will have one cocktail dress and one Indian-style outfit (long tunic with fitted pants). They will be ready at the beginning of next week. I can't wait! The woman in blue in the photo below is the one nice who is making my clothes and she totally took charge in the fabric shop.




Today, was a good day. I explored and feel like I accomplished some things.

Surprise!

One of the things I love about living here is that you never know what you'll see. On Sunday I took Dorian to his classmate's birthday party and we were greeted by the above horse and carriage. Nice welcome wagon. On the way to the party, from our taxi window we saw an elephant moving a tree. On the way back from the party, we passed a drummer on the side of the busy road encircled by dancing women. People all around going about their business as normal. Here, we're learning to expect the unexpected.

Connected

As I have mentioned before, we are slowly getting settled here. After being in our apartment for two and a half months, we bought a tv and our satellite was installed today. Two "engineers" from the satellite company came to install the dish and set things up. They were pretty rapid about attaching the satellite dish to the side of our building but then there were some technical details with the actual connection. Xavier ended up on the phone for about an hour trying to work things out with the company while...



Well, the two engineers enjoyed a bit of tv with Dorian, for about an hour. I took this photo pretending to be taking a photo of Arthur, I'm oh-so stealth.

Rainy Day

It's a rainy day here in Delhi. I thought this photo, taken the other day, would brighten things up a bit. Hope your day is sunny, where ever you may be.

Fire with fire...

First of all, sorry for the very blurry image. I was trying to be stealth. Secondly, things are done differently here. The man pictured above is fixing one of our hot water heaters that has not worked since we moved in. It is the one to the boys' bathroom. They have never had a hot bath in our new home. This makes me sad. But, Dorian is enjoying his "big boy" showers and Arthur, well poor baby, just doesn't enjoy bathtime at all. So, as I said , he's fixing the water heater. Apparently the problem was (if I understood correctly) bugs or possibly wasps. I was asked for some bug spray, which was all used up, so I came back empty-handed. The man wasn't bothered and he proceeded to light a piece of paper on fire and put it in the water heater. Hmm...I always thought it was dangerous to light things, especially home appliances, on fire. Silly me. It did drive the bugs/wasps out. Thank goodness it wasn't our gas line that was bug infested...

Cough, Cough...

I don't know what happened last night, but this morning we woke up to this:


No, it's not smoke or fog, it's hazy pollution. Remember that headline I posted the other day about Indian cities being so environmentally friendly? This air doesn't look too friendly to me. But, we had a date with some other families at Lodi Garden for a picnic. I wasn't so sure we should really go, but we did and this is what we saw:




This is what it normally looks like:


We found the families, stayed just long enough to chat a bit and eat...and, Arthur enjoyed his first bite of watermelon:


He looks a bit confused, but trust me he really liked it. Oh and I'm going to seriously look into buying a few air purifiers for the house.

My Choice...

One of the things I love about visiting/living in other countries is seeing signs, labels, ads, basically any written word. There are lots of different ways to say something and the more places we visit the more we see it is true. What I really love are those words or phrases that make you go "hmmm...". Dorian got a new stool/step today, I asked our housekeeper to pick one up at the market so I did not have the pleasure to pick this one out. But, I would have definitely chosen this one solely for the label.



Dorian was so pleased with his new step that he wanted me to take a picture of him with his papa penguin.

Say what?

I know I'm new to Delhi, but I really don't see how this could be true. I'd really like to see the study they mention and I'd like to know if the people that worked on the study ever visited Delhi on a day like today. This morning you could have cut the thick, brown air with a knife.

Halloween

New Delhi is full of firsts for us and this weekend was no exception--the boys' first Halloween. It's the first time we live in a place where we can dress up, trick or treat and go to a Halloween party, which is exactly what we did. One of our good friends organized trick or treating in her neighborhood and was nice enough to invite us along. She also got us into a huge Halloween party--and for that we are so grateful!! So, here are some photos from the weekend.



Dorian really wanted to be a cowboy but he was wearing pretty much what he wears almost everyday--his boots, cowboy belt and jeans. By the end of the weekend festivities, and after seeing all the other kids dressed up, he now understands and is already excited for next Halloween and all the costume possibilities. Arthur was a cowboy, too.



This is my favorite, Dorian got a packet of digestive pills. Is that a trick or a treat?


The next day, at the party, Dorian wanted to be a train engineer i.e. wear his Thomas hat.


Arthur had no choice, he was king.