SNOW!!!!
Big blobbly snowfall when I walked into the lounge. Today I’m going in to Oxford Street to open my bank account, look at phones, and go get an extra thermal or two, glove liners and look at coats! First time in my life I don’t have enough clothes…. Jenny bought me pink leg warmers yesterday though!! I learnt a new trick today with my camera and have now decided to find a remote control thingy for it.
With leeks, and Eton Mash to follow! (NZ twist – manuka honey and kiwifruit, yum!)
My life is governed by food at the moment. Had a really good South Indian curry last night though! Better than some of the ones in Delhi suprisingly.
I’ve also caught up on last month’s wine and chocolate allowance, thanks Jenny!
This is the view I woke up to yesterday morning.
And the view of the graveyard – you would never know you were in London!
See the car pulling out with frost on the roof after a night in a garage? IT IS THAT COLD. Apparently it got down to –15 in some parts of the country, Wales has a foot of snow and Jenny and I had to have some whiskey last night to get the chill out of the air.
There is a tube strike tonight for 24 hours so I’m busing into Oxford Street tomorrow to finish opening my bank account and get some jobs like a railcard done. Finishing my CV in the meantime and applying for temporary nannying jobs for December/January period while I look for some longer term work. Things seem a bit dire on that front to be honest – the strikes on the tube are against 600 people being laid off, and it seems that left right and centre people are being made unemployed. But I am optimistic and think that with the right attitude and a can-do approach I’ll find something. I’m not too picky!
I just realised I forgot to tell you what’s happening there!
Since I was sick the last week I didn’t manage to get everything quite sorted before leaving, the table and big cushion were still being made and there were more books to arrive, but I got an email the other day from Abhishek saying the table finally turned up, and the kids love the room and it is nearly done. I didn’t get to finish the final touches since I was sick the last couple of days, but it was looking pretty awesome, and the kids were constantly in there reading or playing games. I’ve asked for some photos to be sent, but this is the ONE that I have from when the carpet had just been put in and I went in to check the cushions and found a quiet little group!
Little cuties. I miss them!
update: just got another email with photos and they’ve split the kids into two groups with Hanok and Resha as bosses and they go in everyday and love it! yay! thanks guys you are all awesome, we managed to raise over $600 and bought over 200 English and Nepali, fiction and non-fiction books, youth books and picture books.
second update: got an email from my mum saying that the parcel of books from Nana arrived too, thanks Nana! Not sure how mum knew before I did…
Things to note today:
I got off the plane yesterday morning to a FREEZING day. Actually its still freezing says my computer –3 degrees, but I’m toasty on the couch at Jenny’s. I got the underground to Kensington to meet Cally and hang out at hers until Jenny finished work in the evening (Jenny is an old family friend, who is very cool). Cally was AWESOME and ran me the biggest hottest bath ever, and I was slightly embarrassed at how dirty the water was when i got out. I think I managed to sweat all the dirt and pollution of Delhi out though, so that was nice! Today I’m going to tackle washing all my clothes since the colour that ran out of them when I washed them in Kathmandu was disturbing, and I don’t really think my handwashing skills were up to scratch.
We went for a walk in Kensington Garden’s in the afternoon, had to borrow a down jasket from Cally because it was so cold. Hot chocolate from Starbucks on the way helped though! Kensington is beautiful, with all the old terraced huge houses. London is very cool and Cally said she would like to do some of the touristy things with me since she never really had, as a local.
So now I’m staying at Jenny and James’ new apartment in Queen’s Park overlooking the Paddington Cemetary. It’s very warm and shiny and new, they only moved in two months ago and are sorting everything out, and I’ll help in anyway I can! I have to finish my CV’s today and do a massive mail out, Jenny is very proactive and helpful and finger’s crossed I’ll find a job swiftly!
Oh and last night we went out for dinner and I had VENISON. And red onion marmalade and watercress salad and zucchini fries and red wine. Ohhhhhhh yuuuuuuuuuuuuuum hello world of food! A meal with no rice!
Haven’t had much access to internet, (still don’t – I’m writing this in Delhi Airport with the intention of posting it tomorrow when I land in London!) and the weather has been overcast, bit cold and raining the whole time, but I’ve had Patrick to snuggle up to. We went to the Taj Mahal yesterday, got up early and drove to Agra (hired a driver, we didn’t drive) to see it in all its magnificence.
I didn’t have any expectations, because things are so often hyped up. But WOW.
Photos can’t do it justice.
Our tour guide was great, though we aren’t sure how much is true and how much isn’t. I loved the intricate details, while Patrick loved it’s size and structure.
Above from left: Where the craftspeople used to live and work – 20,000 workers built the Taj Mahal; Front entrance house; Ceiling detail of front entrance; me and Patrick inside the entrance. 
Above: My feet in the shoe covers to protect the marble (no Slum Dog Millionaire kids stealing OUR shoes!); the building on the right side of the Mausoleum built to keep the symmetry that the whole place has, replicating the mosque to the left hand side; wall of the Taj Mahal; detailing on the walls – this is one piece of carved marble and the edging is inset stones such as lapis lazulis, mother of pearl and malachite. Below: The detailing to the entrance of the mausoleum – you can read Qu’ran verses inscribed in black onyx all the way around; Patrick; the roof of the Taj Mahal where you can see the hooks put in so that a black cover could be put on in the war to stop it from being bombed.
The day before Patrick and I had wandered around Delhi getting our comfort levels up. Patrick has been under the weather, appetite and sleep wise, and we didn’t really do as much siteseeing as we’d’ve liked, but we visited the Lakshmi…… Temple in New Delhi that was probably one of my favourite places to visit. It was very quiet, not very busy, and had lots of interesting paintings and words from the Veda all around.
After there we had a wander around Janpath and Connaught Place which was kinda interesting. We got hassled a lot by hawkers, but it was fun.
Now I’m flying out at 3.30am and I’ve just said goodbye to Patrick who is off on his adventures for the next 6 months in India and maybe Nepal. Here’s an ode to Patrick, the love of my last two years, who has put up with all my ways! Thanks babe, you’re freaking awesome. The last two years have been a blast, take care and look after yourself out there! Also, thanks for running off before I had time to blink and say good bye!
Had a wee wander around the Main bazaar yesterday, spent much of the day napping and hanging out with Patrick, catching up. Was feeling a bit overwhelmed by Delhi so ended up hiding at the hotel, which was still lovely. The hotel is in a dingy part of town and is in the process of being done up so is VERY noisy. Everyone is very helpful and friendly though. This is the view from our balcony!
Last night we went to the flashest bar I’ve seen in a long time. We met up with Patrick’s friend and ex-boss, Myank, who used to live in NZ. We thought we were going to a psy-trance party (quite Pat’s cup of tea) and at the last minute I decided to get out of my baggy harem pants and put jeans and a pretty top on. So glad I did! This bar was around a pool, looked like it was out of a movie, and psy-trance is not a hippy kinda thing in India! Drinks from the bar cost $20 and we got to experience a night out with India’s ‘new money’ kids. We danced all night and had to admit defeat at 3.30am due to jetlag (Patrick) and dodgy tummies. I’ve been feeling better since Friday, but not much of an appetite, much to my frustration because all I want to do is eat yummy Indian food, and gulab jamen, and pomegranates that are being sold outside the hotel!
Today we went to Old Delhi and checked out Jama Masjid – the biggest mosque in India.
I found it hard to deal with to be honest. It was very crowded, I was stared at most of the time and I got groped a few times much to my dismay. I’ve found Delhi much harder to deal with than Nepal, I think because I started setting myself up for London and the cold and back to my way of life that I forgot about Delhi.
The mosque was huge, very busy, and quite interesting, but what I really liked was Red Fort, just across the road from there.
It is HUGE, and beautiful, and I took millions of photos. It was constructed in the 17th century by the guy who built the Taj Mahal. It is a shadow of its original self, the British pulled down much of the inner buildings to make way for barracks after the Indian Uprising in 1847.
I love all the marble detailing that could be found everywhere.
There was one weird thing that kept happening – Patrick and I seemed to generate a lot of interest, though there were lots of tourists around. We had dozens of men asking for photos with us. Just me, just Patrick or both together. Young boys, men and even middle-age men. Does anyone know anything about this? We were used to being asked questions about ourselves, but the amount of photos we had taken of ourselves was ridiculous! I got pretty fed up with it, Patrick tolerated it really well.
Tomorrow all the tourist places are closed, but we’re going to Myank’s for dinner, so that will be nice! And Agra on Tuesday xx
