Apartment time!

We were told on Friday that our apartment would be ready to move in to yesterday. We got there at 10 to talk to the owners and to get the keys. When we got there the guard wouldn't let us in because he didn't know us, so we had to call the owners ( who weren't at home) and have them talk to the guard and tell him to let us in!
So after about 15 min we could actually get in to the building.

The apartment was open so we could walk straight in without keys. But as we thought,it was not finished to be moved into! The owners wife came to meet us after a while and she invited us down to their place for a cup of tea and chocolate cake to wait for the owner, he was flying in from somewhere and was on his way. After an hour he was still not there so we decided to go and get bits and pieces for the apartment and meet up with the owners later. The wife told us that it was our place now and we could come and go as we pleased, and we could borrow her maid if we needed to make a cup of tea or so.

We went to Kahn market and bought towels, bed spreads, pillows and glasses, we also tried to buy some sheets but the Indians were trying to trick us into paying triple the prices, not nice! we walked away, so no sheets, that will have to be bought on Monday!
We came back to the apartment to leave everything and to talk to the owner, he was still not back. They said that all the furniture was coming in the afternoon so we could move in on Sunday, so we went back "home" to our hotel. It is lovely but I am getting bored of it now.
In the evening we dressed up and went back to the apartment to have a little moving in/get together party with Julia 2 and her boyfriend Tom, they live in the same area. When we got back there were still no sign of the promised furniture, more than a table and chairs and the stuff we bought earlier, so all we could do was to stand around and drink the wine with them and then walk into the local market for some food.
It was really nice and hopefully we'll do it again - with furniture!

Today is Sunday and we have been for a walk, we are going to go over to our place soon to see if anything has changed!

Tomorrow my dad is coming to visit for a week so we shall be very busy and it shall be interesting if not fun...
Also if we do move into the apartment this week we wont have Internet for a while so can't post anything on the blog, but as soon as it it up and running we shall put pictures up what it looks like.

Here is one of a man fixing the traffic lights..

Mixing it up with the local fashion designers

Today was a very exciting day, while Stephen was working hard me and my friend Julia 2 (I only know two people and they are both called Julia!) went for high tea at the Imperial Hotel.
It turned out that it was a fashion launch for one of the new designers in Dehli so we ended up drinking champagne and mingling with the rich and famous of the Indian design world. Everywhere we looked there was a camera, so there we were smiling, sipping champagne and talking fashion, holding our stomach's in and trying to look natural! Grazia magazine was there and we weren't even dressed up!

I talked to a few people that said that I should definitely launch my designs over there, and I replied with yes but you need to know people to do that, they said but you know us now!
Thats how things happen, you talk to people, they talk to their people and poof things are happening.
I just need to have my sewing machine and buy some more fabric,then I'll make a collection and see if my new "friends" are ready to suport me.

Otherwise nothing has really happened this week. I went to the gym in the hotel the other night and yes I can feel it today! Now I need to get Stephen to join me on our way to getting fit!
On Friday I'm joining a yoga class for beginners, so we'll see how that will go. Don't think I'll get Stephen to join me in that...

Naked men, elephants, rubies - Stephens birthday in Jaipur

This past weekend we went to Jaipur which is about 5 hours by car south west of Delhi. It was Stephens 30th birthday so we wanted to do something special! And boy it was certainly different and special!

On the way there in the car we saw about 15 elephants, camels, monkeys, pigs and yes a few naked men!!
Don't know who was more excited / shocked:)
Jaipur is the most beautiful place I have ever been to, it is called the pink city and the whole old town is pink, all the houses where painted pink to please the king! It was very busy, a big mixture of people, animals and cars.
We went down on the Friday and arrived about 5 o'clock to our " super luxurious " hotel suite..... it wasn't any of thoes words except suite. It was big, but it was dirty, they didn't know what we had asked for and people kept knocking on the door saying they had the same room... we will not recommend it! But it was ok to sleep in.
I had arranged a nice meal on the Saturday night for Stephens birthday with a table in front of the open kitchen so you could see when they are cooking, also arrange for some champagne and a cake. Nothing like that happened... the restaurant was small and there where nothing nice on the menu, we were also put at a table far away from the kitchen and no champagne or cake!! so we went for chinese food instead, which was lovely!

We went on a tour with a guide on Saturday and it was pretty cool. We went to the Amber fort, Jal Mahal (octopussy castle in the James Bond film), the 300 year old observatory and he aslo took us to a super nice shop that had beautiful jewellery :) So for Stephen's birthday he bought me a sapphire necklace and bracelet for a very good price. (or got totally screwed over?).   Also bought a star ruby to take home and do something with later, very niiice!

Also got pulled in one of the typical tourist traps , the carpet shop!! And yes we did end up with a flying carpet to take home... very beautiful tho. Same thing there got a very good price or not..!  Either way had to be done.

We just got home at about 5 o'clock Sunday night and on our way home we were driving on the main motor-way going from Delhi to Bombay, but don't think it would be allowed to drive on it in UK.  It had holes, speed bumps and then there were everything from bikes, camels, cows (oh yes cows are really everywhere!!) and even a completely naked man walking down the middle of the supposedly motorway!!! nearly choked on my sweeties!

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Camel on the motorway.

Ladies working in the field.

Overloaded tractor.

How do you make a cow travel 60km/h?

Put it on the back of a truck!

Elephant walking down the road.

Pink City.

Amber Fort

Inside the Amber Fort.

Us two being tourists!

In a 300 year old marble Jacuzzi.

The ladies winter apartment, made of mirrors.

Jal Mahal.

(JAmes Bond, Octopussy castle)

Worlds largest sundial.

We had a lovely time!

Daily life in Delhi

This week has gone really fast. I've had so much to do,it seems like we have seen so much already but that is only a small porportion of what you can do.
I've enrolled in the Delhi network group which is about 40 ladies whose husbands work over here, so it's nice to talk to someone that has a similar story to yourself.
Today I went with my friend to the biggest fabric shop i have seen!! It was 4 floors with silk, cotton, lace and everything in between! I wasn't gonna buy anything I was only there for support, but I ended up with 8 meters of blue silk, it cost 200 rupees per meter so 1600 in total. If you bought anything like that in UK or in fact Europe you would pay ten times that amount!
We are going back soon, it will cost Stephen alot....

Then I met a new friend, we went to the defence colony for some drinks and it was lovely! She was my age and she will basically be my neighbour, so that is great!

Life continues.....

India won the world cup! It is crazy!

Weekend

There is so much to see in Delhi!  So me and Stephen took the camera and the driver and played tourists for a day.
First we went to Humayun's Tomb, it was so pretty and there where puppies running around so that made my trip:)

 Then we went to the Qutub Minar which was a really nice place to walk around, it was a little bit busier than the first place but with more Indian tourist rather than western people.

Today it is the world cup final in cricket between India and Sri Lanka and the whole of India is watching it, hopefully India wins and it will be a great party !

Disposable drivers

We have been here for one week now, during that time we have had two drivers, three if you count the one we had when we visited. As a rule we are not aloud to drive in India because it is too dangerous, and I'm happy for that because it looks crazy!!
So we have a car and it comes with a driver. When we visited we had a driver that didn't speak any English but knew his way around Delhi, beginning of this week we had one that was really chatty but didn't have a clue where things were. This morning when I called and ask if he was down stairs he said: I'm not your driver anymore, I got sacked! Erm who is our driver then? I had an appointment with the coffee ladies so I had to go, so I jumped in a taxi and called Stephen, so he found out for me. It turns out that we now we are back to having a driver who doesn't speak English at all and that is very hard if you try to tell him on the phone where to pick you up! We'll see how long he'll last...

Last night we meet up with some friends of Stephens’s parents that happened to pass by.
We started off with drinks in the bar in their hotel and we talked about restaurants we have visited and where we should go and eat later, all together.
We jumped in two cars, 5 in with the driver who didn't know his way and the rest in a taxi. It took us awhile to get our can to the restaurant because our driver had to stop and ask 3 times. When we got there the others wasn't there. It took us half an hour to find out that they had gone to a place called Veda and we were at a place called Vega!  After a while we did end up in the same place and the food was lovely, but it took us some time.

Stephen and me are meeting some friends for an other hopefully nice meal tonight, and then it is the weekend!