Month: January 2014

Ethan’s first day at Fitzroy High School.

Love the Singapore Zoo. The zoo is branching out and we chose the River Safari this time. Fun – Not sure that Pandas are at all located in riparian landscapes – however they’re ridiculously cute and an extra reason to visit.

PS After visiting the otters at the zoo, Audrey has become obsessed and only wants an otter for her birthday next week. Nothing else!

Welcome to Singapore and the Year of the Horse. We stopped a couple of days en route back to Australia and stayed with my cousin and her kids. A chance to be in a modern Asian city, which helped to mitigate the culture shock of leaving India. Funny moment: Visiting Chinatown just before New Year – Kirsty explained it would be crowded “but nothing like what you’ve come from”. Kids freaked – it was the most crowded place they’d been all holidays.

Farewell India. We’ve loved the ride and hope to get back on it again one day. With the exception of Nick (who we leave as our emissary for the little while), 1.2 billion of you won’t notice our leaving… but we keenly feel our departure.

Farewell India and thanks for the ride. We hope to get back on it one day. While our leaving won’t be noticed by 1.2 billion of you (with the exception of Nick who we leave as our emissary for a little while), we keenly feel our departure.

Pune is the eighth largest city in India with a population of 6 million people. Our neighbourhood, Koregaon Park, is upmarket, leafy and hosts expats working in IT and education along with visitors to the Osho Ashram. In the centre of town there is old Pune, It survived massive floods in 1961 and it’s here that you find rows of traditional shops selling saris, jewellery, hardware, sandals, musical instruments… Lucinda, Audrey and I came here to shop for saris.

The tall wooden buildings that house these shops and living quarters are on the verge of collapse. They were once beautifully ornate with carvings, wooden fretwork and coloured glass. It seems very unlikely that they will be restored. I expect they’ll be replaced with monotonous, utilitarian concrete. So here’s a little homage to the craftsmanship that went before. (Pics taken in Lakshmi Road)

It’s true India has many faces. Also true that Ethan has as well. This is just a sample of the range of (mostly) selfies of Ethan in India.

It was so nice to stay in Bangalore for a few days and catch up with Australian friends; Bruce, Gail and their daughters Arabella and Jasmine. Lucinda and Audrey shout out a huge “thanks”. They had the best time playing. It was a real treat to hang out with Sandhya again too. This friendship is now in it’s 30th year and has spanned 3 continents.

Burgers in Bangers mate.

As a post script: On the first day back at school, Audrey’s teacher asked the class to think of everything they did on their holidays and choose two things to draw about. Audrey ran out of fingers counting what she had done (riding elephants, camels, rickshaws, tiger safaris, snorkelling…) – yet she chose to draw “Mum meeting up with her friend Sandhya”.

Fe and Alan joined us in Allepey Kerala and with the assistance of a rickshaw driver Fe, Ethan and I rode down to the docks and chose a houseboat to take us around the Keralan backwaters for a day and a night. Our main requirement was a nice airy deck to lounge around on, drink beer, read and play guitar. (Thanks Alan for some of these pics *)