The Shifting Sands

Can you imagine spending the whole morning going to and from the supermarket (actually the only full scale one in Mumbai) just to do trolley load of shopping? The absolute surrender this exercise takes is still just beyond my reach hence blogging in the car. After all it was only just over two months ago that I could walk to Lidl, Aldi and my local Bio Markt, all within ten minutes max, do a load of shopping and walk home all before the kettle boiled. Here there is some totally beyond me thing where every item is scanned then the price is checked by the operator on the screen, on the package and on the screen again...before being shipped off to the packer boy who is still half asleep. No recycled bags here these boys use heavy duty plastic, the kind that could be used as a rain coat through monsoon. Nothing like the Lidl girl shoving my groceries along and expecting me to have them Packed ready to pay so she can process the next person. Daily life can also mean a walk out

So last weekend we experienced our first Holi. Holi is one of too many to count festivals that stop India in her tracks and brings people together through mayhem and colour (literally with this one). Water and powdered colour are thrown on people, dogs and cars. Some of the colours stain and are toxic and som e are not! It was fun and I must say Chris looks good with purple and red hair! Ada had a ball being doused in buckets of Mumbai tap water and doing the dirty on others and Lucy went to a crazy loud party in South Mumbai that turned her hair green for a day. I think we all got our first taste of the heart within Mumbai.

OK OK clearly no contest but the diffences are still so geat for me that i just have to blog about it and get it off my chest...after all that is what a blog is all about ...true... an outlet...like a friendly ear. So yesterday I found out from my driver that in India to get a license (a learners permit) you just go down to tthe RTI (roads authority) show your face and your papers so they can check "you look about 18" then you get your learners. You drive for about a month wih someone else in the car, who may have a licence, and then you have a test. For the test you simply drive an RTI person around for about ten minutes and bingo.... Drivers Licence. No laws to learn... Maybe one or two if you are unlucky! My experience in Germamy could not have been more different....firstly I had to complete a first aid course, in German, then take an eye test, then have some driving lessons, as well as sit for a complete written learners permit exam. That experience will remain with

Shopping for basics ...no that is not me... Having a shave... Flower street near Crawford Markets - an essential for decorating ones car... Some street food...looks enticing doesn't it? ha ha to you who dares... And more scenes from Crawford Markets...

I knew this blog post was coming but i just couldn't bring myself to write it up. Could I really compare two lives through something so basic and necessary in the West as toilet paper. Well after just spending nearly $20 Australian dollars on 12 rolls of basic, not even super soft recylcled, toilet paper, I can no longer procrastinate. It all started when we moved to Germany and fell Into the habit, just like any local, of buying our toilet paper in packs of 24, sometimes even 36 rolls. Nice, recycled, unbleached, reasonably soft white toilet paper. All for a few euro at a time. Like many Europeans, I shopped almost daily, the only thing other than mineral water that I purchased in bulk was toilet paper....well maybe chocolate, once in a while, after all it was dark, and fair trade, and very very yummy. Now we are in India, and as some of my three readers may know, in India, if you have a toilet, you have a pressure hose right next to it. Whammo...no need to toilet

So tomorrow morning we can mark five weeks in India onto our calendars. I promise myself now that I will stop counting as soon as this place stops amazing me with its antics. What can you say each morning as you pass black sheep, goats, oxen and carts, wild street dogs, children begging for a living, Unichs slapping your car demanding money, Lepers asking for spare change, auto rickshaws being pushed to the next fuel stop by a guy poking his foot out of his own poorly maintained auto-rickshaw and kicking his fellow man along the way? Needless to say traveling with a camera or your eyes wired firmly shut is a necessity here. T'other day I found myself taking a photograph of 'nothing'. The smog was so thick that a landmark bridge - the Worli Sea Link - easily seen from my trek to and fro school was not visible at all. It may have disappeared - that would not surprise even me after a few weeks here - but no it was just the smog of the day. Our apartment is ne