Hello!
I keep thinking of lots of little things that I'd like to tell you about, so hopefully this blog will contain a nice mixture of random things. If I can remember them all....
I'd like to start with Christmas! I don't usually get all that excited about Christmas at home, probably because it's very commercial and seems to be thrust in my face. But here it's really exciting to receive a parcel from home with sparkly pompoms or other xmas decorations in it! I'm slowly filling my room with Christmas-themed things, and really enjoying it. Yesterday Jessica and Ellen went exploring and found a shop full of Christmas! Jessica bought me some glittery bells and little plastic candycanes that are now on the pipecleaner xmas tree that Claire made me! There is apparently a large box of decorations here that we'll be digging out soon to decorate the rest of Sangam, and then we're having a 'crappy christmas' party before the next event starts, which runs from the 21st until new years' day.
Random thing 2: all the work computers here have an American keyboard, which means the @ symbol is where we have the " symbol. I have got very used to this. So used to it, in fact, that when I come back to my own laptop, I often type " in the place of @ and then nothing works! Very frustrating!
Today, we had a very long programme team meeting in the morning, that covered the next 2 events in detail (during which Jessica and I will be taking on some of Gwen's APM responsibilities because of staffing changes), and then involved us in planning the content of events in the monsoon season next year! At some points, I got quite excited about the things we were coming up with, and had to remind myself that I won't be here then! Then in the afternoon, we crushed clay! You may remember me mentioning this before (I think I did!) - it was for making tiles as a memento of the 45th birthday, and the project was never finished as most of the staff didn't make tiles. As Donna is finishing her time as WCM this month, we needed to find time to do a staff workshop, and also needed enough powdered clay to make good tiles! So we spent 4 hours bashing and rolling lumps of clay into powder. My palms feel like they're severely bruised right now, but we did get it all done so that was a successful day.
Random thing 3: Have I told you properly about the new members of the Sangam family?! Emily and Steph, the new SVs who will be working with me and Jessica, arrived about 3 weeks ago. Emily is also from New York state, but not the city like Jess; Steph is from Brazil. They've just moved upstairs having finished their orientation period, although they won't be de-'new volunteer'-badged until the 12th when we have the leaving celebration/ presentation for Net, Ellen and Heidi. I'm really genuinely sad that these guys are leaving - especially Net and Ellen who I've become so used to having around both in work and socially. I've no doubt that I'll see Net again as she lives in Leicester, but Ellen lives in Uppsalla, Sweden! Not so easy to accomplish a visit. I'm going to miss them so much, even though Emily and Steph will be here to sort of fill the gap. We've also been getting to know another Emily who's just arrived as the new MCI (Marketing and Communications Intern). She's got some awesome plans for Sangam and it's really exciting. We're also expecting the arrival of a new CRI (Heidi's replacement) in a couple of days - Bronwyn's currently representing WAGGGS at COP17 and she'll be coming here straight from SA (she's Australian).
I think the sweet shop will be random thing 4. It's about a 30second walk from Sangam's gates and sells all sorts of wonderful things. Even better, the man who runs the shop is awesome and will always accept large notes from us, even when we're only spending a few rupees. Not many places will do that, so it's useful to break our bills. I guess it's savvy as it means he's even surer of our business than he would be by dint of being very near by. I am particularly in love with his samosas (yes, in India a sweet shop sells more than sweets - usually lots of snacks too) - mainly as they come with a great sweet and spicy sauce! Net, Emily (MCI) and I just decided to take a trip down in our pyjamas, so I'm currently enjoying a samosa and a bottle of mango juice. Yummy!
Thing 5. It is Datta's Birthday on the 10th. Datta is a 3-headed God, and the temple just down the road is dedicated to him. His heads are those of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. Because it is Datta's birthday, there is a funfair in the Indiranagar slum next door. Last night, we decided to go out and see what it was like. It was crazy! Loud music blasting, lots of lights, and some crazy rides that looked like those at home but with fewer safety regulations to adhere to and more creaking and crunching sounds! The main story though, comes from the ferris wheel. Net, Sayali, Jessica and Emily MCI decided to give it a whirl. Quite literally I guess. After some sedate turning to fill the wheel up, it began to go round considerably faster than I've seen wheels go before. This was great fun for them, until Jessica and Emily felt something weird land on them.... yes that's right, someone had not enjoyed the speed so much, and had thrown up from a seat above them! They were very good natured about it, but it was rather disgusting! We came home after that, but it had been a fun interlude.
Speaking of funny stories, there is one in particular that has entertained the staff all week. It features my shoes. When I was ill, I somehow lost track of my shoes, and they were nowhere to be seen. I moaned about this for a long time, until I found a new pair of flipflops, as the ones I brought with me rubbed my feet but had been my only option. I had given them up for lost, although it was rather mysterious. We decided that they must have ended up in the box in which we allow guests to leave various items that they don't want to take home, and that they'd therefore turn up when we held our twice-a-year sale of all the things to the local community. Then an amazing thing happened! I was making flapjack the other night - which may now become the subject of random thing 7 if this current story is 6 - when I happened to walk past our night watchmen. This caused me to do a double take, as what should I see on his feet, but my beloved shoes! The story soon passed round all the others, and we descended into hysterical giggling everytime the story was shared with someone else and we saw their reaction. I'm just pleased for closure of the mystery. I don't really want them back now they've been worn by him, as they won't be as wonderfully moulded to my feet, plus I wouldn't want to cause any problems! But it has, as I say, amused us, and we still have a little giggle every time he walks past!
So, to flapjack! I had to make flapjack because Net and I discovered that in America, 'flapjack' means 'pancakes'. I may have blogged about this before - if so, I apologise. So we had to correct this misconception, and I therefore went to the wonderful imports supermarket Dorabjees, purchased ingredients, and baked flapjack. The first batch (a couple of weeks ago) was a bit dry and didn't stick together well, although that didn't really matter as we polished off most of it whilst it was still hot and we were playing cards! The second batch was a lot better - I got the butter to dry ingredients ratio much better and also didn't allow the others to polish it all off straightaway, so we were all able to enjoy it together at chai time. I think most people who weren't familiar with flapjack in the British style enjoyed it, and I may well end up making it again at some point.
Number 8 (not many of these were on my original list, but I can't remember what they were!) - Geoffrey has a new friend. His name is William Fitzherbert. He is a WAGGGS bear. I don't have any photos of him yet, but I will try to take some soon. Geoffrey is going to investigate the new washing machine soon, as he - and especially his tshirt - is looking decidedly grubby.
Totally random number 9 - I'm currently watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on tv in the staff lounge. Previous to this, we enjoyed masterchef usa, dancing with the stars usa, and 'saved by dolphins'! A very random but nicely chilled out evening. And all subtitled.
That has reminded me that we went out to see a bollywood movie last night, as part of 'induction' for the new folks. Random piece of information number 10. It was called 'The Dirty Picture' and has been rated an 18 here in India. We reckon it'd probably be a 15 in the UK. It was apparently based on a true story, and is basically about a young, poor girl's rise to fame as a sexy dancer/ film star, and ended - just when we thought she was going to fall happily in love - with her suicide. Shocking. And I was VERY disgruntled that the final shot was of her burning pyre, yet when the credits rolled, the really bouncy, typically bollywood theme tune was playing. It seemed totally incongruous! But it was an enjoyable evening out anyway.
I think 10 is a good number. Especially as I've just scrolled back up and realised that you got today's activities for free. And I included pictures! So I'll stop here. If I collate some more random ideas, I'll try to write them down and then form another blog soon. I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings.
TTFN
I keep thinking of lots of little things that I'd like to tell you about, so hopefully this blog will contain a nice mixture of random things. If I can remember them all....
I'd like to start with Christmas! I don't usually get all that excited about Christmas at home, probably because it's very commercial and seems to be thrust in my face. But here it's really exciting to receive a parcel from home with sparkly pompoms or other xmas decorations in it! I'm slowly filling my room with Christmas-themed things, and really enjoying it. Yesterday Jessica and Ellen went exploring and found a shop full of Christmas! Jessica bought me some glittery bells and little plastic candycanes that are now on the pipecleaner xmas tree that Claire made me! There is apparently a large box of decorations here that we'll be digging out soon to decorate the rest of Sangam, and then we're having a 'crappy christmas' party before the next event starts, which runs from the 21st until new years' day.
Random thing 2: all the work computers here have an American keyboard, which means the @ symbol is where we have the " symbol. I have got very used to this. So used to it, in fact, that when I come back to my own laptop, I often type " in the place of @ and then nothing works! Very frustrating!
Today, we had a very long programme team meeting in the morning, that covered the next 2 events in detail (during which Jessica and I will be taking on some of Gwen's APM responsibilities because of staffing changes), and then involved us in planning the content of events in the monsoon season next year! At some points, I got quite excited about the things we were coming up with, and had to remind myself that I won't be here then! Then in the afternoon, we crushed clay! You may remember me mentioning this before (I think I did!) - it was for making tiles as a memento of the 45th birthday, and the project was never finished as most of the staff didn't make tiles. As Donna is finishing her time as WCM this month, we needed to find time to do a staff workshop, and also needed enough powdered clay to make good tiles! So we spent 4 hours bashing and rolling lumps of clay into powder. My palms feel like they're severely bruised right now, but we did get it all done so that was a successful day.
Random thing 3: Have I told you properly about the new members of the Sangam family?! Emily and Steph, the new SVs who will be working with me and Jessica, arrived about 3 weeks ago. Emily is also from New York state, but not the city like Jess; Steph is from Brazil. They've just moved upstairs having finished their orientation period, although they won't be de-'new volunteer'-badged until the 12th when we have the leaving celebration/ presentation for Net, Ellen and Heidi. I'm really genuinely sad that these guys are leaving - especially Net and Ellen who I've become so used to having around both in work and socially. I've no doubt that I'll see Net again as she lives in Leicester, but Ellen lives in Uppsalla, Sweden! Not so easy to accomplish a visit. I'm going to miss them so much, even though Emily and Steph will be here to sort of fill the gap. We've also been getting to know another Emily who's just arrived as the new MCI (Marketing and Communications Intern). She's got some awesome plans for Sangam and it's really exciting. We're also expecting the arrival of a new CRI (Heidi's replacement) in a couple of days - Bronwyn's currently representing WAGGGS at COP17 and she'll be coming here straight from SA (she's Australian).
I think the sweet shop will be random thing 4. It's about a 30second walk from Sangam's gates and sells all sorts of wonderful things. Even better, the man who runs the shop is awesome and will always accept large notes from us, even when we're only spending a few rupees. Not many places will do that, so it's useful to break our bills. I guess it's savvy as it means he's even surer of our business than he would be by dint of being very near by. I am particularly in love with his samosas (yes, in India a sweet shop sells more than sweets - usually lots of snacks too) - mainly as they come with a great sweet and spicy sauce! Net, Emily (MCI) and I just decided to take a trip down in our pyjamas, so I'm currently enjoying a samosa and a bottle of mango juice. Yummy!
Thing 5. It is Datta's Birthday on the 10th. Datta is a 3-headed God, and the temple just down the road is dedicated to him. His heads are those of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. Because it is Datta's birthday, there is a funfair in the Indiranagar slum next door. Last night, we decided to go out and see what it was like. It was crazy! Loud music blasting, lots of lights, and some crazy rides that looked like those at home but with fewer safety regulations to adhere to and more creaking and crunching sounds! The main story though, comes from the ferris wheel. Net, Sayali, Jessica and Emily MCI decided to give it a whirl. Quite literally I guess. After some sedate turning to fill the wheel up, it began to go round considerably faster than I've seen wheels go before. This was great fun for them, until Jessica and Emily felt something weird land on them.... yes that's right, someone had not enjoyed the speed so much, and had thrown up from a seat above them! They were very good natured about it, but it was rather disgusting! We came home after that, but it had been a fun interlude.
So, to flapjack! I had to make flapjack because Net and I discovered that in America, 'flapjack' means 'pancakes'. I may have blogged about this before - if so, I apologise. So we had to correct this misconception, and I therefore went to the wonderful imports supermarket Dorabjees, purchased ingredients, and baked flapjack. The first batch (a couple of weeks ago) was a bit dry and didn't stick together well, although that didn't really matter as we polished off most of it whilst it was still hot and we were playing cards! The second batch was a lot better - I got the butter to dry ingredients ratio much better and also didn't allow the others to polish it all off straightaway, so we were all able to enjoy it together at chai time. I think most people who weren't familiar with flapjack in the British style enjoyed it, and I may well end up making it again at some point.
Number 8 (not many of these were on my original list, but I can't remember what they were!) - Geoffrey has a new friend. His name is William Fitzherbert. He is a WAGGGS bear. I don't have any photos of him yet, but I will try to take some soon. Geoffrey is going to investigate the new washing machine soon, as he - and especially his tshirt - is looking decidedly grubby.
Totally random number 9 - I'm currently watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on tv in the staff lounge. Previous to this, we enjoyed masterchef usa, dancing with the stars usa, and 'saved by dolphins'! A very random but nicely chilled out evening. And all subtitled.
That has reminded me that we went out to see a bollywood movie last night, as part of 'induction' for the new folks. Random piece of information number 10. It was called 'The Dirty Picture' and has been rated an 18 here in India. We reckon it'd probably be a 15 in the UK. It was apparently based on a true story, and is basically about a young, poor girl's rise to fame as a sexy dancer/ film star, and ended - just when we thought she was going to fall happily in love - with her suicide. Shocking. And I was VERY disgruntled that the final shot was of her burning pyre, yet when the credits rolled, the really bouncy, typically bollywood theme tune was playing. It seemed totally incongruous! But it was an enjoyable evening out anyway.
I think 10 is a good number. Especially as I've just scrolled back up and realised that you got today's activities for free. And I included pictures! So I'll stop here. If I collate some more random ideas, I'll try to write them down and then form another blog soon. I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings.
TTFN
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