Saturday, December 12, 2009

Ho ho ho!


We attended the Consulate's children's party this year and made an ornament and decroated cookies. Santa was, of course, the big hit of the day!





Friday, December 11, 2009

Robin Hood with a Queenly Presence




Liam's school put on a fabulous play this evening - the story of Robin Hood set to the music of Queen. Liam played the part of a Royal Guard. A wonderful evening, made more memorable, perhaps, by the fact that the school served beer to the parents before AND after the show (it IS the German school, after all....).




Sunday, December 06, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving...and St. Martin's Day...



Had a quiet but very nice Thanksgiving this year (compared to last year's events, ANYTHING would have been better, of course. Small turkey dinner with new friend and colleague Cathleen, and then headed off to school for the St. Martin's Day lantern festival. Liam made a lantern and paraded around the school garden and then ate sweetbread in the shape of the Saint himself.











Monday, November 30, 2009

Baby it's cold outside!






Had the opportunity to shoot off to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a conference. I think the corridor between Boston and Portsmouth MUST have the world's highest contcentration of Dunkin' Donuts (and anectdotal evidence suggests our Consulate in Mumbai processes the highest number of Dunkin' Donuts worker visas).



After the conference, I met Colleen in Boston for a girls' weekend. Amazing to enjoy fabulous company, cold weather, plenty o' Starbucks, and some Christmas shopping.






Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Halloween...











Finally catching up a bit on posts. Camera died on Halloween morning so relying on the generosity of friendds to provide to goods. Great party with lots of fun activities for the kids including bobbing for donuts (more hygienic than apples) and a visit by Darth Vader. Liam was Ben 10 for the day - finally had to wrestle a very sweaty boy out of the costume at bedtime. He attended a party on our roof and then went trick or treating to the nine apartments here. Fast but managed to feel like Halloween despite the 90 degree temperatures and lack of real pumpkins.




Thursday, August 20, 2009

Liam's First Day of Year 1


Liam started school today, belatedly due to swine flu closures. It's a German tradition to present year 1 students with a "cone", filled with school supplies and treats, so earlier in the year I got together with some other parents to craft this one. Cones were presented, songs were sung, and Liam was beaming as he ripped into his. The kids were practically pushing parents out of the classroom so they could get started. A great day!
















Monday, August 17, 2009

The best vacation ever...



Just returned from four weeks of hols...whirlwind tour of Paris, Darlo, the Lakes, Kelso, Edinburgh, and London. A good time was most certainly had by all. Highlights included Euro Disney and the Fringe, as well as the many, many playgrounds Europe has to offer...

Stay tuned for more pics!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Happy Mum's Day



The CG hosted consulate families for a Mother's Day brunch with consulate guys doing the cheffing. Although I enjoyed a delicious French toast breakfast courtesy of Liam and Steve earlier in the morning, we went and had a fab time...

Happy 5th Birthday Liam






Liam celebrated his fifth birthday with a bunch of classmates on the roof of Washington House. A good, but sweaty, time was had by all as temps soared above 100 degrees. Several games, including pass the parcel, doughnut bobbing, and statues, were big hits, and Liam was exhausted after the special day.

Happy Belated Easter





Had a great time at the Consulate egg hunt, dying eggs, and doing our own egg hunt at home. It was eighty million degrees so most of the chocolate was melted, but the kids really enjoyed themselves...particularly the first timers, children of our Indian colleagues, for whom this was a new experience...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Weekend getaway - finally!


We finally made it out of Mumbai. We joined a Consulate trip to Ali Baugh and Kashid Beach. The water was, amazingly, clean enough to swim in - and we enjoyed a magical beach BBQ complete with grilled lobster and paneer. Liam was in heaven and it was well worth the 45 minute ferry ride and 1.5 hour van ride to get some fresh air and stars.



We finally made it out of Mumbai. We joined a Consulate trip to Ali Baugh and Kashid Beach. The water was, amazingly, clean enough to swim in - and we enjoyed a magical beach BBQ complete with grilled lobster and paneer. Liam was in heaven and it was well worth the 45 minute ferry ride and 1.5 hour van ride to get some fresh air and stars.

A Quick Jaunt to Darlington...


Had a chance to spend a brief time with Steve's family in Darlington in Feburary - tons of fun and I wished the WHOLE family had been together to experience the yummy dinner Win cooked for us all.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Go Obama!



Although we missed the big inaugural "event" on Tuesday, we attended a happy hour in his honor Wednesday. Liam and his pal Evan loved emulating the new Prez, whose fingers were somehow ripped off by a drunk guy at the Tuesday party - hence the "hang loose"...

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Mumbai Marathon


Several colleagues ran this year and Liam and I went out to cheer (and feel guilty). It was a lot of fun to see - although it made us feel terribly unfit.

The Mumbai Kite Festival - or Makar Sankrati





Note that the kite flyer isn't actually holding the string
but is letting his "man Friday" do it. Very Mumbai.


Nancy and Liam enjoy the first moments on the beach!


Thursday was Makar Sankrati - no idea what it's all about and none of our colleagues were able to tell us. Jagdish took us down to Chowpatty Beach, however, to see thousands of kites that were being flown in conjunction with the festival. Much like in the Kiterunner, there was a bit of competition between the flyers do see who could "cut" down the other kites. Jagdish ran two kites for Liam - who knew we had our very own Kiterunner on staff?

Liam found the whole thing rather boring but it was my first time on the "beach" - definitely the best people watching we've done in Bombay. Thousands of folks milling about, flying kites, dining. Liam took a spin on the hand-propelled rides. Although he wanted to go for the ferris wheel (also human-powered), it looked far too dangerous and given that traffic was at its peak, I knew there was no possible way we could make it to the hospital in the event of an accident. So Liam got a big fat wet blanket no!


Liam wanted to show eating the cotton candy.

Liam on the hand-powered ride. Behind is the wheel of death -
you can actually see people hanging off (weighting it when
it needs to slow or stop so others can get on.).


Happy new year...

We had a quiet one in Washington House...in bed well before midnight. Mostly just glad to put the events of the latter part of 2008 behind us. Looking forward to a calmer year in Bombay and hopeful we can discover some more of India...