Here I am, in India!! The flight over wasn’t too bad, I had the wonderful 3 centre seats all to myself on the first leg of the trip however the second I wasn’t so lucky… It really was the 4-hour stopover in Singapore that killed me. Al picked me up from Mumbai airport and then we went straight to the domestic airport. By the time Al and I arrived home I had a splitting headache for the next 6 hours!!
Here I am, in India
I’m one day into India and so far so good. I’m not sure how I’m going to go living here for 6 months. Al has to work 6 days a week, yet he doesn’t start till 11am so we have plenty of time for the gym and breakfast before saying goodbyes and figuring out what on earth am I going to do for the day.
You see coming from running 30 staff at The Courthouse Hotel on the Gold Coast, India was quite a change. Usually at 5am I’d be at the gym home for a quick breakfast and then off to work for the day… I worked hard and loved my job. I loved the staff who worked with me and I loved the owners Hans and Kaia who taught me so much over the years of being the General Manager for their business.
But now for the first time in 15 years I had nothing to do, no commitments, no staff and a little lost. On my first day Al on his way to work dropped me at the local supermarket to stock up on food. Al has really been living like a bachelor for the last month and there is no food in this place. The fresh food is pretty cheap – 35c for 2 capsicum, 10c for Zucchini, 5c for a bunch of shallots so you get the picture. Juice, milk and mixers are pretty good value too, approximately 50c-$1 for 1 liter.
I was worried but the shops are pretty westernised and they even sell lipton tea and sweetener which I’m addicted too!! I think that was the cause of my headache (sugar withdrawals) so I’ll try and cut down on the tea. Anyway while I was shopping I met a lady who runs the ‘International Women’s Club Baroda’ (I know, what are the chances) as she said ‘today is your lucky day’ and she was right. She is only 35, Russian and lives here with her husband and has been here for 11 months.
Ladies Luncheon
They are meeting up today for lunch so I’m heading along to meet the other foreigners. It was great timing meeting her as I had a trolley full of groceries and wasn’t really thinking ahead so she had her driver drop me home (even carried the bags upstairs). The ladies meet every week on Tuesdays and they have yoga Tuesday and Fridays. She also sent me another list of things to do/see and contacts in Baroda. After lunch today she is having her driver take us on a tour of the city, so I’m not feeling so isolated now.