Doh!

Just an example of a lack of planning in these parts...

They started the pedestrian bridge, realized they couldn't go pass the overpass on the left, so stopped the bridge half way across the road.  Pointless!  And what a waste of money!

Perfect place for a pole...

Rain or shine...apparently the show WON'T go on...

Looks like we're SOL when it comes to satellite transmission for our television....

So that's pretty much the entire monsoon season...

WHAT?  The sun went out???

Eeny meeny miney mo!

This is my light switch panel for my bedroom (that's ONE room folks!).  In the U.S. I have one switch to flick.  Clearly, too many choices here.  Maybe this is contributing to the daily power outage problem?

Festival of Lights

Though it's not officially a festival per se, it still causes quite a raucous in these parts.  For days now there have been fireworks popping off every night.  Fun to watch, not so fun when you want to go to sleep and it sounds like a war outside your bedroom window.  Diwali typically covers 5 days.  From what I understand you exchange sweets with your friends, people perform a ritual similar to spring cleaning in their houses, some may even buy new pots and pans....oooooh.....ahhhhh.  But at the end of the day it is really all about the lights.  It is lit up like Christmas around here.  People light their diyas, or oil lamps, they light sparklers and fireworks.  And there you have it.  Happy Diwali everyone!  

A world of good

"What we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others echoes throughout the ages" ~ Unknown


For our wedding we asked that in lieu of physical gifts that our guests could donate money so we can help the poor people of India.  Who needs a brand new set of china when there are much less fortunate people than us who barely make enough money to eat every day?  I met Dr. Josephine several months ago.  She is a lovely Indian woman from Tamil Nadu area.  She spent 12 years in Spain to study and go to medical school.  When she returned to India she knew she wanted to put some of her money towards helping those less fortunate than herself.  She puts a lot of her own money towards children near her neighborhood that live in a slum.  Unfortunately, girls here aren't as valued as their brothers who are sent off to school.  They are often relegated to cooking and cleaning and many of the girls look after the family because the mother has had to go to work because the father is an alcoholic.  Anyways, Dr. Josephine has taken 60 girls of various ages under her wing to provide them with the basics of education in a makeshift school.  Other than her own money, she often relies on generous donations (like yours) from foreigners or from anybody who is willing to help.  She provides the essentials like backpacks, clothing, and toothbrushes.  Very basic things.  Things you and I probably take for granted.  Recently I was invited to take part in a vaccination campaign to provide typhoid inoculations to people of the slum.  Typhoid is a disease that is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water that has been contaminated by the feces of an infected person.  Typically this is not a problem in the modern world where there are modern sanitation techniques.  Here in India, sanitation is hard to come by.  Men urinate wherever a dog can urinate...so that is everywhere.  Typhoid causes a myriad of symptoms some of which include: gastroenteritis, fever, dehydration, and if left untreated can lead to intestinal hemorrhage and perforation.  Modern day medicine can treat these symptoms but another thing these people lack is *surprise* lack of medical care.  So basically it can be fatal.  

     

But thanks to our friends and family we have prevented this from happening in at least 210 slum people that live in the Hauz Khas area of Delhi.  All of them were children (only about a handful were screaming) and a few of their mothers....and even one very tall grandma!  All of the vaccines were bought by our guests that donated money and I was able to administer the injections!!

Dr. Josephine, the kids and the moms, Glen and I all thank you for being so kind with your money.  Thank you for helping us help others.  Peace and love everyone!

Typhoid vaccine campaign

The lovely Dr. Josephine

Drawing up 210 vaccines

My first victim ;-)

The kids were so brave

Screening

More screening

They got sweets after their jabs

A very tall Grandma!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My goodness there have been a lot of changes in cyberworld these days.  Funny how much bitching people do when Facebook updates their website.  It makes me realize that people don't like change unless they're consulted first.  Hey people!  It's a FREE service and it's OPTIONAL!!  You don't HAVE to use it!  Quit grumbling!  I say this as much to you as I say it to myself as I caught myself bitching this morning when I wanted to make a post and noticed that this good old blogger website had finally updated some templates.  I am not super computer savvy and wanted to personalize this blog a little more.  I notice my friends are able to personalize their blogs but I'm a little more retarded than them I guess.  I've tossed around the idea of using wordpress.com instead but I hear that is just as much of a pain and you really just have to navigate and figure it out no matter what site you use.  Since I'm no pro at this I think I'll just stick to what I have going on here.  


With that being said I'm hoping that the new design will inspire me to write more refreshing posts!

The cynic in me

So needless to say...Tasty Tuesdays are a thing of the past.  It was a good idea but between traveling, being sick, and sending our cook to her village to be with her mom...well it's just not working out on a consistent basis.  I decided I need to stop making myself guilty for missing self imposed deadlines.  I've been so uninspired in the kitchen anyways.  I hate going to the grocery store here because it never has good quality anything.  I go across town to get fresh produce.  Because it's out of my way I tend to overbuy so then half the fruits and veggies to go crap.  On top of it all, I hate having to disinfect everything.  To clean the veggies I have to soak them in chlorinated water for 15 minutes at a time.  This goes on for several batches.  It's so time consuming.  I can either ingest bleach or eat shit (E. coli).  Great choices.  


In better news, the lift has finally been repaired.  The only way I was able to get it fixed was to use some leverage.  The landlord wanted something from me, which I withheld until the lift was fixed.  Yes, I resorted to playing games with this guy but it worked.  The landlord needed a very important phone number for tax purposes.  Normally I would just give it to him but it was the only thing I had that he needed so I kept it from him.  Anyways, no more huffing and puffing up the steps!  There's still no water pressure but you take what you can get.


In the last month or so we reached the milestone of living here for a year.  We marked that anniversary by going to visit Dubai.  I hate to say that I'm over this place.  I think I really wanted to fall in love with Delhi, with India.  We both thought long and hard about coming here, we went through a million emotions, we were supported by family and friends, and we tried to make the best of it.  I don't regret coming here but I won't be sad to leave.  I am grateful for the opportunity to have lived in such a different country than the one I grew up in.  I am forever changed.  Living here has really highlighted how much I miss my family and friends, how much I need to be near my dog, how much I miss going to work, and how much I love to be able to get in my car and go wherever I wanted to go.  Coming here was a big risk for me, someone who really craves routine and consistency with little shake ups here and there.  And I'm ready to have that back in my life again.  Here's to hoping.

   

Argh!

It's about that time where I need to vent or this shit that's bothering me is going to make me e-x-p-l-o-d-e.  We looked at almost 30 places before we decided on this flat.  It fit most of our criteria.  We are across from a park, we have a large terrace, we have privacy, we are on the top floor.  Here it means the 3rd floor but really it's the 4th floor since there are 3 floors below us.  Complaint ♯1.  For the past 2 months the elevator (lift) has been broken.  It is stuck between the 1st and 2nd floor.  So I called the phone number and filed a complaint to get it fixed.  Turns out the maintenance contract had expired so they wouldn't come fix it.  So then I call our landlord, then I call him again, and again, and again, and again, and now I don't know how many times I've called at this point.  Each time I was told it was being worked on and that they will know something in a few days time.  Well 2 weeks ago we got a contract in the mail from the elevator company for an annual renewal of 35,000 INR.  That's 750 bucks my friends!  Ugh.  So I called the landlord so that he could pick up the contract.  Well, it's been a lot of promises and nothing's happened.  I don't mind the exercise.  Stairs are healthier to take than lifts.  But it's been so stinkin' hot and humid here and there's not much air flow in the stairwell.  It's hard to breathe in there let alone carry a bunch of groceries up.  Thank goodness I have a spritely 18 year old guard that volunteers to carry my stuff upstairs.  


I've also been waiting for 2 weeks for the 'water pressure motor' (whatever that is) to get fixed.  See we have our water supply in tanks.  One on the ground floor and 2 on the roof.  To get the water from the ground floor to the top floor it has to be pumped up there.  To get pressurized water to come into our house we have to turn on the motor.  Complaint ♯2.  It stopped working and so we're back to taking showers in trickles.  Hey, at least we have water, right?  

Our power generator on the left, water tanks up above.

You may or may not remember that our car was involved in an accident last December.  We weren't in the car but our driver and his family were (everyone was okay).  Well there was pretty bad front end damage and our driver freaked out and got it 'kind of' fixed by a Maruti Suzuki place.  Our car is a Toyota Innova.  This all happened without our knowledge since we were on holiday in the UK.  So he got the car up to speed and it had been running okay until 2 months ago when we sent the car in for routine maintenance.  Complaint ♯3.  Of course a million things were found wrong and now the car needs at least 1 lakh rupees worth of repairs.  That's over 2100 USD.  And guess who gets to pay for it?  Guess who gets to pay for it right after we paid for our entire wedding ourselves?  Ugh, couldn't the timing be better?  It's just a hard pill to swallow sometimes.  I hate cars.  I hate car problems.  I hate having to pay for car problems.  Money sucking, gas guzzling, ozone depleting pieces of s**t that I can't live without.  


I guess I can't complain too much about anything.  After all, our power only went off once today instead of the normal 3 or 4.  And the monsoon mellowed out a little bit so it stopped raining in my bedroom.  It's the little things, ya know?  I have to end this on a grateful note for fear of sounding and feeling too negative.  We have a roof over our head, we have water, we have full bellies (even if it's not all organic or food selections I would normally make).  My life is abundant.    

I love a good jingle

Ever catch yourself in the middle of the supermarket (not so super in my case) and you start humming a random commercial jingle?  I remember simple ones from the U.S....like "Every kiss begins with Kay" for Kay Jewelers.  And "That's Jared" for Jared's Jewelers.  I don't know why the jewelry theme popped in my head.  Then there are the classic Oscar Meyer weiner/bologna songs.  With no job or other healthy distraction besides yoga and volunteering I shamefully spend more time in front of the television these days than I ever used to.  No matter what channel I have it on this commercial plays over and over and over again.  So it's fair to say I catch myself singing this jingle at random moments of my day.  To simulate the experience I suggest you watch something on TV and then when a commercial break comes you should hit  'play' here.  Then between each commercial you should play this one again.  It's only fair.  If I have to listen to it, so should you.

    

Tasty Tuesday

I've returned from my hiatus and feel embarrassed about missing my self imposed deadlines.  I've sent Shivani home to her village because her mother is ill so she hasn't been doing any cooking lately.  I managed to record a few recipes but forgot to take photos so I hope this serial blog thingy works out.  This week I bring you honey chicken!  Quick and easy...just how I like it!

HONEY CHICKEN

1/2 kg chicken cubed

1 TB ginger paste

1 TB garlic paste

1/2 TB lime juice

75 g honey

Marinate all ingredients except the honey in a medium sized bowl for at least a 1/2 hour.  Heat oil in a large pan.  Add contents of bowl into the pan and simmer on low, stirring occasionally until liquid is reduced and chicken starts to brown.  Drizzle the honey into the pan and cook for 3 more minutes.

Apparently this is the only photo I took.  Shivani's recipe written in Hindi and the chicken in its marinade.

Friends?

Something I forgot that happened a while back.  It happens more often than I'm comfortable with.  It's so obnoxious and it's only happened to me since I moved to India.  Some men can be so socially inappropriate here.  Randomly trying to be friends with you on Facebook.  Who does that?  Oh, this guy does.       

No Mohit, I will NOT be your friend.  Quit trying to be the Joey Tribbiani of India.

Hitched!

Excuse the absence but we were busy getting married!  A year and a half of planning culminated into a fun fest with friends from all over the world.  I have to say at the end of the day....after all the stress and unnecessary worry about shoes and flowers and decor and colors...none of it matters.  What matters is that we were reunited with our friends and family.  It sounds corny and trite but it felt so special to have those that we care about the most all together in one place (minus a few that understandably couldn't make it).   You really know people care about you when they fly across the world for you.  And, as if no time has passed (we've been gone for almost a year now!) they show up to stand by your side on one of the most important days of your life.  I would like to give thanks to all of our friends and family that came to our wedding and witnessed our expression of devoted love to one another.  It was really one of the best days of our lives.  It was over way too fast.  We had such a good time and hope you did too!

It was a whirlwind week that started off with a 1st birthday party for one of my dear friend's daughter.  After an entire year, a baby shower and a move to India later, I finally got to meet her.  I honestly have never experienced love like this before.  I felt my heart literally heave in my chest when I picked her up.  I can't explain why.  Jenessa and I have met through work and we quickly became friends but even more quickly did I pack up and leave before we got to experience all that our friendship was about to become.  Now I have this precious child in my life and I'm so in love with her!

I love this child

I love her mama too!

I could do this!

I got reacquainted with Kona.  It was eerie because when my sister opened the door, I got down on Kona's level...she sniffed my face and wagged her tail and was soooo quiet.  Then she looked from me to Glen to me and wagged even harder.  The best reunion.  My sister said that only moments before that Kona was having a hyper spaz out in the living room.  Goes to show that a dog will match your energy.  I was calm, so she was calm.  Awesome.

Later in the evening we went to see a friend to Improv comedy.  Good times!

Go Kristen!

Even later it was time to meet the UK crew to take them to Casa Bonita.  If you have seen the South Park episode, then you'll know why I had to take them there.  They didn't believe me when I said you can't eat the food there.   

The rest of the week was spent meeting up with friends as they trickled in from out of town.  Spending time together in between phone calls and arrangements for the wedding.  

Chili dinner 

Staci!

Dog having a snooze on the lanai

We LOVE the Irish!

Pottering around town

Bro-mance.

For Glen's stag-do they went to "ride quad runners"...but no pictures have shown up so I'm a bit suspicious.  The ladies and I attended a Learn-to-strip bachelorette party...which I highly recommend!  Good fun and it broke the ice as some of these ladies had literally just met.  And you'll notice Glen's mum participated too!  She's so much fun!

The brave participants

"Hi, my name is Linda"

If a butt in the face isn't sexy then I don't know what is

Take it off

Smack it

Rub it

Fling it

There were family dinners and hot tub shenanigans.  Too many photos to post.  And finally...the wedding.  

And last but not least...to my dear friend Rachel who I've known since we were 12 & 13 years old (respectively).  She just returned from spending the last year in Iraq and just bought a house so I was feeling extra special that she was able to make it to our wedding.  Like a true friend does, she was the one that got stuck under my wedding dress while she was helping me get it on and get it adjusted.   (I can't wait for those photos to come out)  She took me to get our toes done...proper girl time.  She was also the one pouring the mimosas the day of the wedding.  Thanks for being there for me Rachel, thank you for serving our country, and thank you for being my lifetime friend.  I love you!

We went to the zoo and it sucked

On Sunday we got a little cabin fever.  I don't know why we thought it would be a great idea to take a tuk tuk to the zoo but...well it sounded good at the time.  Getting a tuk tuk (also known as an auto rickshaw) is an art form here.  You are lucky if you can find a rickshaw wallah that speaks and/or understands english.  So we've taken to printing maps and names of our desired destination.  This day we were frequently repeating 'ZOO', 'ZOO'.  Wouldn't you know there is no Hindi word for zoo gosh darn it?  And I don't know why I thought if I said it LOUDER and s-l-o-w-e-r that they would magically comprehend where I wanted to go.  Reminder: they're not deaf and dumb Jenn, they just don't know the language.  After 10 minutes we finally got a guy that understood (or so I thought) it when I said National Zoo Park.  He did his little Indian head waggle thingy and off we went......to the National Museum.  Doh!  10 more minutes spent finding somebody that understood where we wanted to go and we were off to the real zoo.  Of course the guy wants more money than we agreed upon because of his mistake.  The trick to rickshaw wallahs here is that they will always charge a westerner double the amount they would a local Indian.  And they will always try to get more.  If you ever come here, be warned!  If you have the time to haggle then wait for a guy that has a meter that works....saves so much time arguing over the price.  Anyways, we finally got to the zoo, it had just finished raining and now it is humid as all get out.  2 long queues turned into several random queues segwaying into one.  Who knows but after much elbowing we finally got in and walked our happy little butts off for what seemed like forever....eyes peeled for animals...walking...looking.....no animals.  Sadface.  Hot, humid, walking for over an hour, no animals does not a happy Jenn make.  I guess this zoo was really cool about 25 years ago.  I wish we did a little more research before we went.  Anyways, towards the end we did finally find a few pens that had animals in it.  Then it was time to go home for a shower with no water pressure and a nap!  

A lot of walking and sweating, no animals

Affectionate one-horned rhinos

Creepy crocodile

Indian elephant (the larger African elephants weren't there)

More animals outside the zoo!

Tuk tuk games

      

Tasty Tuesday

For this weeks line-up I give you Mutton Kofta.  Yep, meatballs!

MUTTON KOFTA

For the sauce:

2 small onions, give it a whirl in the food processor

3 tomatoes, separate from the onions give ‘em a whirl in the food processor

2 sticks cinnamon

3 cardamom seeds

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

½ tsp mustard powder

½ tsp meat masala

pinch of garam masala, more if you like spice!

pinch of salt

For the meatballs:

½ kg ground mutton or other meat (sheep are simply too cute to eat!)

1 small chopped onion

½ tsp ginger paste

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp garam masala

1 ½ TBSP Besan (a binder, maybe you could try flour?)

½ tsp cornflour

chopped coriander, save some for garnish

Sauce:  In a large pot add cardamom seeds, cinnamon bark, and processed onions.  Stir for 2 – 3 minutes or until brown.  Add tomatoes.  Add mustard powder, meat masala, garam masala, coriander powder, ginger and garlic paste, and salt.  Stir for 10 minutes.  Add a little water and let simmer on low heat.

In a medium sized bowl combine your ground meat, coriander, onion, ginger paste, cumin powder, garam masala, Besan, and cornflour.  Shape into meatballs.  Heat oil in a small pan.  Deep fry meatballs then add them to the sauce.  Stir gently.  Keep on very low heat and let simmer for 5 – 7 minutes.  Place in a serving bowl and garnish with fresh coriander.  

Mix it

Besan

Roll it

Fry it

Wah la!