London

Day Zero

We started our journey on October 10, 2008. Flight landed in London at 3PM on the 11th. We checked into the hotel and got a room that smelled of something. We felt the smell throughout the hotel but it was especially worse in this room. After 30 minutes we couldn't get used to the smell, and came down to the reception hall and found someone to talk about this. They changed our room and while talking we found out the hotel used to be open to smokers. We saw 'No Smoking' signs everywhere but that was fairly recent. They had made the hotel non-smoking but had not changed the carpeting anywhere. They were going to do so. The other room was better although in the hallways, the smell was present. We got used to it eventually.

We were near the High Street Kensington Metro station (London Metro=Tube), which is on circle (Yellow) line. The circle line goes in the center of London and touches all the major sightseeing in London. London Tube Map here Since it was evening already, we decided to just explore the nearby places on foot. We walked past the Hyde Park and walked all the way to Victoria & Albert Museum. There were many other museums we wanted to see but didn't have the time. London has so much to explore you can stay there for months and not have to see the same things twice. We only realistically had 4 days.

Hyde Park Gate

Old Style Telephone Booth

Royal Albert Hall

Hyde Park

I made the skirt I'm wearing. There is another one I made which will come up in other photos.

V&A museum closed at 5:30PM. The outside wall of the museum had been damaged in World War II and they have left it as is for memory.



We wandered our way back to the hotel. While returning we saw this apartment building which had so many chimneys up on the roof. I found it really interesting :)


I thought of India as soon as I saw this shop as you always see fruits displayed outside like this there. It turned out to be an Indian grocery store. Hee


Mehul was loving the double-decker buses. We took him on a few rides later in the trip.

I'm back

Just a quick post to say I'm back, if you haven't read it on The Wagon. We reached on Sunday, and I started work on Tuesday. Mehul has some serious Jet-lag. He woke up at 2:30AM on Monday night and 3:15 last night. He is having a bit of trouble adjusting to the school as well. They started transitioning him to the next class today. I hope he adjusts well as he always has a bit of trouble in the beginning.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of London.

Big Ben/London Eye

London Eye at night

St. James Park

Posting from India

London was fabulous. Pictures coming soon. We reached Delhi on the 16th. Yesterday, I got henna done for Karwa chouth fast. After washing off, the color isn't as dark as I usually get because I had to remove it earlier. Here are the pictures while it was drying.

We're off in about 20 minutes

I just wanted to quickly post before leaving. I'll miss you all!! See you when I get back!

Time to pack!

Sorry for staying absent for all this time. We're leaving for vacation in 3 days (Friday). There is a stop-over in London for 5 nights and then we'll reach Delhi on the 16th night. 17th is Karwachowth so I get to keep a fast the first day I'm there. Bummer.

On the bright side, Mehul turned FOUR!! His birthday was past Saturday. We usually celebrate at the daycare and have a separate party at home with friends. This time because of the vacation, we decided to not do the GTG. One of Mehul's class-mate, A, was born on the same day as Mehul, attends the same daycare since he started, and was born in the SAME HOSPITAL!! They had invited us over for A's birthday, and Mehul and A cut the cake together (it was a princess cake LOL) Too funny. Anyhow, there will be a celebration in Delhi with my and DH's family which sounds much better than anything we'd have done here :) We did cut a cake at the daycare too, and another smaller one at home. Yep, I've been eating too much cake!

We've been through most of the shopping now and I need to start packing. There are some things we still need but I can start now. I'll be sure to post before leaving. I'm not taking the laptop but my parents and in-laws have high-speed connections so I should be able to check my mails. I'll try NOT to do any online shopping. It has been hard watching all these sales (sewing) and not getting anything that would show up at the doorsteps after we leave. I am going to get some cloth and notions from Delhi so we'll see what I can find. Also, I'll be getting curtains made for few rooms from there. I'll post pictures.

Thanks!

Thanks to Erin, Christine & Sue. Sue, I don't have your email address so I couldn't email you back personally, but thank you. I have been thinking a lot and have come to the conclusion of limiting my exposure to these two. I was already doing that but now that I've talked to DH and written this here and talked to you, it is kind of final. I still go out in the neighborhood but far less now because it's getting colder and well, we're busy! Vacation is coming up and we've been shopping after work most nights. I think I need to treat them like just neighbors, rather than friends. And that's fine.

Thinking back I have realized that I have *never* been talked to like this, and treated like this. Never. Not even in high school. Guess I chose my friends carefully back then! I have always believed that deep down, people are nice. Regardless of the drama with these two, I will continue to believe that. And yes, I'll continue looking for friends :) though I'll be a bit more selective now.

On the topic of friends

It is sad but I have forgotten what true friendship is like. It used to be so easy for me to make friends but now it seems like a long lost dream which would never ever happen. In high school years, I wasn't the most popular one or anything, but I had a lot of friends both in school and outside. I carried those friendships as long as I could. Being 7000 miles apart from them did eventually create a gap. Now I'm not in regular touch with anyone except one - who is too busy in her own life. Not that I blame her..

But the point is, I should be able to make friends now. As a family, we do have people we get together with on a semi-regular basis, but that's different. When we moved into this neighborhood, I really thought I had found that level of friendship again -- with two of my neighbors. But over the last one year it has turned out to be nothing but back biting and b!tching (excuse my language). I'm so tired of their attitude towards me and towards their own lives. I wonder why I even attempt to keep in touch - ya I know, it is because of DS. He is best-friends to the twin sons of one neighbor.
I have been thinking over the last few weeks - why are they so negative towards me specially? Why not towards each other (or it seems to me that way?) At first, there was the incident of going to a gem show together last year. Neighbor A - came up and asked Neighbor B and me to go with her. Ok, no problems. Only, she doesn't want to drive out there (I can't remember why), so I volunteered. This was in winter and the forecast said it was going to sleet and roads may be slippery. I have a Civic and I'm not comfortable driving around in snow or sleet. So I asked the other 2 to take over the driving and I'll pay for food or something. A said she didn't want to and she'll go with her DH instead of us. B and I asked if we can go with you guys and she refused! Yes, that should have been my first clue to limit my friendship. After this, I remember a lot of drama surrounding the gem show visit and A called me at work and screamed about B's bad habits on the phone. B's bad habits were something A was always bickering about, and that day I snapped and put the phone down. I don't deserve this crap. I was at work and didn't want to listen to her screaming. Fair? I think so.

A few weeks (months?) later, A patched things with me and being the stupid person I am, I fell for it. B was now not talking to A over something A had said to her. A had asked her to not bring her kids over to her house (yes, she did) because they were bad mannered. Remember, they were 2 years old then and I agree, they could use some supervision and B is too lazy to do anything. So B kept saying things to me about A that I never repeated to A because otherwise it would have caused a big drama. I always steered the conversation away from A.

At some point, A and B patched up. I had no problems until they had turned their negativity and their frustrations against me! Now I'm their enemy because not only do I *only* have one kid, I have plenty of time to do crafts, while they slog through their lives. Now remember, I am the one who works full-time. A is SAHM and B works part-time. B is always complaining about money because 3 kids take up so much of their resources. She was complaining about back to school shopping and I made the mistake of suggesting thrift-store. She got offended and said she has enough to not buy second-hand clothes for her kids. WTF?? Why are you complaining then?

While Girish was in Seattle, I took Mehul out in the neighborhood one day because he was getting bored at home. He hadn't had dinner yet and we usually do a bi-cycle round around the neighborhood in the evening. Because of A and B's past antics I didn't want to hang around them for too long and wanted to get home. They both started on how we've pampered Mehul that he doesn't eat by himself. First, the statement is WRONG. He does eat by himself although selectively. Second, it's none of their business. Third, unless they have had a picky eater, they can have no advice for me. I got out of there as soon as I could and cried at home. I haven't told Girish yet. I don't want to ever see these people again but being in the neighborhood, it's hard to avoid them. Specially because Mehul is friends with their kids. Goodness knows, we have tried getting him to eat by himself and he's getting better each day.

They're teaching me parenting? Girish and I have frequently had conversations where he says he had no idea on how much I did and how good I did it, until he met these two ladies. He says they're jealous of me and I agree. A's husband is the project manager in Girish's company and he was ready to interview me for a job that would have paid REALLY well -- double of what I make now and I don't make a tiny amount even now. And I refused. Because I didn't want to take away from family time. I think they're threatened by me.

Sorry for being so long and rambly. I need to get this off my chest. If you have any words of wisdom, I'll be happy to hear. There is a lot more I have to say but I have to go now as I'm late already.