I am once again happily sat at Roomalli With A View, taking in the lovely sights and the toot-toot-beep-beep sounds of the city below the restaurant on 100 Feet Road. I love this little spot, plan to take my daughter here when she arrives. Nope, no mocktail, thank you, haha.
Today has been a pretty big day on the personal front with respect to the kitties, my relocation, my Indian bank account and a bit of sad soul searching.
First off the bad news, today I finally admit that I can no longer function at “optimum” with only 5 hours sleep. I drag a bit lately. Oh joy, my first real obvious sign of old age has hit me hard today. I was always the one who could survive — give presentations and pitch tech products even — on just a few hours sleep. Well that day is long gone. And I am not happy!!! Anyway, just thought I’d share 😉
Dinner has just been served, Murgh Methi Masala (chicken with fenugreek, spices and fresh tomatoes, garnished with coriander leaves and ginger). It is delicious, really tasty actually but still factors on the DAMN HOT scale, haha. I am now starting to believe that Indian chefs are out to kill me. I always ask, time and again, if something is spicy or not and I am always told “no no, not spicy mam” but it really, really is! haha. At least I am finally starting to eat curries without showing physical signs of my pain. haha. I haven’t even needed a sip of water yet with my curry so I know that my body is starting to change. Unlike the horrible first time about 6 weeks ago when my head turned red, my eyes AND nose watered, I coughed, my throat closed up (yes, thank you Sandip for my newly found fear of mushrooms)… and basically the entire restaurant turned around to look at the foreigner being tortured! haha
But the Indian chefs are out to get me I think and slip extra spices into everything I order, I am sure of it!! Now I just need to catch one!!! hehehe
Today was a fab day at work, mixed with a whole bunch of relocation and moving milestones. My bank account was finally setup today finally…am so happy to have that to-do item ticked off my list. Tomorrow my debit card and checkbook arrive as well. I am sooo excited to have a checkbook again, it has been over 8 years since I have had one because Spain does not permit them for individual customers, only businesses. Woo hooo…. in Will & Grace style, it makes me want to go and pull an Anastaysia Beaverhausen just for fun 😉
There was progress with the kitties too. Their export papers have been started and hopefully tomorrow they can send them to India (God I hope it is by scanned pdf and not the post, haha). After that the import certificate can be made. If things go well, I could pick up the kitties this weekend!!
Tomorrow the movers are coming to my flat in Sitges finally to collect our belongings and take them to the port in Barcelona for transport to Bangalore. The entire process of clearing out everything that my daughter and I don’t need or want to live without has been pretty liberating actually. We shed so much excess “stuff” during the packing process. And now that we have rented a furnished flat in Bangalore and are leaving behind all of our furniture, we are definitely “light” global citizens, for a lack of a better term. (Thank you Ole for overseeing everything tomorrow!!)
This weekend I am fortunate to have been invited to a colleague’s wedding and since I want to actually fit in a bit more than usual, I headed over to Sanskruti Silks on 100 Feet Road for a bit of Sari shopping. WHAT FUN that was, I want to do it again! This was my very first time ever entering a silks and traditional apparel shop in India so they really had to explain everything from zero for me. First, I had no idea that I had to wear a petticoat under everything until my driver told me on the way to the shop. What the hell is a petticoat anyway? haha One by one the nice shop girl started pulling out silks, by random color selection at first until I decided on my preference.
It turns out sari’s are a bit more complicated than I thought. You don’t actually just buy a cute belly top, wrap wrap wrap, throw the end bit over your shoulder and you are done!! It is actually quite a bit more complex than that. They started to explain that there is a solid part of the silk fabric that is used to create the “belly top” after we work through the design that I want. Wow, I had no idea. So they draped my two favorites against me as I looked on in the mirror and I selected my first sari silk fabric. The manager or owner who was working with me showed me a photo gallery on the computer of every possible top design I could consider and we talked through what I wanted and what I thought would look good on me. Last he sketched out the design for my top, took my measurements and I was on my way. Friday I will go back for a fitting and it will be ready for the wedding on Saturday!!
Everything is starting to finally come together this week, and my to-do list is shrinking everyday. Last week was actually pretty rough for me but I think it was a crazy combination of missing my daughter, missing my friends and any semblance of a social life, having so much still pending with the old home in Spain and the cats, not having a home here, etc etc. Thank goodness I could really count on my daughter and that I have my lovely friends and neighbors Astrid and Ole in Sitges still who are like family to us now — not sure I would have survived last week without them. I think when I finally move into the new flat and the kitties are with me that I will feel close to normal again. It’s not quite been 3 weeks, but “normal” sounds pretty good to me already.
XOXO from Bangalore
© Angela Carson, Angela’s Adventures in Bangalore blog and photos, 2011
Hi Angela !!!
You look really great in that sari !
Big kiss,
F.
Thanks, sweetie!! You would have loved all of the colors!! You back in Germany or still in Barcelona? Miss you xo
Angela, you look adorable and sound that way, too. I loved reading your entire post. It sounded like a great blog. I felt as though I was with you, and wished so I could be there to wrap my arms around you. I miss you entirely. Wish you tremendously well. Can’t wait to hear more.
You should come be my first house guest, Anita!!
Thanks for the kind words, coming from you it means the world I hope you know. I realize I shouldn’t write such long posts but I am literally so bored off my ass that I just get into the zone and before I know it I am 1,100 words into it!!
Life is fun here, and I really wanted the adventure. And loving my job and colleagues just makes it all the more FAB 😉 Miss you and send very warm hugs and a big kiss your way xoxoo
those silks are amazing!!! i cant wait to see you all wrapped up!
omg it was so much fun!!! There were really stunning fabrics with embroidery and beads too but I think maybe less is more when I am already gargantuan tall and blonde! haha Will definitely share the wedding experience if my colleague says it’s okay…and will have some photos of me taken for sure. I can’t wait. I have the perfect gold Prada sling backs too that I haven’t worn since last summer so I am extra jazzed, just need a handbag and some Indian style gold earrings!!
Hi Angela,
Really enjoyed reading this – thanks for sharing. Life is an adventure and you sure know how to live it!
Good luck for the kitties.
Love from London,
Danny Hilton x
Thanks, babes. Love seeing your adventures and travels around for the singing gigs too…woo hoo, keep it up!! xoxoox
I am so enjoying this ride with you… you look great in the sari and I can’t wait to see the final version! 🙂
Hello my darling, thanks for not editing the hell out of my posts 😉 Let’s talk soon xo
Love the sari Darling! And I am enjoying the blog and all your news. Wishing you the best there.
Besos
XXX
Thanks, Christina…hope you can plan a trip east soon — we could really rock Bangalore!! xo
So when do we eat Chilli Mushroom again ?? 🙂
OMG, give me another couple weeks, hahaha!!! From what I know, Indian mushrooms are from the devil 😉
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You look beautiful in this saree, thanks for sharing informative blog, very useful to me.
Thanks so much 🙂