DAY 14

I present: our new cooking apparatus. For those of you who have seen the fabulous cooker we just bought for our house in Frome, this should make you laugh.

DAY 13

This is what I have been looking at all day in our new living room. Lots of large machines were installed at our flat today: airconditioners, a fridge, a water filter thing, a cooker (almost) and an oven. Tomorrow I will post a photo of our new cooker/oven. With our new cooker in Frome in mind, you might find it amusing.

DAY 12

 

It rained today and yesterday. Thunder and lightening. It was such an event that at the office we all went out onto the balcony to have a look. I have a theory that that this just heralds the hot weather... am bracing myself.

DAY 11

Dinner. Papad, muttar paneer, dhal, rice and bitter gourd. Mmmmmm. Notice the lime in the muslin. I couldn't work out why they did this, but then I realised that you're not supposed to take the muslin off - you squeeze the lime through it and it catches the pips. Clever.

DAY 10

Happy Holi! I went to a Holi party with some friends and this was the result.

DAY 9

 

Tomorrow is Holi - the festival of Spring (and colours). There was pre-Holi mayhem at the office today. My colleagues threw coloured powder all over each other, like you're supposed to. We get the day off work tomorrow to do it all again.

DAY 8

This is in Lodhi Gardens, a huge park in the middle of Delhi and not far from my hotel.

DAY 7

Lots of shopping today. I have ordered a bed for all our guests, beds for the boys when they first arrive and a dining table. 
I was hoping to have a photo of the Dalai Lama to post here. He's staying in my hotel and I saw him this morning (not at breakfast). There were too many people clamouring around him for me to take a picture. He looks about the same in real life as he does on the telly.

DAY 6

I haven't seen very many cows on the roads yet - you don't really get them in the centre of the city these days. I liked this picture of a cow on a milk stall.

DAY 5

The second floor of this building might be the flat we are going to live in for the next two years... notice the ceiling fan on the balcony. I am meeting the landlord tomorrow to try and finalise it. Wish me luck!

DAY 4

My auto rickshaw driver on my way out to dinner, after a long afternoon looking at flats... I might have found our new home today.

DAY 3

This is the front of the British Council office, where I am working. The black and white bit is supposed to be the roots of a banyan tree, but I can't really see it. That bit was designed by Howard Hodgkin. The building was designed by Charles Correa.

DAY 2

This is the view from my hotel room, in case anyone didn't believe me when I said Delhi was very green. If you look carefully on the top left hand side you can see the top of the President's estate: Rashtrapati Bhavan.

DAY 1

I have  a tradition of always having a veg biryani as soon as I arrive in India.