Misery...poor people...red light beggars

The poverty I find to be the hardest thing to see every day .....people that are so poor....who have nothing....kids don't have shoes...torn clothes..maybe ? food every day...living out of these tents.....

the red light beggars...adults and kids of all ages...by now I know most of the lights they work out of

but I will never get used to it ....I only get better of looking away...reading my book etc.

Every time I see a small child knocking on my car window

 I feel it in my stomach.

Sad to say is that some of the red light beggars that are kids may even have been kidnapped or sold from  their home just to slave as a beggar for some "owner" ! 

I do contribute to make a difference for some but I do it through the NGO's ( non profit organisations) that the networks have started. Many expats are volunteers and do charity work that really do benefit the different NGO's in a good way. 

the pictures are not of the best quality because they are all taken from inside the car through the window....I hope you understand why !

Follow the zigzag road or....

Being a swimmer I want the straight line but then it will be like 35 meters so I go across the zigzags...

do you know how confusing that is ?.......it's about 27 meters....depending on if you get caught in the zigzags or not...

as you can tell by the picture it sure was crowded this morning....or not.....

What I swam ? 

5x200 free,backwards IM,kick,pull,back

5x100 IM

200-150-100-50-50-100-150-200 Pull

400 kick 

50 easy

8x25 Butterfly sprint with zooms

200 warmdown

I do miss some of my former teammates....like Malin Ericsson ! 

I'm not sure that I will have any teammates in this pool....well, except Mr M of course,

and Gunnar P when he comes to visit.

Singhoda or water fruit anyone ?

also known as water chestnut....

today was the first time I laid my eyes on fresh ones .....

I just had to try .....so I bought a couple....

peeled them and inside is this soft nut....

.... crispy and good....

My driver told me that they are only on the market for about a month and a half....

monsoon fruit 

ooops ! I just read that they should be eaten in moderation .......they are extremely laxative in nature

Good to know !

Addictive smoothies and this weeks dose of Art

It's wednesday and soon I'm off to the American Embassy School for todays practise.

( today we have time trials 100 backstroke by the way )

At least once a week I stop by the

it's a wonderful cafe' and they have the most addictive mango smoothies......and when it's hot as it is here every day it tastes so good.....inside the cafe' there's lots of paintings...

this one caught my attention last time

Sorry about the light in the corner but it was bright in there......

Walking into the campus at AES is like walking into another world by the way.....and I like it ....I recognise it and I feel at home and everything feels easier around there....when I walk out through the gates I'm back in India straight away....

hmmm.... can't wait for that smoothie...

Meat...a rare thing around here.

Tonight M understood that I was in need of food ! 

How ?

 Well, everybody who knows me know when  they see the sign.....when I need food I need it now ! and after a couple of days with very little and especially no hot meal at all I was desperate...

so we went it all in......meat....I think it was a month ago since I had red meat..chicken we eat a lot but

hamburgers are rare..... at home I never eat hamburgers unless they are home made...

tonight I gulped that burger down fast.....it was good. 

So at the moment I'm quite content ....let's just hope that it won't be three days until I get a hot meal again

........for everybody else sake !

New pet and not a new pet

Today I found this guy outside ...hanging on.....

 beautiful colours.....not that big......but I appreciate having him on the outside though
last night around 4 I found another new pet...while in the bathroom....hmmm
I saw something in the corner of my eye....instinctively I lifted my feet from the floor
it was a mouse....on the 20th floor !
What to do next ?.....scream ....as if that would help....no M....close the door....
scream again.....no M...... all of a sudden the mouse JUMPED up on the toilet seat !
What the ? !
I have never seen a mouse jump and I assure you that it didn't exactly calm me down...
my next strategic move was to get out of the bath room without the mouse
and I did....scream...and guess what this time M woke up....then we chased the mouse around the bath room for about 20 minutes....well, not exactly we because I thought this was a vey manly task so I cheered M on..
at 5 we didn't have another pet
I'm so happy that I have a husband who is a hunter !!!!

a picture of the little fast one ?
I usually don't bring my Iphone to the bath room...
but from now on maybe I will.

The move is over and done...

thank god for that...I'm not going to bore you with all details...(it will be a funny story at dinner sometime).........and we are happy settling in at our new place. 

There are some things that needs to be fixed but....by the end of the week I sure hope we can cook in our kitchen and that we have TV and broadband again. 

I love my new living room, a little peak..............

We are enjoying our new place to the fullest .......yesterday we went to our pool twice......once in the morning and then at night....it felt so good to relax after the hazzle with the move.

( in the morning we had the pool to ourselves ! but in the evening it was crowded.......another person was swimming next to me.....and three guys where sitting in the bubble area )

Have a wonderful monday and I'll be back tomorrow.

I'm ready to keep calm

I don't know under which diet this falls and I'm not sure if it's a good thing to diet while moving and especially not here....Do you like my survival kit  ?

how to keep my blood sugar level even while trying to stay calm....hmmmm....I wonder.....

Since I don't know when I'll have the broadband up and running again it might be a little brake before I'm back in the game again....

Hope to see you soon !

Du Perikles...ka' du si' mig hvornaar smager en Tuborg bedst ? 

Hvergang ! 

Full moon !

while I was at our new place waiting for the curtain guy to show, I realised that it's a full moon tonight

that must mean something good.... right  ?

After a while M turned up and said hey look... it's a " tjalekal" tonight !

What ?...I have never ever heard that expression and we have been married a long time....

I learn something new every day....

I wonder how you say that in Hindi ?

Oh, the curtain guy....he did show ....only 72 hours late....I didn't ask if he got lost or something....he must have taken another road than I from the store !

Keep calm

is easier said than done when living in India. 

I have pulled my hair 

I have said bad things in swedish ( of course to surprised Indians that don't have a clue of what I'm saying) 

 I have cursed the Indian bureaucracy with all their paper exercise, 

I have waited for people to show up and guess what....they never did but sometimes they do call you in a day or week or month or so.....as if nothing happened... I'm used to people calling if they are late or sick or have fallen of the earth.... 

I have told a kid to pick up his candy wrapping when he" accidentally " happened to drop it on the ground.....the mother wished she could wrap me up in toilet paper and toss me out by the way she looked at me

I "almost" gave the finger to a driver that ran into us....not only once but twice in like 5 minutes....guess he missed the part in driving school when you actually learned how to press your foot against the brake

I have kept my mouth shut when police pulls us over at the end of the month !

well you get the hint right....things here don't work as back home and I didn't think they would ....it's just that me and my calm way of handling things don't always go hand in hand so sitting here and thinking about the move and what everybody here has told me about how I need to supervise the movers all day.....

Moving in India

At the moment everything is about our move

we are not flying south though.....

if you think it's a hazzle in Sweden.....imagine what it's like in a country where you don't speak the language...

just finding and  talking to "moving" companies and getting the best deal and not being ripped off.....I'm sure glad that we are getting help with this.....thank you so much Monti !

We are also keeping an eye on how things are coming along at the new place.....looking good....
painters where there painting yesterday and today I guess they are putting in the " kitchen " like fridge and washing machine and all that....so by saturday..... hopefully......

at this place it kind of looks like this at the moment

bags and boxes all over....since I've been a good shopper ! we do have some good bags and right now they come in handy I tell you.....but before putting anything else into bags....

I'm off to AES ( American Embassy school ) where we are doing backstroke drills  today. 

( I do wish I had a bird so that I could fly into Delhi and not have to worry about the traffic )

See ya later...or maybe not...

A little different jewellery....a bindi

I just had to try wearing a bindi since I'm living in India.....

so what's a bindi ?

The word " bindi "is derived from the sanskrit word "bindu " which means a small drop, a dot or a point. ( I'm wearing a drop )

Traditionally it is a bright dot of red colour applied in the centre of the forehead close to the eyebrows, but it can also consist of other colours with a sign or piece of jewellery worn at this spot.

In some parts of India it's a sign of marriage.

Nowadays it's used mostly for decorative purposes......though I see teachers every day that wears the red bindi as a sign of marriage.

I just fell in love with all the different bindis I saw one day....the colours and shapes....the glitter...

The area between the eyebrows ( where the bindi is placed ) is said to be the sixth chakra, the seat of " concealed wisdom ". The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration. 

It is also said to protect against demons or bad luck and it  represents the third eye  ( also known as the inner eye ! )

A traditional bindi is red or maroon in colour. A pinch of vermilion powder applied skilfully with a practised fingertip makes a perfect red dot...I guess you need to practise this....

You can only imagine what I would look like if a tried this, so I'm sticking to my sticky bindis....

This weeks "street"art

is actually a "painting poster" for a music festival...nice.....

A sneak peak into our new place...

Yes, we are moving.....into The Summit....

from our balcony on the 20th floor looking straight across to the 20th floor on the wing to the right....

our new place starts with the dubbel balcony and then it goes around so that two rooms have a view of the golf course.....not bad at all....

so today we walked over to see how the paint job is coming along and this is the view from our new balcony looking into where we are staying for one more week.....hopefully...since this is India and by now we know that most of the times things take a lot longer.......well, we are keeping our fingers crossed.....

this is our pool and gym area from above...not bad at all .....

our BIG living room and one of the main reasons why we so like this place.....

you see our "old place " through the windows....

the corridor to the kitchen and all the bedrooms....

at the moment it's a mess because the painters are there.... and they are putting in the kitchen and all that but you get a hint of what it's like....

soon I'll be saying welcome to the new House of Susanna !

( of course it's we .....) 

Mela time....

I just got back from a Mela that Gurgaon Connection organised......

Melas are always fun ....lots of vendors...lots of people and good food.

 Guess what, I didn't buy a single thing...but I met some interesting vendors from Australia  ( we'll they are from down under but live and work here )...maybe something for the swedish market....we'll see.....

I told you I didn't buy a single thing....

but I bought these....hmmmm...danish almond pastry and " I go nuts for " donuts....

you see that the cakes are looking at me and smiling , right ?

eat me...... eat me.....

A week filled with fun in three different pools.

yes it has been a week filled with coaching at three pools at three different locations. I started the week by going to Faridabad and Manavrashna Int. School in sector 14 where their brand new pool opened up and I showed the kids some swimming and then I coached some swimmers while CNN where getting it all on tape. That was a surprise.....I wonder how that will turn out ? I don't know when or how it will be showed but I will find out ! From Faridabad I then went directly to Delhi......the roads in between are so bad that I was actually wishing I was on a camel instead.

I guess I haven't told you that after my visit to AES ( american embassy school ) in Delhi I joined their coaching staff . So three afternoons a week I get to be a TIGER. ( rooooaaaarr !! )

In the mornings ( tuesday -saturday ) I still go to Manavrashna Int. school, sector 46 here in Gurgaon. 

So at the moment I'm coaching all levels off swimming....from beginners to some really good ones.....from learning how to swim, to really good competitive swimmers....I have everything in between. 

My own swimming ?

 I try and squeeze in some practise here and there in the different pools.

(the credit for the  duck picture goes to someone on the web .....got it from a friend of mine.)

A sea horse got my attention

at a jewellry store in Hauz Khas .....

Suits me perfectly....I do spend a lot of my time in water at the moment so...who knows...... I might turn into one myself one of these days....until then 

I will admire the one around my neck......