All Change...

Latest news… We are both now driving our new car (the uniquely named Tata Indigo), which arrived a couple of weeks ago. Gareth surprised me with it when he picked me up at the airport after Sri Lanka. We both feel fine about driving here especially if you remember to forget all the rules of the British road, never stop at roundabouts (no different from Milton Keynes then…) and avoid all cows. Haven’t hit one yet but we’ll keep you posted. When Gareth picked it up he had to drive it home with a big ribbon wrapped around and heart balloons filling the back seat – very romantic!

We have now moved into the apartment, yippee! Which has been our home for almost 10 days! Organising furniture and the practicalities of setting up the flat took a little time, but overall everything ran smoothly and pretty much arrived when it should! One funny moment was Andi surrounded by four dominant Indian men ranging from painters to delivery guys to the landlord all telling her to ‘come here’ as the word ‘please’ does not exist in Hindi!

Another memorable moment was being shown by the landlord how to lock a door and which way the key needed to be turned, we have a lot to learn! We also now have a phone and internet access, which is key as in the future I (Andi) will work from home a lot. We also have a hob/gas cylinder for Gareth to cook on, mango chicken here we come....

Really feels like a proper home for us and have met our lovely neighbours as the word spread that the whities had arrived, we have been invited to almost everyone’s homes and look forward to getting to know them better.

Our view over the city is very special and we have a little balcony to sit out on and watch the sun go down - here are some pics for you to look at…


The view from our balcony.

The master bedroom, looking very tidy (cleaning was done especially for the photo).


The Throne room (we do have two western toilets also)


The Dining Room.


The lounge. We have had Tata (same company as the car) Sky installed, so Gareth doesn't have to miss a minute of the Premiership action. Unfortunately, League Two and the SPL are yet to come on air here.


A few days later one of our close friends from the UK, Kate was over with a small team from STL for a week’s visit of the operations in India. This meant we had a chance to spend a little time with her on the Sunday after church and took her out to see a bit more of the city. It was so lovely to just chat with someone we have such an easy and close friendship with and for her to share in some of our life here as though you try to, you can’t fully explain. She was also a brilliant passenger as we drove her around Hyderabad, not once saying a word just clutching the handle of the door occasionally…

Another couple of events worthy of a mention and huge congratulations was Andi’s parents celebrating 40 years of marriage on Sep 17th and our nephew Kieran celebrating his 15th birthday on the 19th. So glad you all had a special day and look forward to seeing you very soon. x

We head off to the UK in the next week for both work and a wedding, we’ll also have a chance to spend time with family and friends, which we’re looking forward to and will post another blog on our return.