What do I do with my time?

I can't believe that Marc and I left South Africa 10 months ago. We've been staying in touch with people via e-mail and the occasional skype call and of course I update the blog regularly. But everyone always asks me what I do with my time, and I of course have a lot of that on my hands. I can't believe that I haven't worked for 10 months. Time really does fly...especially when you're in a foreign country trying to settle in, travel and in Marc's case work, work, work...

Some of you do, but I often wish that all our friends and family back home and abroad also had blogs so that we can have a look at what's happening in your lives from time to time.

Besides the OWC meetings, lunches/dinners and the occasional weekend away our life in Bangalore carries on as normal. I've been keeping myself buys by doing adds, invites for OWC events, reading a lot when I'm not on the internet. I decided not to continue with the 1 year diploma course that I actually enrolled into at the end of last year but at the risk of sounding like a "grumpy expat", I'll just say that I'm now looking at doing a graphic design course (couple of hours a day, over 4 months) through Aptech (Arena) starting in March.

Greetings from Marc and I, hoping to hear from you soon.

Are you looking for a “good book” to read?

I've become a bit of a book worm it seems. We all have different taste when it comes to a "good book" but I thought I'd start recommending the good ones on our blog.

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS - MAEVE BINCHY

Big, soft-featured Benny, an adored only daughter, and Eve, the little bird-like orphan brought up by the nuns, are best friends in the small Irish town of Knockglen. On their first day at University College, Dublin, an accident brings the pair together with fellow students Nan Malone and Jack Foley, and new friendships are quickly struck. But beneath their carefree student existence, trouble is brewing for the circle of friends. Benny, the good-natured clown of the group, always seems to draw the short straw in life, while Nan, selfish and very attractive, takes what she wants without expecting to pay for it. And Eve, intensely loyal to Benny, and resentful of Nan’s careless optimism, becomes obsessed with the need to avenge Benny’s disappointments.

Monday's Child - Louise Bagshawe

According to the old rhyme, Monday's Child is fair of face - but life isn't always so simple. Gorgeous goddesses seem to surround script-reader Anna Brown - from her deranged glamour-queen boss to her perfect, pouting flatmates. For Anna, being less than beautiful is hard to bear. With a dead-end job and a ghastly boyfriend she wonders if she can ever be a success. In fashion crazed London, maybe being talented just isn't enough. Enter Mark Swan, Britain's hottest director. Rugged, reclusive and powerful, everybody wants a piece of him - from studio heads to supermodels. He could be Anna's ticket to the top, but how can she ever hope to snag such a big star? Fed up of being downbeat and dowdy, Anna decides to chase her dreams, and, with a little help from her friends, embarks on a madcap scheme to get just what she's after....

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

"The Miss Marple of Botswana." -- The New York Times Book Review
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to "help people with problems in their lives." Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.