OWC and BEC Social Mixer - 7 March and St. Patrick's Night - 15 March

Happy St. Patrick's! On Saturday, 15 March was the OWC St. Patrick's Night at the Taj Residency. This event is sure on the top of the list of annual OWC events and Debbie O'Neill did it again...the perfectly planned and thought out event. A 126 guests enjoyed a fabulous evening in Irish style with delicious Irish dishes, singing Irish fold songs, participating in team quizzes and an Irish dancing performance.


Heather and I leading the guests into song, singing Wisky in a jar, O Danny Boy and some other old favourites.


Girls with shamrock bindi's, all sporting something green!

Vivian, Lian, Kathleen, George and Marc. The Guinness was a nice treat.

On Friday, 7 March we attended an OWC and BEC Social Mixer at the ICE bar at the Taj Residency.

Edith, me, Dominique and Debbie

Rashmi, Edith, Viran "Bangalore party liaison" and me

Shane and Marc

Elle Carnival for a cause

A Carnival for a Cause, where fashion joins hands against breast cancer. And that's precisely what it was. Held at the Taj West End on Sunday, in association with Elle magazine, India, this carnival supported the cause of breast cancer awareness, with its proceeds going to Ogaan Cancer Foundation.

The carnival was a blend of fun and fashion. A festive, fun filled day where guests could amuse themselves with games, tarot card readings, posing for portrait of themselves painted on t-shirts, a silent auction with designer products and works of eminent photographers and a dance performance to spice up the atmosphere. The free flow cocktails, courmet lunch and designer merchandise were the highlights of the event.
I wouldn't dream of dragging Marc to an event like this of course but hey..."Girls just wanna have fun" and we did!

Monique admiring the designer clothes

Kim, Domonique, me and Rita enjoying our cocktails while waiting to have our faces read.

Kim opening her prize she won in the can toss game.

I won nice serviette holders and chocolates with the can toss game too!

Myself, Edith and Rohini being photographed by one of the many press photographers walking around.

We had a ball!

It took many months of planning, negotiating, "shopping" for donations and all the other administrative tasks that go with putting together a fundraising event, but it paid off. The annual OWC Charity Ball & Silent Auction held on Saturday 23rd February at the Le Meridien was a huge success!

Edith, Frances and I spent a couple of hours setting up the auction room, numbering and completing bid sheets with information for approximately 110 items.

At about 6:50 I quickly ran to get changed into something a little more Ball like than the casuals I was wearing. Just in the nick of time too...as I came out of the bathroom the first guests started arriving while Edith and I had to do still do some last minute numbering, coordinating the raffle ticket selling, finalizing details of the event programme with the MC, make sure the balloons are blown up for the special balloon draw, and when we looked again the evening was already in full swing with guest enjoying welcome drinks and an excellent selection of hors d'oeuvres.

Kayoko, Edith and I finally getting a chance to taste the hors d'oeuvres.

Guests sipped bubbly, nibbled and socialized while bidding on their favorite auction items in what was referred to as a "treasure trove", bought raffle tickets and had their photographs taken in their finery!

At 8pm guests made their way into the beautifully decorated white and silver ballroom. Where they sat down for the start of a fun filled evening. We didn't bore our guests with long speeches or drawn out raffle draw. The welcome was quick, dinner was served, approx 28 raffle prizes given away after dinner. At 9:30 the sounds of DJ Rony encouraged everyone onto the dance floor, getting the party started.

Marc, Anne and Ale enjoyed the evening is style.

Doing the raffle draw

We gave away another 15 spot balloon prizes when a couple of lucky guests (in the hot seats) had to burst balloons to find out if they won anything.

During the evening guests continued bidding on their favorite items and lucky for us, the silent auction bidding sheets filled up line by line. At 10:30pm the bidding ended and our finance team started collecting money, while we were holding thumbs that the funds raised would be a decent amount. And it was...We raised over Rs.2 lakhs from this event which will be donated to the 25 Bangalore based charities that the OWC support.

I at least managed to get one or two dances in but only after 11:30 when the auction items were all paid for, and collect and between begging the manager to just let the DJ play one more song..."just one more please....ok, just one more, pleeeeeease, promise"!! Dancing continued until nearly midnight which is a rare luxury in Bangalore.

Where do the days go...

It's nearly been two months since my last post and that is not due to the lack of things to write about... There is just not enough hours in the day between my German classes twice a week, German homework, OWC admin, meetings, interviews, hours spent on planning events, designing ad's, weekly meetings selling tickets and of course being stuck in Bangalore traffic. Between the day to day stuff, we are also planning our 12 day trip to Thailand at the end of March (Counting down the days, Mel!!)

We spent our 2nd New Year in Bangalore with our great hosts Liz and Shane and more friends from all over the word. We enjoyed a lovely evening of snacks, lots of drinks, lots of wireworks, playing flip cup (the picture says it all) and we ended the evening at early hours the next in the hot tub.

Happy 2008!

Singing, auld lang syne....
This was so funny; I printed the lyrics off then internet because no one really knew them. I think we've all been singing this song for years but don't really know how it goes. Well, the print out didn't really help as we just ended up sining the part we've been singing for all these years:
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind. Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne CHORUS: For auld lang syne my dear, for auld lang syne. We'll tak a cup o' kindess yet, for auld lang syne "

a couple of games of "flip cup"

On Saturday, February 9 we kicked off our bi-annual Race Day event with the “Stairs Cup”, hosted by The Bangalore Turf Club. In keeping with the traditions of “an afternoon at the races” guests dressed up for the occasion, especially all the ladies with stylish hats, boosting the festive mood of the day.

What a fun event!

It has been a busy first two months of 2008 and I am happy to have the first Friday at home in a long time "doing nothing". Yes, I know...so I am fortunate enough to have a Friday at home (another thing that makes expat life great, I guess). One thing I can say for curtain is that this is my 2nd year of not working (well, not earning a salary, I should say) and I have never once felt frustrated or bored during this time. I realize how lucky I am being able to take this time to do the things I enjoy doing.

I've been looking into the possibility of doing freelance work, exploring a possible apprenticeship at a packaging design company, improving my German a little every week. "I am a lucky girl"! Ok, so maybe the term "girl" should not be used after 30, which makes this experience even more amazing... and I love it!

I've had a few e-mails from people asking "what's happening, why you are not updating the blog. This got me thinking about the whole blog thing...

Blogs are used for different reasons by different people. Some do it, providing interesting reading, writing about specific topics etc. for me it started because I wanted to tell friends and family back home about "our new life". In the beginning it was exciting to report on the things we've seen and done....new friends, new house, different experiences because it was new to us and we thought that our friends might find it interesting. After living in India for over a year now, its' not about that anymore though. I realized, "Life goes on" the (new friends) become our friends, the (new house) become a home.

I guess our blog is no longer meant as just and update to our family and friends, as our "new life" is now no different to their "current life" (our old life). When ever I update our blog I always think about how I miss hearing about their lives and that I wish everyone had a blog. Now thanks to facebook, we at least get to see photo's of what people are up to. We love to see all the party, holiday, family pics, read birthday wishes and other comments on the wall and other fun stuff that make us feel that we are apart of it even though we are in a different country.

Besides the activities and events being updated on the blog it has become more like a journal and it has become a great reference for friends and probably other people all over the world just like other peoples blogs have been saved to my favourites. It is great to be able to talk to someone about a trip (not being able to remember, when you went, the name of the place, hotel or how long it took by train etc. etc.) and then to send them a link to our blog and to also read it ourselves from time to time and re-live the experiences.

I will continue to update our blog as long as I have something to blog about (weekly or monthly). Whether it's a story to tell, pics of an event, party or an entry about a trip somewhere.

You can keep watching this space!

Christmas in Sri Lanka

We left Bangalore on Thursday night, 20 Dec and arrived in Colombo shortly after 11pm. Sri Lanka is only 1 hour, 10 min flying time but the taxi ride from Colombo to Unawatuna took us 4 hours with a tea break for our driver at about 2am and a stop for engine oil which was more like an "oil change" LOL :-) at about 3am. This trip apparently takes a lot longer if you travel during the day which is why we decided to do it at night time.

We finally reached the Langeoog Guesthouse at 4am where our very kind hostess was waiting half a sleep on the outside sofa for us.

We enjoyed a little sleep in until about 9:30am but were to excited to sleep the day away. We got up, enjoyed breakfast and soon found ourselves strolling along the white beach admiring the turquoise sea. We were lucky with the weather and had enough sunshine between the late afternoon showers to still come home with a nice tan.

The view from our guest house balcony, approx 300 meters from the beach where we enjoyed our meals. Only a 3min walk to the Diving Centre.

Imagine: the ground floor of this guest House was damaged with the tsunami. Luckily they didn't have any guest staying downstairs at the time. A big safe that 10 people carried into the guesthouse with great difficulty was found about where the tuck tuck is parked, which gives you an idea of the force of the pull back of such a powerful wave. Fishing boats that were on the beach landed up behind the guesthouse, damaging/destroying neighbours houses. We tried to imagine what it must have been like when the Tsunami hit....Terrible! Especially after having spoken to our hosts as well as some of the diving centre employees, restaurant/guest house owners on the beach that actually survived it. Approximately 6000 people died in the Unawatuna Bay area alone.

Another dining area in the middle of the beautiful garden at Langeoog.

The lovely veranda where you can relax and read a book day or night, rain or sunshine.

Relaxing on the veranda outside our room.

We had a very relaxing 4 days in Unawatuna diving, swimming, reading, sipping cocktails on the beach, watching beautiful sunsets.

We dived with Unawatuna Diving Centre - "Resort Diving" is a very different experience to diving at Alawal shoal that's for sure....easy launches, calm smooth boat rides. The diving though is also a very different experience and not nearly as exciting but it was fun never the less just to blow bubbles again!

Marc in his element...

Now this is the life...

The view from Banana Garden right next to the Diving Centre. This is a great place, however we were happy to be a little away from the action as it got very noisy at night with the bar/disco next door.

In front of the Diving Centre where we spent time lazing on the loungers with the waves crashing by our feet.

I had an Ayurvedic massage at a small centre (Sanctuary, or something like that) next to the Neptune Bay Hotel. I was a little reluctant to get a massage from a man but it was pretty normal here as most of the massage centres had only male misuses. There are a couple of signboards up for "Massages Available" and guys also come up to you on the beach with a small bottle of oil asking if you want a massage. I wasn't keen on that of course and definitely didn't feel like lying exposed right next to a couple of guys playing with a big python, cobra and a monkey. :-0!!

The view of Unawatuna bay from the Buddhist temple on top of the hill. There are Buddhist temples/shrines on every street corner in Columbo. Some really big, white or colourful, some even with neon flashing lights.

One of the many Buddhist temples in the area.

We visited one of the turtle farms in the area, Sea turtle hatchery. They buy the turtle eggs from the fishermen for Rs.10 an egg. They keep the eggs safe until they've hatched and for a couple of days after, before they release them into the ocean. They also have big turtles which they use for breeding. They charge Rs.200 ($2) per person entry fee and accept donations which help save more turtles. Marine turtles were roaming the oceans for about 190 million years. Among the many different varieties of this species only eight reptiles are found living today. Of the eight, Sri Lanka is famous for five kinds of turtles who regularly visit the sandy beaches to nest in the south-western and south-eastern beaches.

The Hatchery.

I got to hold a day old sea turtle. They are so cute....and fast too.

Marc took this great "stilt fishing photo" - This is one of the most famous Sri Lanka scenes. The fishermen usually fish at sunrise and sunset when these stilts are apparently all occupied. They catch a small kind of fish by using seaweed (no bate) and these fish are apparently quite valuable on the market. In addition to the money they get for their fish they of course also make money by charging tourist (like Marc) to photograph them. And they are not cheap either. The one particular fisherman was getting very angry and insisted he wanted Rs.500 (which is apparently what the local wait, cleaning staff etc. earns per day. Shocking, I know!) Marc agreed to pay Rs.150 ($2.50).

A close up of the fisherman on stilts.

The Backwaters at the spice garden that we visited.

The Gardner took us around the garden, pointing out the various kinds of plants. It was very interesting to see pineapple, ginger, pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, clove, citronella, sandalwood and lots more... They also have a small shop where you can buy spices and other oils, creams, ointments, balms etc.

We watched the sunset from the top of the hill on Christmas Eve.

Marc and I, very happy with the decision to go to Sri Lanka.

Contemplating life, over looking the big blue.

Just one of the many restaurants on the beach where you can sit and stare at the ocean in the moon light.

A moonlit walk along the beach after a great Christmas Eve dinner.

At 5am on the 25th we took a taxi to Colombo. We booked into the Galle Face Hotel Regency where we spent Christmas day by the hotel pool and had a lovely buffet dinner under the stars.

The back side of the Galle Face Inn Hotel.

The pool where we lazed around the whole day.

Sipping a delicious King coconut.

This is the life...

What a great way to spend Christmas and a terrific end to 2007.