We’re here, safe and sound.

As I anticipated in the last post, our luggage isn’t, but it should be on its way already. If we’re lucky, it lands in Bali in a few hours and will be transported to us defore dusk. Until then we’ll just have to cope without a few things.

Speaking of few things,  we couldn’t go diving even if we had the time: I did take our certificates out, but it doesn’t really help as long as our swimming gear and Eve’s contact lenses are somewhere on their way.

Anyway,  here we are. First impressions on food, traffic and the diving centre are all good, the locals are friendly and so on. Our accommodation, the Bedroom, only has a bed, fridge, shower, toilet, fan and (at least) one cockroach, so we won’t be spending a lot of time there.

Now we’re off to find some food, and in the afternoon we’ll start studying first aid and do some shopping.  Seems like there’s a lot to learn, but that’s why we’re here. Let’s get busy!

Tags: accommodation, Blue Season Bali, flying, food, the Bedroom, traffic, travel

The packers-and-movers will be here on Friday, and we’re moving to the hotel on Thursday. So basically all we need for survival in Finland needs to be packed in the luggage, as well as stuff we’re contemplating to take to Bali. Just the thought of packing again feels slightly dreadful, although I do know that this is just another leg on our long trip.

It’s not all bad. The ‘hotel’ we’re moving to is Oakwood, where Heikki stayed before moving in to RT Nagar. They have a swimming pool and a gym, and the best restaurants are in the same building. (sushi, anyone? pasta, pizza…?) They also have a net connection, which is always a plus. (geek? who, me?) We have a bit less than a week there, and then it’s back to the winter wonderland of slush and darkness. Here’s hoping Finland gets more snow soon, so it won’t be so damned bleak.

And then we get to live in other people’s houses once again. Hopefully not for too long, and hopefully not in the same place for the whole time, but chances are we won’t be setting up our own home there – chances are that we’re gone before that.

So what to do meanwhile? Thus far I’ve sewn myself two shirts and read an innumerable amount of pages on the ‘net. I’m planning to stitch up a pair of pants while I’m at it. I’ve also played on the Xbox, drunk countless cups of coffee and chai and learnt some yoga. Three sessions to go before take-off. I also managed to get a crick in my neck so that my head wouldn’t turn to the right during the weekend. Luckily it’s heaps better already. I expect to do some serious swimming now that I have the chance and read some more, on and off the net.

… and try not to stress about things I can’t affect. Just chill.

Tags: accommodation, hotels, moving, planning, practical stuff, travel

So, we landed last night and now we’re back here, married and celebrated and everything. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is the stuff now for some 7 odd months.

The transit went as flights generally do, nothing special. We got scanned for fever at the airport, the people are nuts about the swine flu and trying to stop it. Apparently, it’s not just another influenza here. Otherwise everything was smooth, we got our luggage and Mr. S was there to pick us up as agreed.

Today it was all about shopping for the necessaries (a helmet for me for motorcycling and heaps of food) and having  a terrific lunch at Shiro (sushi buffet, all you can eat, delivered to the table fresh, yummmy!), otherwise just trying to unwind.

It’s surprisingly cool now, the air is very humid and full of noises. The local squirrels hooted me awake a couple of times last night. I’m guessing that when I get used to them, I’ll need a seriously bad-noised alarm clock. I’m constantly reminded of Darwin in Australia, the humidity and the warmth are like nothing else I’ve experienced. It’ll take me a while to acclimatise, but I’ll get there eventually.

Just a word from Heikki, the glasses he last got from the optician didn’t have the correct lense in the right frame, so he hasn’t been able to write for a while. What’s more, we’ve been running around organising stuff back in Finland and offline anyway for a few weeks, so that’s another good reason for not to post more. But that’s about to change, the glasses problem has yet again been faced and now that I’m here, I might actually have something to say about expatting too.

Tomorrow’s agenda has a meeting with the corporate liaison who will organise paperwork and stuff for me, but we’ll take it from there and see what happens. Will keep this blog posted though.

Tags: accommodation, luxuries, motorbikes, practical stuff

Yes, I’m still alive. Just.

I haven’t been updating the blog because my right eye decided that it wants to look to the right rather than straight ahead. If I try to focus my sight too close, the muscles around the eyeball have to stretch more to the left, which in turn causes a headache of gargantuan proportions in less than fifteen minutes. It takes around a week for the glasses to be ready, so right now I’m using an eye patch to check my mailbox and read what I have to, but mostly I’ve been spending time doing everything else. Especially today’s bike ride in the countryside was refreshing and got my mind away from mundane worries.

Unfortunately it seems that the problems don’t stop there.

I wrote earlier about air pollution in the city, but lately it’s been worse than that. I woke up today (but not for the first time) tired, coughing and out of breath, just to see all the symptoms go away when I got out of the house to the fresh countryside air. After coming back it didn’t take long before the whole thing started again, only to cease once more when I left out for dinner. I’m beginning to suspect that this house is infected by mould, especially since the cupboards below the stairs smell like a century-old earth cellar.

Oh bloody hell, what next?

Tags: accommodation, motorbikes, oh bugger, work

Today I took a day off from the office, went almost out of town (55 minutes by car) to pay some custom fees and did a million small things to make this place more me. My furniture from Finland arrived today and I’ve been busy arranging things and setting up the equipment. I’m already writing this on my desktop PC, but there’s still work to do with my home cinema and Xbox setup. More on those tomorrow.

As I didn’t send my office chair here from Finland, I had to get a new one:

One of the buttons has come off already, but I don’t think I want to go through the trouble of hauling the chair back to the shop for that. See, I’m getting more Indian every day?

For the guests I got something in the upstairs:

And of course there has to be a bar with such setup:

The glasses are still missing, but that only gives me one more chance to post a pic of this awesome piece of handicraft. I just think it kicks ass.

And finally it feels like I live here!

Tags: accommodation, it's good to be me, luxuries, moving, my pimped-up interior design, photos, shopping

Yesterday’s Midsummer Eve party was a blast: we had tons of beer, a huge amount of meat in the grill (3.5 kg of beef fillet cost less than 2000 rupees or 30 euros), small potatoes with Finnish butter sauce and just the right amount of brilliant people to share the fun. What I really like about India is that I can throw a party at approximately the same cost as in Finland, but the end result is an order of magnitude fancier: apart from the obviously cheaper food (beer is roughly the same nowadays), the best thing is that I have the staff to do things that take time, leaving me free to plan and organise. It seems like I’ll have to practise a bit with it since I’m used to doing everything by myself so far. I hope the maid doesn’t quit after clearing the mess we made.

Today is the moving date for the previous residents, so I will have this place all to myself before sundown.

My furniture should be here in a couple of days, so quite soon there’s only one hugely important thing missing.

My loved ones.

Tags: accommodation, friends and family, my pimped-up interior design, parties

I needed some hard data on the causes of stress levels, so I did some math about last six months in my life. To be frank, the results were a bit terrifying.

Six months can be considered 180 days, or 26 weeks if you wish. On 92 days of those 180 I’ve lived in my own home, and for about 5 of those 92 days we were emptying and cleaning up the place. That said, I’ve lived 88 of the last 180 days on temporary accommodation, and the number is going up as I write.

But that’s not all of it. Taking into account that I can come up with 11 different places I’ve lived in this period (not counting my original home), I’m left with an average stay of eight days in each place. Take out travel days and the number is even lower – my flight hours alone come up to something like half a week since last December.

Throw in the dysfunctional circumstances of the country, dependence on other people and my need to take care of everything by myself, and it’s easy to see what’s wrong. I hope it gets better once I move in to the house and can finally settle down for a moment.

Tags: accommodation, hotels, oh bugger, stress, time

Regardless of my previous post, being here is more than just dysfunctional interior, awful traffic and too much people. It’s just easy to see the bad sides first, especially when the contrast between home and India is so… so… big. It’s hard to explain, and I’ve tried so many times I don’t bother anymore. Instead, I’ll get to the latest news:

I spent the whole Sunday at the house, reading Richard Dawkins (which may have affected to my opinion on shrines in the house),  observing wildlife on the street and bathing my toes in the sun. I also found the three floors useful as I can do some aerobic exercise just by running up and down the stairs. And it’s surprisingly much more fun to cook when someone else is going to do the dishes

Today I went to my agent to get an estimate on how much money I can blow on furniture without going over my maximum rent. We have a deal with a rental company so that they buy what I want and rent it out to the Corporation as long as I stay here. After that they get to keep the stuff and make ridiculous amounts of profit by selling near mint stuff that have paid themselves back in the rent. Brilliant business!

I also got my residential permit for one year, meaning that I don’t have to worry about the legality of my stay before next April. My agent Vivek is one of the best Indians I’ve ever known, as he’s very helpful and sees things through. I must figure out a way to thank him properly when all the initial hussle is over. Good agents, drivers and maids are worth gold here.

Speaking of maids, I have a good one at the house: does her job well, speaks rather good English and cooks good veg curry (among other dishes, I suppose).  When needed, she can also do some shopping and boss the guards around to do something – especially handy since the boys aren’t that fluent in languages other than their native ones.

Oh, the allowance for furniture? More than the Engineer makes in six months.

(I’ll post some photos when I get the stuff, most likely next month)

Tags: accommodation, colleagues from India, luxuries, my pimped-up interior design, practical stuff, prices, shopping

As I told earlier, I am currently living in my future home while the present occupants are on holiday. Let’s cut straight to the case, the photos (more here):

Here’s the house from the roadside. It has three floors, four bedrooms (each with separate bathroom & shower), three balconies, two guards (one of them right there) and a roof terrace. I would estimate it has somewhere around 300-350 square meters, but I don’t have any hard data on my hands. In any case it should be enough for two plus two.

The amount of trees still amazes me, as well as the East German (lookalike) cars people still drive around here.

Okay, back to the house… this is the main hall from the front door direction. There’s another entrance on the left because the logical one faces the wrong direction for some god(desse)s to be favorable on the house. And that’s not the most wasteful effort put into this house in the name of some imaginary being…

…but before that, here’s something I didn’t expect to see: it’s an alcove for washing your hands. It’s conveniently placed right next to the dining space (and with a mirror I noticed too late).

Undoubtedly this is the most decorated and well-made part of the house, but sadly it isn’t anything of significance for me: there’s a small room about the size (and feel) of a two-person outhouse behind them, purpose-built for worshipping hindu gods.  I could respect the culture and blahblahblah, but not in my home, thank you. So from my point of view it’s complete waste of time and effort.

The living room in the second floor (first floor is on ground level) will easily accommodate my desk, couch and movie screen when they arrive. Quite frankly, I’m not a huge fan of the current interior, especially when there’s no room to land your laptop anywhere without first lifting that beer can out of the way.

The library is right next to the living area, complete with exotic laminate floors and a writing desk with an antique feeling to it. Sadly I’ll never have enough books to fill up the shelves before I move on.

The second floor balcony is decorated for hanging around with friends, although again with no tables to rest your drinks on. Of course I will see that there’s plenty of tables here when I’m in command, but not just yet.

The bigger third floor balcony accommodates a couple of grills, along with a slight sense of privacy since the closest neighbours are lower down (the tall building on the right is a hotel, windows not facing this way). I am yet to find something good to grill, but one of these days…

This photo was taken from the top point of the house, even above the roof terrace. If only I could have a swimming pool here!

I realise I’m being quite negative on certain aspects of the place, but most of it is only temporary: in a month or so I’ll be able to customise the whole place as I please,  because it will be ALL MINE! No, wait…

Tags: accommodation, luxuries, oh bugger, photos, religion, what is different