I just got the last Abu out of the house after a full day of cleaning, packing, installation of aircons and organising schedules of ten or so people. The gentlemen from the removal company came to pack up and take away all the stuff that didn’t belong to the House (or me), and at the same time a couple of guys came to install air conditioning to the two remaining bedrooms. On top of that I received the first lot of my rental furniture, but more on those in a moment.

At first I have to say how positively surprised I was with the guys who worked here with us today. They arrived on time, listened to our instructions and did their job with astonishing quality. They even suggested calling a real electrician to check out the wirings before connecting any of the equipment, which was something really unexpected. Of course that’s the safe way of doing things, but I never expected to see that in here. Still, two thumbs up and mad props to the guys for these:

The official ladder is actually next to the guy on the right, just against the wall.

Would you climb up there on a ledge less than half a meter wide?

I also got quite a bunch of furniture today, so let there be more photographs:

Some nice paintings in there…

…some missing bottles in here…

…and a missing queen witch here. If this one doesn’t tell who’s the fairest of them all, it can’t be done.

This one is placed in the master bedroom right now, but I’ll have to see if there’s more use for it in some other place. Who knows, maybe I’ll run out of storage space (not).

And there’s more to come, but  not yet – first I need a good night’s sleep on my new king-size bed.

Tags: moving, my pimped-up interior design, people in india, photos, time, ways of working

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

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