Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Day and things seen along the roads

The Z's are resting now, so they are not adding anything now. There are many interesting sites along the roads around Bangalore. In one picture you can see a palm tree that has been somehow incorporated into the front of a building. We are told that Palm trees are treated liked gods by many people- they don't like to cut them down, so they find ways to keep them around.
We also have a little Christmas tree on our balcony. Janet has been busy building gardens on two balconies. This little tree has a few little ornaments to make it into a Christmas tree.



For Christmas Day we mainly relaxed. Most people are working so there is a lot of hustle and bustle about the city. We went for a very fine American style Christmas dinner at "Sunny's". Excellent turkey and dressing along with several other courses and dessert. We went with a neighbor who is flying off to vacation in Australia for a bout 10 days.
The last picture is one of a Hindu temple. At least we assume that is what it is, because it is similar to others. This one seems unusual because of the huge green Parrot above the front entrance. From other temples we've seen- and there are many- the figure above the entrance appears to be the god to whom the temple is dedicated. We recognize "Ganesha" on many- the 4 armed elephant headed god. This is the only temple we've noticed with a Parrot. We often see green Parrots flying around outside the apartment building, so we assume there is a relationship, to this temple. Over the next year we'll have to educate ourselves about things like this. Most of the temples we see have numerous brightly painted figures all over the outside- they can be quite spectacular! Ziggy and Zoe have awakened and want to write a little now.
We have these really neato plants all over the balconys on the front and back of our home now! We get to go out there sometimes and sniff all over and we eat some of them too- when no one is looking! Its like being back home in our jungle there! Our human companions don't let us go out on one balcony by ourselves for very long. They claim that the Monkeys that are sometimes around can be dangerous for us and might hurt us, but we think we can whip those guys if we need to!
Merry Christmas! Z. and Z.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Soft things and Art and Christmas Eve

We have these new soft things to lie on and sharpen or claws now! Verrrrry Nice! Then there is this really pretty thing hanging up where we can't reach it too easily. We really like that too! We are thinking about jumping up and hanging from it, but sometimes our claws don't come out so easily and its a little embarrassing to be hanging around and having to depend on our human companions to help! Maybe one day we'll do it. They can write some now.


Christmas Eve was a cool evening by Bangalore standards but it was probably in the upper 60's F. We had a very good dinner at an an Italian restaurant at one of the hotels. Italia seems like one of the best places we have eaten here and we have had excellent meals there. Christmas Day is a holiday here at a number of companies and many people take other days off around this time too. We are trying to do likewise and relax a bit. The strain of the move and settling in period still being a noticeable factor, though it is getting better.
Ziggy and Zoe say that they want to write some more now about when a guy named "tailor" came to the house.
That is right! A few days ago this guy called "tailor" came to our house and he brought some cloth and a machine and a long string thing to play with! He sat on the floor by a chair the humans brought from our other home and used the string thing to measure around the chair. We really had fun playing with the other end of the string thing! Tailor didn't seem to mind us using his string thing for fun. He measured all around and then started cutting pieces of the cloth with all sorts of pieces flying around that we got to play with. Tailor then used his machine thing to put a lot of the pieces back together again! These humans are very strange. First they take things apart with one kind of too, then they put them back together with another kind of tool! In the end, they have something different from what they started with. Why they do this sort of thing rather than play with the string thing and or the cloth pieces is a real mystery to us. They just don't seem to understand. Anyway, the chair looks different now and we have to agree that it is very comfortable. They seem to want to write something more now.
Yes, that was a brief story about how a stitcher or tailor came to the apartment to make a new slipcover for a chair we brought from home. It had a fabric that didn't really look so good here. While looking for drapes we found that the place also did furniture coverings. We assumed the guy would take measurements and come back in a couple weeks with a slipcover, but instead he came and did all the work right in the living room. The fabric was ordered previously. It took about 3 weeks from the time the fabric was ordered to the time he did the cover, so, the total time involved was not all that fast, but it did get done.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Sidewalks of Bangalore?







We had a fun day today! There are some new soft things on the floors to play on and claw! We can really have fun at night rearranging where they sit. Fun! They can write some less interesting stuff now.
As Ziggy and Zoe suggest, we got some rugs for the apartment. The floors here are marble or tile in most places and quite hard. They are easier to keep clean, but really hard on the feet and knees if you walk around a lot. So we decided to get some interesting rugs for some parts. People tell us that rugs are not so practical because of the dirt in the air, but we've gone ahead and done it anyway. Janet has also bought a number of plants to put on the balconies here- that was a strenuous effort, but some of the building staff and one of the drivers for another tenant were a big help. We walked to have lunch nearby and on the way home Jim took a few photos of the sidewalks, which are quite a wonder! In the span of about 100 feet you can see why it is questionable whether Bangalore even has sidewalks. There are trenches by the sides of the road and the trenches are covered by large stones to make a sort of sidewalk. The stones might be made of cement, but often they are large thick slabs of granite. You can see that many of the slabs are broken- probably by heavy trucks- and many are missing altogether. In some places- this may not show well in the pictures- the replacement slabs are 2 inches thicker than the older stones and they form a very nice tripping hazard. Of course, all these stones were put in place by manual labor. The picture actually show a fairly good section of sidewalk- most are much worse. The other aspect of sidewalks here is the danger of wires that hang down from above or that simply lie on the ground. There are all sorts of dangling wires and lying wires too. One has no idea whether the wires are "live" or not. Most are certainly not live, but how do you know? You have to be careful.
Flowers are relatively inexpensive here. Janet had some in a vase and as they got a little older she placed them in a copper bowl we bought and they look very nice! So far, Ziggy and Zoe have not been playing with them or drinking the water either!
We were at the "Leela Palace" late yesterday and took a picture of some of the lights. There are more Christmas decorations around than we expected to see, though much less than at home. The Hotel is meant to mimic a palace from the days of the Maharaja's and is quite amazing and expensive.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

"Everything is just a little crooked here"

Ziggy and Zoe have taken the day off, so we humans are writing now.
We bought some colorful wall hangings to decorate some walls. A couple are framed and others are cloth that needs to hang from rods. We found a very nice handy man who did some tasks for us- like putting insect netting over some gaping holes around vent pipes and fans. Malaria does exist and we didn't see a good reason to encourage the mosquitoes. We had the same fellow put up some of the hangings. After the first one was done we saw that it was hanging in a slightly odd way. It is because the material is hand made and not exactly rectangular, so it hangs as a parallelogram. The same guy put up another hanging and, when finished, he asked how we liked it. One side was noticeably lower than the other, which he initially denied, but then measured and agreed. After fixing it, the low side is now a little high. This fabric is also hand made and not exactly square either. We also have an entry - way table made of very nice wood and a marble top. It has only two legs and is meant to be attached to the wall. It looks very nice with a mirror above it, but if you look closely, you can see it is slightly slanted from horizontal. So, it is the case that "everything is just a little crooked here"... This seems to be the rule.
On other matters, Janet finished 2 weeks of daily physical therapy sessions on her injured right arm. She says it is still hurting, but is better each week. We also joined a Spa/Health Club so Janet can swim a few times a week. Our Apartment building has a small gym, but no pool. We live near the "Bangalore Club", which is said to have a great pool, but they are not currently taking new members, So, Janet has to go further afield.
Jim got quite sick the past week. It started with a sore throat Sunday evening, by mid day Monday he was ready to fall into bed and did so after returning home in the evening and participating in several teleconferences. He went to bed about 9:30PM Monday and was up for no more than 5 hours out of the next 36 hours when he started to feel a little better. He saw a doctor that afternoon and got antibiotics to take. He is feeling a little bit better each day, but it is slow progress.
On Saturday the 13th we visited an art exhibition where there were some wonderful carvings in wood and various kinds of stone. They were all either Hindu religious figures or Buddhist and the quality was very high. The pieces are for sale, and the prices seemed quite reasonable.
The quality was so good that NOT everything is just a little crooked- these are one exception to the rule above.
We managed to meet the other neighbors in the building this weekend. They are also here from other countries and seem quite nice. We met one for lunch at a very nice restaurant

Sunday, December 7, 2008

An interloper and the feather





Today was a good day! We saw another person like us lying on a wall outside, but it is a different color and smaller. It was far away so we didn't get to hiss or yowel or anything at it.
Later our humans took us outside on the strange ground here. We sniffed all around for quite awhile. It still seems strange and we can't figure out what this place is. We went back to our familiar ground and rested awhile and then we got to play "Feather"! This is a lot of fun for a little while anyway. We pretend like we really love chasing the feather around- it seems to make our humans SO happy! After awhile they get tired of it and we pretend to lose interest too.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Beggars

The Z's don't have much to say today. They are watching the birds outside and wishing to chase them- something they only dream about doing back home too.
There are a large number of people begging for money around the city. It is difficult to say what percentage it is, compared to, say New York City, but it is a large number of people. In any case, it is difficult to ignore them. Most people say to just ignore them. There are statements in books and from some people saying that many of the beggars are controlled by some sort of syndicate who get part of whatever money they are able to get. That would be particularly reprehensible. We have generally tried to ignore the beggars, but sometimes that is extremely difficult to do. About a week ago, Jim was waiting for our car to pick him up after he purchased a transformer to use with one of our 110 volt machines when a beggar came up asking for money. At first, he tried to ignore the guy, but then he saw that the guy had no arms! One arm was missing and the other was missing above the elbow. So, it was not possible to think "go get a job". He got a small amount of money. The fellow's story is unknown. He may have been born that way or he may have been in a horrible accident sometime in the past, but his options seem pretty limited here.
In general, labor is so plentiful that it is cheap here. We see people working very hard every day doing manual labor for very little money. The jobs are often dangerous and when they get seriously hurt the consequences seem dire for the whole family. There may only be one person bringing in money.

Good flowers! and things seen on the streets



We got some really good flowers a few days back when Janet had her birthday! Um ! Um! Good! But now our humans have taken them away from us so we can't eat them! They sit outside through the glass we look through to see the squirrels and birds. Too bad, they were tasty!
We get to go outside on the other side of this place sometimes now, but its really high up- it looks almost too high for us to jump down to the ground where we really want to be. Our humans also seem to be playing tricks on us in our litter box. One day there is one kind of scratchy - smelly stuff in there and another day there is something different. Why can't they just stay with the stuff we know? They can explain.
It has been a very busy week. Last Sunday we relaxed as much as we could and then went out for a walk to have brunch. We took a new and longer route back to the apartment to explore the area some more. The brunch was very good and we found our way back without too much difficulty, though we did not recognize the roads from where we stood on the side walks. We walked about 2.25 miles which seemed like a lot considering the rough shape of many of the side walks and the attention needed to cross any road, though Sunday traffic is light compared to other days. It was good to see the more of the area. We also visited a small park that is quite close. In walking about we saw an old home that looks abandoned - see picture. There is an old car sitting out front under the roof as if it was parked there 40 years ago and never moved since! There is a big pit dug in the ground in front of the house! Very odd. On another part of our walk we saw a palm tree with a diaper. There is a large net around the tree to catch coconuts so they won't injure anyone below. We later learned from our driver that Palm trees are considered to be like gods to some people, so they don't cut them down. They just grow and grow.
On Monday, it was Janet's birthday and she got a large group of lillies that look very nice, but we found Ziggy and oe constantly jumping on the counter to munch on the flower stems and other greenery in the vase. We later realized that Lilies might be poisonous to cats and Janet put them out on one of the balconeys at the apartment. She later read that they are, indeed, poisonous and can cause kidney failure! We've been concerned about them ever since, but they seem to be fine five days later.
Janet has been going for physical therapy for her arm and shoulder every day this week and and she continues for another week. She says her arm is feeling better and she thinks it will be ok. The therapy appointments are just late enough in the afternoon so that it is difficult for the driver to take her back home and pickup Jim from work and bring him home for teleconferences with people in the US. Its been tricky. The infamous Bangalore traffic makes it difficult to plan on being anywhere at a particular time. One just has to do the best you can to leave early. Most people understand the traffic problem and people are generally forgiven.
We have gotten a few more pieces of furniture and decorative items, but we await delivery of a sofa and chairs we ordered about 3 weeks ago. It may come this week. We have also hired a maid who seems to cook well too. Her english is not great, but she is studying and she has been good during a trial period.
Yesterday, Jim got a text message on his mobile phone saying that the bill for the DSL service is due in a couple weeks. He then got a call saying it was due in a couple weeks. Then, today, a guy came to the door to collect payment! He came and asked for a cheque, but our new account has not delivered checks or anything else so far, so we paid cash. Cash is used a lot and people seem pretty honest about delivering things that are paid for. We later got a call asking is someone came to collect our bill. Jim had the receipt for it in his pocket so he was able to give the guy the invoice number . Seems that they don't fully trust the employees.
We also had a visit from the DSL people last night. The guy was supposed to come about 6PM and leave by 7PM when Jim had a telecon, but he arrived after 8PM and left about 9PM on a Friday night! He was supposed to connect the DSL in another room and add encryption to our wireless router, but he explained that he could not connect the other room because the wiring needs alteration, so we have to have the building electrician do that. He did the encryption.
Today is Dec. 6. There are a number of alerts about possible terrorism about, but we decided to go about things normally and had no problems all day out. We went to a furniture fair at the Palace Grounds (Bangalore Palace was built around 1890 and is interesting, but not in good shape). We found s couple smaller items we can use. There are fairs of various kinds at this locale. A couple weeks back we missed the book fair which would have been very interesting, but we had so much else to do that we couldn't go even though it ran for more than a week.
So, we continue to settle in, but there is still a lot to do! Soon we will do battle with the mobile phone people again- they are supposed to send us a bill that we have to take in to pay at a store, but we have not received anything from them and we doubt they have the email address correctly recorded.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Ah! Outside! and a Christmas Bazaar



Today we went in a strange up and down metal box that was scary, but we ended up on terra firma- Wunderbar! (yes we know some latin, Italian, and some German! We're ejucated!) There was grass and trees and sand to roll in too! What a blast! Ziggy got really interested in some strange scents at the corner of the building- monkey? dog? snake? sniff... sniff... sniff... he could have stayed all day there! We then realized we are not in New York anymore. Where did it go? This place is different. After that we went back in that scary metal box and were back in our familiar place where we had some good food and took a long nap. They can write some now.
It was Saturday and the doings in Mumbai were still not quite resolved, but we decided to go about normal activities. We interviewed a cleaning person in the morning. As we said once before and as most people here say, there is a lot of dirt and dust around that settles on everything all day long, so regular cleaning is required- daily seems to be the norm for those who have time or have help. We then went to a Christmas Bazaar at one of the larger churches in the city. It was a fairly large event, but the grounds were a bit muddy from the recent rains due to a storm off the east coast of India. Some of the proceeds go to charity and it was an opportunity for local shops to show some of their wares and for smaller individual craftspeople to show and sell some of their items. Lots of cloth and paper items and some wood carvings and marble carvings too. The quality varied, but was generally very good. Lots of children around and they had a show where various kids could sing or play musical instruments. There were also many baked items. Janet met several people she has met over the past couple weeks. They had a camel that kids could ride around a small loop on the grounds. The camel seemed well behaved and the kids all seemed to enjoy it. It was the third camel Jim has seem in and around Bangalore. We have yet to see one elephant.
We went to look at drapes and lamps next. The apartment has some large windows, which is great, but they can use some drapes. The night lighting could be a little brighter too- especially for reading. We also bought a transformer for our 110V printer. India is 220V. They have small inexpensive converters, but they seem not to work on some devices that have motors and they may not work on electronics either.... and may do harm. After a tiring search, we came back home feeling tired. Jim napped a bit and Janet took Ziggy outside to look around. Jim took Zoe out to join them after a little while. They seem very apprehensive about the place- curious but nervous. They do not like the elevator- nor the lift either!
We both felt exhausted after coming back inside- Janet thinks she got a mosquito bite and is a little nervous- malaria does exist here, though they supposedly have good drugs for it if its recognized early. Our driver told us that one of his older sisters died 2 years ago from Dengue fever, so that is around too. We went to a fairly well know restaurant for dinner "Sunny's". The owner is an animal lover and has a picture of a large dog inside (we wondered if it was "Sunny"- it appeared to be a golden retriever). Our review of the food is mixed. Jim found the appetizer to be very good, the salad good and the main course excellent. Janet found the appetizer and soup to be good and the main course only fair.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Day and things




Of course, Thanksgiving Day is not a holiday here in India, but we tried to spend it relaxing as much as possible. Its not so easy to do that on this strange furniture and with so many interesting birds and other creatures around outside. But, we manage! Ziggy got very sleepy while reading about Bengaluru (Bangalore is the English name while the other is Kannada- the local language). He tries to learn all he can so he will know where to go when he finally breaks out of this place! He tries to go out whenever the door opens and he is near it. They don't have some many obstacles togetting out here- like they do in our other home- wherever that is!
See how pretty I look on this new floor cover they got for me to sit on and crawl under and shed white fur on to? Our humans can say something now.
We got up Thursday morning to read about terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The papers suggest that they chose the evening because the US news channels would pick it up and broadcast around the US while people are up. They also mention the proximity to Thanksgiving Day in the US, though that seems a bit of a stretch since it was Wednesday morning in the US when it started. In any case it is bad.
We chose to go out for dinner with friends on Thanksgiving evening here inspite of the nervousness of many people. We went to a very fine hotel that served turkey among many other choices. the security at the hotel was greater than in the past, so they were responding to the fears. Most of the better hotels have a number of security people and they often check cars coming in and sometimes people. The dinner was excellent, but since its not a holiday here we could not stay out too late. Jim took Friday as a vacation day (Called "privilege leave") to rest up some from the strenuous past several months. We still don't feel adjusted to the time or the climate. Janet had another good visit to the doctor about her arm injury and will start physical therapy in a few days. Ziggy and Zoe seem to be adjusting still, but they have shown generally normal behavior for them with some romping around and lots of sleeping. Everyone who meets them seems to like them

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Ah! A nice cardboard box!





Today was a pretty good day! We got this great box to crawl into! We also got to go outside on the balcony for a little while and we also saw those strange creatures again- what fun!
Those strange little creatures have even smaller ones too- we don't count too well but we think there were 4 big ones and 2 little ones. The little ones were clmbing all over the trees outside and jumping from branch to branch. We could do that too- if our human companions would only let us out there! We could chase those guys all over the trees! We can let the people write some now.
Today was the first day we had in the nearly 3 weeks since we arrived that we did not have anything scheduled that we had to do. It has been a more relaxing day, though we still had lots of things to do around the apartment. We ran the dishwashing machine for the first time where it did not flood water all over the kitchen! We also verified that the air conditioner that flooded one bedroom also seems to be fixed- though we are concerned because two guys showed up at our door yesterday wanting to fix it! We tried to explain that it was supposedly already fixed, but we had not tested it. Later we realized that the repair might have been a temporary one and they meant to make it permanent... but we don't know. We'll hope for the best! Such situations are quite common. Communications are not all that clear. It seems that the service people are used to coming back another day to finish what was started or starting something later when you are not home. Labor is so cheap that the workers can simply come back another time without thinking too much about it. $1 an hour seems to be a pretty good wage.
We did a number of chores and then went out to walk around the area some. We walked to a nearby main road and had brunch about 3:30 PM. It was a mexican/indian/thai sort of meal with a band that played american music. The food was good though the place was a bit messy and dirty. They cater to families and there were a lot of kids running around. As we were about to leave a little after 4PM we got a heavy rain that lasted a little while so we went to a shoe store. Jim finds the marble floors a bit hard on the feet and knees, so he got some house shoes. People normally remove shoes when entering a home- which we normally do back home too. The house shoes will only be worn inside. Bangalore is noted for the rapidity at which dirt accumulates, and it seems to be true. Surfaces need to be cleaned every other day if not every day... maybe even more than one time a day! Anyway, the shoe should ease the strain on the feet and knees. After the rain let up we walked toward "UB City"- a big complex of stores with very high prices. We found a nice clothes store, a patisserie and a very nice furniture store. As it got dark we stopped in a fabric and art shop with bad art. As we walked toward home we found a gourmet food shop that had some interesting and unusual items including Ben and Jerry's ice cream! It is expensive though. As we paid for our few purchases- mainly ginger ale soft drink, which is also uncommon here, the rain began to pour! So we got some ice creme and ate it! The rain did not let up for awhile so we left and got wet. We walked past the Bangalore Club, which seems to be the private club in town with the highest prestige. We continued to walk back to the apartment in the rain and were quite wet upon arrival. We changed clothes and then relaxed. As we rested Ziggy climbed into the elephant chair that we just had to have when we saw it (it is carved from a single piece of wood- except for the tusks. He rolled partly onto his back and went to sleep showing what a relaxed cat he is! He awoke when his picture was being taken.
Overall, it was a pleasant day- despite being drenched- we finally got out to look around the area on foot. Of course, walking here is not an easy sport! On Sunday the traffic is generally lighter, so one is a little less likely to be taking a great risk in crossing one of the major roads.
Zoe and Ziggy back now... how come this is our story and they get to write so much?

Friday, November 21, 2008

Settling in




We've been here a really long time now and are starting to feel more like we did back at our real home, but we still have qualms about being in this place and we don't really understand where we are and why we are here. The creatures outside, where our human companions do not seem to want us to go, look very interesting. You could see some pictures from the other day. There are green birds and black birds that try to talk to us, but we don't know what they are saying!
The humans can write some now.
It has been 2.5 weeks since we arrived in Bangalore.The first week was spent in a nice hotel, and the past 9 days in our apartment. So far, we are glad we sent our beds over, as they are very comfortable. There has been a string of problems and fixes all along the way, but we are making progress. We have some furniture now and some more on order, so the apartment is seeming more like home. Furniture from Europe seems to be quite popular, but expensive. Indians tell us that Indian wood furniture is generally not very good because of the lack of good wood. There are a few very nice new pieces in older styles with inlaid mother of pearl and marquetry. We found a very nice shop that specializes in furniture made in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philipines. The prices seem reasonable to us, but high to the Indians.
We have cooking gas connected and made a few simple meals, the washing machine works after a spill. The washing machine sits outside on a balcony, so it is quiet. It has a cover to protect it somewhat from the weather. The dish washing machine spilled water all over the kitchen floor just after the guy demonstrating how to use it had left. After they "fixed" it and left two days later it did the same thing. They supposedly fixed it today, but we are presently afraid to try it for fear we'll have yet another flood to clean up! We bought a clothes dryer. That and the dishwasher are considered rare here. The Kitchen also has a real, but small oven. Most have just a toaster oven. The fact that these things are unusual shows in the fact that there are not enough high current circuits in the place to run them all. We will unplug the dryer to use the dishwasher. We also had problems with the electric in the apartment. It is normal for the power to go off a few times a day, so there is a large industry supplying backup generators. We found that one of the 2 main circuit breakers for the apartment kept going off for no apparent reason. It happened to be one for the kitchen and bedrooms, so the refridgerator went off each time. The building has 24 hour electrician support and the guy came to look at it and didn't see anything odd. Just then, the backup generator came on and the circuit breaker tripped so he saw it first hand and then started about a week of investigation and experiment. It is a new building just being occupied, so this and the A/C unit that didn't work and the other A/C unit that spilled water all over the floor of one bedroom are not such rare things.
Today we got our DSL connected! So this is being written from our apartment for the first time! Of course, it took a week to get it connected and numerous calls and its not presently encrypted WIFI, but at least it seems to be working!
Today is Jim's birthday, so we went out for dinner at one of the hotels in the city. There are several good hotels with very good restaurants. Tonight was an Indian buffet that was excellent.
We also think we have found a driver. Our car was delivered last Friday and we tried out a few drivers and have settled on one who is a good driver and he also speaks reads and writes English quite well. We had one or two who might have been slightly better drivers, but it was difficult to communicate with them. It is common for foreigners to have drivers because the roads are complex and the driving customs are somewhat chaotic. Undoubtedly, we'll say more about traffic and driving later. It is a topic of discussion almost every day.
So, we are getting settled. Back to Ziggy and Zoe.

Yeah, this place isn't so bad- especially with those interesting guys outside- but how do we get out there? We have had some luck sneaking out when the door is left open too long because of all those repair and delivery people, but they always seem to catch us. We don't really mind getting caught, but we pretend to be mad, so they will take us out sometime to explore this new place.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Interesting place...




Well there are some very interesting creatures in this new place! This may not be SOOOO bad after all!

Monday, November 17, 2008

What is this place?

We arrived at a new place in the belly of one of those big birds and this one, too, coughed us up and into the hands of some humans who make even different sounds than the previous ones. We feel very strange too. Some other humans took us a way along a bumpy ride and to a place where we heard a sound we know. They took us to a brightly lit room and finally let us out of our boxes. Here we found Jim and Janet- our human companions! We don't understand how we got here and we don't understand how they got here, but at least they are familiar! Let them explain.
Early in the morning of Nov. 13, Ziggy and Zoe's long journey ended with delivery to our apartment in Bangalore! Our furniture arrived just hours before- between 8:30 and 10PM and we set up as much as we could- including the Z's favorite climbing tree that we shipped over. It was a very long day with more delays, but both arrived. The day was complicated by the fact that our mobile phone outgoing service was turned off because the major service provider had not yet verified Jim's work location. (This took 3 more days to fix and was quite frustrating- but, we gather, rather typical.) The movers wanted to delay the furniture another day, but we said no, because we had no place to stay except the apartment. So, the movers arrived at 8:30 and finished about 10PM. We did not ship too much, so it was manageable. Ziggy and Zoe seemed to be delayed at Bangalore airport for some reason we don't understand and arrived about 12:45AM on the 13th. Newspaper strips had been put into their carriers in London instead of some sort of small litter box and the paper got quite wet and then the ink got all over both Zoe and Ziggy. It showed most obviously on Zoe, who is mostly white- she looked gray like Ziggy! It was very disconcerting. We spent about 45min. trying to clean some off of her so she would not eat all the ink cleaning herself and then we went to sleep about 2AM. We write this several days later because we didn't have internet access very much and were very busy. The Z's are much more like normal now.
Zoe and Ziggy back now.... They didn't explain much about where we are or why we are here now!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

What is going on here? Part II

Somehow this huge bird came back to the earth and coughed us up into the hands of some humans who make sounds a little different from what we are used to from our human animal companions Jim and Janet. We don't know where they are or who these strangers are, but the strangers have been good to us at least. Then, they grabbed our big boxes and helped another of those big birds swallow us up! Again! We spent a long time inside this one before, it, too, coughed us up into the hands of humans who sound stranger than those other ones! REALLY! What IS Going on here! We Hope Jim and Janet can clarify this!
The Z's apparently arrived safely in London and after a layover which was to include food and some exercise they were put on another flight to Mumbai. Pets can't come directly to Bangalore at present so they should be going through customs and inspections now in Mumbai. They should be on the plane again later to come to Bangalore. Meanwhile, our furniture shipment has been delayed in customs in Bangalore, but should be delivered tonight about 7PM. We have a mobile phone problem too, which we hope will be resolved soon. We await the Z's as top priority!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Hey! What is going on here!

This morning some stranger came an took us away in those big boxes we were enjoying so much! Now we don't like them very much- they are much too small! What is happening here? Now they put us inside of one of those birds that we would like to chase- only this one is huge! Have we been eaten by one of them? What is going on here? Our human companions can write some now.

We have been adjusting to the time difference and jet lag slowly. Janet's arm is starting to feel less painful too. This is progress. We have received our RP- Residency Permit and have been waiting a few days for our furniture to clear through customs so we can move to our apartment before the Z's arrive, which should be tomorrow. They have left home and are on their way to London as this is written. then they come to Mumbai and then Bangalore. Unfortunately, pets can no longer fly directly to Bangalore from anywhere outside of India. (Exception may be if they are accompanied by owners, but that is far from clear). Because our furniture is delayed in customs we have to stay another night in a Hotel and we have to change hotels because our present one is fully booked. A bit of a nuisance. We have good help here, though. More later.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Arrival Nov. 5, 2008



We don't know what happened to our human companions! They haven't come home and they haven't told us much but we are not happy about all of this turmoil! They can tell you what has been going on.
The flight to Frankfurt on Lufthansa was quite satisfactory and Janet's arm was not bothering her too much. There was a short layover in Germany before the flight to Bangalore. The second flight was less comfortable for both of us- with Janet's arm bothering her more. She put ice on it as much as possible. We arrived safely in Bangalore about 1:30AM and cleared through immigration and customs with no problems. We were met by a representative of the the Taj Hotels and we told him of Janet's problem, so he called the hotel and they said they would have a doctor meet us at the hotel. The ride to the hotel was tame at this hour of the night and we could see they had made some progress in the repairs of the airport road in the past 6 weeks. We arrived at the hotel and were greeted by lots of staff who took Janet to our room while Jim signed in. The Doctor did not think the injury would require surgery and mainly needed rest. We went to sleep around 4AM after trying to get a feeling for how the US elections were going, but it was really too early as the polls were just closing in some places. Later, we awoke to a phone call asking when we would be ready to do our Police Registration We said Thursday morning.
We got up slowly and had lunch and then went to HOSMAT- a hospital in Bangalore that has a large Orthopedic group, so it was recommended and close by. The hotel driver took us there along with a staff member who helped guide us through the system. We went to the emergency room and while Janet was there, Jim went to register. There was a fee to register. They then did x-rays and put a sling on Janet's arm. The doctor told us that they see no breaks in the bones and she should just rest the arm and shoulder. The sling itself was a help. The hospital bill came to about $30. We commented that the sling by itself would cost $30 at home.
We went back to the hotel and went out for a walk to look for furniture stores. We didn't find one, but found some nice crafts. On our way back to the hotel we passed the Oberoi Hotel and decided to go in and have a look around. It looks very nice and we will try their Thai Restaurant sometime. The Taj Residency staff have been extremely helpful.
We looked at Janet's xrays and could see cracks in ribs near the shoulder and wondered if the other people saw that. They might have been old injuries from here horseback riding days. We mentioned this to the hotel staff and one of the people knew a good orthopedist at Manipal Hospital, so we made an appointment to go out there for late afternoon because we had to deal with "FRRO" first. The Experience of going through this process is too painful to suggest that it be left to amateurs! We used a professional service who lead us through a procedure that we could not begin to understand. We saw some young chinese going through it and it was clear that they were baffled. We went outside and admired the birds in the trees when a man came over and explained that one of the birds was a "cuckoo". He pointed out HUGE bats and eagles too. Eventually, our professional guide told use to move to another place and then to sign in this place and then that place and in the end he handed in a stack of papers about 1cm thick. Then he said he would come back in about 36 hours to pick up our registration papers. We said ok, but we needed our passport to get our furniture from customs. This turned out to be a bit of an error because we also needed the FRRO completed!
At the end of the day we made the trip to Manipal Hospital and saw the Orthopedist there. The registration plus consultation cost about $8. The guy was very comforting and he explained the injury and treatment reasonably well. We went back to the hotel feeling that the injury will work itself out over the coming weeks. So, we then went to look at furniture.... what will look good with white cat fur on it?
Back to Ziggy and Zoe.
Something is NOT right here. We are not sure what it is, but something is brewing. They sound like they may not be coming back soon afterall!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Departure - Nov. 3

CRASH! BANG! BOOM! ...YEOOOOOOW!.....D@#$%!......That's what we heard! It was an awful day for us, but maybe it was worse for our human companions. They can write now and we'll put more later.
It was a stressful day of trying to wrap up dozens of details before departing for India. We did a huge number of things over the preceding days, weeks and months, but there are always more things to do! On this day we canceled a phone line, did laundry, washed dishes, cleaned house, sorted through countless items to pack up, received more items to take in the afternoon mail, arranged some details with a neighbor who will forward our mail, had a plumber fix a small leak in a pipe, took Ziggy and Zoe to the Vet again for their international health certificates, mailed a last minute return to a store, took showers and finished packing and turned off electronics in the house. The driver to the airport arrived 20 minutes early to apply more pressure - he was annoyed at having to wait. Just minutes before leaving Janet climbed up on a step stool to retrieve something from a high shelf and Crash! Bang! Boom! Yeooow!... she fell down on her right arm. After a few minutes she thought the arm was broken and "D@#$%!" is what was said. After awhile longer the driver came in and we all pondered what to do. Janet 's pain was subsiding, so she decided we should proceed to JFK airport- About 2 hours away. We took an ice pack and this helped the arm. Janet felt there were no other serious injuries except the arm, so we took our Flight on Lufthansa and left the USA about 10PM.
Ziggy and Zoe back again. They made us go into little boxes and took us away in the morning to the Veterinarian (they said the name enough times over the past weeks that we know its not "Vegetarian" now.) They didn't do anything too mean to us this time. They just got some papers. When we got back home there were all these suitcases around full of stuff- without us! And without our consent! There are also 2 big boxes in the living room that they keep trying to get us to go into. The boxes are a lot like the little ones used for the vet, but much bigger- they seem very nice! We wonder why they are here -they are nice to go in, but who needs them? Those loud noises late in the day were scary! We don't like loud noises! They left us and said something about seeing us soon, so we assume they will be back soon- even with all that luggage.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Halloween





There is an awful lot of activity around here! All sorts of animals similar to our companion humans keep coming around our home and making a lot of noise. We find this very disturbing! We like it to be quiet and calm and nothing changing! They can write now.
Yesterday we took some time to have dinner with and old friend and then go to see "blaze" at Van Cortlandt Manor near the Hudson River in the Hudson Valley of New York. The property is own by "Historic Hudson Valley" which manages and maintains a number of historic properties in the Hudson Valley. "Blaze" is the name they have given to a Halloween Display of amazing proportions. There are thousands of carved pumpkins arranged in hundreds of imaginative displays. Some are individual images while others are combined to make large displays. A few pictures are here to illustrate.
There are Bats galore, a few cats, other animals of all sorts and sizes.
Pirates and ghosts and zombies all over the place. There was a large section of animals of, sometimes large sizes, that were truly remarkable.
Here are a few more pictures.
It was a great place to visit with just a few days left in the USA.
Otherwise we have have remained extremely busy doing all sorts of things. Many of the things we have been doing are some of those little chores or repairs that one often puts off to deal with more important matters, but when they may not be done for a year or two, then they take on a higher priority. Ziggy and Zoe don't really know what is in store for them, but we have been arranging their transportation by the best means we can find. They don't like all the strangers in the house who are doing various tasks for us. Back to Ziggy and Zoe now.

They may not like to know it, but we do know what is going on. We really like that kitty carved out of a pumpkin- real talent there! Time to sleep some more now.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Preparations for departure





Our human animal companions have not been so nice to us lately! First they made us go away with them to a place called Cape Cod where it was windy and cold and then they brought us back home to go see a vegetarian or something like that. We don't like vegetarians because they are always handling us and taking samples and poking us! However, we are home and comfortable now, but it is cold outside! They can write some now.
As Zoe and Ziggy say, we took them to Cape Cod for a couple days while we took care of some personal business there in preparation for departure for India. They are not happy travelers! We hoped the couple days would be somewhat relaxing, but it wasn't. There are so many details to be worked out. We did spend a few hours in Wellfleet to go to the exceedingly popular "Oysterfest". There were cars parked everywhere and thousands of people. The picture shows it is not so different from Commercial Street in Bangalore! We did get a few pictures of some nice old houses.
We had to be sure to get to the beach while on the Cape, but there was a strong storm out at sea that brought strong winds and very heavy surf. The cool air seemed downright cold with the strong winds.
After we returned from the Cape we had to attend to lots more of the business of getting ourselves to India. Settling the departure date and trying to arrange with the movers to ship our furniture so it arrives about the time we do and then arranging for the transportation of Zoe and Ziggy are all major items. Toward the end of getting Ziggy and Zoe to India we had to drag them to the veterinarian to get some certifications and microchipping. The regulations in India seem quite clear until you read another source or two to find out that it isn't so clear. We are going to rely on professionals and hope that this precious cargo arrives safely. We are also trying to get the timing right so we move to our apartment and then the cats will arrive to their new home.
Zoe and Ziggy here again... those people can be pretty boring! Time to sleep again.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Movers arrive

Today we had some strange people come and start moving things all around our house. We don't like this! Then they started to take our things away! We hate this! Our human companions tried to make us feel more relaxed by putting us outside, but we know what is going on! We'll let them write some now.
As the Z's say, we have movers here today packing up some things we feel are most critical to take to Bangalore. We didn't like the beds we saw during the survey trip, so we decided to ship beds. Those are the only large items other than a comfortable chair. The apartment will be rather bare for awhile! The remaining items are a few kitchen items, a few towels, sheets and bed and bath items. The supporting items for the Z's will go too- some of those are a bit heavy. A few home office items will go too. We don't doubt that we've missed some things.
We are surprised to learn that things like pet food and our own vitamins should not be shipped with houshold stuff. We will carry what we can, but we are looking into having packages periodically sent to us with cat food and vitamins.
Our Visas and work permit arrived very quickly. It took only 7 days from our mailing to our receiving the completed passports with visas. We were told to expect it to take more than 2 weeks because of Indian Holidays, but they were fast.
With the movers taking things away, the move to India takes on a higher level of reality! We are aiming to leave at the end of October. If all goes well, this shipment of furniture will arrive about the time we do. Next hurdle is to arrange the shipping of the Z's. Back to Zoe and Ziggy now.
Boy! Did you see those big kitties in India! They look almost as big as us! And, we're HUGE at more than 10 pounds apiece! We're pretty sure we could whip those guys in a fight, but we're not really fighters. We much prefer to sleep like they do and not bother anything... except maybe birds and mice and bugs and squirrels. Time to sleep now!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Activities In preparation for move

We have the feeling that something is brewing! Our Companion animals Jim and Janet seem awfully busy these days and are not spending as much time with us as they should! They keep moving things around our house, which is fun, since we get to investigate all these things in new places, but it is still stressful- we really don't like changes very much! They can write now.
As the Z's say, we have been very busy reading piles or papers and filling out piles of forms while also gathering lots of information to put in those forms- all very time consuming. We managed to get our visa applications into the mail on the 26th. We needed a couple of relatively obscure documents about ourselves, but learned that we did not have to supply original copies. We also needed papers from the company for which one of us works and that took awhile. We have been investigating ways to take the Z's to India. One of us wants to carry them in the cabin of the plane and the other wants to ship them by a reputable carrier. It is a difficult matter to arrange and to decide what is best for such a long trip. We are also dealing with moving and movers. This too has a set of complex issues surrounding it. How much furniture do we take and how much would we prefer to buy or rent in Bangalore? We will have to make decisions very soon.

Saturday, September 27, 2008




We stayed with uncle Sym while our companion animals, Jim and Janet were in India. We had a great time with uncle Sym who let us watch the squirrels outside his windows. Boy! if only there weren't those window things between us and them!
Back in Bangalore...we spent the last couple days visiting some more stores where we might go shopping for food and household stuff. On Saturday we went Bannerghatta Park which is about an hour from the center of the city. The traffic was heavy in some places but we reached the park. We wanted to see the Lions and tigers so we immediately hoped on a safari bus after buying our tickets. The driver and guide gave us the two front seats. We wondered whether they saved those seat for foreigners who might tip more or whether it just worked out that way. Janet had her first encounter with the common toilets and reported that it was unpleasant, but she had used similar ones in France in the 1970's. The safari bus driver was kind enough to wait for those who used the facilities. We drove off on a bumpy road in a bumpy bus and went through gates to see some buffalo, deer, and other animals before seeing some bear and lions and tigers! We saw the 8 month old white tiger cub.
Afterword, we tipped the driver and guide, as they expected, though they asked for more.
We then road back to town and asked our car driver to take us to the area where our apartment is located so we could get a better feel for the location relative to other places. This was valuable, because it helped us find the place on a map and get oriented relative to the major shopping area on MG road.
On our last day we decided to go to the Leela Palace Hotel to try their Sunday Brunch. The hotel is quite an amazing place and clearly expensive. The brunch was excellent, but with prices like those in any large Hotel in Europe or the USA. We visited a few more shops to see what kinds of merchandise they have. We also visited another craft shop and were again impressed by the quality of the items. We packed up our bags at the hotel and had a light dinner before heading off to the airport for our return home. We felt good that we found a couple places we might live and picked out a car... next, on to all te details!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Survey Trip to Bangalore part 1


Our human companions Jim and Janet went to Bangalore Sept. 6 to Sept. 14, but they did not take us along. They report that they succeeded in finding a wonderful place to live. We will hold our judgements on their choice until after we actually see the place ourselves! They also report that they have chosen a new car for us to use while in Bangalore too. We shall see about that as well.
Jim and Janet tell us that Bangalore seemed like a wonderful place with lots of trees. It is a very busy place with lots of humans, their cars and motorbikes and bicycles as well as horse and ox drawn carts. It is a bustling place with lots of traffic on the roads and elsewhere. We will let them speak for themselves now for a bit.
As The Z's say, we arrived in Bangalore on Sept. 6 after a very long day of travel- about 26 hours from our home to the Hotel in Bangalore. The new airport seems to be disliked by many people, but we thought it was fine and were happy that our transportation to the hotel was there to meet us. We checked into Taj West End Hotel and found it to be very nice. We slept until noon and then had lunch and did a little sightseeing at the Bangalore Palace. The Palace is a bit tired and in dis-repair but interesting anyway. We then visited some shops and were very impressed with the high quality of crafts available. We had an excellent dinner at the hotel and retired for the night.
The next day we were expecting to be met to see some places to live, but there was a misunderstanding and we had the day to ourselves. We went to Lalbagh Gardens which were quite busy, since it was Sunday when most people have a day off. We had our first real experience with a "guide" who insinuated himself into our tour of the gardens. He said he was our "security guide". He spoke quickly about his rates and said that people normally take either a 1.5 or 3 hour tour. One of us said "1.5 hour" the other said, "well, maybe more- I need exercise". The guide actually seemed quite knowledgeable about the gardens in general and the plants more specifically. Sometimes he would mention his rates again and they seemed to be going up as time went on. I am sure he has plenty of experience at sizing up his guidee's to see how much he might be able to extract. The walk lasted close to 2 hours and his information was generally good, but we shall only say that we were overly generous in acceding to his requested fee. From this we learned to watch out for "guides" who seem to appear from no where. We also learned that they can be quite good, but you should always get agreement ahead of time on what they will be paid! You probably would be generous in paying 1/4 of what they ask- maybe 1/2 of what they ask for the less experienced ones. We had another great dinner at the hotel, though it was expensive.
Our next morning was spent viewing 5 apartments near the center of Bangalore. The first one was a little small, but newly renovated. The second was large enough but in rather poor condition. The 3rd was a good size, new and in great shape. One of use liked it right away while the other did not. It was unfurnished, so there was an echo that was disturbing. The 4th and 5th places were quite good, but in larger buildings, so there would be more neighbors close by which could be good, or could be bad. In the afternoon one of us went to meet the people with whom we would be working while the other of us went to look at pet supply shops to see whether good things were available for the Z's.
Our next morning was spent on a long drive to Palm Meadows, which is a famous gated community where lots of expats from all over the world live. It was very pretty and has a fabulous community center with great pool and clubhouse, but overall it seemed too "sterile" and a little too far from real life in India. Still we like one place we saw and thought it would be good for the Z's - though too far from the city. We wanted to see some more options and on the next day we visited some places away from the center of the city again. One of the places was quite nice, but the roads to get to it were poor. Others were not so nice and the road was poor as well.
On our next day we got to see some food stores and furniture stores and we found many foods we recognized or good substitutes at least. We also re-visited the 3rd apartment we'd seen the other day and decided it was our first choice.
Ziggy and Zoe back now... see what we mean about borrrrrinnnng?