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.