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.

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.

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

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?

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.

Interesting place...

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

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!