Owner: Earth To Danie! URL:http://earthtodanie.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:59:15 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Canadian, Mom, Expat, Trailing Spouse, Traveler, Chocoholic, Blogger...Earth to Danie! Site statistics:Click here
15 Years of Marriage 2007-07-18 19:28:00 Awwww. We were so young...I had a waist and John had hair. That was 15 years ago though. Today, with fond memories of a decent figure and a full head of hair, we're far happier and more in love.Our 15th Anniversary didn't turn out quite like we had planned but it was still a lovely day. After spending our 10th wedding anniversary touring Italy, we said, "Let's do a BIG trip every five years for our anniversary." We intended to spend this anniversary in Australia. Then we realized it was winter time in Australia and not when we wanted to go there. A business trip came up for John in Beijing and then we thought we could go with him, turning it into a working anniversary vacation. The company canceled travel and the meetings are being conducted by phone instead.John worked from home yesterday with his ear tied to the phone. At least he was home, which was very nice. We had plans to go out to dinner, just the two of us. Unfortunately, the Jelly Bean still wasn't feeling too s Read more:Years
14 Snakes in 4 Months 2007-07-17 09:21:00 The King has been keeping track of the snakes. Today, he informed me that we've had 14 snakes since we've lived here.Two of those 14 were today. The first one was a Green Vine Snake. The guards took care of it without any problems. Five minutes later, another snake fell from the same tree, it was a Rat Snake. The guard went after it but it was very fast. It went down the driveway to the back yard. It slithered it's way into the servant quarters and into the toilet. After two hours of messing around with the snake, the guards called me to use my cell phone so they could call Snake Guy. When I went out, the snake was in the sewage pipe. They were trying to flush it out. The concern was that the snake would enter the pipes leading into the house and find its way into one of our bathrooms. Can you imagine would that would be like?Snake's head poking out of the sewer drain.After the "flush 'em out" technique failed, the "smoke 'em out" technique was attempted.A security co Read more:Snakes
, Months
Harry Potter 2007-07-20 21:05:00 Ever since we lived in England where our train station into London was King's Cross, with signs for Platform 9 3/4, a special parking area for brooms, and a place where no muggles were permitted, Connor has been in mad love with the HarryPotter
story.After seeing The Order of the Phoenix last week and in anticipation of the last book in the series, he re-read 5 of the 6 novels this week while he was sick. It was all leading up to today, the release of the final Harry Potter book.I told McGyver yesterday that he may need to come in early today because the books were starting to be sold at 5:30am. I didn't think John and Connor would go quite that early but I knew that they would up and ready earlier than usual. McGyver offered to go stand in line and get the book for us. I'm sure he's expecting a huge tip for this service, which we will gladly give him. So here's how it went...McGyver got up at 2AM to stand in line at the book store. He was 10th in line and says there were a
Happy Birthday Kramer 2007-07-19 21:16:00 Here is the scene that John walked in on the other night when he thought he was going to go to bed. This is Kramer
's favorite spot in the whole wide world...John's side of the bed. Well, half on John's side of the bed and half on top of me. At one time, he wasn't allowed on the bed. Whatever.It's Kramer's birthday today, he's 3 years old. I feel a little guilty that until this very moment, I had forgotten that it was Francesca's birthday two days ago...the same day as our anniversary. She went to live with our friends in North Carolina who, I know, love her every bit as much as I do. Fran is 13 years old now, which is really hard to believe because she never really grew past the size of a kitten. It's still very painful to think that we had to give our kitties away. Connor still cries when he see photos of them. In fact, just yesterday we found photos of the cats from when they were in UK quarantine. Connor cried. I think I'm still avoiding and denying...and heaping a Read more:Happy
, Birthday
, Happy Birthday
How To Return Merchandise 2007-07-28 20:22:00 Apparently, one of our six missing boxes from the move (or the stolen goods from the bookcases) contained Longaberger curtains of the retired variety. I know anyone out there who knows about Longaberger is groaning with me.With one week to go until my sister arrives for a visit (yay! can't wait!) we needed to get our guest bedrooms sorted out. We went to buy some curtains for her bedroom. We were very pleased when, at the first store we went to, we found plain, tab-top curtains, sans Indian designs that actually would match our two guest rooms. Woo hoo, one stop shopping! Naturally, we were followed around the curtain department by no less than three people eagerly awaiting to help or to make sure we weren't thieves...I'm not sure which.We began looking through the stock on the shelves to find the right color and size. We were sort of shoved away and the sales girl took over for us. We told her we needed 8 panels of blue and 4 panels of green. Up to that point, we had found Read more:Return
, Merchandise
Trashy Photos 2007-07-23 20:14:00 It only took Connor slightly less than 10 hours to read the last Harry Potter novel. When he finished, he was so sad that that was the end of it all. Now he's taunting anyone who hasn't read or finished the book yet.Since our landlord didn't care enough to do it, we've contracted a company to clean up the garbage outside our gate, restore the curbs and maintain the area. It's embarrassing to live in a nice neighborhood and have so much trash being dumped at our front door.Here are a few "before" photos. The dumpsters were emptied that morning so it was actually cleaner than usual. Normally, it's piled up 3' high out there, spilling out of the dumpster and most of the time, people don't even bother with the dumpster at all.This is the empty lot next door. This is where all the snakes have been coming from.While these are not untypical of Chennai, it is untypical for my neighborhood. In fact, there are lots of places in the city that are much worse than this. Every time
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head 2007-07-30 20:33:00 It's has been unseasonably wet in Chennai. Monsoon season isn't until late in the year but we seem to be getting the leftover bad weather from the South-West Monsoon.On our way back from dinner recently, it began to rain. Every where we looked motorcyclists had plastic bags on their heads to cover their hair.I'm going to take a little hair detour here......I have to admit, the Indian masses have terrific hair. Nobody seems to have receding hairlines or baldness. Sometimes we'll be stopped at a red light in traffic and I think someone is trying to look into our vehicle. No, they're just checking out their hair. Stop at a red light and watch the combs come flying out of the pockets. You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you. John's driver doesn't want to wear a helmet because it messes up his hair. I can't think of a better nickname for him than "Elvis."Ok, moving on.......Here's Pool Guy in the rain yesterday. A pool guy who doesn't like to get wet.
Culture Shock and Blog Comments 2007-07-31 20:32:00 There is a cycle to Culture Shock
. Not everyone experiences it but I most certainly do. Every. Single. Time. Even moving from Canada to the US. Even moving from one US state to another US state. I do culture shock. I may be experienced at moving but culture shock isn't something I can control, I just have to go through it. It's kind of like the stages of grief. You have to go through it step by step. You know the next step is coming but you can't control it or back out of it, it's going to happen the way it's meant to happen. Looking back, I've probably spent at least 5 of my last 10 years in some phase of culture shock. I know what it is, I know I have to go through it and I have confidence that I'll go through it in my own way and come out on the other end just fine.I have found that most expats don't really talk about culture shock. We all look at one another and know we're each going through it at some level. Some people will say they're fine when they're really not. And Read more:Comments
India Ink Guest Bloggers 2007-08-03 05:39:00 India Ink is a Chennai expat's blog that I read regularly. I loved today's post that was written by a guest blogger...an Indian colleague's impressions of her first visit to the US. As it turns out, Basia has had a series of guest blogger posts. I'm posting links to three of them so you can read about what they found surprising about life in Rochester, NY, USA.http://basia.blog-city.com/view_from_the_other_side.htmhttp://basia.blog-city.com/guest_blogger_view_from_the_other_side.htmhttp://basia.blog-city.com/guest_blogger_meena.htmOh, the things we take for granted. Read more:India
, Guest
The Roach Coach 2008-03-10 16:21:52 I just woke up shortly after 1am, sweating profusely after a bad dream--about cockroaches. Why would my subconscious go there? I'll tell you why. And not to sound whiny about it, but I'm just going to tell it like it is. I'll be the Dr. Phil of the blogging world. Then maybe I can go back to bed and get some decent rest after I get it off my chest.I've been seeing a lot of cockroaches lately. When I don't see them, other people are telling me about the places they've seen them. Like at the shopping mall in the center of the city (if you live here, you know what that means). We were going to pick up a few things at the grocery store. The fruit was crawling with cockroaches. In the grocery aisles, they were on the floors and crawling up the shelves. I had to get out of there. I p Read more:Coach
Photo: Scaffolding 2008-03-08 21:27:14 The thought of climbing on scaffolding scares me. When I conjure up the thought of me--on scaffolding--I'm imagining the kind that isn't constructed of twigs or branches, held together with twine, and barely leaning up against a building.I'm just saying...
Read more:Photo
Kick-Ass Customer Service 2008-03-07 09:40:55 I just had the most pleasant customer service experience. Especially considering the difficulties I've had with ATM cards, credit cards, mismatched billing/shipping addresses and IP blocking.I was checking blog stats on Statcounter, when I came across the following referring link:www.icerocket.com/search?tab=blog&q=HTC SHIFTHmm, someone searching for "HTC Shift" landed on my FYI UMPC OMG blog post. I'm not familiar with Ice Rocket so I clicked the link. I found out that the HTC Shift became available overnight in the US. That meant I only one day to find one and get it shipped to JB's hotel.Enter David. After I placed my order at On The Go Solutions, David called me in India--an hour before they opened for business, I might add. I explained how I randomly found out that the objec Read more:Customer
, Service
Funky, Minus the "Y" 2008-03-07 06:07:24 Ugh. I am in such a funk today.- My maternal grandmother, who has been fighting cancer on and off for 10 years, has been just diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This isn't a surprise to me. After seeing her at Christmas, it was very obvious. It still saddens me. Especially knowing that Christmas will have been the last quality time I spend with her. This is the hardest part of an expat's life...the feeling of being torn in two.- Editing the book has been slow going. I've been distracted with school activities, three hour appointments at immigration and planning a virtual book tour. I'm doubting myself again. I'm also daydreaming too much and taking myself way too seriously today. Where has my sense of humor gone?- JB is in the US for nearly two weeks. Every time we talk, he's been to o Read more:Funky
, Minus
The Expat Arc Virtual Book Tour 2008-03-06 05:08:16 Today, I was told that I am self-indulgent for self-publishing my book by someone who is supposed to promote my project. I hope it will be good promoting, not the bad kind of promoting. I'm a self-professed chocoholic...self-indulgence is not foreign to me by any means. Plus, I live in India...self-indulgence is just what I do to get by.So, self-publishing it is, which means, self-marketing is right on its heels. I'm really getting into this whole 'pajama promotion' thing. When researching ways of promoting my book--because I can't expect my family to sell every copy by peddling it on the street--I discovered the "Virtual Book Tour." And I (heart) this idea.If you are an active expat blogger and might be interested in hosting/participating in The Expat
Arc Virtual Book Tour, please e
End of the Series 2008-03-04 19:48:17 When I moved here a year ago, we arrived just as the end of the cricket season was underway. We were living in a hotel. Every night at dinner, large TVs played a cricket match. It's that time again. Cricket shoved down my throat. Ugh.Now before I post these photos, I want you to understand that this building in not the norm. More and more modern buildings are popping up like this in IT parks around Chennai. Basically, the only buildings that I go to that are this modern is the school, the mall, and a few hotel restaurants. I just didn't want to give anyone the impression that I'm living in a modern day city here. These photos can be deceiving.So, this is the building where the company has some of their offices. They have a fantastic food court which would rival any shopping mall
Not a Crowd Pleaser 2008-03-04 19:36:45 In India, passport photos are needed for everything. For phone service, cable service, internet service...every time we turn around, we are asked again for our passport photos. That is why, passport photos here are sold by the sheet (for about $1 USD). It is also why I ran out of photos rather quickly.I told McGyver that Connor and I needed to get more photos after school. He asked me for my CD, saying that he could get them reprinted for us. CD? What CD? I don't have a CD. So off to Kodak we go.Kodak was packed! It was a tiny little outlet and as it turns out, there was a sale. There were at least 30 people in the shop, I couldn't even push the door open or I would've hit someone. I don't do crowds so it was off to plan B. Before we left, I wanted to check out the Sony shop tw
FYI UMPC OMG 2008-03-03 22:06:35 I'm a geek. A big fat geek. If you're not, pardon all the geekness of this post.Back in November, I was looking to replace my laptop. I was looking for the smallest, most powerful, fastest laptop with the storage of an open field. This is because I currently have a 17" mad multi-media machine--which is fantastic--but I can't travel with it. My line of thinking was all wrong. I shouldn't be looking to replace my laptop, I should be looking to add to my collection. This is the light bulb moment I had last night that prevented me from getting but 5 hours of sleep. If you don't lose sleep over the excitement of new technology, sorry, you've haven't reached geek status.So, what am I looking for? If I could dream it up myself, I would want the following requirements:- Tablet capability
Terrapin Soup 2008-03-03 22:04:03 Terrapin Soup is no longer considered 'politically correct," but that's ok because we didn't rush to the beach to eat turtles. Although the large bucket of these babies looked like a good start to dinner, we were there to help these little creatures, not eat them. We caught word that turtle hatchlings would be released into the bay and there was no way I was going to miss it!We made a beeline to the beach right after school and met up with friends (no photos to protect the innocent) for milkshakes and french fries.Around 5:00pm, we trekked down to the waterline where Connor was able to release 4 babies. Apparently, 1500 turtles will be released. The ones that survive (approx 1 in 10) will come back in 30 years to lay their eggs. Now that I'd like to see!Since JB had a business dinner
Baby, Madame? 2008-03-03 07:48:37 How much fun did I have baby shopping today!? Well, not shopping for an actual baby, but for baby supplies. SO fun.My son is eleven years old now. It's been a long time since I've walked through a baby store and gone nuts. That's exactly what I did at Mothercare. I remember this store from when I lived in England. I was very impressed with the selection and quality. And it's right here in Chennai!When we dropped off my friend and her baby upon returning home from our outing of shopping and lunch, McGyver tried to hand her all the bags from the back of the car. That would be the most logical scenario. "Those are for me," I said. Oh! The look on his face was priceless. When he got back in the car, he asked, "Baby, Madame
?" Ha! I think he thought I was going to beat him and his
The First Copy! 2008-03-01 18:52:42 For the last few days I've been tracking the journey of my book from the US to India. It had arrived in India on Saturday morning so I wasn't expecting delivery until Monday. If I was lucky.I was so surprised when we got home from dinner last evening. As I got out of the car, our head night guard start walking toward me. I knew he likely didn't have anything to report because he doesn't speak English. As he walked nearer to the house and into the light, I could see he had a courier package in his hands. My book. India still holds many surprises for me! UPS delivery on a Saturday night is one of them!There are a couple of layout errors that (hopefully) only I would pick up on but as imperfect as I am, I've got impatience perfected, and I'm too impatient to wait for it to be edited a Read more:First
Come to Mama 2008-02-28 19:11:52 I'm not cool. I'm not even going to pretend to be blase about this because I can hardly stand being in my own skin right now. The first copy of my book has been shipped to me by courier from the US. I've been given the tracking number, probably a bad idea because I'm checking it 5 times a day. When traveling between the US to India, 36 hours doesn't seem very long. Watching my book pass through Louisville, Kentucky and Cologne, Germany (on a Friday) is excruciating. It likely means I won't get it until Monday. It could be a long and painful weekend.
The Expat Arc - Book TrailerSaturday delivery would be such a treat. Whoa, reality check, I'm in India. I'll be counting my lucky stars if it gets delivered at all!
Three Little Kittens 2008-02-27 20:31:37 When Connor got home from school today, he rushed in the house, dropped everything, and ran back out the door yelling over his shoulder that McGyver had something to show him. Not two beats later, he came running back into the house calling upstairs to me about kittens, and they're so cute and, "Can we keep them, Mom? Can we? Please?"McGyver found three newborn kittens in our garage. He could hear a sound on and off over the past couple of days which made him search periodically. I went out (camera in hand) to have a look. After all, who doesn't like kittens? The orange one is the spunky one. As soon as he/she was taken out of the box, she scurried for cover under the leg of a ladder. In the process, she managed to traipse through some color powder left on the floor from Pongal. A Read more:Three
The Hard Way 2008-02-26 19:06:06 It doesn't have to be difficult. Life does not have to be so hard. We have a lawn mower that collects the grass clippings. But he doesn't use it. And even though we have a whole garage full of leaf rakes, grass rakes, pitch forks, shovels and other gardening supplies, our gardener still prefers to sweep the lawn instead of raking it.
I was surprised to see shoes on his feet while he was sweeping since he mows the lawn bare feet.
You Know You're a TCK When: 2008-02-24 09:39:14 JB brought duty free chocolates back from Singapore for the chocoholic in me. I'm a little too preoccupied with chocolate to type so I'm doing a cut and paste post. I just came across the 'Third Culture Kids Everywhere' group on Facebook. There are almost 16,000 members. I had a good chuckle when I read the passage below as much of it applies to my son, Connor (or me), I just had to share.You've heard this 'textbook' definition of a TCK before: "A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents' culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid's life experience, the sense of
Reasons I'm Doing the Happy Dance 2008-02-22 04:21:07 Let's start this one off big and go from there...- I have not had any snakes in our yard for about 6 months. Knock on wood. That's as huge as it gets. It's all downhill from here. You might as well just stop reading now.- I'm happy that I'm not angry at India anymore. I'm at peace here now and it's a good feeling. It helps that it's not raining snakes and we haven't had any intestinal parasites lately. Hey, we find joy wherever we can.- I'm so excited about the release of my book, The Expat Arc. I have days of self-doubt when I worry that it won't be received in the way it's intended. Then there are days when I'm really pleased with it and feel confident. Today, I'm rather pleased. Watch this space!- The Chicago Sun-Times picked up my Travel Tips blog post. It's not that it's a Read more:Reasons
, Happy
, Dance
Fisherman's Cove 2008-02-19 22:37:50 JB is going to Singapore this week for meetings. Our company friends are also going. But not me. No, I got the 'summer trip is very expensive' speech. JB does indulge me. A lot. It's not often I'm told no, so this is foreign territory for me. Yeah yeah, I know, I'm spoiled. But at least he didn't have to beat me into submission this time.Instead, he surprised us with an overnight trip out of town to Fisherman's Cove. It was a long weekend in the US (President's Day) so Connor had Monday off school. JB's out-of-town trip was canceled so he took the day off too. A very rare occurrence. We had McGyver drop us off at the resort and pick us up the next day.Fisherman's Cove VillaWe arrived in time for brunch, never a bad thing. Then we hung out the rest of the day at the pool. We t
Party Hearty 2008-02-19 03:29:03 We held our first annual staff party on Saturday night. While we got lots of questions, raised eyebrows and declarations of just how crazy we are from our friends, I'm so glad we did it.We invited 6 guards, 2 drivers, 1 relief driver, 1 housekeeper, 1 sweeper, 1 dobi, 1 gardener and 1 pool guy, along with their spouses and children. Our guests arrived with their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses, children, nieces and nephews. There were 50 people in all.The setup began around 2pm. It looked like a three ring circus. Quite literally. I was fascinated by the method used to attach the skirting to the tables. Large hammered tacks for each pleat in the skirting. I wonder what they would think if they knew of a handy little gadget called 'plastic clips' that will do the same Read more:Party
Ask and Ye Shall Receive 2008-02-18 06:04:54 I asked for it. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I can chalk it up to low self-esteem and/or need for approval...who knows? Anyhow, I asked for it before I really knew what I was asking for. When I read the reviews of others blogs, I changed my mind. Too much foul language and angst for me. I was scared and I didn't want to be reviewed anymore. Too late. Here it is...It's a Small World After AllMonday, February 18, 2008
Read more:Receive
Global Schmobal 2008-02-14 21:01:17 I hear the words global, globalized and globalization all the time. And now that I've typed that sentence and have reread it...go ahead, say it three times fast, I dare ya.In my opinion, the world has gotten very small. Companies do business all over the world and move their employees back and forth all over the place. Its a small, transient world.But not for the people who have never left home, have never changed jobs or have never traveled. My problem is that these are the people who come up with ways of tightening security and preventing credit card fraud. I get that part, I really do. I've had my ATM card number and my credit card number stolen. It's a pain in the butt to clean up. Especially if you're living abroad with no access to money. Not fun.There has got to be a better Read more:Global
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