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I know, I know – long overdue pictures of our home but here they are:

Upstairs Sitting Room

Bedroom

My Office

TV Room

Living and Dining Room

So stoked because it started to bloom and smells just wonderful:

Plumeria

Also, here are a couple of pics of my roof top garden in its fledgling stages:

Garden 1

Garden 2

Thankfully, the last few days the monsoon has finally come.  Hopefully, the rain will last long enough to fill the reservoirs.  Not sure if you can see the raindrops in this pic but they were HUGE!

Another benefit to the rain is the climate has changed and we haven't had to turn on the air conditioner for a few nights but man o man is it reaking havoc on the old curls 🙂

Rain

We went out Saturday to pay for a used IKEA sofa for the TV room…no, there is no IKEA here yet (we bought the sofa second hand from a departing expat because we hope to have many visitors – HINT HINT EVERYONE!!)  but that may change soon at the rate the city is growing….anyway, these were a couple of shots I took on the way back.

Roadside Shop

Roadside Shops

So it probably doesn't make the news at home but this has been a crazy week.  Water shortages, power shedding – including long power cuts, fuel shortages, and finally, a few small explosions to top the week off….ahhh life in Bangalore.

From what I read in the papers, the water shortages are caused by the fact that the monsoons have not really provided enough rain which in turn has caused the reservoirs to be too low thus, in an area heavily reliant on hydro, dams are not be able to provide enough power.  Not to mention, the pumps from the dam run on electricity!  We were without power at the house for 12 hours on Thursday :).  Additionally, apparently the city cut water supply for some reason – some say to clean the main storage tanks.   More info on water shortage  More info on power cuts

The fuel shortages, from what I can gleen from our driver and the papers are occuring because Bangalore is not a port city ie trucks supplying the fuel have a long way to go and the few banks have run low resulting in incredibly long lines at the gas stations (those that are open) and limits on what people can purchase.  By the way – gas is about $6.18 per gallon!!! As I am not well versed in the metric system, I garner folks are able to fill their gas tanks only to 2/3rds of a full tank.  Additionally, people are waiting hours (Shashi had to wait 2.5 hours to get gas on Tuesday) to get gas – think the gas lines of the 70's.  More info on fuel shortage

If that one, two, three punch was not enough….to top off the week, today at around 1:30 there were 5 (or so – the information is different depending on what channel you watch) explosions around the city.  Most here are nonplussed by the explosions but of course the media is trying to make the most of the incidents.  From the pics on the TV, the "bombs" looked like small maltov cocktails re the damage they did.  I am sure the story will grow and be spun as only the media can do.

On the bright side, it just started raining which means a few things – it is cooler which is very welcome by one allergic to the heat and I don't have to water all the plants I bought at the nursery – yee ha!  The plant deal I got at the nursery was awesome and the roof is starting to take shape….but need to wait till the rain stops to get some good pictures.

Here is our finished table and TV stand.  Another one just for Sideways Steve 🙂

TV Stand

'Puter Table

Sideways TV Table

There has been water rationing here because the government has turned off the taps to clean the main supply tank for the city (so the papers say) and the rain has not come during the monsoon season as it usually does.  People over the past few days have been gathering water in pots…maybe this guy was on his way to the market, walking his bike for all the water pots. 

Colorful Water Pots

D had to get a haircut so I went with him to the mall and while he was getting his cut, I got a pedicure…one of the most interesting ones I have ever had.

There was the normal soak, scrub and de-scaling of the feet and then came the unusual bit…spreading my feet with something that resembled mud and then wrapped my feet in tin foil…..I had to take a picture of my feet – which must have made me seem like either a deranged tourist or just plain deranged (no comments family and friends :)  The polish was put on sort of funky so I won't be going back but I found a spa that comes to your house!!!  Will definitely be doing a posting on that later….God I love India!

Tin Foil

We went to a nursery on Saturday (to make our roof a bit greener and so we can enjoy outside more).  We loved it there and were amazed at the variety and number of plants….

Pretty Plants

Plants

Nurserymen

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