Wednesday 26 June 2013

They're here! :-D

After weeks and weeks of anxiously waiting around for our letters of recommendation to arrive from the Auroville Entry Service, they have landed. *massive happy face*



This marks the beginning of the final processes needed for our moving. We will be off to the nearest Indian Embassy (Cardiff, I believe) next week to hand in our applications for processing (we will be applying for residential permits once in India) and once they are posted to us, we can get the plane tickets.

Everything else is going well, gotten rid of some larger furniture so our living room is looking spacious and am starting to work through my lists - yep, so far there are 3 lists. Thanks to my mother in law's advice, I am working out what is worth taking with us that will be hard to find over there and have another big box for the charity shop. I'm also into the final week of an 8 week free online course in Psychology - check out: Coursera for more info, there are so many courses available. Am also keeping up with the exercise although the Pilates classes finish in 2 weeks.

We have planned our final visits to family before we go, at the end of July/beginning of Aug which will give us 3 weeks to tie up the final things. I want to find time to slow down and really appreciate our last moments here, maybe a picnic or two, a walk on the nearby hills and to the beach. It's so easy to get caught up in the momentum that we forget to look around us and really see what's there.

Well, that's it for now. Just over 8 weeks to go. It's a beautiful day and I'm going to take K swimming this afternoon followed by a slice of freshly baked banana/coconut bread that has just come out the oven.

 
Recipe here if anyone is interested: Banana and coconut bread

More soon. L xx

Saturday 1 June 2013

3 Months to go!

All being well, 3 months from now we will be setting off on our adventure. May has passed by quickly. We've made another trip to the charity shop - we keep going to a different one each time to spread the goodwill. Lucky that all the charity shops in our town are on the same street! Also made a trip to the tip and have started taking shelves down in the flat so we can fill the holes and paint over them, am determined to leave the place in a good condition as having our deposit returned would give us a nice amount of 'back up' money. Have given away more stuff to friends and am already plotting what's to go next. :)

We are still waiting on the letter of recommendation from the Auroville Entry Service despite filling out the application forms a month and a half ago. This time of year over there is very hot (today it's 32 degrees) so it's like the equivalent of an out of season holiday destination. Everything ticks over but so much more slowly, there are no tourists and many residents escape to cooler climes. Add to that the relaxed, unfussed Indian attitude to getting things done and you have a frustratingly slow wait for anything! Still, hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will get the letter and then the fun really starts. It's a good lesson in patience in the meantime.

The summer was a factor in when we decided to arrive over there. By Sept it will have cooled down and will be gearing up for the monsoon, meaning we have almost a year to acclimatise before the next summer. I've heard that it takes about 3 years to fully get used to the extreme heat of the summer!

It's been just over a year since we were last over there and I've been reminiscing. Especially since we got married just 7 weeks after returning, this time of year has fond memories for me. Here's a few of my favourite photos from our last visit:


Our mode of transport - a Honda Unicorn.
 

Sitting in 'Infinity' a fairly new community (part of the Youth Centre) on a slate floor we helped to lay over a weekend.
 

Beautiful little pond at the entrance to the Matramandir gardens.
 

In Pondicherry
 
 
Me and K feeding Lakshmi the elephant at the Ganesh Temple in Pondicherry.
 

Car art youth project at a junction near the Youth Centre.
 

:)
 
Anyhoo, that's all for now, hopefully more to report soon. Have a lovely weekend. L xx