They say change is as good as a holiday so we made some changes instead of going on holiday. We rearranged our house again! We moved the living room to where the television room was and the television room back to the living room. Not sure why we had it like that from the beginning, just feels much better this way around. It was not done without any challenges as I had to buy an extension for the television co-ax cable. Ahmed took me to one of the small hardware stores and they made me a ten meter cable for Rs175, about $4.
We had a couple of things that happened during the past week other than the moving furniture around. On Monday morning we did not have water in the bathroom in our bedroom. After thirty minutes or so I decided to see if flushing the toilet would help to unblock the water pipe. It worked but it was not pretty, I have not seen that dirty muddy water coming out of a tap yet. Anyway, after flushing the toilet and keeping all the taps open for a while the water started to clear and I could take a shower.
We had to take Teresa to the hospital on Friday afternoon after she suddenly felt sick after arriving at the office. The Dr. on duty at the office recommended we take her to the hospital because her blood pressure was high. The Dr. at the casualty told her after completing a couple of tests that she suffered from heat exhaustion and she just needed some rest. Luckily that turned out not too serious and we were relieved.
A new supermarket opened up just down the road from us and we went to explore it on Sunday and it was a shopping pleasure. They had some imported products that other shops did not have and we ended up spending way too much on stuff that we have not seen since we arrived in India.
This is what our water looked like.
Not sure if that looks very safe to work on.
An old grave site in the road.
A pizza we had at Via Milano.
Myself and Ahmed at a small shop buying a Coffee/Spice grinder.
The street where we bought the grinder.
More pictures of the surrounding area.
This is down the road from the little shop where we bought the grinder.
Except for two to three nights of late night fireworks we had another good week. I feel much better than what I did last weekend. There is a function area in our gated community where we live and they host weddings once every now and then. We don't hear anything normally but sometimes they get overboard with fireworks and then it goes on until the early hours of the morning.
Teresa had a lunch and movie with the team in India on Monday. They went to the IMAX Theater and watched Fast and Furious 5 and afterwards went out for lunch. They went to some place that was similar to the place we had lunch at this Sunday.
On Tuesday evening we had an opportunity to have dinner with one of the visitors from Nashville and his wife. We went to the Golden Dragon in the Taj Krishna Hotel and the food was really good. We will be going there again sometime soon.
Teresa had lots of lunch and dinner parties she had to attend, she also had a Management Dinner on Wednesday at the Westin. That left me home alone till late so I took a trip to Beyond Coffee for dinner. I ended up having a quiet dinner by myself and finished off a big chunk of the book I am currently reading on our Kindle.
Our driver requested the day off on Saturday and since he pretty much works seven days a week permanently we try and plan our weekends to accommodate the off day. We ended up doing about nothing on Saturday except for catching up on the latest season of Bones. Somebody working with Teresa emailed us a link for watching some shows online and it works. I have tried a couple of websites but they are mostly blocked in India. We ended up watching twelve episodes on Saturday until two in the morning Sunday. We will be watching a couple more on Sunday evening.
Somebody told us during the week that we should try out "The Great Kebab Factory" and we went there on Sunday for lunch. It was ok but don't think we will be going there again soon. It was a little expensive for the amount of food we ate and it was not that good. There was a lot of food but we could not eat that much. It is a set menu and you pretty much eat whatever they have available. You start off with different kebabs and go on to a main course that consisted of Biryani and finish with some desert. Afterwards we went to Beyond Coffee to go and watch the Banjara Hillbillies play.
The IMAX Theater in Hyderabad
Subway at the IMAX Theater
The India Team
The place they had lunch at on Monday
They bring kebabs for starters and put them on these things.
I hate being sick and think I have done well until late this week. I woke up early Saturday morning with a burning chest, since then I have had a sore throat and missing voice. I feel a lot better today, being Sunday but my voice is still a little shy.
There is not much to report on again for this past week gone by. The strange thing for Teresa is that since we arrived in India she has met a lot of the people she works with in the company. Funny that she had to travel half way around the world to meet people she always works a lot with in the USA. She found out on Thursday evening that one of the gentlemen she works with regularly is in India for a couple of weeks and we met up with him on Friday afternoon for lunch. A really nice guy and hopefully we can spend some more time with him next weekend.
On Saturday we did not want to spend to much time at the house and after a nice lunch at Via Milano decided to just drive around for the afternoon. Ahmed drove us around in Secunderabad, the Twin City of Hyderabad. We went shopping in a store called "Coupons" and I finally got a new wallet, my previous one was falling apart. After spending a couple of hours driving around, shopping and having some Iced Coffee at some coffee shop we wanted to go somewhere for dinner. The problem was that there was something we really wanted to watch on BBC that evening at 8pm and all the good restaurants only open at 7 to 7:30pm. We ended up having chicken sandwiches at Beyond Coffee and decided to go out for dinner on Sunday. I have been craving the food of Angeethi for a while. They make North Indian food and have some of the best Naan in town.
A friend of my sister is also in town from Nashville, TN and we met up with her and another person that works with her. We took them out for lunch, gave them a quick tour around the lake and took them shopping at one of the tourist shops. After dropping them off at the hotel we enjoyed some coffee with them before coming home. We did not stay home long and left again for our dinner date that I have been looking forward to for the whole week. Angeethi is one off the top restaurants we have been to and is a favorite for many expats we know off. The food is always good and I love the Kulfi they make, Kulfi is a frozen milk desert.
A bunch of Auto Rickshaws at one of the office block.
Who needs these lights anyway, they just add weight to the car.
The Banjara Hillbillies.
Via Milano, our favorite Italian restaurant.
Via Milano
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Mickey was in town, well his Indian cousin was.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Some pictures taken during our drive in Secunderabad.
Angeethi
Angeethi
Some pickled Onions and Mango, the green stuff is mint chutney.
What is the World Speed Record for a week to go by, I am sure we just broke the current record.
There is a couple of American Expats that loves music and decided to start a Blue Grass band, they call themselves the "Banjara Hillbillies". Banjara Hills is a neighborhood in Hyderabad with lots of shops and restaurants. The Banjara Hillbillies are very informal and they play/practice every Thursday evening at Beyond Coffee, they also recently started playing/practicing on Sunday afternoons at the same venue. It makes for a fun evening/afternoon where everybody sits around in the corner and enjoys the music. I believe they actually have a couple of gigs coming up in the next couple of months. Way to go Banjara Hillbillies!
I have been referring to Beyond Coffee a lot and just to give everybody out there a refresher, it is local coffee shop that a couple of guys decided to open up. They officially opened up on June 18, 2010 so will be celebrating their first birthday soon. Beyond Coffee has achieved a lot in their first year and won the award for Best Coffee Bar in Hyderabad this year. The food is great and reasonably priced and we have been going there regularly the last couple of weeks for lunch.
We took a time out weekend and checked into a hotel. It was a local hotel but getting away from home and the normal routine was still great. We just treated ourselves to a relaxing weekend where we got spoiled by excellent hotel staff and food that included a Spa treatment on Saturday. We sat in the lounge area every evening and just listened to somebody playing the piano. On Saturday evening the pianist came to sit by us for a while and we had a nice long interesting talk with him. He is really talented and we wish him good luck with his future plans and career.
This was Friday Lunch before we left for the hotel weekend. It is a very nice little Italian place and I will write something about it next week. This was delicious by the way, thinly sliced chicken served on top of spinach and carrots.
This is made entirely of chocolate, it is on display at the restaurant in the hotel we stayed at.
Lounge/Lobby area at the hotel in the evening.
Swimming pool area at the hotel, I had a nice long swim and the water was just perfect!
Swimming Pool area at hotel.
Just some of the many water areas around the hotel, makes for great atmosphere
