Happy Easter to all!

So, half way came and half way went!  Our planning for our return to the United States is as far as it currently can be.  We know when we will vacate our apartment to move into the hotel, we have a pretty good idea on the dates that we will leave and we know that we will most probably be going to South Africa before we go to the United States.  If all goes well we will be well back in time for Thanks Giving 2011!

We are still positive that we will be able to squeeze in a trip to Singapore sometime towards end of June beginning July for about a week.  Be sure that I will keep you all up to date on those arrangements.

We had another quick week that I honestly cannot say much about, I did however attend a farewell for fellow South Africans that decided to go back to South Africa very suddenly.  They managed the News Cafe in Hyderabad but something came up and they had to go back.  They were excited to go back and we wish them all the best of luck back home, it was nice having them over here for the short time since we met them.  Friends of us hosted the farewell at their house and I made a Green Bean Stew with some Basmati Rice.  

Something I never thought I would ever see in India was a Blue Grass band and what do you know, we have our own Blue Grass Band playing at Beyond Coffee every Thursday evening.  The band consists of a couple of expats that loves music and they decided to form an informal band playing for fun at the coffee shop.  It makes for a fun evening every week with yet more opportunities meeting new people.  That is one thing that I love about being in India, I have never met so many great people in such a short time in my life.

We planned to spend our Easter Sunday at Ista Hotel for Easter Lunch but our driver asked Saturday if he could have the day off.  We decided he could have the day off and that would give us the chance to go and check out a restaurant that we have heard about and it is only a couple of minutes walk from where we live.  The food was exceptionally good and the short walk did us good, the place is called F-Cafe Lounge.

The start for our farewell dinner, I made a Green Bean Stew.

It was a lot of work processing all these green beans!

Cut up lamb shanks.

Lots of red onions.

The green beans went in after the meat, potatoes went in last.

The finished product, the only thing left was to eat it!

Our host, David!

And his sea aquarium. 

Martin, our News Cafe Manager going home!

It was better than what it looked like.

The Blue Grass Band playing at Beyond Coffee.

Entrance at F-Cafe Lounge

Front garden at F-Cafe.

Sitting in F-Cafe.

F-Cafe

They had some really good Mocktails.

This was one of the best garlic breads we have had in a long time, the garlic sauce was just as good.

Lebanese Lamb Kebabs with pita bread, I cannot describe it, just trust me when I say it was good!

Yeah, we were naughty!  Fried Ice Scream!!!!

Entrance at F-Cafe

Entrance at F-Cafe

Sign at the main road.

Entrance at our gated community.

All downhill from now??

The half way mark has just about reached us and we no longer have to say "One more month and then we are half way" but rather "Just a few more months".  Twenty three weeks to go before we move out of our apartment into the hotel and about twenty six weeks to go before lift off, give or take a couple of weeks depending in which country we decide to go for our visas.

These last couple of weeks I had a huge urge to visit Singapore again and I still do!  There is just something about that amazing country/city that I fell in love with.  We are still planning a visit there for about a week as soon as we are done planning our return trip to the USA.  I know it is six months away but some things have to be planned long in advance.  Mainly, will we travel via South Africa or will we fly to the USA directly from India.

This week was just another week, we had a couple of lunches at Beyond Coffee, a lunch at Novotel and a lunch at Via Milano, an small Italian restaurant with great inexpensive food.  A neat little place with the manager giving us his personal service and attention.  We love going there but always end up eating way  more than we intend to so we decided that it would become one of our over weekend dinner venues.  

We got caught in our first major rainstorm in Hyderabad on Friday, luckily we were in the car but it was raining hard!  We went for a quick Friday afternoon drive around the big Hussain Sagar Lake when we drove into this storm.  It felt pretty good as you could feel the temperatures drop immediately to a more comfortable level.  It was a good taste of what we could expect when monsoon season starts.

On Sunday we met up with another family from South Africa that arrived in Hyderabad, India only a couple of weeks ago.  They will be in Hyderabad, India for a couple of years and we wish them the best of luck in the new chapter of their lives. 

Driving up the wrong way on a highway, no problem.  Plenty of lanes to share....

This was taken a couple of kilometers outside Hyderabad, some International School for the extreme rich.

This was taken a couple of kilometers outside Hyderabad, some International School for the extreme rich.

The entrance to a 400 year old temple.

One of the pillars on a closer look.

A lake outside Hyderabad, it use to be the drinking water supply.  Not sure if it still is.

Driving across the Dam or dam wall for those in South Africa.

I don't think they are using building plans.....

No, this is not a SONY advert.  It is SONY Transportation Service.  No copy  rights in India....

Baptist Church, Hyderabad.

Digging up the road, we love the warning sign.

Hussain Sagar Lake

25 of 51

Week twenty five of fifty one, the half way mark is just around the corner.  The first six months has been a mix bag for us but it did go by quickly and looking back it was not all that bad.  Sure there were days that you think "Why did we ever do this?" but then you just go on and at the end of the day everything turns out good.  Just think about it, we have made good friends with great people in the last six months and we traveled to Singapore for New Year's and spend an amazing weekend in the Maldives.

During the past week Teresa spoke to the immigration lawyers about our return and things are in place to start the planning for our return to the USA.  Hopefully in the next week or so we will know if we will be staying in India for our USA Visa or if we will be traveling to South Africa to get that finalized after our year has passed.  To think that at this stage this is the only major decision we have to make, who can complain about that! 

The past week was not too bad, we had lunch earlier the week at a place we have not been to yet.  It is called "The Serengeti" and it is decorated like an African Jungle.  Similar to the "Rain Forest" in the USA for those that know it but not nearly as nice.  The big let down was that they only served Indian food and there was no sign of any African dishes on the menu, but the food was nice.

We popped in at Beyond Coffee a couple of times this week for lunch, they have a great light meal menu and the prizes are very affordable.  We will be going there more for lunch since it gives us a chance to get out more and that way we get to network more.

Saturday evening we had our friends, David and Nishi with their son, Ethan over for dinner.  I made us Bunny Chows that I have always loved from my Durban days.  For those that don't know what they are, you start of with a loaf of white bread, unsliced.  You cut it into thirds, quarters or half depending on the size of the loaf of bread and how hungry you are.  You can use the middle section of the bread but using the end parts are better suited for this use.  You cut out the inside and take it out in one piece, fill the hollowed out bread with a curry, in this case lamb curry and place the part of bread you took out back on top.  See attached pictures.  It was delicious and as always we had way too much to eat!

Sunday was our normal "get spoiled" day and I had a haircut with a proper head massage.  Teresa had a facial, the first one she had in a very long time.  The first remark the guy made who cut my hair was "your hair is getting thin, you are going bald!"  Now how do you reply to that?  I just said "Well thank you for pointing that out to me".  The head massage was great, he used a hot aromatic oil that he rubbed into my head and continued to massage my head, shoulders and arms for about twenty minutes.  After that my hair was steamed for ten minutes, washed and dried.  Teresa came out after her facial treatment and insisted that she will get this done more often.  I take it that she enjoyed it.

This is another exciting week lying ahead as we should know more of what will be happening when and how with our going home plans.  Stay tuned for any updates on that.

Don't know if he tried to safe on petrol/gas usage or if he wanted to float over the traffic but it looked  funny.  Anybody seen "Up Up and Away"?

South African Tourism advert across the road from Beyond Coffee.  "Chalo" means "Lets go" or "Shall we go"

Vegetarian Pizza at Beyond Coffee, very tasty.

I think that took some balancing.

St Joseph Cathedral in Hyderabad.

Clock tower at St Joseph Cathedral

Hyderabad Railway Station

Two Wheelers are multi purpose vehicles.

Serengeti Restaurant, Hyderabad.

Serengeti, Hyderabad

Part two from previous picture.

Helmets are not for head safety, don't really know what they are used for.

One way, what one way??

Breakfast with a smile!!

This is how you get your eggs when you order it "Over Medium", we will ask differently next time.

The bread that was used for the Bunny Chows.

The Curry that was used for the Bunny Chows.

The "Bunny Chow"