一种生活

I didn’t forget my blog, but I really had no motivation to write anything these days. I’ve been quite busy recently. That only means I didn’t have lots of time at home and browsing the internet but nothing related to the things I was actually did. In fact, most of my time was on the road, wasted in those lots of traffic jams.

I finally booked the plane ticket to fly to China. There is direct flight from Bangalore to Chengdu, so I decided to stay in this famous “Heaven of Food” for a few days.
On one hand, I am quite excited of going back to China, being with my parents, meeting my friends and eating all the time; on another hand, I am quite sad of going to be separate with Olivier for next few weeks. Sharing the happiness with the beloved make me happier.

These few days, I will have to look for some gifts for my family and friends, I bought some Indian incense, Indian sweets, Indian spices, and I’m planning to buy some pashmina scarves for my grandma, my mother and aunts. I’m thinking of buying some Indian traditional dress for my cousins, but I wonder whether they will wear them.
The good thing comparing India to Singapore is, there are lots of choices of gifts, and you know it is hard to get such things outside this country.

很久不更新的原因之一，其实是因为，实在用英语写不出来啥……唉~~

My driver speaks Telugu, it is the 3rd most common language in India after Hindi and Bengali. However, the official local language in Bangalore should be Kannada. Most local people here can speak at least 3 languages, and I met quite many Indians who can speak/understand 5 or 6 languages. It might not be a difficult thing for a nation which has more than 400 languages, but it’s definitely something for me!
This is my name: ముహన్
This is Olivier’s name: ఒలివిఎర్
It is quite amazing to see our names in this kind of Indian languages, it is like some kind of drawing
I need to learn some simple things in these common Indian languages, and I found this online:

We went karting yesterday evening with Olivier’s colleagues. I didn’t enjoy it at all since there are thousands of mosquitoes flying around me all the time, even I kept moving, but still got many bites. However, there was one interesting moment that once Olivier went for the qualifying on the 8th lap, the power went off…and he finished the race in complete darkness! That was a very incredible experience Olivier had to go to work today, so I went to meet Lianlian. She has learnt oil painting for 2 years, and she can paint very well. After I visited the studio, I decided to learn with her and Yoyo…and I started my first class today. So from now on, every Tuesday and Thursday I will be busy in painting I have found my favorite oil painting, I hope I can paint as good as this…one day:

John constable, “The Hay Wain”

I have a very stupid disadvantage that I can’t hide secrets from Olivier…
After midnight last night, after Olivier went to bed, I put my secret gift into his bag. I was hoping that next morning he will find out before he leaves home, or he will find out in his office some time during the day, or of course, he might not notice my gift for the whole day…However, once I imagined how surprised he will be after he find my gift, I felt so excited…that I couldn’t wait to tell him!
So, after 2 minutes I put the gift into his bag. I run to the bedroom, jumped into the bed, kissed him and said “happy anniversary”…I told him I prepared a surprise gift! See? How surprised… that I told him!
That was 00:11 in the mid-night, and Olivier got up to find his surprise gift. It took him about half an hour after confirming several times with me that I PUT somewhere but not HIDE anywhere…he searched everywhere in the living room, even the fridge in the kitchen!
I was kind of worried that he couldn’t find it, and was going to give up…or just went back to bed… then how to end up the story. Luckily he finally noticed the edge of letter outside his bag.
I felt I was as excited as him at that moment. He got the gift out, and read… and turned to me… and I saw there were tears on his face. He said: It took me 6 years to get this. Well, that was because it took me 6 years to find this certificate in print, I answered.
However, he deserves it – Best Husband in the World!

I don’t feel very good to use the driver, so this morning after he came back from sending Olivier to work, I asked him to go home. I don’t know whether I was being too nice to him, but I hope he can appreciate I’m being nice

I bought a Levis trousers for only 680 INR (19.86 SGD), that is VERY cheap for Levis! Haha, within this week, I’ve bought 2 Levis already! Olivier was quite surprised that I actually have the ability to buy clothes without him companying.

I did a very stupid thing this evening, I was trying to cook mutton with mushrooms by following a recipe I found online. It said pour meat soup into 60% hot oil…There was no meat soup, so I used water instead. The problem is, once I noticed, the oil was too hot, and after I put about 100ml water, the oil/water began jumping everywhere, made a lot of smoke, and I did not dare to get close to put more water…It was really a disaster!

I want to be a good wife and take good care of Olivier…So I’m thinking of preparing a lunch box for him, though I haven’t decided when I will start doing it yet. I don’t know whether my good intention is enough to qualify me as a good wife or not

I was rather moody last few days. Though I didn’t feel moody all the time, I didn’t feel like writing…My brother finally passed all the army interviews, became an sergeant and left home last night. This morning, his mobile phone is confiscated, and we won’t know when we can hear from him again. I felt quite sad of his decision even though my family kept telling me the positive points as he will have a healthier life style, he will learn some more technologies, etc. I hope he can manage well in the army.

I began to use my hand to eat Indian food like local. It is far more simple to manage to use only fingers (better only 3 fingers in my understanding) without letting food touch the palm than my imagination. The most difficult part actually is due to the psychological reasons that we don’t feel comfortable to touch food by hands, especially to dig our fingers into the sauce.

Our driver began to work for us since this morning. I hope he is a nice person and not just acting. I was quite shocked he married his cousin…and I felt it is some kind of normal things here since when he told me, he was very happy with pride, but I feel quite shocked! India is going to challenge a lot of information gained in my life, like eating with the hands: I was told it is not clean, but everyone here use their hand to eat; like intermarriage, there is even law in China to against such marriage, but it is quite normal here; like guys hands in hands, which always made me feel only gays do so, but it is also normal among Indian men…Incredible India!

This was the first time Tina got out of the flat since we arrived India. There are much more people in this condo compared with the apartment we lived in in Singapore, there are monkeys and stray dogs around, and to be honest, I feel Tina doesn’t like Indians, or is rather scared by Indian…
We drove about 15km with me holding her tight all the way. She was scared by the trucks passing by, but she was much more relaxed on the way back. I’m happy to bring her around, I believe this can make her a little more brave

Checking whether the smell is safe.

The car was not moving.

Getting comfortable.

Two of my best friends told me they are going to get married on 15 August. We were in the same class in high school for 3 years, we sat very close to each other at that time…After graduating from high school, two of them became a couple. They’ve known each other for 13 years and finally they have decided to get married!
Because I was not in China all those years, I wasn’t able to attend any of my friends weddings, and besides a friend who still has no boyfriend yet, all of my friends are married.
I really want to go back for her wedding, and also because I want to see my little brother off as he is going to join the army quite soon. He signed a 7 years contract…I am afraid it will be much more difficult to see him after he becomes a soldier.
However, I’m still holding a single entry visa of India. “Thanks” to their efficiency, my extension of long term multi-entry visa hasn’t been submitted yet! And there is such a stupid rule by the immigration that for single entry visa, after left India, I can’t re-apply visa in next two month! Which means if I leave India any time soon without visa extension, I will not be able to come back!
Every time I think of this, I want to say the “F” word! I’m like in a huge prison right now, can’t go back to Singapore, can’t go back to China!

We finally received the car last night. At 6 in the evening when we called the seller, he told us his brother was on the way to my house, and they made us wait until 9 pm! I was VERY pissed off by letting others wait for no reason, especially there is mobile phone nowadays, I don’t understand why can’t they just give us a call to change the time if they can’t make it!
I was happy to see the car initially, but after checking the car, I became more pissed off! Those parts they promised to fix are not fixed well at all, like the rearview mirrors, they replaced with another second hand unadjustable one; they used double-side taps to stick the chromes of the car door…It is nothing like what the seller told us of we don’t need to do anything after purchasing the car! And there are some more serious scratches!
I was feeling kind of cheated, I have no bias to Indians, but I really don’t like the way they deal with things by some of them. I admit there are such kind of Chinese as well, just I’m not used to it any more.
Olivier really likes the car, so finally we got 7,000 Rupees discount and bought the car. Hope we can successfully transfer the ownership of the car, and no more other issues.

Olivier is very happy to get this car, but I think he is rather happy of DRIVING HIS car, but not so much particularly this one. Since after living in Singapore for 6 years, he seldom drives and his old car in France was sold long time ago. I always know that he misses driving a lot.
It happened several times today that he suddenly began to laugh stupidly and mumbling “I have a car now!”…I’m happy to see his happiness.

I don’t like the rain here, it was raining since I got up this morning, until now…it is 22:30 at the moment and it is still raining outside. I would prefer the rain in Singapore…
I had no motivation to do anything, even feel lazy of browsing internet. I felt asleep while I was reading in bed this afternoon, that didn’t make me feel any better after I woke up. Luckily Laura was here for the rest of the afternoon, I was not so bored.

Our car was supposed to arrive this evening, but at around 7 pm, the seller called and found some excuses for not coming…I hope everything can go well tomorrow.
Sigh, when can we finish all the housework?! How can I have motivation to do all the sorting?!?!