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(No, I’m not talking about the Australian soap opera…)
After 5 months in Basingstoke, we still only know one set of neighbours. The couple at the end of the road have the same type of house as us, so we have talked a couple of times, about the house, the development, etc. Last week, the husband popped in to ask Jon about some plumbing stuff and decided then to meet up for tea on the following Sunday (aka, yesterday).
They are a lovely couple from North India (Delhi, I suppose, I didn’t ask exactly where), have been in the UK for 4 years and they have a very cute and funny 3-year-old son.
We got to their house at 4 o’clock as agreed, and I must admit that I wasn’t sure of what to expect. We looked online beforehand for what the polite thing would be regarding gifts. We wanted to take something as a thank you for the invite, but were unsure about their traditions and customs. We settled for some chocolate truffles and some cinnamon rolls (they almost rejected the gifts, arguing that it was far too formal, but we insisted and they took them in the end)
After the formal introductions*, we sat down in the sofa, had some tea and cake (our truffles and rolls were nowhere to be seen…) and started to chat.
We got on very well. Better than I thought. I must admit my ignorance about the Indian culture in general (this was the first time I met some proper Indians) and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised of how “western” they were both in behaviour and way of thinking. Apart from their Indian accent, I couldn’t tell any different from any other couple from anywhere else in the western world.
We chatted and chatted and we were all quite comfortable, even with the almost-hyper-active kid, who kept calling us “uncle” and “auntie” all the time. We talked about India, about Spain, about England, their food, our food, houses, children, education and many many more subjects. I was pleased to see that they were very open to talk about anything, even financial stuff.
We have set a date for a proper diner where we will have both traditional Spanish and Indian food (they think that the Indian food that you get here in restaurants has nothing to do with the real stuff – exactly the same as with Spanish restaurants!) and I must admit that I am really looking forward to it!
I believe this could be the beginning of a great friendship!
*We have a massive problem, and it’s that even after having repeated their names a couple of times, we still struggle to remember the wife’s name! We remember the husband’s and the kid’s, but not the wife… Doh! It’s definitely a two-syllable word, with a k and and a in it…
I have never considered myself an extremely intelligent person. I think I am clever enough (aka, not stupid) and I learn quickly when something interests me. However there is still one subject out there that baffles me and completely frustrates the little intelligence I’ve got. The subject, of course, is the Universe.
I must admit that I have never tried to read any Stephen Hawking’s books (I hear that A brief history of time and The universe in a nutshell are good reads, however I’ve never been bothered) and back at University I had a friend studying Quantum Physics who I used to bore with endless questions that got answered but not understood.
My main and most concerning problem with the Universe is that I simply don’t get the whole “the universe is infinite” thing. Reading this article in the BBC News website hasn’t helped my life-long frustration with the matter. The article states that the Universe will probably expand forever.
Expand? Forever?
Now, those are two terms that my simple mind can’t associate with the Universe. I find it extremely difficult to start to imagine an entity such as the Universe that has been expanding since its creation back in the Big Bang days. I can imagine a balloon expanding. You put too much air on it and it will go boom!. There is a limit to it. It is not infinite. The Universe, however, seems to be able to keep growing indefinitely in the “space” around it.
What is that space? What was there before? Where was it? Where did it come from?
The problem is that there isn’t an easy-out-of-the-box answer for these questions and I have got a feeling that I may never get to understand them, despite my wanting to understand.
(Oh, and please, the answer being “God” is not an option, because -apart of me not believing that there is a god- then where did that god come from? what was there before it? etc etc etc) The never-ending story..
Second entry of my special series on new words…
Today’s new word is: Broody.
The first time I heard this word (or at least the first time that it entered my concious mind) was just yesterday. I had to look it up on the internet and it made me laugh – not because of the actual meaning of the word, but because it has entered my vocabulary in such a time in my life.
Broody, according to the Merriam Webster, means “being in a state of readiness to brood eggs that is characterized by cessation of laying and by marked changes in behavior and physiology“. That confused the hell out of me, so a second opinion is always welcome. The Macmillan Dictionary was more spot on: “wanting to have a baby“.
It is not really fresh news the fact that I have been wanting a baby for a little bit. The person who actually uttered the sentence to me was quite right, but I had to pretend otherwise (a workmate, whose wife just had a baby, emailed me a video of the kid, with the sentence below: Enjoy. I hope it doesn’t make you broody”, to which I replied -after finding out the meaning of the word- “Oh no! we’re quite happy with just the cat for now”)
And to some extent, Tom has somehow temporarily filled in that little gap. But of course it is not the same. He is preparing the path for us, making sure that we get used to a cute tiny creature crying for food all the time and waking us up at 4 in the morning everyday…
However, we’re not being blessed just yet. We have to keep trying (harder, I must admit) and keep wishing that a little creature (who can compete with the cat for our attention) will be with us at some point in the near future.
There is always a very annoying character in each TV series that I start watching. I am about to go and watch an episode of Dexter, and I can’t help but hope that his sister dies soon, please, die now.
These are some of the most annoying characters that I’ve come across in the last few years:
Debra Morgan in Dexter
The overacting and not-such-a-good-actress sister of Dexter, I almost cried when she didn’t die in season 1….
Kim Bauer in 24
She’s the daughter of Mr Sexy Voice, but still I can’t stand her. We’ve only seen 2 or 3 seasons of 24, but I hear that she’s still on it. Doesn’t anyone ever kill her? No? Shame…
Veronica Donovan in Prison Break
Lawyer, friend, ANNOYING. So glad when she was shot!
We have finally had our first official visitor staying in the guest room this month. My mum came to stay for 4 and a half days last week and her visit was, if anything, a tiny bit eventful.
It all started when her suitcase never turned up in the baggage reclaim belt in Heathrow’s Terminal 3. My poor mother speaks no English so she felt (understandably) quite lost in such a big foreign airport. She came out to the Arrivals area to look for me and explained what had happened. I spoke to several people (and almost got into a stupid fight with a security guy as well) trying to find out what to do next, and I was sent around the terminal trying to find this place where I was supposed to meet the British Airways guy. I am not going to go into any details, but let me just say that it was a frustrating experience due to the lack of accurate information that I was given and also stressful – very stressful.
We had to return home, suitcase-less and tired, having filled in a “lost baggage form” and having lost any hope of seeing the suitcase ever again (and sad, thinking that most probably someone else was enjoying the jamón serrano, lomo ibérico and pipas that my mum had brought for us). We were given a “lost baggage reference” and a telephone number to call in order to keep track of the status of the case. We were still hopeless.
Jon finishing building the bed
Luckily, we had finished the guest bedroom just a couple of days before, so my mum was able to come home and enjoy the comfort of a new bed and freshly painted room (despite the paint being yellow, her least favourite colour 
) She really liked the room, which is one of the best critiques we could have had, since I know my mum is quite fussy with these things. So her liking the room was a huge compliment.
The suitcase had been left in Málaga and was delivered back to us the following day in the afternoon.
The second big “event” was going to Windsor with Jon’s parents on Monday. It all started great, we went on one of those Sightseeing double decker buses that take you around the town and surroundings. The weather was great for it and we really enjoyed it. My mum kept praising how green everything was, loved seeing the swans on the river and was fascinated about the architecture.
However it all turned a bit sour when we stopped for lunch and suddenly my mum fell ill. She got low blood pressure and was feeling dizzy and sick. Apparently this happens quite often to her and the only way for her to get better is to lay down and be very quiet. Solution? Rushing back to Basingstoke (about 1 hour drive from Windsor) to get her to bed. It did spoil what was turning out like a great day out but I suppose her well-being is far more important than walking around Windsor Castle.
So, yeah, our first official visitor to the house loved the house and all the garden space, the area around the house (despite most of it still being built), Basingstoke shopping centre, etc… We were a bit sad that we had had so many unfortunate events happening in just four days, but hey, that’s life. Nothing ever turns out like one plans.
We are now ready to take our next visitor, next month. Let’s see if he thinks the same about the place!
