New beginnings

After packing up the house in Shanghai and saying our goodbyes we spent nearly three weeks in the UK sorting visas, having medicals, getting vaccinations, driving all over the place seeing family and celebrating Christmas and New Year.  Our flights to Chennai were finally booked for the 8 January and at just over 34 weeks pregnant I was cutting it fine.

Our flight went via Dubai which we were quite pleased about thinking it would be good to have time off the plane to stretch our legs.  However, due to delays on the first leg we ended up having to run through the airport to make the connection!

Chennai international airport was about as un-international as you can get.  It took quite a while to get through, firstly because I managed to fall over but luckily didn't trigger labour and, secondly we had to fill in about three landing cards each, an Ebola questionnaire and customs forms.  A good introduction to Indian bureaucracy.

Although it has been fifteen years since I was last in India, there was a definite familiarity as we left the airport.  We were met by two cars one of which took Sam and all the luggage and the other me and the boys.  As we waved Sam off I suddenly realised I had no phone and no idea where we were going.  Luckily the driver seemed to and we arrived safely at the serviced apartments.

Over the next week we settled in to our serviced apartment, visited the hospital and met my doctor, visited and enrolled the boys at a school and were taken round Chennai and lots of houses and apartments.  By the beginning of the second week the boys were in school, we had found a house and Sam started work again.  Most importantly we began to spot cows, much to William's and Oliver's relief!

On my birthday we found a lovely restaurant in a beautiful old house and grounds and had lunch. In the evening we ordered one of our now usual curries from the restaurant at our apartments.

We spent a fair amount of time at the pool on the roof of our apartment building.  Oliver and William have been in Asia too long as, despite the temperatures in the high 20s, they found the pool a bit cold.

To make us feel at home we even managed a 'back to school/work' afternoon tea and were very pleased that it cost half the price of the Shanghai equivalent and was in a hotel just as nice as the Peace Hotel.

The boys had a busy first couple of weeks at school with a trip and sports day which included a traditional sack race and an unusual picking up marbles with your feet event! We gradually began to settle in to a routine and await the arrival of the latest Hawkridge.