Sunday, moving day.  As you can imagine we werent expecting it to go smoothly, let alone happen at all.  Our first problem of the day, the keys.  We had met with the owner on Saturday night and he had told us we could c0llect  the keys from the Society Manager (building manager) on Sunday morning at 9am.  So Chris went down at 9am to find only an electrician here and told that the Manager doesnt get in until 10am on Sundays.  We asked if the electrician could open the place for us to start moving, but no, even though he had access to the keys this was not allowed, we had to wait for the Manager.  So about 10.15am we finally got the keys from the wanker Manager.

Now the next problem is we have no workers to move anything.  The organizer of the affair from Chris’s office has neglected to collect the workers  from the meeting point just two kilometres away and has instead told them to walk here, they of course turn around and go home pissed off.  So a call to the logistics manager from Chris’s office gets another driver to go to the homes of these workers to get them here.

So all at once at around 11.30am, two and half hours late, we have the workers in place and the airconditioner movers working and it begins at a frantically slow pace.  Of course Chris and myself being normal people have packed up 99% of the place and at the disgust of Chris’s fellow office workers  have started to move some stuff already.  There is two reasons we did this, we didnt want our personal items either smashed or stolen (apparently this is common), and we didnt want it to take 15 hours to complete.

So we have four older men of what appears to be the Dalit caste and serverly undernourished, moving our stuff.  But they worked hard, and need a lot of direction which was supposed to be given by Dipanker but unfortunately he wasnt much help.  We had matresses in the living room, couches in the bedroom and the poor people walking up stairs when they could have been using the elevator.  We then had a water issue.  We didnt have any in bottles and the workers requested some (not unusal as it was feekin hot), Dipanker then decided that he was the boss and that they wouldnt have any water until he said so, even though we asked him to go and gave him money and get some.

At 2pm we had a stop work as it was lunch time.  Chris gave Dipanker money and told him to get them lunch, we dont know what they got but think that Dipanker pocketed most of the money.

Then we had some more problems, this apartment being never lived in had some wiring issues, hardly surprising! We had switches on the walls that actually weren’t connected to anything, the outlets were live. This created much problemos for the people installing the air conditioners, they couldn’t grasp the fact that to stop the flow of electrons you simply turn off the circuit breaker! But we need not worry as the main power supply went out at about this time, and we switched to generator which means the aircon outlets power supply wont work anymore or until the main supply is restored (as of writing this (11am Tuesday) the main supply has been off now for 48 hrs!!)

So we have the furniture in the apartment, and the airconditioners installed… next problem is we have no gas, and no satellite tv. The Satellite Tv problem is easy to fix, its called money. With Rs350 ($7) the installer will come out on a sunday and do it ‘after hours’, ie today on a sunday on the sly without the company knowing. Otherwise we would have to wait 30 days for a normal apointment to move the system to the new apartment.  So within 20 minutes of making the call, the installer is here for the tv… great but what about the gas?

Gas is a bigger problem, even though we have a meter and a on/off tap, there is no flow of gas. The gas man did promise to turn it on today, but alas he has not appeared. This wouldnt be a problem normally except for the fact we have no electricity to even power the toaster, let alone the microwave. So its cheese sandwiches and beer for dinner!

Ahh, its 6pm they have all left, just us, mess, plastic bags, 40 degree heat, no electricity to run the airconditioners, but we do have generator power to run the fridge , ceiling fans and some lights so at least we have cold beer and hot air blowing around us!

Never again to we want to have to go through a house move in India! And this was only moving from the apartment building thats next door (they are actually joined these building too) . We miss hiring a Penske or Uhaul truck and the simply way of getting worker in the US (illegal immigrants from the street corner) to help you move.

We have made  a change moving into the larger apartment, we now have a sweep and swab lady that comes everyday.  For RS2000 a month ($US41) five days a week we have someone come in and clean the floors and bathrooms, I cant lie, I love not having to do it, in this heat the animals shed constantly so its always dirty, so its nice to have someone else do it.

The title of the post “Plus a little for me” ? Well this is from the gas man, on monday he came to connect the gas supply, and close off the other apartments supply( the gas suppply in these building we live is plumbed in like in the west, but what feeds is interesting. The building gas supply is fed by a shed full of small 20 kg gas bottles, there must be 200 of them in there, all connected by rubber hoses to the building gas main…not very safe me thinks). We had to pay him Rs50 ($1) for this service. He writes out the receipt I hand him the money. He then looks at me, as if I should be giving him something more…. what to do ? He then says the phrase “Plus a little for me” , so I hand over more…although a little too much… Rs200 ($4). Of course as in all things in India money buys friends, he now offers me his personal cell phone number and to call him directly if there is any problems he will come out any time. Sometimes you love India!

Some pics of our new place, hold your mouse over each pic for what it is, this apartment we now have it 2 story, with 3 bedrooms/4 bathrooms. The bedroom on the lower level is for the servant, and the upstairs are has a little garden.

Some outdoor pics from our apartment

This is the mall and looking at the airport in the distance…

This is the low cost housing behind our building

Looking towards the city

Kids the in apartment pool

This is the 4th floor apartment we were going to rent, it too had a garden but not very private at all

The top floors of these buildings have triplexes on them, with huge outdoor areas, this one is getting painted