Apartment, running track, almost a panic attack et al

Well, the apartment is coming along well or at least that is what it seems, most of the carpentry work has been done and they are ready to start painting. We still do not have a maid or a driver, although Agusta has been emailing all the expatriate women associations. We are hoping that we can move into the apartment by the end of next week.  There is absolutely no facility for me to train for the Mumbai marathon unless I run through the garbage, a million cars or people. I got a ray of hope when I heard about the “Joggers Park”, Agusta, Mira and I entered (there was an entrance fee of Rs.5 approximately 10 krona for the 3 of us) to find the track was 420 meters long! I would have to run 25 rounds to complete 10 km!!! I have to say it has been really disheartening that I might have to train on the treadmill. I am planning to reach out to some of the runners in Mumbai to see if there are any trails that I am not aware of.  

Agusta and I almost had a panic attack on Thursday while we were stuck in traffic on the way to pick up Mira. We left from a place called Anderi which is typically about 30 minutes from the School; we left the place 45 minutes before Mira´s school finishes… lo and behold, we were hit by the perfect traffic jam it took us almost 1 hour and 45 minutes before I ran to Mira´s class. Thank God for Cell phones, we were able to call the school and inform her teacher that we are stuck in traffic. You could imagine the feeling that Agusta and I was experiencing, it was Mira´s second day in school and already we were facing one of the major problems in Mumbai… the horrible traffic! We did not know what to do other than tell each other that we can do nothing other than hope that we get there on time and we already did everything we possibly could, other than jump out of the car, find a helicopter and fly to Mira´s School. Mira was very happy playing in the class with all the fun toys they have and did not notice anything. I think Agusta and I were cursing ourselves that we should have left much before than 45 minutes the end of Mira´s class. It was scary and made me realize that there are things that you could possibly do nothing about and then you just close your eyes, breath and pray!

 Mira has been obsessed with Krishna – one of the mythical Gods of India. I have read the Krishna stories to her in Iceland but since she has been to Mumbai she has been obsessed! She has been demanding that we should go to the Krishna temple, which we plan to do tomorrow. She has been mesmerized looking at all the Krishna statues and paintings, temples and notices about events related to Krishna. It is ironic that Mira is the name of a woman saint who was devoted to Krishna. Also Mother real name Mirra, a saint that I believe in and Mira was named after was born in France but ended up as a saint in India. The story goes that she had dreams about Krishna and finally she moved to India and started an ashram in Pondicherry with followers from all over the world… it is all very weird to us the obsession of Mira to Krishna. In addition, she has been asking all kinds of questions about Gods and Religion, Agusta and I are having a lot of “Fun” explaining everything to her.

Athugasemdir

[Thuy (IP-tala skráð) 25.8.2008 kl. 16:36]

It seems that you have to know a bit of Icelandic to comment on the blogs!  Everything you guys blog about sounds very exciting (sometimes frustrating tho).  The apartment looks ultra modern - I love it!  I can't wait to see more pictures.