Nathan Sawaya is cooler than you, and me and everyone else when it comes to making things out of Legos.  We were lucky to catch this exhibition when we were in Singapore. If you get a chance to see this, do it. It's amazing!

Remember that line from dazed and confused, where the cute red headed chick says, "I'm gonna just you know get drunk, maybe get laid or get in a fight"….well that line came to mind after our little scuffle on Saturday night.  Scuffle?!!!!! Oh dear, what happened?  Hell if I know.  One minute we were out having a great time with our friends, dancing to music at the Zuri hotel dance club, the next minute I'm flying through the air while trying to get to my car. Yup.  This is India, shit happens and today, three days later I am still not sure why me and a couple of my friends went flying through the air and why we were in the middle of an angry mob.  The funny thing is it doesn't even matter.  It was still a fun night out, we add another story to the collection of many interesting things that happen here, and when anyone asks me what happened my version is going to include how I whipped out some Uma Thurman Kill Bill moves and karate chopped my way outta there.  Okay, so the pic to the left is misleading.  Yes, it's a broken foot, no it's not mine.  Yes it happened on the night of the scuffle, but no...wish I could tell you it was from my pal doing some serious ass kicking but alas it was from a skipping jaunt to the bar.  Yes, she skips, and unfortunately her foot got stepped on accidentally and though she went on to dance the night away, she did so with a very swollen, broken foot.  Ouch!

But before the rumble in the jungle on Saturday night there was Friday and Friday started off beautifully with two great morning events.  TISB presents Science Day!!!!!!!!  Bruce's KG1A class had all kinds of songs and skits about animals and science.  It was amazing to hear the knowledge that the kids had about different animals as well as a lot of different science experiments.  They explained "sink or float", taught us about what was soluble and insoluble and let's not forget the magic of magnets!!!!

As you can see our cutie pie was a zebra and may I just say that he was the best zebra ever? He really was:).  Bruce taught us that zebras sleep standing up, that they belong to the horse family and that they run sideways when chased!  During the experiments presentation Bruce had a cup with water and paper clips in it.  He explained that he was going to show us "magic". He asked me to put my finger in the cup and see if my finger could raise the paper clip, (it could not:) then he used a magnet from outside the cup to raise the paperclip out of the cup, see.....magic! Bravo!!!

Science day was wonderful and the only damper on the occasion was that John couldn't attend.  I look forward to seeing what the kids come up with next year.  

Fast forward to after Science Day morning, our awesome friend Lynden hosted a beautiful morning with Kate Bracks, 2011 winner of Masterchef Australia.   Kate is every bit as nice and funny and sweet as she is on TV.  She shared recipes, experiences of the show, signed autographs and was just the loveliest lady. The women attending were treated to get this, APPLE SHAKES, chocolate yummies of every kind, desert EVERYTHING and a bag of awesome swag! After the demo we enjoyed an incredible lunch there at the Marriott.  My gosh, we ate, we laughed, we ate and ate some more.  Thank you Lynden and Matthew for hosting such an amazing event, the Marriott Whitefield delivers on a grand scale, I honesty don't know how we survived our first year here without them and the amazing restaurants Matthew has put together in such a short time in Bangalore. Unbelievably amazing. 

But my day wasn't over yet!  Not even close.  After the Marriott I headed for my appointment to get my second fraxel laser treatment.  Yes, I am finally trying to do something about the sun damage on my face and acne scars..those of you who have seen me without makeup, hell even with makeup know that my face has issues.

Have any of you thought of doing fraxel? I have a couple of friends who have had these treatments and their skin looks soooooo good.  My skin in pretty badly damaged so I don't expect the same kind of results but if I come even close, one quarter of looking as good as my friends do, I will be a happy lady.  My experience so far has been varied.  The first time I did it I felt like I was going to jump off the table and run home.  It hurt that badly.  But….I realize now that the numbing gel probably wasn't applied as long as it should have been, most likely my fault, as I am always in a rush!  My last treatment on Friday, the numbing cream really worked, so the pain was less intense, totally do-able but the chaos in that office has me contemplating another doctor for the same treatments.
Looking at the pics I have posted you will see how my face looks almost sunburned in a lot of the pics, that's normal after the treatment.  It should dry and peel soon too I believe, and hopefully a few more times of this and I'll have better looking skin.  One can hope right? I'll keep you posted.

Leaving you with some pics of our fab night out on Saturday, I swear I love these guys/gals.  Bangalore is fun, so much fun with them to hang out with.

Remember the movie Driving Miss Daisy? Yeah, me neither.  I never saw it.  I only remember the title. And every time Shankar drives me somewhere and I start singing and or dancing in the car, or have a mini meltdown over something idiotic, a flashback of the trailer of that movie comes to mind except in my head it's, "Driving Miss Crazy". I've often wondered what Shankar thinks of my singing out loud when I'm in a good mood, dancing when the beat just gets me and my rants and raves when India won't do things the logical, easy, common sense way.

I think I have probably taken my driver for granted and perhaps I am now paying the price. Shankar has been the other man in my life for over a year now. I see more of him than I ever have of my husband and perhaps sometimes I'm not very easy to be "married to".  He is privy to my happiness, my hurts, my anger, my incredulous thoughts over craziness in this town, my confusion, my sadness, my joy.  I wear my heart on my sleeve.  It's a life long curse, a personal characteristic that I wish I could get a handle on, but never seem to master. 

It's this wonderful trait of mine that I believe caused my driver to start feeling unappreciated and not happy in his position with us. When he would do things "the hard way" or not do something in a timely manner or screw something up, or just maybe do things that would irritate me or cause me to instruct him to do things differently, I caused him to "lose face" and he decided that he was no longer happy in our employ. 

So what happened?  If I wrote it all down it would just seem ridiculous and in reality it is ridiculous. To us it is ridiculous.....to Shankar, well it was enough that he gave us a month's notice to find another driver and then the very next day ask for his job back. 

I need to back up and tell you that as an expat, who's company does not allow us to drive our own vehicles, or at the very least strongly suggests that we get a driver here, your driver is the most important person on your staff. The driver will get your husband to work on time, get you to your kids bus stop in one piece, navigate these treacherous roads, pot holes and cows and tuk tuks and whatever else happens to be on the "all way" road.  If he is a good driver he will make your life easier and will help you in every single way you can imagine. He will save you money from those trying to over charge you, he will become a good friend to your children, sometimes even playing babysitter, a friend to your friends, he will be your interpreter, he will be a walking information book on India customs, festivals, poojas, he will be your champion, and you may start to consider him as family. John and I would joke that as much time as Shankar and I would spend together on a daily basis he was my "other husband".

Well my other husband wanted a divorce on Saturday and by Sunday night wanted to get back together. The issues that made him want to leave us have now become bigger issues and somewhat confusing.  We find his reasons to be immature and unprofessional and they keep changing every time we discuss. He quit and had us scrambling to try and find a replacement and then after a day of calling potential drivers and interviewing, Shankar came over and told us he made a mistake and did not want to leave us after all. 

Dilemma. In a world that is not India (meaning things are just so hard here).......I think we would understand that people make mistakes and possibly laugh it off and shake hands and say of course you are like family, all is forgiven let's be family again.  But here, the whole saving face issue, knowing that their pride and being right is more important than perhaps their job....makes it difficult to believe that this won't happen again. There is a trust that develops between you and your staff and once the trust bond that you build gets torn down it is very hard to rebuild. Once someone has "quit you and your family" it is hard not to take it personal, distrust and feelings of betrayal settle in. When there are so many conflicting "reasons" for the initial breakup, it becomes harder and harder to figure out if this "relationship can be saved" or it is just best to move on.

We are emotionally invested in Shankar and his family and thought he was emotionally invested in us.  I know some of you are thinking, "Cynthia, what did you do?".  Believe me I have been asking that since Saturday when he resigned but the answers that he gave us had more to do with him and less with me.  Therefore leading John and I to think that it might just be better if we part ways as he had requested on Saturday.  I am still very confused on what is really going on here as his story keeps changing and in the end, when the trust is gone, it's over. Right?

Do I sound nonchalant about this? I don't mean to.  It's all I have thought about since Saturday.  And since Sunday night when he changed his mind I have been conflicted on what to do.  John is traveling so we told him we would make a decision upon John's return and in the interim we should all take a step back and think about what is the best course forward.

No matter what we decide, I am sad. Sad because a trust and bond has been broken. Bummed because we trusted him with our child, our lives, our money, we care about him his wife his children, his sister, his brother, their parents.  Believe me when I tell you we are generous with our staff and take care of them.  Now I worry what will we he do if we don't agree to let him stay on.  What was he planning to do when he decided to quit? I go back and forth, weighing the pros and cons, wondering what is the right thing to do. I don't want my decision to be based on emotion, I don't want to bite off my nose to spite my face. You might be wondering if it's my decision or mine and John's decision. Yes it's our decision but my thoughts will be the deciding factor as John and I have always made it clear that while he pays the salary, I'm the boss to our staff as I spend the most time with them and they get their instructions from me. 

I'm not going to sleep well even though I don't have to make a decision tonight. I can sleep on it.  Let me sleep on it, I'll give you an answer in the morning.....or not.  But I think we all know which way the wind is blowing.

So...... do you now have that song stuck in your head now?

Baby, baby let me sleep on it....let me sleep on it, I'll give you an answer in the moooor-or-ning. When are we going karoke?

Wish me luck.