The binmen always rings twice!

Every morning 7 on the dot! You can set your watch by them, use them as an alarm call or ask them to make you some toast, they would do it for you no problem. You open the door and they come in to your kitchen, pick up the rubbish and off they pop with huge grins on their faces with a quick pat on the kid's head's as they go. Did I mention it is every morning? Sorry I am still in shock. None of this alternate week collection,micro-chip's in bins' and make sure the bin is no more than 5 ft off your property on collection day here in Delhi. This is all done for the princely sum of 150rps per month, about £2 in your money!

It is quite staggering to see the work ethic of the people here. Within 2 hours of being in our beautiful new home we had the following job applications:-

3 drivers
4 house-keepers
2 gardeners
2 front of house sweepers
2 back of house sweepers
1 security guard
1 curtain maker
2 furniture suppliers
3 cooks
1 babysitter

Now you may think there is some poetic license in this list but I can assure you it is true.,I have their phone numbers to prove it. If anyone wants them let me know, you could employ one of each for a quarter of the salary of a UK bin man! Here- in lies the fundamental difference between India and the UK. Everyone wants to better themselves, everyone wants to work, everyone knows the value of a rupee, everyone knows how to be polite and helpful and most of all, they all know how to do something that we have forgoten in the UK. How to smile!! Without exception, since we have been here everyone I have passed in the street has smiled at me or said hello. Rafa actually thinks I am famous! He asked me yesterday while walking around Khan market:
"Daddy why does everyone know you"?
I asked what made him think that?
"Everywhere we go people say hello sir and want to give you things"!
Obviously the people trying to give me things where in fact trying to sell me things, but hey why shatter the poor boy's illusions? He has 7 teenage years where he will think I am a complete tosser so a years worth of hero worship now seems a fair trade off.

So we are in our new house. I can finally sit on my throne as the Indianhousehusband, beat my chest and do some metaphorical territorial pissing! It is fantastic! More than I had ever dared imagine. "A" has done a fantastic job in finding the perfect place. For those that know Delhi we are in the South in a place called Shanti Niketan. If you haven't got sat. nav. just leave Connaught Place on the sth. inner circle, chuck a left onto Mother Theressa boulevard, straight over the roundabout, left onto Teen-murthi Marg, perform an illegal u-turn onto Panchseel Marg and you are there. If you can't find us just look for a crowd of people. That will probably be our gaff as people tend to que up outside waiting to get a glimpse of the the bohemoth babaloo or Silas as we prefer to call him!

In the first weekend we have employed a gardener, sweeper and house-keeper. Had sky installed, the marble floors polished, furniture telephone and broadband installed, gas connection done, air con and curtains fitted and found a chai waller! Can you imagine how long all that would take in the UK? It took 2 weeks to get someone to remove a safety tag off the incoming gas valve last time we moved house, we all ate pot noodles for a fortnight. So as you can probably tell life so far is superb, I am even settling into my house keeping chores with great aplomb. I am organised for the first time in ages. I know how many scoops to use in Silas's bottle, I know what all his cries and wails are, I know where Rafa's pants are kept, I know where my pants are kept, I can operate the washing machine and the oven and finally understand that some items of laundry need ironing and they don't in fact come out of the machine ready pressed. More to the point I now have the pleasure of saying to "A" when she asks where something is:-
"Why don't you look for it"
Revenge of the house husband is going to be sweet!