Day 1

OK - so full of good intentions, I am starting the blog straight away! We'll see if I can keep it up?

We have arrived after a thankfully, uneventful flight. Predictably, children slept and grown-ups didn't, but hey ho! Mia was most impressed with the "free food that we didn't even ask for" (though she barely touched it!). Flora was bemused by the curry for breakfast, but it smelt so good that I rather regretted opting for egg and beans!!

And so we got to Delhi. Which feels like a very long way from home - but is amazing. In fact, what is so odd is that we have seen many of the sights of India so often on the TV that it all looks surprisingly familiar - what is unfamiliar is that we are part of it. So we can hear and smell as well as see the tuk-tuks mingling with huge Toyotas, the chaotic driving, the motorbikes carrying whole families, the streetsellers etc etc.

We arrived through the posh side of town (past the embassies and the old colonial bungalows, which now belong to the Indian great and good) so what was most striking was actually how much greenery and space there is in this part of Delhi (still the same incessant car horn noise though!!).

Driving through town at midday meant that we saw hundreds of school children finishing for the day. Here school runs from 7am till noon, then the private schools (like the rather grand one at the foot of our hotel) do sports in the afternoon. Fancy being at school for 7am anyone?

And now we are in our hotel for night one - which is very nice and very clean and so air conditioned it is a bit chilly!! Scott, Ellie and Flora are all fast asleep. Mia (who slept soundly on the plane) has already written her diary for day one and drawn a picture (which shamed me into writing this!) and is now "just a little bit bored actually". Time for me to go, for now. Nikki x