Living in the Land of Fire

Yeah I know I really suck…..

Melanie — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:59:23 +0000

So despite my various promises to myself and others I realise that I am generally a failure at this blogging business. I do have a few excuses but none of them hold much water. My excuses for being a slacker are….

I am actually fairly busy during the day and the time I do have on the internet during daylight hours I tend to spend catching up on message boards and facebook.
Despite the fact that the stats counter thingy says that people do read this thing I dont really believe it so Im never sure if I am just rambling to myself.
I’ve had a few people say some pretty mean things to me about my life lately because apparently its my fault that their lives suck and mine kinda doesn’t. That makes me not want to talk about my life.

So ignoring the first two excuses I am just going to have a quick rant about the last one. I promise it will be over in a flash.

I know that when I talk about living in Baku it all sounds rosey and for the most part my life is. However that doesn’t mean its all sunshine and smiley faces. Parts of expat life suck no matter where you are. You are away from your family (and although sometimes they drive me batshit crazy I do miss them a lot because I love them a lot). You know that your friendships in your new home however deep they become and they do evolve in to real friendships very quickly are essentially temporary and that is sad, we all know we will be moving on at some point and even though we can keep in touch via email etc we may never see one another again. Over the last month or so I’ve become friends with a lovely American woman who shares my love of pointing at camera at everything and shopping for purses and now she’s leaving in 3 weeks time. While people back home can sit online and order their groceries from Asda, I get to go to 8 different shops in the same day all at opposite ends of the city only to find that the entire place is devoid of chicken nuggets which is the only bloody thing my daughter wants to eat that day. How can somewhere run out of chicken nuggets for Gods sake? I’ll tell you how, because its Azerbaijan and thats life. I never had to check my food for mould and bugs before purchasing it in Tesco, the same can not be said for shopping in Baku.

Yes I have a nanny and she is sent from God. You try taking your kid out with your everywhere in a country where everyone and anyone thinks its ok to pick her up, touch her and kiss her and your kid really doesn’t like it, oh and all in a city where TB and hepatitis is rife. It turns whats already a crappy grocery shop into a living bloody nightmare. So she stays at home and finger paints with her nanny, she is happier, I am happier and so is her nanny because she has a job.

In England you turn your tap on and low and behold you have water! That is not always the case for me, because in Badamdar your house is not connected to the mains and your tank might run out and guess what you wont know that until its already happened. You can drink your water, I on the hand am likely to spend a few days ill in bed if I try that.

So yes people my life is cushy in lots of ways, but in lots of ways its sucks just like yours. My problems may no longer be whether I can pay the gas bill but that doesn’t mean I dont have any at all.

Ok I will stop with the ranting now because I have more brewing and I promised it would be short.

Since my last post (which was way longer than I thought, I was sure i’d blogged since July!) time has just flown by so quickly. Thea started nursery three mornings a week and she loves it. I was worried that she was still too young but apparently I worry about nothing. She goes and comes back happy as larry and it seems to be good for her.

I’ve started Russian lessons. I suck at Russian. Seriously that crap is hard!! I find myself thinking very bad British thoughts like ” why the hell cant you all just speak English”. But I will stick with it and hopefully at some point i’ll be able to have half a conversation. I practise on my driver and he gets a laugh from it so at least something good is coming from them.

I’ve also joined the International women’s Club and through them im starting to volunteer with some pre school age refugee kids, doing arts and crafts etc. Im hoping to do some work with other projects once I find my feet with this one. I’ll blog about that some more in a couple of weeks when i’ve got into it properly.

Oops theres my time cut short again because I can hear the little one stirring so I need to settle her before she decides its time to get up and play ( its midnight!).

Two months already!

Melanie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:52:28 +0000

Time is now just flying by here in Baku. Its hard to believe that we have been here for two whole months. Life is really good, we have made great friends, we go out and do something almost daily and we get to do it in the sunshine, always a bonus!

When we first arrived I wasn’t sure if I would ever really settle here. I had a rocky start to life in Azerbaijan, with lots of things happening that just didn’t help how lonely and frustrated I felt! However when I think about it I have actually overcome the shaky start so much quicker than I did when we moved to Hungary.

Days do sort of merge together here though, I suppose because a lot of our time is spent swimming etc there isn’t always a lot of change in a week! We have been to Anburan a few times which is always good. Its a private beach resort with pools, kids clubs, big inflatable obstacle courses, restaurants and of course a private beach. Thea loves it there. Our last trip was last week with Lathea, Alexis and Connor and Molly, Kingston and baby Grayson. It was a really windy day so the sea was rough which meant we weren’t allowed to go in the water but we still had a good time. The kids decided that playing in the soggy sand was great fun!

Messing around in the sloppy wet sand!

We decided we would try the restaurant we hadn’t been in before, I have a feeling we may find the doors locked on us the next time we go. We had the waiters clear all the glassware from the table before we would sit down (the tables were set silver service so there were three wine glasses to each place). I got the impression they thought we were nuts. We had a couple of lost in translation moments (Lathea is the only one of us who can speak any sort of Russian and none of us speak Azeri), we asked for sauce for our chicken and were presented with a bowl of chicken soup.

I had a fab night out with Lathea, Molly and Shauna on Saturday night. We went to Taboo restaurant and had some really yummy Chinese food and even though we didn’t drink an awful lot we attracted a lot of looks in our direction due to the amount of giggling coming from our table. We wandered through the city and had dessert in another restaurant before heading back to Badamdar where we all live. I will definitely be having another night out with the girls, I really enjoyed myself.

Thea and I are having a mostly lazy day today. We may venture to the shop for some eggs but that will probably be the extent of it! Today is just us reading stories, watching movies and playing games. And on that note I promised my daughter a game of Elefun so its time i went and made good on it!

I know i’m rubbish at this!

Melanie — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:57:12 +0000

OK I admit it I suck at keeping things like this up to date, my only defense is that I’ve been spending my time out there getting to know my new home and making new friends!
Thea has settled into life in Baku amazingly well. I wish it as smooth for the adults. She is making friends, having play dates, going to playgroups, swimming and plenty of other things on a regular basis. That’s as well as all the boring things that mammy makes her do like the shopping and looking at very old buildings.
I have had a few “Baku” days where things just get on top of me. For instance never before have I had to deal with my house just running out of water. The joys of having no mains water supply! Or your electricity and gas ceasing to work for a while because someone hasn’t paid the bloke at the bottom of the street not to turn it off. Oh oh oh or being allergic to mosquito bites in and having a mozzie breading ground in the next courtyard. Then there is the endless, relentless bloody heat. Its oppressive, sticky and makes you feel like a walking oil slick. And the dust and sand because Baku seems unable to decide if its an urban growing city or a desolate crappy desert. Ahhh rant over.
All that aside, life actually is pretty fantastic here. My house is clean and its not me that cleans it, the laundry is done and its not me that does it, wooohoooo! I’ve found a part time nanny Enis, who is fantastic. Thea thinks she’s a real life Mary Poppins, which means that i get the occasional hour to myself and Richard and I get to spend some time together as a couple.
I get to take my daughter horse riding and to the beach. Running into the waves and splashing about in the sea is generally more pleasant when its not the freezing north sea! We wander around parks and the old City making up stories about the things we see and looking at the handmade carpets. So while Baku has its problems, it has plenty to give me to make up for the bad days!

Koala Park, 4th July and the runs

Melanie — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:30:08 +0000

We really enjoyed our visit to Koala Park! Its a great little funfair for kids like Thea and she loved it. The price was so reasonable that I think it will probably end up being a regular visit for us. It has a website in English if anyone is interested http://koalapark.az/en/index.php

Thea and Connor at Koala Park

Thea has been suffering from random stomach upsets for a while now. I was thinking that it was caused by dehydration because it is so so hot here and it can be hard to get Thea to drink enough water. I was way off base though because it turns out that our next door neighbours (who are also our landlords) have been giving Thea drinks made with tap water. There is a reason we dont drink the tap water!!! Its dirty, untreated water that sometimes looks too nasty to wash in nevermind drink!! Badamdar where we live doesn’t have a mains water supply, the houses all have tanks underground which are linked to rainwater collectors (but it does’t rain) or if needs be are filled by big trucks (this happens to us every week). So basically drinking tap water means drinking something that has been delivered inside a filthy truck and pumped through a dirty hose pipe into a mucky old tank underground, which comes out of a tap with no filter on it. We drink bottled water!

Yesterday we went to the American Chamber of Commerce Independence day picnic at TISA. We met up with my friend Lathea and her husband and kids. Actually it was Lathea who helped us get tickets in the first place. She also organised a lift home for us so we didnt have to pay our driver overtime! The food was good, there was a bar with a good stash of beer (included in the ticket price so being British Richard and I made the most of it!), there was a band playing, games, a kids cake eating contest, bouncy castles etc. The weather was perfect, for a change it wasn’t so hot you couldn’t breathe! Thea had a fab time playing with Lexxie and Connor and came home exhausted and ready for bed!

Today we are supposed to be sorting out the rest of our stuff but so far we have been lazing around watching TV. I think its time to go round up the troops and build the kitchen table!

Settling in.

Melanie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:46:17 +0000

Thea and I are settling into life in the city quite well now. We have been out and about this week, meeting up with new people. Thea has made some friends and I have gotten to know a few more women in the same situation as me.

BP host a welcome coffee on the last Tuesday of every month so Thea and I went along for a visit. I am so glad we did! We met up with some really nice and very helpful people. Groups like that can really make a difference to life here! I think I am going to get involved with some of the charity work that the Baku Charity Shield and the IWC do here once Thea starts BTK in August.

We are just getting ourselves ready for Lathea coming to pick us up in 30 mins. We are off to spend the day at Koala Park. Its a funfair in the city for the little ones. Thea is really excited! We have driven by it a few times and looks like the sort of place she will really enjoy.

Please God send some rain!

Melanie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:43:32 +0000

According to the BBC it is raining in Baku, well mate I am in Baku and believe me its not bloody raining! I wish it would though! Its hot, sticky and ugh. A good rain and thunderstorm would do this place (and my sanity) the world of good! The sky actually does look as if it might rain but im not holding my breathe.

Still unpacking boxes. I think they are reproducing during the night.

Ants!!

Melanie — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:00:11 +0000

The house is infested with ants! Ugh!!! What is worse is the ants have decided that I seem to taste the best out of the three of us. I am covered in horrible itchy bites, some of which I seem to have had a bad reaction too. So now I am drinking Piriton like pop and covering myself in antiseptic cream. *Sigh* this is not how I envisaged the start of my new life!!! Admittedly it was quite funny watching my cleaner shouting at my landlord when she went to tell him he had to get it sorted out now!

Its been ridiculously hot here over the last few days. It hit 40° C (104°F) yesterday . I have decided that there really is no need at all for anywhere to be that hot! I’m hoping its a bit cooler over the weekend so I can take Thea to the park because for the last few days its been after 8pm before its cool enough to actually take her anywhere! I am just too British I think, I complain about the rain and the cold but when I’m given sunshine I cant cope with it!

We are still unpacking the 6 million boxes that arrived a few days ago. I am sorely tempted to just take them all into the basement and lock the door. I’m sure we don’t actually need all this stuff, but i cant blame anyone else for it because its me that’s the pack rat not Richard. He would be able to survive with a TV, xbox, 2 pairs of pants and a spare shirt. I on the other hand think I need crap of gigantic proportions. I have issues with throwing things away. I also need to bring all my books with me whenever we move which accounted for a fair few of the six million boxes. I really should have take a photo of them all before we started unpacking.

Boxes, boxes and more boxes.

Melanie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:07:55 +0000

I’ve been waiting not so patiently for our furniture and things to arrive from the UK which they finally did yesterday. Now I would quite like someone to come and take it all away again! We have boxes everywhere, seriously they have reproduced whilst on board the cargo ship because there is just no way that many boxes left the UK! Richard went looking for something last night and found it in the box marked number 128! Its proving next to impossible to get any unpacking done while I’m on my own with Thea so its looking like that will be how I spend my weekend. Mind you its too hot to go wandering around outside so maybe staying in with air conditioning on and getting the house sorted isn’t such a bad idea. I’ve volunteered myself to host some summer holiday play dates (the things we do to make friends, there’s no way I’d do that at home!) so I must get things in some kind of order!

I am deliriously happy to have the Internet switched on at home. I gave Skype some hammer last night! It was nice to catch up with people without having to worry about how much it was costing!

We found Mothercare last week so at least now I know where I can go to get things for Thea in between trips home, even if they are wildly overpriced. Not as overpriced as shopping in CitiMart supermarket though where I am expected to fork over £3 for a single tin of Heinz beans! I know we get paid in line with things costing that much but it takes some getting used too. I haven’t been brave enough to venture into a local green grocers yet but I did go to the butcher with Lathea.

Speaking of shopping I better go and get myself and Thea ready because the driver will be picking us up in 20 minutes.

Much happier!

Melanie — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:46:28 +0000

Its been 10 days since my last update because we moved out of the hotel and into our house therefore losing the internet for the time being. Hopefully we will be back online next week but for the moment I am sitting in the Baku Roasting Company coffee shop (the nearest thing to a Starbucks in Azerbaijan) on my laptop. I will be eternally grateful to my new friend Lathea for introducing me to this place! Its got aircon, the internet and vanilla tea latte so I dont need anything else! They seem happy to have Thea being her normally crazy self too.

I am a lot happier today than I was when I last posted. The house is working out fine. Yes I would still like a better garden but the landlords are lovely people and the house is well looked after. My cleaner is nice and friendly, she doesn’t speak great English but enough for us to get by. We have a driver now, he wont be our permanent driver but since he seems to object to taking the majority of his work instructions from a woman thats not a bad thing! We should have our own car and driver sorted out by the end of this blokes work contract for KCA.

Thea and I are starting to find our way round the city. We go out most days for lunch and to do some shopping and exploring. The heat makes it hard to stay out for any length of time without retreating into one of the many tea shops for a cool down!

We are meeting new people all the time which is great! Thea had a playdate on Monday while i got to chat with a lovely and extremely helpful woman over tea and cake. We also went to a BBQ birthday party where Thea got to dress up as a princess and play while Richard and I drank beer and had a good laugh with some other expats.

Today Thea and I were taken around the city for a little tour by Lathea. She showed us the fun fair (Koala Park), a great butchers, some supermarkets and of course the coffee shop I am in now. I had a great morning Baku is so much easier when you have someone who actually knows where they are and what they are doing with you! We are going to a birthday party tomorrow so at some point this afternoon I need to go and find some gifts!

There is so much I want to write but my time is limited here today because I have an appointment to keep at the Hyatt to get our membership cards for the Club Oasis fitness centre. They will make life easier because it means Thea and I can come and go to the pool everyday if want to and with the heat only going to increase that seems like a great plan to me!

Looks like we are moving in.

Melanie — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:56:48 +0000

I should be really happy but instead I feel scared and sad to be honest. I know moving into the house will be better for Thea but the more I think about it the less I want to move into that particular house. I should have stood my ground and said I wanted to time to think about it because I know now the answer would have been no lets keep looking. I feel bullied into it and that does not make for a good start here. I dont want a bloody pool downstairs, I dont want a pool outside. I want a garden not a horrible paved court yard that is shared with next door. I dont want to live next door to the bloody landlord either. I feel railroaded and its horrible.

Richard just rang to say that we will be moving tomorrow not today. God I just hate this.