Next steps

One of the first things that Maya said to me this morning was that her knee was paining. It was very mean of me, but I couldn't help but chuckle a little. 'Paining' is such a uniquely Indian word and when she comes out with such words I must confess that I do little to discourage them. Her favourite song of the moment, My bonny lies over the ocean, is another case in point. She puffs out her chest and croons 'My bonny lies OR-VER the ocean, My bonny lies OR-VER the seaaaaaaa!' It is priceless, I love hearing her Indian pronunciations and have started singing along in the same way. I know that as soon as we're back in England, these pronuciations will vanish, so I'm just trying to prolong it a little...tee hee.

Speaking of England, whilst we were back there in October, I posted a bit of a cliff-hanger blog in which I said that I'd let people know where Maya's adventures would be taking us next...bit unfair really as the information never materialised. There were a few different paths, you see, that we could have taken and the long and short of it is that we know now that we are definitely heading back to the UK for at least a couple of years. Andy has got himself a brilliant job in London (where we're going to live though is still being hotly debated!). We'll be heading off again after that but in the meantime, this means that Maya is going to be wearing wellies and tights again, eating warm stews and kicking through piles of leaves. I know she'll miss India but frankly, I think she'll be in heaven back in Blighty. There's also the question of family of course, and in England Maya will have them in abundance. She shed her first tears for Granny Amma and Thatha yesterday, saying she missed them, so we've assured her that she'll spend more time with them soon. That is, if the travel bug hasn't grabbed them by the throats and they don't bugger off round South America next.

So yes, two and a half weeks to go and I'm feeling ridiculously nostalgic already for a country that I haven't even left yet. I keep doing things like stopping in the middle of pot-holed pavements to taste bel-puri and other Indian snacks from street vendors and buying all kinds of crazy, unnecessary but very Indian trinkets. But aaaah, we'll be back....one day.