We moved!
It was wonderful to wake up in my own bed again after three months of living out of a suitcase and a big surprise still awaits me every day now that I am unpacking boxes...I didn't know I had all this stuff! Part of it has been in storage for almost two years and I have completely forgotten what was in the boxes...proof again that the posession of things is relative.

The Indians have a different view about "having" than we do anyway; nowadays I am taking Hindi lessons (an absolute must as two thirds of my personnel does not speak english), and our teacher does not only teach us very practical words like "come at 9 o'clock" and "this is not clean", but she explains about the Indian culture as well.
In India, one does not "have" things. In Hindi the literal translation of "I have a car" would be "near me car is"...so near to me that I can consider it mine (which is food for thought...). Whatever I posess is mine in this life, but before me it belonged to someone else and after me it will also belong to someone else....I can only imagine the looks on the face of that someone whenhe/she is trying to lift the bookcase that we just bought! (It is actually and old doorframe with some shelves built behind it...solid wood!)

People one doesn't "have" either - they either exist or don't exist (and then they are dead). "My husband exists" (and therefor is mine) is a normal Indian expression.

Well, our house is very near us, and so is our pool. So near actually that the picture above was taken from inside the pool...what a delight, what luxury, to jump in your private pool whenever you like! T wants to go skinny dipping but as there are 11 people living behind the vegetable garden, he didn't dare until now - we are sure they are watching us because we must be terribly strange in their eyes! Still, swimming in the evening, when it is still 20 degrees outside, does feel awfully decadent!