Day 1 - Postscript

.... mmm did I take Bangalore by storm - not exactly.

First of all I concluded after about three hours of 5 star service looking after that I am not really cut out for the pampered expat trophy spouse lifestyle, no great surprise but still reassuring.

I got my basic infrastructure working - Indian Phone, and email, rescued the lost luggage. Feeling the need to break out I walked the streets a bit with only minor irritations being Rickshaw drivers pressing their services on me, chaotic traffic and pavements with enormous and unexpected gaping holes.

Familiarising myself withe the gym was a bit handicapped by the now lonely missing bag (6 of 6) still being held hostage containing my trainers, so I had to make to do with skating and cross training in my British Airways courtesy socks, which have now perhaps reached the end of their useful life.

Just as I am dripping profusely my wife turns up in the gym in her work regalia, as full of wonder and news as the first day at infants, so I have the pleasure of workout 2 (partly listening and partly checking that my just arrived trainers have not lost their magic on the treadmill)

Alfresco dinner by the pool beckons and after the first couple of mouthfuls of wine I realise I have had a few slices of Mango and cup of coffee all day- ooer - I make amends with the 'Graze' menu restoring the spirits enough to wearily capture these pre-prandial words.

When does the interesting exotic and challenging stuff start... ?

Day 1 as a trailing spouse

So you have packed your wife off to the Office at 0730 in the Kota Pyjamas bought yesterday as your luggage chose not to make the trip with you courtesy of BA, you return to the hotel room and start your life as a trailing corporate spouse.
Where do you start - there can be only one answer BBC Radio 4 - with the wireless broadband in the room working after last nights wrestling with our wonderfully named cyber-butler - there is a sudden surge of reassurance as the World Service gives way to the Shipping Forecast and then slips effortlessly via Prayer for the Day into Farming Today - the side effects of lungworm in the Scottish sheep flock and the impact on the Haggis industry always good to grab the attention.
But, with due deference to Dorothy, as my wife said last night 'We are not in Bellingham now Toto' so I guess I will need to embrace the bright and gridlocked Bangalore day............and then you realise that the juxtaposition of the title is not so unusual - George Macdonald Fraser (author of the Flashman books) was stationed in an Indian Regiment in Banaglore in 1946 and also wrote 'The Steel Bonnets (1971), a history of the Border Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish Border' ... its a small world - and a crowded one from the view from my hotel balcony - enough prevarication - hello India here I come!