I can pour my own maple syrup onto my pancakes you know.  It is just that living in a 5 star hotel you can forget that you can do simple things like this.

I couldn’t help it.  A holiday named ‘holi’ lends itself to being called Holy Holi.

On my first official day of work, all of India was setting itself up for a big holiday – Holi. This is what is known as the festival of colour.  And colour there was!

On the Saturday after we arrived, Naomi met us at our hotel for breakfast.  She admitted that she loved the breakfast and would use any excuse to come and eat.  I have to admit, the breakfast buffet is pretty amazing.  They cater for all tastes, from the full English (eggs, bacon, beans, sausage), to the full Indian (curries, breads and pickles), to those of us who don’t necessarily want either.  I have discovered that the baked yoghurt with pomegranate seeds or melon is a particularly tasty combination (a bit like the middle part of a baked New York cheesecake).     

Naomi took us out after breakfast for our first experiences of Delhi – well first experiences beyond a tuk tuk driver trying to get us to buy a new sari for my mother.  She took us to Safdarjang’s Tomb. 

Weather in UK: 7 degrees and raining

Weather in India: sunny and 28 degrees

melz hotel room, welcome letter and view

James and I arrived in New Delhi around 1pm on the 26 February.  Naomi, my new line manager, was waiting with a British High Commission car  - I don’t think this will happen every time, but it was really nice to be met after an eight and a half hour flight. We arrived at our hotel The Taj Mahal my new home for the next 8 months, checked in and unpacked. As it was a Friday Naomi had to go back to work.