Alice in Wonderland.

We are much more settled now that we are in our own home - more space, no staff in and out, and generally just more comfortable. It has been a month of ups and downs, filled with firsts, frustrations and "fun".

I feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland - slipped down a hole into a whole new world requiring very different responses and understanding.

Life in a compound villa: the weird and the wonderful, the asinine and assiduous:
1. The compound employs 100’s of individuals catering to every need – there are plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters, gardeners, and cleaners who work extremely hard, and with a great deal of care trying to meet our every need.
2. We sleep on mattresses that feel like you have been consigned to a state prison, or at the very least require you to take on a Stoic or Spartan attitude to life.
3. Uniformed 24 hour security officials foster a sense of safety, but then at times, allow the barrier arm into the property in a permanent 'up' position for all and sundry to enter at will. Perhaps they have regulars ....?
3. In a country where trees are rare, come and chop off and lop down branches because then there will be less leaves in the pool - just less mind you, not total eradication ...so what's the point? ....and where's the darn shade now!
5. Provide no information on rules and regulations for the compound, but the clothing police can respond to a complaint about someone sunbathing in a bikini.
6. When something goes wrong, as it inevitably does: leaking faucets, sink pipes, cable issues, etc you just dial the admin office and within 10 minutes a plumber or other technician is ringing your doorbell.
7. Electricity meters out of whack with electricity readings, creating all sorts of issues at Kharwaa, our local electricity provider. The water meter just installed resulting in water pressure dying to a trickle. The best part of this: admin is sorting it out, not us.
8. A pool in the backyard that is cleaned twice a week and best of all – included in the price of rent. Gardeners who sweep down your patio as often as you like, and water your garden twice a day.
9. A real treat – buying bookshelves, desk, filing cabinet, etc and having it all delivered for free, and assembled on site by workers who work like bees...at no extra cost.
10. The only real gripe is parking: for some reason no-one planned that any of us would possibly have guests over, so there is zero, zilch, nada, no visitor parking! Also - supply a fabulous mini-mart, drycleaner, ATM machine, and admin offices right next door to the nursery school and all of them right at the entrance/exit of the compound ....and then provide no place to park - the traffic jams are endless. And still waving the parking banner: provide no designated or reserved parking for those of us who live here and watch the parking spots right outside your villa brazenly taken by other inhabitants who...and there are various excuses - don't want to park in the sun, don't want to walk that far to their building, don't have a designated spot so decided on yours instead, thought yours was better than theirs, gave it to their visitor who needed it "just for awhile".

Like Alice, I am finding my way slowly but surely in my new surroundings – love some the new wonders, gawp at some of the new styles, sometimes feel like stamping my foot in frustration, and generally feeling a new sense of appreciation for life as we know it.