little side table redone - again!

So, that golden blue blur from the last post finally dried and found its place in one of the corners. I say finally, cause it took me way over a year to get it to the current state. We actually bought it even before we moved to the previous house.
It was sad wobbly clunker with polish peeling off, termites happily nesting inside and looking more like firewood than an adorable little side table that it is.

First, I did all the boring stuff I always do: sanding, getting read of termites, putting primer and so on. Then I painted it turquoise. I was going through a major: "we live next to the sea so let's paint everything in sea colors" phase. But I didn't like it turquoise, so I spraypainted it gold.

I didn't like it gold either. I got out some sandpaper and gave it more layered look getting the turquoise show through the gold. That was more like it, but not really "it" yet. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted it to look so I just turned it into a bar table and it stayed this way until about a week ago.

I got some adorable decoupage tissues which I thought would be just perfect. But when I was done sticking and mod podge -ing, I wasn't really happy with the result - what a shocker!

I almost thought that the poor table was doomed to ugliness, but I figured I'll give it one more try. With some acrylic paints, I tried to hide the tissue edges, merge the pattern part with the plain one, bring out the flowery motif and... I finally got to the "it" I was hoping for, for over a year!

I really love how it turned out. It has this amazing texture of a crackled old painting (thanks to my inexpertly applied tissues, no doubt) and weathered look of a piece of furniture which has been serving people for centuries and then stood somewhere abandoned and forgotten. You can almost see it in some elegant sitting room and then, as the paint starts to peel off, moved to less and less representative parts of the house. And there it would be discovered, after decades passed, by someone who would appreciate it again.

Now I just need to give it proper company - maybe some pictures, maybe a lantern or a rug?
I love that we are finally at the stage of "moving i" when we can think about hanging pictures and not unpacking boxes!

Litte tings 2

The off-season has begun in earnest. We already had a couple of those unbearable pre-monsoon days. Have you ever experienced a heat so overwhelming and sticky, you liquefy on the spot? That's what I'm talking about - only worse! We escaped to the beach to find the clear blue sky turned milky white, yellow sand turned gray and the peaceful waters turned to stormy waves. Suddenly the jagged rocks became more noticeable and sinister looking. But the breeze was a lifesaver! the only place  you can catch a breath in!

But the off-season is not all bad. With it comes the parade of the local fruits, which is not only delicious but also quite surprising. For example, I had no idea how cashews grow until we moved to Goa. Though I can't say much for the smell, they do look quite decorative!

In the meantime, and in the spirit of cottage life, I took up bread making. I always used to skip the recipes that stretched the process over two whole days, but recently I decided to try one and I got completely hooked! It's such fun. Plus, is there anything better than the smell of bread baking in early hours of the morning.?!

Well.. there is always the less appetizing though equally satisfying smell that concludes sometimes gruelling process of creation, that of the varnish drying on the recently completed project. Growing up around artists and then studying art myself, I have a great sentiment for all those chemical smells. If it wasn't downright kooky, I would have turpentine as an air freshener and oil paint as perfumes!

Passion for yogurt & granola

Lately, I'm really into homemade dairy products. I'm not buying a cow or anything, but I do make cottage cheese and faux mascarpone on a daily basis. It was only natural, that I tried my hands on some home-made yogurt.

To be completely honest, I don't think I'll be repeating the experiment in a hurry, but only because we can get delicious, all natural yogurt in the local store at a comparable price.
From what I've read, it's quite tricky to get real yogurt with no funny additives but with natural cultures nowadays. I'm in no way nutrition expert so all I'll say here is: study the labels!

The best way to make your own yogurt is, of course, to get the bacteria cultures, but you can make do with a spoonful of good natural yogurt and some milk!
The key is temperature, all the rest is just waiting.

Home-made yogurt
1/2 liter milk
2-3 spoons of natural yogurt with bacteria cultures

Warm the milk to approx. 40 degrees (warm but not hot) and mix with yogurt. Keep it warm for 7-8 hours or overnight. Ideally, it should be left in 30-degree temperature.

As far as I know, there are some devices for home yogurt making, but I'm not so committed to this task to own, or even research one. You can leave it in a barely warm oven, on the balcony (if it's warm and sunny), wrap it in a blanket, pour into warm thermos etc.

Once it's ready keep it in the fridge. Of course, you can double or triple the ingredients- I read somewhere that home-made yogurt will last up to two weeks!
Oh, and you can make next one or two batches from this one, later on, you have to get the store bought yogurt again.

While I'm happy with store bought yogurt, I'm completely obsessed with home-made granola. It's my biweekly ritual to prepare a huge jar for our breakfasts and guilt-free snacks

Because I make it so often, I change the proportions and ingredients - and you can do the same - but here is the basic recipe:

400 g oats
100-200 g seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame,  etc)
100-200 g chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts etc)
100 g desiccated coconut (or other nuts)
150 g liquid honey (or sugar syrup)
2-3 spoons oil (sunflower, almond, coconut etc)
150 pureed apple

+ 100-200 g dried fruits (raisins, goji berry, cranberry etc)

Mix everything (apart from dried fruits) together until it forms rough crumbs. Spread evenly on baking parchment and bake 30-40 min in 160 degrees.
Everything should be golden-brown, dry and crunchy.
Cool it down, mix in dry fruits and store in a tight lid container for a couple of weeks.

And now, when you have both your yogurt and granola, try it with some passion fruit!

The little things...

I remember as a child, I was reading and re-reading books like Six Bullerbyn children, till they parted their covers. I couldn't get enough eventhough nothing big ever happend there. Nothing ever hapened and yet every day was a discovery, an adventure!
Something about our new cottage life reminds of those childhood books. I'm not sure why it feels different now, but I'm not gonna question that and enjoy it one day at the time. Just like in my books - nothing really happens (if you manage to forget about the FRO shenanigans), but it's fun just the same!

For example, we have a frog living in our bathroom door frame. When I first saw her, I thought it was just a one-time sighting, I even consider throwing her our, but she was quite cute and pretty color too. Well, I'm not sure it's a "she" - especially since she looks like Jabba the Hutt most of the time, but I like to call her Ursula nonetheless. As it turns out, she sleeps in the bathroom during the day and spends the nights hunting for insects. Once, I had to rescue her from our cats and some other time, the poor thing was forced to play dead in front of them until we realized what's going on. That's not just a frog anymore, it's a real character!

Another day we had a tiny natural disaster. A branch broke off from one of the mango trees and pulled our internet line. Obviously, it couldn't take the weight of the fruits- I've never seen such huge mangos! It used to spread widely, all the way to the well, with the heavy fruits hanging just above it, until, one day, it collaped, with the mangos almost purpousfully layed down on the garden table.

And then, I was making a no bake mango cheescake with a layer of mango musse, mango cream cheese and home made mascarpone. It actually isn't as time consuming as it sounds, especially if you use store bought mascarpone, but it takes a while and a whole lot of bowls just the same. And so, just when i was about to assemble all the three layers, I was loudly reminded that motherhood waits for no cheesecake. I dumped everything in the cake pan, and put it in the fridge hoping that at least it wont leak out. It didn't. It was delicious, if a little whimsical...

OCI and the Foreign Regional Misinformation Office

Dealing with Indian government offices is like fighting mythological monster: you cut off one head - it will grow tree others!

After the pain of FRRO registrations, court marriage &its registration, extending and converting visa, applying and receiving PIO card (just to learn that  I have to go through the same process to convert it to OCI card), I finally had the holy grail - the infamous OCI! How naive of me it was to think that it is the end of our trouble!

When our son was born, we decided on Polish citizenship and OCI card for him. After all, how hard could it be to get OCI for someone who is half Indian? Well... I can tell you how hard: VERY!
First of all, we timed everything quite well according to all the official information: the registration of birth, applying for the passport and then visa, which, according to Indian embassy's website, takes approx. 2 weeks.
However, we were advised against applying for anything else than tourist e-visa because one of the consuls was absent and therefore there was a backlog in visa processing. In other words, there was no chance of getting a proper visa on time.

Looking back, I should've known just then, that the whole process will be full of complications!

We arrived in Goa and marched to the local FRO, to register, extend, convert - all the usual fun, and that's when the real problems started. First of all, e-visa is non-extendable and non-convertible. So, as they told us, we can stay for 30 days and then our baby boy will have to leave the country!

When we managed to convince them, that flying 3-month old back and forth across the continents isn't a good idea, they agreed to do all the extension/conversion magic provided that we submit all the documents. We had everything on hand - or so we though. Apparently a C-form is and always has been required.Funnily enough, during all my FRRO adventures, no-one ever asked me for a C-form, including Goa FRO. Not very surprising though, as they change their regulations and laws weekly plus the rules differ from office to office and from officer to officer!

Oh, and have I mentioned the cherry on top of FROs ineptness? After learning that my husband is from Rajasthan, the chief of the office told us "If I knew you were not from Goa, I wouldn't have agreed [to help you]". Unfortunately, in this little piece of paradise that Goa is, locals loathe outsiders and let it be known, every opportunity they get. Even so, hearing sth like this from government officer is a bit much!

Anyway, we got the "application under process" paper and were on the mission to get the C-form ASAP. Unfortunately, it is up to the landlord to file for it - supposedly they are obligated to do it whenever they rent to foreigners, but if they don't, nobody will say a word. After all, they are the locals, it's just the foreigners, the "outsiders" who get into trouble.

Apparently, the title of the house wasn't clear, so to get the C-form, our landlord had to apply for some other document from the court. That meant another trip to FRO, explaining why we didn't submit the documents yet. Surprisingly, we heard that that's not a problem and we can submit it later. Of course, at this point, I didn't believe them in the slightest. I knew it was a ticking bomb and apparently it just exploded.

We got a call that they can't help us after all, and our son will be required to leave India in order to apply for a proper visa. That was followed by the usual "we are not responsible for...". After all, not taking responsibility for whatever they say or do is what they do best. Basically, you can talk to 20 people in those offices, you will get 21 different answers and, in the end, it won't matter anyway, because "they are not responsible for...".

So now, we are making another trip to FRO, this time with our landlord, to explain why it took so long to submit the stupid C-form and to hear in return, how they can't help us because they can't.


In moment's like this, I often feel like I'm in one of the Kafka's novels with all its incomprehensible bureaucracy, illogical requirements and nightmarish, near-impossible quests.

...and all of that before we can even think of applying for visa extension, not to mention OCI!