Hello again from Delhi!

Hello! How is everyone? Yumi? Adriana? I hope you're both really well and have had a great start to the New Year - and everyone else too! It’s so great to be able to catch up with everyone again.

Unlike Jo and Stephen :-) I am much slimmer than I was last time I wrote (well, I hope I am!) – we had a baby boy on December the 7th. We’ve called him Oslo William Bastin. In the UK it’s very common for people to have a first name and then a middle name as well as (obviously) their surname. Now before you ask, no we don’t have any real connection to Norway or its capital city – we just liked the name. Well, actually, originally we liked the name ‘Ozzy’ but weren’t so keen on ‘Oscar’ or ‘Oswald’ which are most often shortened to Ozzy. My husband had a bit of a thing about calling him Ozzy as his given name so we abandoned it until one day the name ‘Oslo’ just popped into my head.

‘William’ is the name that has run through my father’s family for generations – my great-grandfather was called William, my grandfather's name was William, my uncle’s middle name is William, etc. etc. That’s another thing that’s pretty common in the UK – lots of families have first names that are used again and again within the same family over many generations. So anyway, without further ado, may I present Oslo William Bastin:



He’s quite sweet, isn’t he? He looks just like our other son, Louie, did when he was born – so now I’m really starting to wonder – do all babies look the same?

Louie has taken to being a big brother like a duck to water, although I have a feeling that if we left him alone with him he might give him a little pinch just to see what happened! He finds Oslo’s crying quite fascinating and likes to do impressions of it – very funny. Okay, okay – I’ll shut up now. I read the other day that you always have to remember that no one is ever as interested in your kids as you are!

Other than nappy changing and catching forty winks whenever we can, we’re gearing up for my parents’ arrival on Friday. Louie is VERY excited. As well as mooching around the city, we’re hoping to get out of Delhi for a few days to a small town called Orchha, where there are some beautiful old temples and palaces. Not long after they leave we’ll be starting to pack up and get ready for our big move back to England. We’ve had a fabulous three and a half years here but we’re both looking forward to going back to England, mostly to be closer to the family and friends we left behind and have missed a lot. Packing is going to be a bit of a nightmare though – our flat is extremely cluttered with all sorts of clobber that we’ve collected over the years… sorting through it all is going to be a bit of a challenge with two kids under our feet!

Anyway, better go and get some sleep while I can. I’ll blog again in a couple of days and, as ever, will include all the definitions for the highlighted words then. Meanwhile, see if you can figure out the meaning from the context!

With all best wishes and looking forward to hearing from you,

Amy

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