First weeks of a UK family life

Its been a while now and I thought its time for another update. As most of you would know, Rosa did finally arrive here to join me and has been settling in for a little more than two weeks now.

One of her first comments after getting out of the airport was that England doesn't look too different from Chennai ! Although that opinion was soon revised, there are still frequent comparisons now and then.

Its been great to be back together and we are once again going about laying the foundations of family life!  Oh yes, speak about family life and the instant question is - who does the cooking?

Well, we`ve managed to share it between us, with Rosa more often than not playing head chef and me chipping in. With her arrival, food has become more homely and I`ve rediscovered the joy of eating with my hands. Food does taste a lot better that way.

We made a visit to the city of Bath, where Rosa`s university is based, on the weekend that she arrived. Bath is a lot more scenic and touristy than Bristol and she is quite happy with the looks of it.

Rosa journey to the university involves a short walk to the railway station near our flat, from where a 25min journey gets her to Bath. She then has to take a bus to her university as it is based on top of a hill.

The time involved in travel is the price we have to pay for studying in two different cities and still being together. However, there are lots of people who commute between the two cities on a daily basis for work and it is a fairly common practice.

With the distance and time involved and also with the shortening daylight hours as we head into winter, it often means that it is dark by the time Rosa gets home. We`ve taken a walk or two to look around or locality but the majority of the areas are still awaiting a visit.

Last week was the first time in our married life that we played host to guests.  For those who were around during the wedding, my friends - Jolanda,

and Morgane wont be unfamiliar names.They had come over for our wedding and had spent a while in Kerala with us. They were eager to meet Rosa again and also sample some more Indian food.

We did offer them a spread with rice, pork vindaloo, dal and grilled chicken, followed by a dessert of toffee cheesecake. I must say they downed it with relish.

That was a gist of our first few days of family life here in UK. Its challenging being a student couple in a foreign land but we seem to have made a good start. There are a lot more exciting times ahead and we hope to keep you updated as they happen. Watch this space.