The ever ending roller coaster of emotions of moving to India trundles on.
Update - BMD#1 (11 yr old) has jumped from 9th to 4th on the waiting list for AISC! How did that happen?
So The Mad Dogs live in hope of maybe, just maybe walking into AISC on the 4th August and delivering 2 of our kids for lessons. Fingers & toes crossed.
Today we close some doors. The girls leave their school, Gus goes to doggy borstal, last swimming lesson the youngest Baby Mad Dog (teacher has taught her since she was 3 months old).
Suddenly I'm nervous and apprehensive. If one had been asked back in October could I move to India, do the move on my own with 3 kids and a dog, without the guarantee of International schooling, you can guess what my answer would have been. No way! But here I am in May living it.
So my coping mechanism is 'Best of British', in a nutshell, stiff upper lip, "Oh it's fine" during the day. I keep thinking of those old Colonial gals trundling out to India as the trailing spouse, accompanying their Colonel Mustard's and Major-General Farquahars during the days of the British Empire and ponder did they do the same as me? Turn out the light at night and swear profusely to themselves. I bet they bloody did!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Parties, Plans & Padstow......
We have been celebrating some farewell parties for the baby Mad Dogs. First we had a party for BMD#2 and combined it with her 7th birthday. She had a great time with friends, classmates and cousins playing lots of games and dancing organised by the entertainer.
Next it was BMD#1 who wanted a party with a disco as she would miss the yr 6 leavers party at the end of July. She had so much fun and so did I. Our entertainer not only managed to keep them dancing for 2 hours, but also threw in some great games resulting in some extremely humorous scenes! As it was the end of the SAT's exam week they were all ready to let their hair down (literally) and ready to party. Many happy memories to treasure........
Baby Mad Dog #1(center) with her dearest friends
A fun time was had by all
I think she will miss this lot
All been together since they were 4 years old
We are going to really miss them too, they are a great bunch of kids
BMD#2 Birthday and Farewell party - having a good time!
Some of her best friends
Baby Mad Dog #2 ready to blow the candles out on the cakeDespite our schooling problems for BMD#1 plans for our departure are in full swing. Our itinerary is set, so here goes:
Gus leaves 23rd May for 3 weeks correctional behaviour training. Otherwise known as doggy borstal, don't ask.
Packers 1st week of June,
Clear house 2nd week,
Collect Gus and spend a day learning what a lovely calm dog he's become from his trainer.
3rd and some of the 4th, Padstow, Cornwall, for some surfing, sand and seafood with friends plus Gus who will show his mummy all his newly learned commands and behaviours. Like not chasing vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, tearing my washing off the line, pulling on his lead any more. He's a lovely boy, honest.
Then on the way back from Cornwall, drop Gus back to the trainers for more doggy borstal until he flies out to Chennai.
After that, fly to Edinburgh and meet up with Mr Mad Dog who would have flown in from Chennai the same day. Say goodbye to Mr Mad Dogs clan over 4 days. Try and find some haggis to take for Burns Night Supper (25th Jan), and additional items in our clan Lamont tartan for India. Where I hear all Scots break out into a fever of nationalism and clansmanship when abroad. Och Aye!
Then fly back to London to spend our last week tying up loose ends and throw a farewell party for our friends and family.
Then departure day to and fly to Chennai? Well, not exactly.
We thought we would have a little stop-over, you know, for the children.
In Dubai, for...... well, 9 days actually. A little R & R. Mrs Mad Dog will really, really need it after doing the 'move' all by herself and playing single parent for goodness knows how long. She just needs a visit to the spa, maybe once. No, make that 9 times.
Also, we want to do lots, and lots of sailing. (just to make sure the manicurist at the spa earns her money!) Not sure how much sailing we will be able to do in Chennai. We have a date set with the Royal Madras Yacht Club to have a mooch around and see if they like us. It will all depend on boats. We were unable to ship ours over so it will be a case of buy some or try and rent a yacht for the duration of our posting. Fingers crossed.
Right, mooning over boats and Dubai finished. Back to sorting, packing and shopping. More on shopping later.
Toodle pip fellow bloggers.
.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Room for one, but not the other.
Well since my last post a flurry of emails have been dashing across the globe in search of a solution to our schooling (or lack of) situation in Chennai. So the good news first, baby mad dog #2 has a school place in grade 2 of the AISC! Yay!
The bad news is baby mad dog #1 there does not appear to be a school place for the foreseeable future.
We have discovered through well connected sources (thank you) that baby mad dog #1 has slipped back down the waiting list. This was created by the kids who were already on the waiting list for a place in the year 07/08 (most never got a place) are now on the list for 08/09, subsequently pushing our daughter further down.
Enquiries about going onto the grade 7 waiting list came to nothing as she would be 8th.
In addition, there are now 240 kids on the waiting list for the school and the situation is deteriorating as number of ever increasing multi-national companies are expanding their operations in Chennai and in India in general. Only 23 kids are leaving the school this June the smallest number ever.
So my family are not the only one's who are struggling to find continuity in education, it appears there are many other families in the same boat. I'm probably not the only mother in the world having sleepless nights about how are their children are going to be educated while in Chennai!
If businesses are going to expand in India then they (the multi-national Companies) need to look at the schooling situation, fast.
Senior management in companies (of a certain age range) generally have kids in tow when doing an International Assignment and if decent International schooling cannot be offered, this will in time have a detrimental effect on the business as employees will be unable to take up postings or worse, Assignments will fail costing Companies.
HR managers in all these multi-national companies need to look at their demographics, establish predictions of where the most pressure will be for International Schooling and throw money at solutions. Fast.
In the meantime Mr Mad Dog is looking at other alternatives.
The emotional impact has been tears from my 11 yr old daughter this week as she struggled to come to terms with knowing she will not be going to school with her sister and has no idea where she will end up. The 7 yr old let this fact slip out (by genuine accident when she learned she had a place) during the week which is unfortunately SAT's week. Subsequently it all got too much for bmd#1 resulting flunking one of her papers this week, she's been teary ever since.
At the moment I question what I'm putting my children through.
The bad news is baby mad dog #1 there does not appear to be a school place for the foreseeable future.
We have discovered through well connected sources (thank you) that baby mad dog #1 has slipped back down the waiting list. This was created by the kids who were already on the waiting list for a place in the year 07/08 (most never got a place) are now on the list for 08/09, subsequently pushing our daughter further down.
Enquiries about going onto the grade 7 waiting list came to nothing as she would be 8th.
In addition, there are now 240 kids on the waiting list for the school and the situation is deteriorating as number of ever increasing multi-national companies are expanding their operations in Chennai and in India in general. Only 23 kids are leaving the school this June the smallest number ever.
So my family are not the only one's who are struggling to find continuity in education, it appears there are many other families in the same boat. I'm probably not the only mother in the world having sleepless nights about how are their children are going to be educated while in Chennai!
If businesses are going to expand in India then they (the multi-national Companies) need to look at the schooling situation, fast.
Senior management in companies (of a certain age range) generally have kids in tow when doing an International Assignment and if decent International schooling cannot be offered, this will in time have a detrimental effect on the business as employees will be unable to take up postings or worse, Assignments will fail costing Companies.
HR managers in all these multi-national companies need to look at their demographics, establish predictions of where the most pressure will be for International Schooling and throw money at solutions. Fast.
In the meantime Mr Mad Dog is looking at other alternatives.
The emotional impact has been tears from my 11 yr old daughter this week as she struggled to come to terms with knowing she will not be going to school with her sister and has no idea where she will end up. The 7 yr old let this fact slip out (by genuine accident when she learned she had a place) during the week which is unfortunately SAT's week. Subsequently it all got too much for bmd#1 resulting flunking one of her papers this week, she's been teary ever since.
At the moment I question what I'm putting my children through.
I know one is bleating - but one still has steam coming out of ones ears!
Mrs Mad Dog.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
No room at the School.
I am speechless, numb, in total disbelief of what occurred yesterday. In fact, I can't sleep. I have been lying in my bed just going over and over what has happened. So at 2.30 a.m., it's the sofa, my dog, my laptop and I. I have to get this off my chest.
We received an email yesterday from the American International School of Chennai informing us that they would be unable to give our eldest baby mad dog a place for August school year 2008/2009 due to exceptional demand and would we still like her to be kept on the list for 2009/2010?
I am absolutely incandescent with this news .
When Mr Mad dog and I first came out on our Pre-assignment trip in January we visited the school and filled out our application forms there and then, as we knew there was a waiting list at that point. We were told that our eldest daughter, 11 years old, was at that moment in time placed 3rd on the list for March and our second daughter who is now 7 years old was 5th. We were told by the school that if we waited until August we would most certainly get places for the girls.
O.K. we thought. We talked this over with Mr Mad Dog's company and decided not to bring the girls out before this time and wait. Mr Mad Dog accepted to go on a split-assignment for a few months until we came out in July.
Mr Mad Dog started his new job in April in Chennai. He paid another visit to the school to see how things were progressing. This time he was told that our eldest was now 7th on the waiting list and that it was looking dodgy for August. Huh? How can she be 3rd in January, now 7th in April?
They told us wait until May when we will have a clearer picture of what the situation.
So here we are in May and I now have the news that she is now, get this, 9th ON THE LIST!!!!!
What the blazes is going on!!
How can a child slip further down the waiting list not go up it? It does beg the question as to what is going on at this school. They claim to operate a strictly first come, first served basis at the school in order of application and as I said earlier, ours was from January. I don't believe a word of it!
I believe there are more clandestine methods of getting children into this school. As when Mr Mad Dog looked at the list in front of the member of staff at the school our eldest daughter's name was at the top of the list and there were many, many names after hers.
It was a condition we made with the Company that appropriate adequate, decent schooling for our children would have to be available in order for us to accept this posting for 3 years in Chennai. It is well documented that Expat Assignments fail because of the break down in continuity of schooling for Expat families.
To make matters worse we have no schooling now in the U.K. as we have given up our places at the baby mad dog #2 school. The girls finish on the 23rd May. Plus, as baby Mad Dog #1 was transitioning from primary to secondary school we have NO school for her for September start of the 2008/09 academic year. We thought we would be out of the U.K.
We have our flights booked, the house sold to the Company, packers booked, Cat re-homed, dog booked for kennelling, and have completed a 10 week immunization programme for India for the baby Mad Dogs.
I have absolutely NO IDEA what we are going to do. I feel I am staring down a very long dark tunnel with no glimmer of light at the end of it.
So, what are our options? Send her to boarding school? That would break our family up, we are a very close, tight knit sort of family. Although I know it works for some families, we don't come from that tradition. Us in India and our eldest in a boarding school in England? Nope. That won't work.
Home School her? Well we could, in fact we had thought that if we had to wait a few months, say until Christmas '08 then it could be an option. But not long term. Moving her to a Country where we are told that the only real social life that families really get is through the school. No access to extra curricular activities, sports and no opportunities to make friends. Doesn't sound appealing does it?
Stay in the U.K.? That would mean breaking up our family too. Mr Mad Dog out there, myself bringing up 3 children on my own for 3 years, when the youngest is only 3. Plus they all adore their dad. It would kill us.
An impossible situation. I'm in a very dark place today on my sofa, with my dog writing this at 2.30 a.m.
We received an email yesterday from the American International School of Chennai informing us that they would be unable to give our eldest baby mad dog a place for August school year 2008/2009 due to exceptional demand and would we still like her to be kept on the list for 2009/2010?
I am absolutely incandescent with this news .
When Mr Mad dog and I first came out on our Pre-assignment trip in January we visited the school and filled out our application forms there and then, as we knew there was a waiting list at that point. We were told that our eldest daughter, 11 years old, was at that moment in time placed 3rd on the list for March and our second daughter who is now 7 years old was 5th. We were told by the school that if we waited until August we would most certainly get places for the girls.
O.K. we thought. We talked this over with Mr Mad Dog's company and decided not to bring the girls out before this time and wait. Mr Mad Dog accepted to go on a split-assignment for a few months until we came out in July.
Mr Mad Dog started his new job in April in Chennai. He paid another visit to the school to see how things were progressing. This time he was told that our eldest was now 7th on the waiting list and that it was looking dodgy for August. Huh? How can she be 3rd in January, now 7th in April?
They told us wait until May when we will have a clearer picture of what the situation.
So here we are in May and I now have the news that she is now, get this, 9th ON THE LIST!!!!!
What the blazes is going on!!
How can a child slip further down the waiting list not go up it? It does beg the question as to what is going on at this school. They claim to operate a strictly first come, first served basis at the school in order of application and as I said earlier, ours was from January. I don't believe a word of it!
I believe there are more clandestine methods of getting children into this school. As when Mr Mad Dog looked at the list in front of the member of staff at the school our eldest daughter's name was at the top of the list and there were many, many names after hers.
It was a condition we made with the Company that appropriate adequate, decent schooling for our children would have to be available in order for us to accept this posting for 3 years in Chennai. It is well documented that Expat Assignments fail because of the break down in continuity of schooling for Expat families.
To make matters worse we have no schooling now in the U.K. as we have given up our places at the baby mad dog #2 school. The girls finish on the 23rd May. Plus, as baby Mad Dog #1 was transitioning from primary to secondary school we have NO school for her for September start of the 2008/09 academic year. We thought we would be out of the U.K.
We have our flights booked, the house sold to the Company, packers booked, Cat re-homed, dog booked for kennelling, and have completed a 10 week immunization programme for India for the baby Mad Dogs.
I have absolutely NO IDEA what we are going to do. I feel I am staring down a very long dark tunnel with no glimmer of light at the end of it.
So, what are our options? Send her to boarding school? That would break our family up, we are a very close, tight knit sort of family. Although I know it works for some families, we don't come from that tradition. Us in India and our eldest in a boarding school in England? Nope. That won't work.
Home School her? Well we could, in fact we had thought that if we had to wait a few months, say until Christmas '08 then it could be an option. But not long term. Moving her to a Country where we are told that the only real social life that families really get is through the school. No access to extra curricular activities, sports and no opportunities to make friends. Doesn't sound appealing does it?
Stay in the U.K.? That would mean breaking up our family too. Mr Mad Dog out there, myself bringing up 3 children on my own for 3 years, when the youngest is only 3. Plus they all adore their dad. It would kill us.
An impossible situation. I'm in a very dark place today on my sofa, with my dog writing this at 2.30 a.m.
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