Away from home

 So the little one has gone on a field trip . She went yesterday and will be back tomorrow.

It was super exciting packing her stuff. In fact she handled most of it herself - my super independent 10 year old ❤️

There were some last minute packing and we sent her off yesterday morning. As she was wearing her shoes she was a bit teary eyed. I am sure she felt some degree of homesickness. Strangely I did not feel anything but was super proud that she was going on this amazing experience.

The work day passed as any other in the midst of calls and code and routine mundane stuff. When Chiyaa came back it was strange to just have her in the house. There was a lot less work with only one child to chase around ☺️But there was something lacking - a certain spark. Pumpki is not noisy or demanding . But she’s a little thing around who makes our lives so much fuller . 

Since there seemed to be way less stuff to do Chiyaa and I watched some documentary which Pumpki would not be interested in. We wrapped everything quite soon and moved to bed. I slept with Chiyaa in Pumpki ‘s place. Most evenings she’s there with her laptop working on some story. As I sat in her place K went all emotional missing her.

Today again only one child to drop off so we were able to hit work way sooner. Evening it has been the same saga with us waiting for her to be back tomorrow with all her stories. 

Up and down and up and down

It’s the last week of the dreaded January. It seems never ending for many but somehow for me it seems to be flying by. Yes it’s been a while since last salary day in December 😂but January payment is round the corner. The bank account may not have seen much activity but there has been a whole torrent of activities in life. 

Last week was our anniversary week. K and I have this tradition of taking a long walk to the city centre , gorging on food and then taking a long walk back home( I might have mentioned this but forgive me for repeating. I never possessed a good memory anyways 😁) That was one day of leave from work and it could not have come at a better time. It was mad busy week for me with a bunch of fixes to be done for a previous project. In the midst of it , a day of leave did seem like a disturbance to the flow of work. It would have been better to get things done and dusted. But on the day I quite welcomed the relaxed feel. The days are very busy and one day of not sitting and working was more rejuvenating than I had anticipated. With a slow start to the day we set off to enjoy the walk followed by some amazing Japanese food.

After that quaint day it was break neck work. So much so that I quite forgot the advent of gorgeous Friday. My sis and I had booked tickets for the movie Border2. It was also the day when the final cut of our code would be handed over. After a demonstration in the morning where most stakeholders were quite pleased we looked forward to a relatively relaxed afternoon. But then some weird issues started popping during peer testing and it was again panic stricken coding 😣Alls well that ends well and I ended Friday with a high and one mighty code deployment. But it wasn’t time to rest on my laurels . I had to get stuff sorted at home- get the kids fed, give instructions for the next set of action for the evening and having bitten more than I could chew I had picked the day to change bedsheets across the rooms. This is a mega boring and Herculean task. And with added pressure of the movie in the evening there was extra zing to the activity. Somehow got it done and whizzed out of the door to enjoy 3.5 hours of patriotic fervour. It was an great experience for me stirring nostalgia and emotions. 

The weekend was a doozy with television and chilling and good food. 

And we kicked off a new week with lots more work. It was to be a super busy week again. But one never knows what around the corner. The kids were full of sniffles and cold. And today the heavens had opened up pouring cats, dogs and piglets. K and I took the executive decision that it would be better to give them a break and decided to keep them from school. Chiyaa is generally the one who wants to keep her attendance on point. But today she was willing to sacrifice it. The kids slept till 10. Parents worked. And around 11 am K was notified of an offer on a food delivery app. Well all that he needed was that nudge and we had noodles for lunch. It was therapeutic to forget the madness of work and just relax with kids for 30 mins during lunch break while the skies poured down. A busy afternoon for K and I while the girls rested and we called it a day.

Tomorrow routine.

Fielding set for January

 And just like that it's half of the first month of the new year done. In a matter of few days here we are in the full swing of things. A far cry from somewhere the same time in December when we were winding down. There were lots of card games, lots of TV shows, lots of food and lots of lazy mornings and days. We have still carried forward the card games, the TV shows, the food. The lazy mornings have of course been replaced by break neck school runs and the days have gathered their routine.

In all honesty it has not been as bad as we had anticipated. We did imagine things to be very murky but K, the girls and I have all felt that things have not been too bad. It was fairly ok to settle down. Personally I was dreading work since I had lots of dependencies in a new project.  I prefer working in an independent way without much hand holding from others. But somehow the timing of my joining a new project and the resource structure was such that there was a lot of inter dependent work. With that my progress with deliverables was slow which was a bit annoying for me. I spent a good week fretting and fuming. There was one small silver lining when I was needed for another task with a previous project. I felt valued and was looking forward to contributing in right earnest towards it. As they say when it rains it pours. Coincidentally on my current project at the same time there was some rejig of resources which led to much better synergies. So January was ironing itself out.

There was yet another curve ball in the shadows. I am making a trip to my home town Bhubaneswar. For the first time ever we could book a flight with Indigo which would taks us to our destination in quite a small duration. But then, the Indigo Gods acted up. Our flight has been rescheduled. This means our domestic leg from Delhi will be from a different terminal. Terminal change means more hassle and potentially delays. We went berserk. I literally bombarded everyone on my contacts list if they had any idea about changes in Delhi and if 2.5 hours would be enough to make it. There were some positive votes ( yeah you can do it!). Majority vote  were for its possible but with a lot of speed and stress. It was a lot of cognitive load looking through discussion forums, askind the all knowing (for now) AI platforms, going through different help desks and the lot. Finally we have given up to the best power in the universe. Dear God. He has brought us to it, he will take us through. With this another hurdle of January deferred to April 😂

So things have come out way and we have dodged some, deflected some and deferred some. Looks like an exciting year ahead! 

Wishing you a hopeful new year

 As the year draws to a close today I mostly think of it as a wasteful year. Through out the world there were wasteful wars where thousands of lives were lost for no good reason. We came so close to peace so many times but there wasn't anything decisive. There were numerous air accidents involving civilian and military aircrafts. Each time it made me feel awful for the parties involved. It was such a sad waste of life. They scarred me so much that I nearly had a morbid fear of flying - for myself as well as of anytime anyone from my family travelled. Luckily we made our journeys in safety and I pray the skies are safe for everyone. 

I went through a redundancy cycle. I have 4 close friends. Each one of us went through a redundancy cycle in their respective jobs. Everyone ended up having a different outcome. But it was tenure of stress and unwanted friction in  our lives which I felt  was unnecessary and wasteful. We all believe we have come out stronger, more fulfilled and better off on the other side. And there is perhaps only one way to get from one point to another, to get from one job to another.

My sister battled health issues for close to 4 months because of a misdiagnosed condition which was such a strain mentally and physically.

As a family I felt we lost quite a bit of money. Some were for random reasons like a bad purchase here or being overcharged for a home improvement there. But the worst was being charged a fine of £100 for overstaying  a parking by 35 seconds. It was just the most outrageous and horrible of them all.

But it was not all gloom and doom. Chiyaa turned 13 and we made a  trip to Norway. It was a surreal and out of the world experience. It was the stuff of dreams to be in the culturally thriving city of Oslo and then make our way into the Arctic circle and be in Tromsø. The holiday planner in me loved the planning and execution of the whole trip.

In May my parents came over. We celebrated their stay assuming it to be the last time they would be in the UK. We planned a trip to Canterbury which for me was lovely and rare one. Once they went back we settled into the usual routine. I was in my new job with a new projects and I loved every bit of it. It was the most fulfilling work experience in a long long time.

The project winded down and I am on my next long term project. I think I feel settled there too. There hasn't been a dull moment at my new work place. And thankfully in December we had a quick holiday to Berlin when we built a number of amazing wonderful memories.

We have looked after a lot of puppies and gained so much experience. We have read so many books and I love how the girls are hooked as readers. We have laughed and cried and grown and lived. 

In the coming year I hope to grow roots and stabilise in life, work and relationships. I hope we all recover from whatever scars we have been dealt this year. I hope for peace, stability and enriching experiences for everyone. Wishing anyone coming by a very happy new year!

Each one a new experience

 We look after guide dogs when their primary raisers are away for whatever reason. We had the opportunity to look after 2 in close succession.

One was tiny Cocoa who was only 12 weeks old. She was the youngest puppy we had handled. We did not have a great experience with Lucky so we thought it would be our attempt at redemption with another little female dog. She was a tiny little piece of joy, chaos and fun. She came into our house on a very cold and eventually rainy day. She was a bit out of place initially and had a few accidents around. But once the girls came back from school she was much better settled. She played with the girls like crazy. Since she was in that stage where she can be a could bite a bit, we chose to dress in thicket clothing. We were not complaining given the temperatures of this glorious island 😑

She was an early riser, and of course we had to be up with her. The girls could sleep if they wanted, but who would want to miss a turn with the lovely pup? So we would all be up around 7 even on a weekend and be with her. She was a silly goose, playing around with slippers and her toys. She would tire quite easily and then take a long nap. This was our turn to play card games and the like. I really love how looking after a puppy no matter for how long a duration forces us to spend time together as a family. Be it just sitting around the pup playing card games, watching some show or going for a walk. It is a really uplifting bonding exercise.

Once Cocoa went back, we were due to be looking after Scamp the Champ. Now Scamp is a pure golden retriever. He is just awesome. He is a majestic dog with a lot of sass and energy. He has such a big personality. We were excited to look after him. It was amazing to notice the changes in him as he has grown. Earlier he was quite an aloof dog. But this time we found him so well bonded with us. He would wave the kids goodbye when they left for school and would come to the window to keep looking at them. He would also greet us with such enthusiasm when we came back. Sadly most of the days with him were quite rain filled as well. Though he surely had the stamina to go on much longer walks, we were heavily restricted. We had to resort to shorter walks but that didnt take away the spurts of football in the garden. Again the times he forced us to hang out in the garden or sit around the dinner table fooling around with him was such an enriching time. We can only thank this lovely dog for the experience. He goes back tomorrow. After that we will surely feel the pang. But hopefully there will be many more tiny ones to amaze us next year. 

The Office

I am a self proclaimed "not a TV viewer". It gets to be a struggle to watch stuff with the kids. They are at a funny age, with Chiyaa being a teenager and capable of watching young adult shows and Pumpki not so much. But we have the one TV. There needs to be a consensus. All need to watch the same thing - sometimes at least :) We have days where we search for stuff to watch. Over the summer, we searched and searched and for the lack of anything better, we started The Office.

I am aware of the legendary status this show has. I had watched a few episodes of The English Office when we had moved to the UK initially. But I never got the time to watch it continuously. But this summer, I started watching it and Chiyaa just came and sat beside me. She found it jarring, unreal and eventually funny. I agree there are some adult themes in there, and it is not suitable for young kids, but Pumpki used to hover around when Chiyaa and I were watching and she got roped in as well. K was not comfortable with her watching it and there were some episodes where we did them on the sly ;) 

The series I must say lived up to its hype. First and foremost its irreverent. We cant see it through the new 'woke tinted' glasses. Characters are unapologetic, characters are crass, characters are funny. The actors have such immense comedic timing that it just blew my mind. Each and every member of the crew had amazing timing. There are a few characters such as Creed, Meredith and Toby which just had us in splits as soon as the camera panned towards them. The main characters played by Steve Carrell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Ed Helms and Rainn Wilson are just stellar. They are awesome actors with such range. There are scenes where they go from goofing around to being remorseful, they go from being casual to really emotional and it just takes the audience through the roller coaster within a span of 2 to 3 minutes. The character arcs of the main leads is amazing too. Its like water cutting through stone, nothing happens on a day to day basis but one still sees so much happening over the years. As a viewer I was annoyed with some developments and over joyed with others. There is some real clever writing there which manages to stitch together the stories across 9 seasons with approximately 20 episodes each. 

The penultimate season is a bit boring. Too many characters seem to be drawn in to make a heady mix, but it seems a bit slipshod. But then the show comes back with a bang in the last season. It has more of a 'romance' angle instead of 'fun' but I think that's what the viewers were waiting for. Closure for some of the characters who felt like family.

Watch this for some amazing writing and excellent comedy. It is pure gold. And I am glad I could watch it with my little girls! May the legacy of The Office continue :) 

The loop

 And just like that, a month has passed since my parents travelled back to India. Saying goodbye this time was super hard, but strangely the recovery wasn't too bad. I think earlier they were so active and so all over the place, helping in this, doing that, going for walks, playing with the kids, that their presence seemed to be everywhere. But this time I found them a bit more sedate. Yes, they were ever eager to do things, full of ideas for changes and willing to go out anywhere. But the tiredness of age was there as well. The preference to be at a certain place, the intention of conserving energy, the thrill of being looked after was what they sought as well. It was really sweet in a way to have this turn of events from their side, because both of them are ever buzzing without a moment's rest.

The autumn half term is the longest. It just seems to go on for ever. This time that seemed different too. It was 8 weeks long, but to be honest, did not seem so at all. Both girls were super engaged in one club or the other. There were events in school and I was personally  a lot busier at work. Work was new, super challenging, interesting and in large volumes. Most days I did have to end up working after the girls are home. Thank God they had their hobbies of gaming and books to keep them engaged. This was the first time in a long time that I did not feel the pain of a super long term. When Pumpki said, we just finished 8 weeks of school, it was sheer news to me!

We are tied in the cycle of half terms and school activities. Some years ago what seemed limiting and restrictive now seems like a blessing. It is in fact a blessing to be able to have those days of rest during the half term holidays. It is refreshing to not wake up to an alarm clock. Those few extra minutes of sleep add so much to the day. It is a different cadence to relax with the girls as it is to end up in a frenzy with them. As it is a different cadence with my parents, a gentleness, a slowly down. Life is so close to clockwork.