31st December 2021

 It literally seems like yesterday that I was penning down my year end post. The first year of the new decade comes to an end today and I am left with a very dull and numb feeling. 2021 was  a year of most unprecedented and unexpected events. 

Work presented all sorts of twists and turns. There were days when I was this close to looking for a new opportunity. The location changed for me and I am not keen on travelling to the new location once we are called to start coming in. I would have looked other places but I want to see how the work from home scenario pans out. The new year will bring in our team's merger with another and that in turn will bring in a whole load of other changes from technology to management and also work culture. What the next year holds in stock will be seen. 

I am not a social person and don't host or visit people that often. But there is a Diwali lunch and a New Years Eve dinner that I host. But I noticed that both events were giving me more strain than being an occasion for meeting friends. The coming year I have decided to cut out these two gatherings. I don't believe in taking any unnecessary stress. No superfluous rituals, no extraneous relationships. And next year I have decided to get rid of a few more. 

Both K and I have had some shocking events in our families. I have the view that they are unpleasant but essentially good changes. The future holds the fruits of these seeds that have been sown. 

I feel the next year will be a year where we will start seeing the consequences of the events that have happened this year. So here is hoping the next year brings in a good crop. A good crop of smiles and opportunities and successes. A good yield of happiness and satisfaction. A good produce of peace. Happy new year to all!

A smile a day - 20

A long chat with a longtime friend. S is such a lifeline of mine..though we don't speak often enough when we do it's such pure joy literally discussing everything under the sky. Plenty of reason to smile. 

A smile a day - 19

 It was the first Saturday of the holiday season. The girls were feeling lazy for their 0820 start for swimming lessons for which they have to wake up at 730. Chiyaa was awake so we made her get dressed and have her breakfast. K told Pumpki wasn't keen to go. I assumed she was sleeping and thought it was fine if she wanted to catch up on some sleep. But when I went to their room she was quite awake :P I made her wake up and get dressed too to which she moaned and cried. 

Not the ideal start. But the class was utter fun! Since it was the last swim lesson of the year after a few minutes of swimming the kids were allowed to frolic around. And what fun they had! It was hilarious to see them convert the pools into a water play area :D. Happy holidays indeed. 

A smile a day - 18

 Caught up on a movie after possibly 2.5 years. The movie was all right but the experience was amazing. 'Spiderman no way home ' worth a one time watch for die hard Marvel fans. 

A smile a day - 17

 Managed to get a lovely Thai massage with my sister. Was massaged by two giggling girls whose vivaciousness made us happier :)

A smile a day - 16

 Yesterday I managed to fix a bug before I finished for the year :) With a smile I packed my monitor and laptop to sign in again on 4th January 2022.

A smile a day - 15

 Yesterday I spoke to roomie dear after 4 years. Yes she forgot my birthday, again! And yes I remembered that she forgot :D And I remember that we last spoke 4 years ago to which she commented "tere database se kuch purge nehi hota?" (Nothing gets purged from your database :D ) Yep such redundant information doesn't get purged for sure :) 

It was the best 36 minutes of my day :)

A smile a day - 14

 The weekend was a memorable one. We hosted Pumpki's birthday on the Saturday. It was a lovely little party with a few of her friends. Since she is a very shy child, it was very endearing to see her play with her small bunch. There were a few children who were not from her school but we invited them since we are close. I tagged Chiyaa to be in charge of one of the girls and Pumpki in charge of another. I had to keep reminding them, but they did their best to be good hostesses and keep all their guests feel welcome.

Sunday was the big day for yours truly. I started with a mild tummy ache which I reckon was caused by the Covid vaccine booster shot. But then I was sure that some time out in the fresh air was definitely what I needed. The sun was shining splendidly and we made our way to the city centre for a wonderful meal and some time in the Christmas markets :) A wonderful weekend before a shorter work week kicks off :)

A smile a day - 13

 I had picked up a small piece of work yesterday. I thought it would get done in a jiff. But nope. My attempts didn't work. I was suddenly not even aware why it was failing. Around noon, I thought a run would clear my thoughts. It did. I got some ideas. But none of them worked either. I spent a day roiling over how to make the thing work. At 1500 I had to break for school pick ups. It was a long and hectic pick up since there was a road accident. Back home, dinner was sorted and I made the kids go to their respective tasks (Chiyaa working on a present for me :D and Pumpki reading a book) K gladly took the remaining tasks of vacuuming house and reading the bed time story to Pumpki and putting her to sleep. So 1830 I was back at my desk. And 2000 the code worked! Whoop! Whoop!

A smile a day - 12

We are hosting a party for Pumpki's 6th birthday. Its unbelievable that she is already so close to being 6! We have invited a close friend who has an older son, 10 years old. I was not able to find a suitable return gift for him. Yesterday K went on a mission to get something for him.And he found the exact thing that I wanted! He got him a Lego gift since the boy is newly addicted to Lego! It felt God sent literally :)

A smile a day - 11

 On Saturday I was invited for dinner by a friend. She was a work colleague who is now a close friend of mine. Since my sister is in town, I could leave the girls with her. My friend doesn't have kids, and my girls tend to get a tad bit bored at her place.

So it was to be an all adult evening. It was lovely having a conversation for around 3-4 hours and we were not tongue tied for a bit. In fact it was quite hard to find a gap in conversation and  make a move :) It was such a lovely evening.

A smile a day - 10

 A real long walk with my dear sister, we walked to the city centre from home which was worth 6 kms. We had a cup of coffee to give our legs some rest. Then we shopped a bit. And Lichie mentioned that we had never shopped like this before! To be honest there was very little time we spent with each other as adults. It was such a joy being in her company :) 

A smile a day - 9

 So many reasons to smile over the weekend.

There was a storm so we missed swimming on Saturday, which meant more time to snuggle in the morning.

The storm brought in overnight snow :)

 Went on a cooking rampage and had nearly 8 dishes for lunch!

Made some triple chocolate doughnuts.

Had some delectable chicken curry for dinner.

Planned to eat lunch out on Sunday.

And it snowed! A lot! For a long time! 

Played a lot in the snow :) and  took a pic of myself in snow :)  Probably this is the first time I have a picture of myself in snow :D

Ordered KFC for dinner! 

A smile a day - 8

 My sister got a birthday gift for me. It was a very expensive gift. She was going through her emails wondering why it hadn't been delivered yet and saw the email which claimed that it had been! Nothing was in our hands! I ran to the front door to check for any parcel and there wasn't any. But.... there was a slip which said that it was in our "safe place". Which is our garden waste bin :D 

And there it was my pretty present at the end of a bin on a blanket of grass and twigs :)

A smile a day - 7

 Wow! The seventh post about something that causes the lips to curve in a good way :)

Chiyaa is currently being home schooled because of a rise in Covid-19 cases in her year group. Since she's at home, I try to give her some chores or other so that she is not sitting on the desk constantly. Yesterday I asked her to remove the bedspreads and duvet covers in their room so that I could wash them. 

Iteration 1, the duvet covers got removed and were on the floor. I screamed at her to do it properly. 

Iteration 2, the bedspread was removed. I removed the pillow covers myself and asked her to get the stuff down.

Nothing happened for a while and I screamed again.

After sometime Chiyaa came down holding the duvet! I was in splits! That absent minded silly girl, brought down the entire duvet instead of the covers! God! Shes silly!

A smile a day - 6

Sunday was Karate tournament day. Its a competitive event for all the clubs under the umbrella association under which our club belongs. K, the kids and I were all participating. K and I were in fact participating in the same event, which made us competitors. The category was also for all levels of belts, higher than mine. I was certain, that my participation would be a no winner. I was sure that no matter how much lady luck smiled, there was no way I could beat the 2 black and one brown belt in my category. Being the lowest belt holder, I was called on first too. I gave a good performance, well as good as I could. But not enough to win a prize. But there were 3 people who came up and commended me! So audience votes there :) K had a tie with 2 other people and won the tie breaker to come second in the overall event!! 

Chiyaa has been training for quite some time and we were sure that she would bag some prize or other in the three events she was participating in. We were sure she would do well in the kata events which are more choreography based. And she did! In both the events, even coming first in one! But we had our eyes on the fight event. Shes a bit docile and does not want to hurt people. But she did put up some fight. So much so, she made a competitor cry! That was an immensely gratifying moment for me! She had 3 back to back fights and came on second in the overall event. I could not have been prouder of her.

But the most crucial event was Pumpki's. This was her first public event. Being a tiny 5 year old I was all nerves for her. She too like her sister has a natural knack for some aspects of Karate. She did her kata event and boy did she do well! She was on point, with the correct stances and went on to bag the second prize! Again all eyes were peeled on her fight. In her first round itself she fought a much bigger boy. But she did not go down. She fought! It was a no win from a points perspective. But the three judges had to give points based on technique. Two voted for the opponent and the third voted for Pumpki. So though she lost by a single vote, she was a champion. It was an immensely amazing day and I was a super proud mom :)

A smile a day - 5

 I love wireless earphones. They are just so swell. They help me be hooked to audio books and do a ton of cleaning and ironing. I also find them quite expensive :| So my sister gifted me the last pair of earphones. But I used them without a care in the world, even once dipping them in water by accident. And at last after 3 years, they died.

There are a couple of kiddie ones in the house. But they are headphones. With not so good noise cancellation. Plus being kid-friendly ones, the volume can be increased to a certain level only. That does not help if I am in the mood to go deaf with some Bollywood party mix :) I was left with the wired ones. Which once you have used wireless and not fun. Something like electric tooth brushes. The wired ones really brought down my reading :(

Till last when K as an advance birthday present gave me a pair of ear-pods! Woo hoo! Big smiles all around :D

A smile a day - 4

 Yesterday I was going with Chiyaa to the grocery store. On the way there was a lollipop lady. A lollipop lady is someone who stands near schools to help children and their parents cross roads. Essentially she has a big sign on her hands and when she steps on the road, vehicles stop. Mind you these are small residential roads, so no one is driving at The Fast and the Furious speed. 

So the lollipop lady came in our trajectory and waved her wand. The traffic stopped. It moved again for a bit till she came again. And before she could come and do her magic again, I said " Lets get out of here before she comes again" And for some reason Chiyaa burst out laughing. And so did I :)

 

PS. A lollipop lady :)