It's a wrap

 New year's eve again. That time of the year when 12 months seem to have zipped past and it seems like yesterday that it was last year.

This year has been one of certain uncertainties for me. Sitting in 2022 I was sure of the things that were going to happen. There was a trip to India, there was renovation work for our house, there was Chiyaa starting secondary school, my parents visiting UK, my sis moving to her own place and then a holiday. That was a bit long list but we were uncertain of how things would pan out.

First up my parents arrived in February which coincided with my sis moving from our house to a rented house of her own. It was a different experience for her getting everything sorted independently. It was also a tug of war of emotions. There was a desire and longing for all of us to stay together. But then mummy and papa were keen on supporting my sister as well who was setting her own place. It was a bit of a roller coaster of emotions the meeting and parting every week. But eventually we started getting used to it.

April we made the trip to India. It was an epic trip with us managing to stay at Bengaluru for the major chunk of our holiday. It enabled me to meet up so many of my friends! It was an amazing and utterly soul soothing experience.

We came back from the trip to have Chiyaa face her Standard Assessment Tests which is like a public exam. She did quite well and it was milestone for her. With that over we had to look at her starting secondary school in September and a whole bunch of changes to our routine. The two kids would goto two schools which would start and finish at different times. It would throw our work patterns a bit out of whack. We used to brainstorm literally every day how we would go about the whole thing. But when September started it just wham! naturally fell into place!!! K would drop her and I Pumpki. On good weather days they walked and K would await mid way and we would drop Pumpki together. Else it was a car drop for Chiyaa. Most days she walked back by herself which for me was a major letting go. Pumpki had her first year in school without her elder sister in the playground. I saw her strengthening her friendships with her peers and seniors. Since we were ending up starting work a bit later cos of the 2 drops we started after school club for Pumpki so that we could stretch our working day. It also added to her set of experiences. Chiyaa settled down perfectly in her new school and it was so nice to see her forming the social connections which she missed in primary. By God's grace the kids were finally settling.❤️

All this while we had quite a bit of renovation planned for the summer. The summer became late summer and that became early autumn. That turned the whole house to pay turvy. K and I used to get into arguments about this or that regarding the builders or the cost or the layout or some random stuff. The season has changed to winter and the work is well and truly underway. But there is still so much more to do in the new year. 

Which makes the coming year a year of uncertain uncertainties. We have to make some financial recoveries since the renovation has run a bit over budget. How  needs to be figured out 😀Also we have no idea when all the tasks will get over and the house will be fully usable. My parents might be making a trip again. But we aren't sure when, for how long and what we plan to do together in terms of trips etc. My Mil is coming over and it will be a different experience for her coming over first time since the pandemic. We have no certainty about any trips or holidays we might be undertaking.  I will be changing teams at work with new people, new systems and new tech stack. There are just too many things up in the air and I would love to see my thoughts on 31.12.2024 😃

But here's wishing anyone who chances on this post a very happy new year. May your uncertainties result in pleasant outcomes. May you have the strength to live through them and the results. May things forge ahead and be enriching. Wishing everyone a new year full of pleasant surprises!

Getting used to the mess

 I might have said in a previous post that we are undertaking some renovation work in our house. It is a simple room extension which we thought would throw one room out of function. But the work has seemed to grow arms and legs! First the room under the room to be extended got impacted! The builders had to put scaffolding on it and make the base stronger etc. Now this room was our 'office' room. So working from home was thrown out of gear. We had to shift everything from that room. Once we started the process we realised just how much the room housed. There was the usual office stuff of laptops, monitors, printer, shredder. But then there was a huge book shelf. Little one's keyboard. A small heater fan. Plants. The list goes on. All these stuff and the people who used them had to be rehabilitated to the living and dining room. 

I set shop in the kitchen and K in the living room. The living room ended up having a very ragged look with all the plants and the office set up. It was a throw back to the covid lockdown period when we did not have a proper office setup and things were a bit ramshackle. 

Anyways the work started. There was a big skip in front of our house to accumulate the debris of construction. The parking spots for the cars were gone and we had to have a daily chase of picking a spot on our street. Initially it started with being annoying. But then it turned into  was fun and games and there was a certain thrill in getting a certain parking spot. K would come and shout woo hoo! I got the space under the tree. Other times I would be like hoorah I got the one near the wall. 

Things went a bit too our of whack when our bedroom was impacted too. Since the window in our bedroom was to be cut and shortened, they had to access it. But the delivery of the smaller window was delayed. So they boarded the gaping window space, but the room was super cold. So it was a call back to the floor of the living room for K and I. First few days it was a bit inconvenient to set up the sleeping area  on  the floor of the living room. But then the silver linings emerged. The living room was way tidier during the day since we made sure to keep it cleaner for the nights. The cosiness of the living room with all the plants had a charm of its own. 

When finally our bedroom was in operation again, we changed all the covers and vaccumed it like there's no tomorrow. It was so clean and sparkling that all the inconvenience seemed worth it when we finally hit the bed!

The work is going at a decent pace. Hopefully sometime by February next year things will be a bit more settled. The journey unsettling at first is something I  have definitely gotten used to.