Miss you puppy

 I miss you when I add the banana to my morning cereal and don’t have to leave half for you

I miss you when I have an orange and have to finish it

I miss you when I boil eggs and have to throw the shell away

I miss you when I go up the stairs and there is no barrier to cross

I miss you when I enter the garage and there is a smell of you

I miss you when we have to throw cardboard boxes into recycling without you to rip them apart

I miss you when I can eat in peace without your face lurking around

I miss you when I come home and there is no one bounding with joy

Imber we had you for 17 days and it was an absolute joy looking after you. You are a gold standard puppy who is just the best. Love you a lot 💝

Our funny Diwali

We are not your conventional family. Somehow I am lucky to be paired with a weird person like K who loves keeping to himself playing his computer games. We dont like socialising much. We are not part of expat groups and dont do stuff that are organised on a community scale. What we mostly tend to do is keep to ourselves and invite my Romanian friend over. Of course I start nearly 15 days prior to Diwali putting all the lights on cos I need Diwali. I need those lights around when the days are shorter. I need as much artificial brightness as possible :) 

 Since my friend is vegan and I want to make Indian stuff only, it is a brain storming session prior to her visit. Also I feel the urge to showcase the wonderful cuisines that are from our lovely country instead of presenting something run of the mill which she can probably have in a random restaurant. This time we went with the theme of street food. We made pani puris and stuffed kachodis with potato curry. It was quite a cool experience to make them since these are also not stuff we make on a daily basis. The day itself was jam packed with cooking. There was a ton of stuff to make and taste. We bought the puris for the pani puri from the shop. We had to taste to make the taste of the filling and water as close to the real deal as possible. During the process of ‘tasting’ we ended up finishing 2 lots of the puris. So much so that K had to make another trip to the shops to get the required amount. It was huge fun though having this rendition of street food. This is what Diwali brings, the letting loose, just the joy of doing something that is not routine.

Once my friend was over, we had a good time just chatting about everything under the sun. Her husband and her quite enjoyed the food. With this awesome company, the meaningful conversations and positive feeling of the festive season, we celebrated Diwali a week ahead of Diwali :)

24 hours

 The first 24 hours are the worst. That's when everything is fresh and everything hits hard. 

I climbed down to a much quieter and emptier house. As I was unloading the dishwasher this morning I was reminded of my annoying mummy loading it yesterday to give me some respite for one last time this year. I made one cup of coffee while for the past 4 weeks I was used to making one for papa as well on the working days. 

As Chiyaa left for school I thought about yesterday. She said her goodbyes to Tubi and Aja. She cried a lot, they cried a lot. Today she left with excitement to be on a trip with her friends (a happy coincidence). And my parents are in Dubai waiting for the next flight to home. 

Yesterday I did my school pickups without mummy beside me. Today I will watch Pumpki doing her swim lesson without mummy beside me. I will come home to no questions from papa about how Pumpki did. 

Each thought   is a sucker punch. Each wave of emotion is tough. As I go through the day I keep thinking how they would have felt when they say this, what they would think of such and such. My parents have seen it all but I feel wish they were here to see it again. The first 24 hours are the toughest till we get used to routine. 

My favourite holiday

 My favourite holiday is when my parents are with me. And I had the awesome opportunity of having them for a month from September to today. With my parents around it is a strange warmth. It is a mix of nostalgia and moving on. 

My father is the routine bound person who adheres to his schedule with passion. His meal times, his walks, his sports viewing , his news viewing  - every thing goes on with an  absolute accuracy of time. Being a bit out of his comfort zone in the UK and given his age he is a bit dependant on us for every need of his. It makes me feel sad for the cruelty time inflicts on us. But at the same time it also makes me feel happy to be able to take care of him in this reversed roles state.

My mom is also much weakened. Her legs annoy her and her stamina is lower. Still she's always there. Aggressively cleaning the dishes and loading the dishwasher, preparing meals with such love and always ready to make her oh so amazing tea. Today till they left the house she was doing one thing or the other - cooking, cleaning, making extra tea  and even offered to keep a cup for my sister and I to have later. Her love is something that is not of this world.

This year I was lucky to experience Durga Puja with them. I am not a religious person. But Puja has a certain vibe for me maybe because of the school holidays that were a part and parcel of it growing up. We went to see a couple of celebrations in Leeds. Though they were nothing compared to the pomp and show back home it was still joyful spending the time with papa mummy and experiencing the difference. Instead of the traditional prasad we ended up having pizzas since we were too tired to cook. The novelty of it just warmed my heart. 7 of us, 3 generations all wrapped in the warmth of love and companionship. It was just surreal.

But God had another surreal surprise in store for us. The Northern Lights! We had missed the first show on 10th of May. It was my sisters birthday in May on the night of the aurora sightings all over UK. We had missed it. But on 10th of October we were not to be fooled! We were lucky to view the spectacle from our house. It was amazing, splendid, unprecedented and exciting! I just can't thank God enough for letting me experience it with my parents.

I will only thank my good fortune and Almighty for having such lovely enriching experiences with my parents. I hope they enjoyed it too. We will hopefully host them soon again. We will hopefully make more memories together again. We will hopefully enjoy the warmth of each other's company again. Till then we will endure this separation and live through the emptiness. 

Summer!

 Tomorrow is the end of the best part of the year. The school summer holidays.

Parents dread the 6 week long break. But I just love love love it! August by itself is 'holiday season' with many people taking time off work. But the lack of school adds a special something for me.

First of all I get to turn off the morning alarm. It is a liberating move for me 🤣 The first couple of weeks of the school holidays I used to wake up as clock work at around 630 in the morning - the designated time for the school run. Slowly time began to slide. It became 7 then 730 till ultimately reaching the peak at 830! It was just pure bliss to crawl out of bed, grab the coffee and log in without bothering about uniforms, combing hair, checking school work and a million other things.

We had absolutely nothing planned since we never managed the time plus we had some other financial commitments. But the girls were fabulously engaged with each other. Before the holidays began we had made them make a routine of what they were going to do on a daily basis. But the first week we pampered them by letting them do lego and just chill. And like morning shows the day, the 3 days built the pattern 😝There was absolutely no adherence to any routine. Well, there was some flimsy routine if I can call that. The girls used to wake up at 830 which eventually slid to 1030! A lazy raucous breakfast followed by some reading, soem craft work. After which there was a dedicated screen time for 4 to 5 hours! As soon as K and I logged off around 5, it was dinner time followed by a 8k walk on most days. It was a time for us to connect and chat a lot as a family. I can't say enough about how much I  absolutely loved those walks.

K and I had some sporadic leaves  too. We took the girls out dining, shopping and the like. Again I must say it was super fun - be it shopping for books, lego, earrings or school stationery. We had a long pending desire to get a Nintendo Switch for the girls which we eventually did this summer. They both loved it and bonded so much over video games!The girls got super creative on one occasion and made 2 suspense movies using all the soft toys in the house. The movies and the screening of them to the whole house was the high point of the holidays for me.

During the holidays I thankfully did some prep work such as going through the clothes and ironing and mending them. As the last week began I had the best intentions to start going back to a more structured lifestyle. But then the devil on my shoulder said ' last week! Live a little!' And that's what I did! The wake up time nudged to 0845 making me scramble to log in at 9 on some days 😂 and the bedtime in turn botched to past midnight ( which was oh so adventurous for me 😝) The very best thing was a surprise. I was expecting Pumpki 's school to reopen on 2nd September. But a chance conversation with another mom made me aware that it was to be 3rd. ONE FULL EXTRA DAY!! WOO HOO!

School starts tomorrow. There are niggling issues. My Mil starts for India tonight which will leave a gaping absence especially for the kids who enjoyed with paati a lot. Pumpki has shoes not to her liking for day 1!  I need to goto office on Chiyaa's first day. Things will be all over the place but it will all become routine. Here is to looking forward to another lovely summer!

Imber - you darling

 As I had mentioned in an older post, we tried to foster a puppy for Guide Dogs. It was a unique experience, but we failed in doing it for the full duration. Our puppy advisor suggested that we should try to foster an older pup. We were very apprehensive that we would be successful in raising or fostering puppies.

A few days later she came up with the need for someone to look after their puppy for a week. It was a 8 month old male called Imber. We had doubts but then we thought, this might be our chance to have a different experience. So we went ahead with the opportunity.

We visited Imber with his carer before he was to come over. His carer Jonny informed us that Imber was the most chilled out puppy one would ever come across. He was a big, happy Labrador Retriever who just filled our  hearts with joy.

Imber came to us on a Sunday morning. For some time he searched around for Jonny. He was a bit on guard, walking around the house and following people - especially K. We called over Papa, Mummy and my sis who are all tremendous dog lovers to meet up with Imber. When they came over, the house was quite busy. Imber was happy and friendly with all of us. But he was still a bit fazed at his new surroundings. He was unsure of how to behave and what looked to us, not too keen to let his guard down. When people moved, he moved. When everyone sat down, he sat down as well. We thought he was going to tire himself with absolutely no rest throughout the whole day. It seemed like he did indeed for around 9 in the evening he started dozing off. He went off to his crate and was fast asleep by 2130.

The next day was a working day. But K had decided to take .25 days off for the entire week. We were not going to do the same mistake as with Lucky which was to try to manage work and a puppy at the same time. Being able to finish early allowed K to give undivided attention to the puppy. K did most of the caring tasks for the puppy - the feeding, the toilet tasks, the walk. Though we accompanied him, K was the main care giver. This made Imber bond supremely with K. The very sight of K used to make Imber's tail go round and round like the wings of a helicopter :) It was so cute and crazy.

The girls fussed over Imber like anything. They were always around him, playing with him, combing him. There was one time when Imber came over and fell asleep on Chiyaa's lap! It was just the most adorable thing ever. By day 3 he was getting way more comfortable and confident with all of us. He started to be naughty and try to chase and steal shoes. Day 4 he even went to the extent of sitting all smug on the sofa. 

Imber was becoming such a lovely part of our life. It was amazing going on those brisk walks with him thrice a day. We took him to a park where he ran around. We were still scared to let him off the lease, but he loved chasing the kids around while on the lease - making us run in the process. He loved playing fetch. Giving him treats and getting those tiny licks from him was just precious.

The day Imber was to be picked up, felt quite emotional. We took him for a 45 minutes walk around our neighborhood. When Jonny came over, Imber went crazy with joy. He literally ran all over the house giddy with excitement. We had to let Imber go, but it was an immensely enriching and warm experience for us.

We took some time to recover, but we felt had done a much better job and way more justice to Imber. We were more confident and also relaxed, which helped us all have a wonderful time. 

The rest of 'day' trip

 When the announcement came that someone had been hit on the tracks because of a signal failure, there was a collective groan from all the passengers. These things take a lot of time. The entire scene is cordoned and there is intensive examination that takes place. At 1930, 2 hours from home, with the charge in our phones dying, we hoped for a quick resolution.

Thats when I got a call from my sister. She said their 2015 train has been cancelled. I told, yeah must be because of the accident cos the entire route seems locked down. She was a bit frazzled by this. She had my mom and dad on her hands and them being  elderly she was very concerned about their welfare. I sitting in a train was not going to be of much help. She spoke to the station staff who confirmed that there was no guarantee that trains would run that night. 

My sis panicked and started searching alternative routes to get home. She called me and we discussed that most routes might be a bit tedious to use and might be eventually blocked - cos this seemed to be a pretty bit incident. The best call would be to book a hotel and stay the night. The train tickets were anyways valid for any future travel to Leeds. She searched through a lot of hotels, most coming back with no vacancies since people who were facing cancellations were booking out. Finally after nearly 45 minutes around 2030 she informed me that she had managed to find a hotel near the station and they would head there.

Phew! that was one crisis averted! 

Pumpki was getting a bit anxious and restless since it had been over an hour. We tried to pacify her as much as possible and distract her by playing some games. K had a friend who lived nearly an hours drive away. He started checking with him, if it would be ok for us to get to his house. His friend was more than welcome. He also offered to drive and pick us up! But I felt it would be asking too much since it would be around 2230 by the time he would get to us and would take another hour to get back home - nearly mid night. With the next day being a working day for his friend, I didnt think it would be fair to make him take the trip.

It was around 2100  (around 1.5 hours since the incident). The driver announced that there was no positive sign of train moving forward. He said people who could make their way via various means to their intended destinations were welcome to do that. The doors of the compartments from which it was safe to get down had been opened. People started talking and discussing various options. Those who lived in London, started trickling out and making their way back home. There was a lady with young daughters sitting next to us. I started chatting with them to find their thoughts. She said she felt it was much safer being in the train, because definitely some arrangement would be made. They will not let a bunch of trains lie on a track over night because services needed to be resumed atleast for the next day. The arrangements made by the train company might take time, but they would definitely be there. I totally agreed with this, and convinced K that instead of making our way back to London or to his friends house ( depending on God knows which rail service), it was much better to sit in the train. 

At 2200 the driver announced that there had been a signal for the train to move! There were wide cheers from the train. It seemed like the best news a group of people had heard in a long time! 15 minutes later, the driver announced that the train would be moving back to London!!!! Whatttt!! Passengers were requested to make some arrangement of staying the night. That was a proper anti climax😖

Everyone got on the phones! I checked a few hotel sites and most of the places were getting booked out or charging extortionate rates. I rang my sister and asked if she could check if there was a room available. She went to the reception and managed to book the very last room available for the 4 of us!! Some close call! Not only that, they had also given us a late checkout. Which meant we could sleep in a bit late to recover from all the drama 😀

Finally at 2230, 3 hours since the halt, the train started moving! We reached London King's Cross station at around 2245. At the station one the rail employee was making an announcement to keep the hotel invoice to make a compensation claim. And people who had not managed to make an accommodation would be given taxis - fully reimbursed by the train. That seemed such a generous gesture by the train company.

We took a cab and finally reached the hotel at 2315. It was a happy reunion with Papa, Mummy and my sis. We had such plans for a day trip and it ended up being so much more. But God was watching over us all through the way and we were so grateful to Him to have eventually ironed it all out.

Just a day trip

 The kids' summer holidays are on in full swing. We have not planned much this time because of various work and home commitments. Also being a Guide Dogs puppy raiser needed our availability. So it was more to be a one day at a time thing. 

Papa is an avid botanist who harboured the interest to visit The Kew gardens in London. We planned a trip to visit the gardens. My sis, Mummy and Papa went a day prior to the visit. K, the kids and I were to make a day trip. Our onward train was at 0715 and we were to return at 1910. A quick and easy day trip - what could go wrong?

Well it seems like a lot. 😉

The day before our journey we got a message in the evening that our train had been cancelled. We had the option to take any train either before or after the slated time. We thought we would take the one before at 0645. It would be an even earlier start, but probably we could avoid much of the crowd which would probably decide to come later. We woke up at the unearthly hour of 0530 to start. As predicted by K, the train was quite sparsely populated. We managed to get some real good shut eye. We reached London at 0855 and as usual were hit by the vibrancy of the place 😀

We made our way to the gardens. It was a sweltering 29 degrees. As a result Chiyaa who has an Eczema condition was having a bad flare up. She kept getting annoyed as her skin irritated her. It was not turning out to be her day😔 We had to keep applying a lotion on her. Seeing her in such difficulty made us all worried and anxious. It was getting quite exhausting for all of us to walk through the garden as well. The place is not a small park, it is 300 acres full of plants from all over the world kept in various climate controlled set ups. Some of the greenhouses were quite difficult to go through because of the immense heat. 30-35 degrees seemed unbearably hot. But we persevered. We managed to cover quite a bit. It was very exhausting but enriching experience. We learned oh so much! A little bit of cloud cover could have made life so much easier, but we can only hope.

1600 we decided to make our way back to London King's Cross to get our train back to Leeds. We bagged some dinner and got on our 1910 train. My sis and parents had the train at 2015, an hour after us. We said goodbyes and got on the train. 10 minutes into the journey the train stopped! 

The driver informed us that someone had been hit by a train along the route, hence we would be stalled for some time! This had been quite a day. But just when we thought we were 2 hours away from the comfort of our homes, we had this! The rest of the story needs another post 😉

Lucky to have you

 Lucky - the puppy was to board with us for 2 weeks. When the guide puppies are raised they are boarded in many different homes. This gives the puppies a chance to interact with a wide variety of people because they could be matched with any person in the future. Before boarding Lucky's raiser Alison decided to bring her over to our house so that we could have a feel of her. When Lucky came to our house she was hyper, she was manic with excitement. She ran around, climbed on us, went exploring and was just crazy all over the place. We were just as excited to have her. We couldnt wait for her to come and stay for the 2 weeks at our home.

The day she came, it was super hot. She was settled on the floor and avoided the carpeted areas. She was all right with us and a bit curious to explore. But given the heat she went off to have a nap quite soon. We had been warned that since she was 4 months old, she was teething. She could have a witching hour from 6-8 in the evening when she could go a bit bitey and try to get a bit more aggressive. The plan was to try to take her on walks during that time so that she could settle down a bit. The first day, K took her on a walk with the girls. She was a bit uncontrollable and they did have a tough time in the 1 hour they were away. At night when we all settled down and K was with Lucky. She puked out all her food and then re-consumed it. It was a harrowing experience for K and he immediately called the helpline. They confirmed that this is quite normal behaviour with puppies! Some time later Lucky settled down and K could get his sleep too.

The next she woke up right at 6 and K was at her beck and call. He took her to the toilet, gave her breakfast and then a short walk around the neighbourhood. Since it was a warm day again, she was quite sleepy and inactive during the day. In the evening once the girls came back, she was hyper with them. She tried to - what looked to us - pounce on Chiyaa. I have been with dogs before so it looked like normal behaviour to me. But K and Chiyaa were quite shocked. We tried to keep her calmer by playing low intensity games. She retired eventually and she slept peacefully on night 2.

The continuous work was taking a strain on K. As with a baby there are a million things to be done with a puppy. Alongside a full day of work, it was quite strenuous. K pulled through the day. But in the evening it was a repeat of her aggressive behaviour. This time K got very nervous since he was very concerned about the safety of Chiyaa. K called up the helpline and asked for advice. Sensing his mental state, they recommended that it would be best if the puppy is removed from our house.

The next day our assigned puppy development contact came over and took Lucky to board her with someone else. Lucky went away in the car and left a gaping hole in the house. A lot of things reminded us of her - the shoes she had chewed on, the place in the garden where she used to go crazy, her smell. It was a long recovery for us, and for me in particular. It took me quite some time to get used to not having her. And it made us feel bad that we probably reacted hastily and incorrectly. But what was done was done. As a final closure we decided to visit Lucky at Alison's house after a few weeks. She was so much calmer and well behaved, it was such a pleasure to be with her. Lucky - it was amazing to have you with us. And hoping you have a splendid career as a guide dog. 

A step

 K hankers for a pet. They come up as regular discussions in our household. The girls are of course gung ho about a pet - any pet. But my stance is clear, the only permissible pet was a hen. It would be outside most of the time and Mother Nature willing would lay an egg. The girls were fine with that, but no chance that would fly with K 😅

So one day on the radio K heard an advert. It was from the charity Guide Dogs. They raise dogs, who would assist visually challenged or people who need assistance in being mobile. It is a quite a good charity making solid and positive changes in the lives of people. The charity was asking for volunteers, especially men with tattoos and beards to raise puppies. The idea was, puppies need to be exposed to a wide range of appearances early on so that they can acclimatise to their future life where they could be paired with any person. The cause was asking for people to raise puppies from the age of 14 weeks to 14 months -ish. Then the puppies would be taken for training and if they passed put forth to be matched with people needing a guide dog.

 K has both - tattoos and beard! He came home super excited. It was a very good cause. Most of the costs of the care aspect, food, insurance, etc would be covered by the charity. All they needed from us was the time to raise a puppy through 1 year. I agreed.

This set off a chain reaction. First K had to fill in a very detailed application. Next detailed pictures of the house, the car, the neighborhood so that they were aware what sort of environment the puppy was potentially going to be in. After that, he went on to the interview. During the interview, he was informed that since there was another adult (me) in the house, it might be a good idea if I was made a supplementary applicant as well. Else for insurance purposes I would not be allowed to do anything for the puppy, for instance take if for a walk if K wasnt around for some reason. My application was a bit lighter than K's. But he took all the pain. My interview was quite straight forward too.

Once done through the stage, we awaited the results 😊 We received an email that we had been through and all that was needed was for us was to come to the centre and walk a dog for them to see our dog-handling skills. At the centre we were made to walk a gorgeous 17 month old called Peter. We were both oohing and aahing at how adorable he was. After the walk, we both were given the green flag and were officially recruited as puppy raising volunteers. 

Our coordinator Helen took us through a few more details. She recommended that since we had not had pets before and were first time puppy raisers, it would be a good idea to board a puppy for a few days. Puppy raisers do need to go away be for vacation or work. In that duration, they need boarders who would be willing to keep the puppy for a short duration. We were more than happy to house a pup for some days to get a feel of what it was like. 

That set another ball rolling. K looked up and found a ton load of stuff that would be needed. They were minor details he really wanted to sort - a drinking bowl, a bottle to carry water for the puppy, a blanket and many such small stuff. He got some second hand, some required trips to the shops, but he set up the house in perfect order to host our boarding puppy - Lucky. 

The beautiful eyes of a child

 The other day Pumpki and I were going to school. The radio was on and there was a caller on the station. The caller said that she had a date planned for one evening. She went to the supermarket to get a bottle of wine so that she did'nt turn up empty handed. When she was checking out, she saw herself in the security camera. She felt she looked horrible. She was so disgusted that instead of going ahead with the date, she went home and drank the bottle of wine alone. Then there was a ton of conversation around how do those cameras work etc etc.

Pumpki listened to this and said "I love the way the cameras work. They do the opposite of the hand that I am using (mirror image) and I find it hilarious) I felt so happy at the innocence which a child has. I wish as adults we all look at the many many brighter sides of life always instead of getting bogged down by the negatives. Many of which exist in our eyes only. 😊

And we are done

We reached office the next day. It was our first proper day at the office. Michelle was greeted to a pleasant surprise. Her hitherto lost suitcase was at her desk. There was a very interesting story to the origin of it. The colleague who had kindly offered to follow her to get the suitcase back had conversed with the passenger who had mistakenly taken her bag. He had got the details of the location of the person. He happened to be in a rural area where the colleague of ours had a friend. He asked his friend if he could collect the luggage. The friend gladly agreed. And as another happy coincidence the friend was coming over to Cluj the next day. So he drove in with the suitcase and ended up uniting it with Michelle. It was a very quickly resolved issue indeed something that was quite unexpected.

The day resumed for us in its full glory with a lot of meetings and chats and catching up and some bit of coding as well :). In the evening another colleague of ours offered to take us around the old town. He took us through the history of some of the old churches and buildings. We were treated to some amazing authentic Romanian food which was simply divine. With the food and the tour around the town, we called it a day. 

The next day was unremarkable in what needed to be done. After a packed day at work, we spent the evening shopping some souvenirs. It was very nice bonding, chatting and spending a relaxing time with Michelle. Day done the next step was pack up and a return home. It was a work trip which mixed some elements of fun and winding down. A very different one for me, for I havent done this since the kids. I would love to take them all along with me sometime in the future to beautiful Romania :) 

An unexpected day

I could understand the predicament  of my teammate Michelle. She was without the bare minimum of her necessities. The Monday morning I offered her my company. She was wondering whether she should attempt going to the airport and start pestering the authorities or she should go shopping and get her stuff sorted. I recommended that she should get her stuff sorted because going to the airport might not be worth it. At least with the essentials shopped she would be able to function for the rest of the 4 days even if she wasn’t able to recover her lost luggage. She seemed convinced with the rationale. We had some breakfast at the hotel and then went ahead to go to the nearest mall. For me it was quite an experience. I had ventured on the trip expecting 3.75 days at office. But here I was with a team mate making my way to a mall. As with any foreign city, the sights and sounds were new and different. It was quite an experience noticing how things functioned, how people were going about their business and how daily life was. 

At the mall, Michelle went about doing her shopping and I spent time going around noticing stuff. Once she was satisfied with the stuff she had purchased we made our way to the hotel. We got in touch with our other colleagues and went for lunch with them. It was a warm and windy day. It was brilliant sitting in the sun and chatting about random stuff. 

Suddenly Michelle received a call from the airport lost baggage office.  It seems they had been contacted by the person who had mistakenly taken her luggage. He was willing to have Michelle come over and collect her luggage from their place. The airport authorities gave the contact number of the other party to Michelle. What ensued then was a nightmare of conversation  and translation. The person who had picked the luggage couldn’t speak English. So he in turn gave her the contact of his relative in UK who acted as a mediator. So the baggage collector spoke to his relative, his relative spoke to Michelle and the conversation happened in reverse order to communicate from Michelle to the baggage collector. It must have been pure torture for Michelle to engage in this communication, but the summary was as follows : The person wasn’t willing to travel all the way to Cluj since he lived nearly 3 hours away. He was happy for Michelle to come over and collect from his house. Since the distance was so great and it was an unknown place, Michelle asked to meet half way. He was ok to do that, but the location he sent as the meet up point ended up being some random railway station. It seemed a bit suspicious. One of our team mates recommended that Michelle ask someone from the Cluj office who was conversant in Romanian to accompany him. Michelle did so and one person was more than happy to accompany her when the data and time was fixed. 

This seemed good enough progress for a Monday. Our band of colleagues decided to call it an early day since we had travelled over night and meet up for lunch in the foyer of the hotel. We had some delicious food at a Greek restaurant and called it a day. 

Coming back to my hotel room I missed my kids. I have never travelled by myself. I have always the girls clamouring for my attention. Coming back into the quiet hotel room was a different experience. I got on a call with the girls since it was 1900 in the UK. They filled me in with all the details of what happened at school and back home. After spending nearly an hour chatting with the darlings I asked them to get off to bed. I proceeded to prepare for the next day at work :)  The day sure was most unexpected, filled with an impromptu trip for shopping, developments to secure the lost luggage, lot of help from colleagues at Cluj and some chilled interaction with colleagues. Next day was to be a new day :) 

Prepare and fly

I was to start from home on a Sunday evening, spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the morning half of Thursday at work and fly out on Thursday afternoon.I had it planned in my head. I would meal prep for the 4 nights I would be away. The kids have cereal for breakfast and their lunches are at school. It was only the dinner I had to care about. My plan was pasta for one night for which I would make the sauce, paneer curry for one night and chicken for the 3rd. K could take care of the carb component by making the pasta, roti or rice. Wednesday evenings Pumpki has swimming lessons in the evening. So after the lesson the trio could have some dinner at the swimming centre.The only issue was I needed K to complete the grocery shopping so that I could proceed with meal prep. Seeing this plan, K was of the opinion that I was over reacting and over preparing. I said  wanted to ensure that the kids’ meals were taken care of. K claimed he was perfectly capable of doing it. I asked how. He said by buying stuff duh! I said that’s preposterous since I was more than willing to make the food with fresh and known ingredients. (You get the drift how this is going) This extended into a long drawn argument about how much was too much and I was being self-sacrificial while he was being flippant. Eod he did get the stuff I asked for and I did meal prep as I intended ;) :D 

 In other news, Pumpki was crying her eyes out nearly every night leading to my departure. She anticipated that she was going to miss me a lot and could not fathom being away from me. It was saddening but I also felt it was something she had to experience. Chiyaa being older was way more composed. But come Sunday afternoon, she started being a little clingy. She made some cards and origami art work for me. She didn’t cry but came to me and hugged me tight and said ‘I wish I could cry like Pumpki.’ I reassured her that there was no need to cry since she was a capable independent girl. She would be so busy over the days that she would barely notice me missing. But her words made me well up. It surely was a different and somewhat difficult time for both the kids. I gave them the example of when my sister and I were little and my mom used to work in a different city from us. We did not even have the luxury of video calls or WhatsApp in those days. But it eventually became fine. This was only going to be 4 days. It would pass in a jiffy.

Sunday evening, as the time for my departure to the airport drew closer, I allowed them to have some screen time so that they would be distracted. They were engaged on the tv and wished them goodbye and left. Their eyes looked sad but they were eventually ok as K attested :) 
I was undertaking the trip with a bunch of people I work with and also get along with. I don’t like spending time with people from work. I was wary of how this trip was going to be since I had to spend considerable time with folks from work and also spend considerable time at an office setting. I was assured that the office setting was quite cool. People who had been there from Leeds claimed that they used to go for a stroll and go around exploring whenever they felt like and there were no questions asked. I wanted to avail the opportunity but I wasn’t sure how chilled out everything would be. But we would cross the bridge when we get there. At the airport we got together near the check in counters and then it felt like any other travel. There was the usual kerfuffle  of checking passports, boarding passes and the whole nine yards. Formalities done, we now had a long wait for a flight. The flight was scheduled for 2230 UK time and to reach Romania at 0330 the next morning. It would be nerve wracking to get to work the next day. Everyone was strategising how to get through the next day. It was nice for people to just chat around with their guard down. I was particularly close to one of my team mates Michelle. We spent quite some time having heart to heart conversations about things from work and outside. 

It was a late night flight and we were zombies by the time we touched down. We went through immigration which took a while for us. For some reason they were a bit snarky towards British passport holders ;) After that we made our way to  made our way to the luggage carousel. We all got our luggages. Michelle’s was now where to be seen! There was one suitcase that was left behind as well. We guessed that someone must have picked hers up instead of their own and made their way with it. We got in touch with one of the airport authorities about it. He took us to a room where he asked us to note an email id and phone number to get in touch with lost luggages. After that he escorted us out quite unceremoniously. We had no way of getting and nothing else to do but head to the hotel. Michelle got some spare stuff from the reception desk at the hotel. 

I hit the bed with absolutely no idea what was in store tomorrow.

That makes way more sense

 My office has a big presence in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. And my manager is someone very keen on building relationships and hence one who encouraged us to travel and build a face to face rapport. I was not very keen on the travel, but then gave in thinking that it would be a good experience. K was happy with managing the kids for 4 days and said also asked me to go on the trip. It would be my first time away for 4 days from the kids. I had stayed a few nights away from them, but never 4 nights. It would need some getting used to on both sides. As soon as my tickets and accommodation were confirmed, I told the kids. I: “I am going to Romania”

Chiyaa: “What? With Sorina aunty? “ (Sorina is my friend and hails from Romania) 

I: No not with her, by myself.

Chiyaa: So nice.

There were some more questions as to when, for how long, who would put them to sleep, who would do the school runs etc etc. There were a few tears from Pumpki. I was very sad because she was sad, but then it was something that had to be done. The next evening Chiyaa mentioned , “You will be rid of us annoying kids for a few days and must be so looking forward to the trip”. K corrected her that that would be probably something he would do, not mummy. I was thankful for the reply and the girls were maybe convinced. 

That night while putting them to sleep I mentioned, 

‘If it was school holidays I could have taken you and daddy to Cluj. He could have taken you around when I went to office”

Chiyaa : “What do you mean he would have taken us around?”

I: “I would be at office so only daddy would have to take you for site seeing and all.”

Chiyaa : “Why would you be in office? And what office? “

I: “Oh didn’t I mention? I am being sent through work, so I would need to goto office every day.”

Chiyaa:”Oh so you are not going on a holiday?”

I:”Of course not, why would I go on holiday without you all? “

Chiyaa: “ Ohhhh I thought you wanted a holiday without us and would be having a fun trip by yourself.”

I : (hugging them) “How can I have a fun trip without you.”

Pumpki: “Now I feel sorry for you that you will have to goto office everyday.”

I: “Aww.”

Pumpki: “ Who asked you to goto Cluj.”

I: “My manager.”

Pumpki: “ I hate your manager.”

It was so weird and funny that missing 2 words for work made all the difference. All the anxiety of not having me around got transformed into anger for my boss real quick ;)

Much ado about nothing?

I hate going in to work. There was a team gathering that was scheduled in the first week of March. I was dreading it and had absolutely no inclination to go for it. So a week to the event I felt as if my eyes were looking a bit puffier than usual. I felt as if I was being vain or maybe it was just psychological because I had to go into work and spend a day interacting with people :) I was just concentrating on the weird look on my face. I even resorted to strange things like chamomile tea and dandelion tea to reduce the bloat! But a day before the event I could see that the eyes did appear a bit too swollen and I thought it might be better to get it checked. 

When I got in touch with a medical practitioner over the phone, she recommended that it would be a better idea to get checked in person. The next available appointment was the next day and I booked it in. In all honesty I was happy to miss the team gathering ;) The next day I went ahead with to meet the doctor. The first shout was perhaps elevated blood pressure. The measurement the doctor took then was a bit on at the higher side. But they do not decide that on one measurement. She sent me home with a BP monitoring machine and asked me keep tab for the next week. I did so, and there was no untoward measurement. But my face felt puffier for sure. I did not like how it looked at all and was a bit worried that something else was going on. I made another call and this time they directed me to the primary eye care people. Since it was pollen season, the trigger could have been something wafting in the air. I was given a high dosage of antihistamines to get it sorted. The cautionary word was things should subside within the next 2 days. 

I could feel no difference 2 days later. In fact I felt a mild swelling in my palms and feet as well. Then I remembered that a thyroid test had been recommended for me the previous month. I had a funny ache in my neck. There was nothing wrong with my tonsils. It wasn’t a muscular pain either. It was a weird full pain at the bottom of my neck. The doctor had then asked for a thyroid test, which I had totally forgotten about. I decided to get that done.

The report came back the next day and the doctor was in a tizz. The normal level for one of the hormones should be under 20 and came back with 143 for me. Because of the hormones being so out of whack, my kidney was under stress and I had very elevated cholesterol as well. She was quite scared for me and was shocked that I had no symptoms like breathless ness and the like. She diagnosed it as Hashimoto’s disease which is an auto immune condition. She put me on the stabilising hormone immediately. It would take a few months for things to settle down.The medicines started to work over the next month. I could realise the puffiness on the face reducing a lot. I felt better as well. I was super happy with a diagnosis since I was feeling weird inside but could not pin point the real issue. 

I can’t thank God enough for the diagnosis and the recovery.

My lil grown up gal

 Anyone who has more than one kid will vouch how one kid's favourite food is another ones worst. Same is the case in my household. Whatever Chiyaa likes Pumpki hates it and what Pumpki likes Chiyaa finds disgusting. Chiyaa loves roti while Pumpki likes rice. Chiyaa loves chickpeas and Pumpki finds them horrendous. Pumpki loves peas and sweetcorn and Chiyaa hates them but likes beans which Pumpki hates. I could go on but you get the drift 😂

So the other day I asked the girls what sort of chicken should I make. Chiyaa likes something dry out of it like a grilled chicken or patty. Pumpki likes it juicy in a curry of stew. One shouted grilled the other curry. But I can sometimes bring them to a compromise cos it's chicken after all. They can tolerate a form which is not their favourite as well. 

Chiyaa said, ' We had curry last time so we should have grilled this time.' 

Then Pumpki who is the more difficult eater at the moment said, ' But I want a curry'. 

Chiyaa being the sweetheart that she is said ' That's fine I can have curry '. 

I said,' I can make both, not a problem '. 

Chiyaa being the ever thoughtful sweetheart said, ' No that will be a lot of work, I can have the curry.' 

I said,'No it's not a problem for me, grilling is just keeping in the oven. I can do both.'

But I was so immensely touched by the empathy she had for me. She really is a mature sweetheart with her head in the right place. I so grateful to God for the thoughtful daughter of mine ❤️

Days of the week

 What's your favourite day of the week? I know the popular answer is Friday. Even mine was that for a very long time. But if you ask me now it's Wednesday! 

Well, the reason behind this is Pumpki. She calls Wednesday Hump Day, a term she learned from the show Teen Titans! She loves the day because it's packed choc a bloc. She has physical education, music lesson on the recorder, music lesson on trombone which are from school, then her private piano class. After this hectic day at school she has swimming. And she loves this packed-ness of the day. Cos it's the middle of the week the girls are allowed TV time which is fun fun fun! Seeing her enthusiasm for a day which is called hump day because it's so unassuming and mundane really makes me look at the day with a child like fun. It is really a fun day. Monday is too far from the next weekend. So Pumpki hates this weekday the most. The other weekday she detests is Thursday which in her words is a big fat day sitting between her fav day and Friday when the weekend starts. Tuesday is a step closer to Wednesday hence the second best week day. So her order for weekdays is Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday and Monday. The weekend days are more or less tied with Saturday winning by a teeny margin 😀 She and her logical  answers  just amaze and cheer me up.

The best half term ever

 I remember writing this ages ago! It was my very first term break with Chiyaa and tiny Pumpki. Now both are in school, Chiyaa in high school! And I just enjoyed my February half term with them. I must confess it was my best half term everrrrrrr!! 

With Chiyaa in high school, our wake up times have moved to an earlier time since she needs to be out of the door somewhere around 740. Pumpki still has an 40 more mins before her school start. So while I need to wake up around 0630 on a school day, with the school holidays I could wake up at 0800. It was full 90 minutes of extra sleep! OMG that itself is enough to close the case as the best half term ever ever ever. 

I let the girls be by themselves for the first 3 days. Since they are at an age where they have similar interests, they get along well - well most of the time. Their plan was lego for this time. So though the living room was an utter mess, there was some solid play time invested there. It was wonderful to see them creatively weave their way around the different creations of theirs. After some lunch it was time for another shared interest of theirs - video games. Pumpki doesnt quite have the dexterity to play some of the tougher games, but she does a swell job watching Chiyaa play and cheering her on. It was amazing to see them enjoy those sessions as well. I mandated some time for reading and practicing their musical instruments. Those boxes ticked, with an intermittent reminder to drink water and have some fruits - that was pretty much my job done for taking care of them 😂

3 days flew and the next 2 days I was on leave. Thursday we went to the city centre. The idea was to meet K and have a quick meal some where. But we chanced to meet a family friend as well and she joined us! More the merrier! We had some amazing pizza and then said our good byes. We went to shop for some mats for the girl's new room and a couple of plant pots as well. That done, we trekked to visit my sister who lives in city centre. The idea was to surprise her, but it ended up being a flop since she was not at home and we had to ring to find where she was and how long she might take 😝 The kids love visiting their aunty anytime and they had a good time stretching their legs. My sis had to get on with her work and we bid our second set of good byes before making our way back home 😊 It was a lovely day but the next day our plans were even bigger.

As a treat for Chiyaa's birthday I had booked in a nails pamper session with the girls. We had some manicure and pedicure done and our nails painted as well. It was the first for the girls and they hugely enjoyed it! By the time we were out, we were starving and rushed to the nearest cafe to get some food. We got some flowers and some grocery cos why not and marched home. The girls just loved showing off their newly painted nails. 

On Sunday I had to visit another town to see off a friend. She was my room mate in Hyderabad in India. She had been in the UK for the past 5 years. And if one stays in a place for 5 years, one tends to accumulate stuff. Some stuff one doesn't feel like throwing away. She had tried to get rid of most of her belongings that she couldn't carry, sell or donate locally. But some she wanted me to take for safe keeping. Either she would make a trip back and collect them God willing, or she rather I use it instead of someone else. Since she has a 16 months old baby, my kids really enjoy going to her place. It was an amazing day with her kids and helping her wrap up stuff. It was an emotional experience saying that good bye for sure because one has no idea where life will take us and where we might meet again. We have somehow managed to meet once every 5-6 years by the twists and turns of fate which is not true for so many lovely people who have come through in my life 😕 It also made me nostalgic of all the house moves we had done in the UK. Approximately 5 in 7. years before we finally settled in this house. I remembered us leaving Ipswich where we were quite unplanned and had to leave a ton of stuff with a family friend. It has been 7 years since we saw them *sigh* One day ours paths will cross again, till then we have Whatsapp 😌

Since we had this trip on Sunday, and the next day was the start of the new school session, we were more or less sorted ahead of schedule. Chiyaa and Pumpki took their time in the evening for some more uninhibited telly time before hitting the bed for the next school session on Monday. I must say it was the most amazing half term I have ever had. It was full of so much activity, so many emotions and so many experiences that it was the most whole some block of days. Touchwood, heres to many more 🙏

And then came the New Year

 On our penultimate day which was the New Year we ticked off the Secret Garden which was historically rich along with being a beautiful garden. The evening was spent riding camels in a palm oasis near Marrakech. This was a bit of an underwhelming experience because the oasis wasn't very well maintained. The trees seemed to be lacking the love and attention that the gardens in the city were getting. But the kids had a lot of fun and that was very satisfying.  That was one good New Year spent.

That evening marked packing up. Packing up lovely memories. Packing up being pampered by the facilities in the hotel. Packing up the experience of the most wide variety of breakfast every single day which ranged from European fares to traditional Moroccon ones which included the freshest cheeses, dips and breads. Packing up a really wonderful holiday at the end of year which was quite tied down and sedate. Shoukran Marrakech!

The tours and the trips and bye to a year

 The second day in Marrakech was a trip to the high Atlas mountains. It is populated by the native Berber people who still keep a lot of their traditional lifestyle. It was a very interesting trip with lot of beautiful places to stop by. We were taken through a lot of traditions that people still follow such as the importance of the village elder and how they determine a lot of the happenings in the 11 or so villages, the tradition of many generations living under the same roof and so on. It was a very nice tour and the cherry on the cake was a camel ride through the outskirts of Agafay desert. We got dressed in traditional Berber clothes and rode the camels. It wasn't a real desert and more like the outskirts of it. So the adults felt a bit duped. But the kids just lovedddddd it! Once the ride was over, they spent some time petting the camels and taking pictures. The girls kept clamouring for more camel rides and I booked in the last day to spend one evening riding camels 😊

The second day we went to the Le Jardin Majorelle or Majorelle Garden. It is a beautiful garden by French artist Jacques Majorelle which was revived by Yves Saint Laurent. It was a beautiful garden in the most vibrant blue and yellow colors and the most majestic cactii. The blue and yellow colors are trademarked and hence for sale in the gift shop. But since we did not have any check in luggage we were not sure if we would be allowed to bring the color cans in our hand bags. We had to give them a miss but one day we intend to go back and get those out of the world colors. 

Once back, the kids and K took to the swimming pool. Once they had burnt some calories doing that, we went to ingest some. 😆 We made our next attempt to reach the historic quarters of the Medina. It was to be a nearly 30 mins walk in a straight line. But we got side tracked, got lost, asked a bunch of people and finally landed in the hustle and bustle that is the Medina. The Medina is not for the faint hearted. I am from India and have seen crowds. But they dont have crowds here. Its a bee hive as has been quoted in many sites. There is utter order in the comings and goings but the busy-ness is something one has to see to believe. There are souks which are the traditional shops which sell a variety of stuff from carpets to bags to spices and garments. We had food in a small shop and made our way to the main square called Jama-el-Fna. This place was an assault on the senses. There was just so much going on from street vendors to street performers to post hotels. There were all sorts of aromas and it was being in a live museum. We went to have some refreshments in a roof top hotel and enjoy the sights from there. As dusk fell and the lights got switched on, the atmosphere turned electric. There was music, dancing, hawkers asking to try their wares. We bought a few souvenirs and took a few pictures and tried to capture this novel experience. We took a  horse drawn carriage to our hotel. It felt like home being in the modern part of the town to be honest. The Medina was a bit over whelming for our mild senses 😀

The next day was spent mostly sight seeing in the Medina. It was amazing to see the architecture in Bahia palace, be wide eyed at the beauty of Badi palace and savour the work in Madrasa Ben Yousouf. It was a tiring day. So much so we still had Le Jardin Secret or the Secret Garden remaining for the last day. It was also New Year's Eve. I have never been away from home on 31st December. It was a novel and unique experience for me at least. I loved to see how a different city decked up for New Year. There were people walking with little children around 2230 which is not a sight I get to see in the UK. I did not see any fireworks etc either which is more of the UK tradition. It was amazing to do nothing but stroll around an unknown city, discovering little bits of it, unmindful of a man made construct such as a New Year.

It has made me think if going away and doing something non New Yearly for New Year. Takes the pressure of doing something special. But then its a bit of a landmark to celebrate as well. The calendar itself is changed and not just a page turned. I am not sure which is better. But I certainly enjoyed ignoring it last year. 

The next day was to be our last day of tours in Marrakech.

Land and reset

 The day we took off to Marrakech was also a Pumpki's birthday. It was an amazing experience for her to get to travel on her birthday. The flight took off and since we had spent a rather sleepless night, we did nothing but drift off to sleep. 4 hours later we woke to the views of sunny Marrakech. We had booked a cab from the hotel. So our transfer was very seamless. The hotel was real posh! We had porters to carry our luggage, very friendly staff welcoming us and we were given a lot of love and attention. This sort of service is not present in the UK and we enjoyed it a lot! 

After we had admired our lovely room and marvelled at how beautiful and spacious it was, we ventured out to get some food. Since the hotel was in the modern part of the city we had lot of restaurants within easy access. We stopped at a place called Vert Midi. We were famished. But the food was delectable too! We had a scrumptious lunch and then proceeded towards the historic quarters of the city. 

The place was wondrous and I just marvelled at the cactii growing to ridiculous heights! They were  just magnificent. But while we were nearly at our destination the dead birthday girl needed the toilet and we had rush back 😂

In the hotel room the girls wanted some well deserved rest. They drifted off to sleep while we adults caught up with family and took showers etc. Around 7 in the evening we decided to walk the girls up and grab some dinner. We had it at a place called Pasta Kech. As the name suggests the pasta there was amahzingggg! The girls had no idea about time and thought they had been woken up the next day. They were shocked to learn that they had just slept for a few hours and not the night. We had one helova hearty laugh at the silliness of the kids 😂All stuffed we made our way back to call it a day since our actual touring was to kick off the next day 😀