Some planned some unplanned

The kids are back in school after the half term holiday and it definitely feels very weird. I have come a long way from dreading these half terms to being in a state where I love, enjoy and look forward to them. Working from home and growing up kids do take the edge off a lot of things. 

Rewinding to the day Pumpki came back from her residential, we had quite a bit upheavals. We are getting a bathroom renovated in our house. This means, a lot of mess, a lot of people coming and going, things being noisy and everything topsy turvy. Pumpki missed 2 days of all this since she was away. The day she came back, she was drenched and in need of a good clean. She went to take a shower and there was no hot water! After 2.5 days of messing about in mud and generally having unsupervised standards of hygiene I wanted to reinstate my authority. That started with a bath. But no hot water meant not a good bath. We called the plumber and he said he was  bit tied up and would be able to come in the morning. So there was no other go but go old school. Out came a bucket, 2 big kettles of boiling water and the frigid water from the taps. It was not a bath worthy of my exacting standards, but well! Something we had not anticipated, but had to deal with.

There were 2 more days of torrential rain before we could  forget school runs. Saturday evening I got a message out of the blue from an old family friend. We were quite close while starting out our UK journey. Since then life happened and we moved on. We have managed to keep in touch. The usual wishes over birthdays and New Years. They were in the vicinity and said would pop over in the evening the next day. It was something we had not planned for, and we definitely do not host people often in our house. I invited them over for dinner. It was quite a different experience planning and hosting a family over. There was a lot of work, cooking, cleaning, ferrying Pumpki for swimming and getting her back and ready. But once they arrived it was pure joy having them over. We reminisced the days past and it was a veritable trip down the memory lane. The evening had seemed daunting at first, but it was such a pleasant end to a Sunday and what a way to kick start the one week of holidays. Since there was food leftover, the load of cooking was way reduced. Kids enjoyed their time on video games and I was busy tackling some code bugs which was not fun :( 

Tuesday K had plans to get some Chinese takeaway and we had a blast gorging on some delicious food. It was pure coincidence that it happened to be the start of Chinese New year! There were no plans for Wednesday but Thursday Chiyaa had some outing plans to the city centre with her friends. All grown up in making those plans but still a baby when  it comes to executing them :D Since the weather was going to be a bit rubbish K decided to provide taxi service. Because they were going all the way to city centre, I decided to take the afternoon off and take Pumpki to my sister's house which is in the area. This was a sudden plan but it was a lovely plan. I was going mad with all sorts of issues in code and was finding it very difficult to switch off. Many evenings I would be up staring at the code and trying to get to the bottom of an issue. But taking that half day off and having the Friday  off was a real boost to my happiness. I felt glad just hanging out with the kids in the living room not thinking about failing tests.

February is Chiyaa's birth month. So we spend quite some time and effort scouring for gifts for her. Chiyaa is also a pasta fanatic. So Friday we had the day off to enjoy a pre-birthday lunch at an Italian restaurant. The lunch was a huge success with everyone enjoying their meals. After having the lunch we strolled around the city centre, notched a few steps in our kitty and made out home. When we reached home there was an unwanted surprise :( As I had mentioned we have the renovation work going on. The tiler was in and he was working when we left home. He would lock the house and go once he was done since we had another set of keys with us. But on reaching home we realised that we had forgotten to grab the keys! It was the worst possible outcome at the end of a fruitful but tiring day. We called the plumber and asked if he had the tiler's contact to give the keys. Luckily he mentioned that he was home and gave us the address. After a few fumbles with the address we reached the right home and collected the keys. Phew! 

So we had quite a happening half term. The coming term is a shorter one. And at the end of it we have the trip to India!

Something new

 A lot changes tomorrow. My routine life which involved nothing much 😂 My holiday cadence. My lazy mornings and lazier afternoons sometimes littered with a siesta. My evenings were filled with tea and chit chats with family, lots of art and craft and card games. During the spectacular test series season it was high energy and high adrenaline match viewing along with some firey discussion with papa and my sister in post match. I watched a lot of movies in the theatre with the kids which was a novel and enjoyable experience. All 7 of us managed to make a vacation to scenic sea side in south of England. My mind was full in family mode basking in the tremendous love of my parents, my sibling, my kids and K of course. There was not a single iota of energy spent in work related thoughts. The laptop was turned off and kept away.

On 15th I went to the work place to give my laptop and access card back. It always feels strange doing it. There is some attachment to those inanimate objects that were part of your identity for however long. But it was all done in 5 minutes flat and there were no feelings attached. 

That door closed I look forward to starting my new job tomorrow. I know the company.  I have known this place and it has been a dream place since 2018. I couldn't make it then, this is my second chance. I know the work culture since K works there. It will be new but there is a degree of familiarity as well. I cross my fingers to the new beginning. 

The road trip - for real

 We had never done a road trip. As in we have driven to destinations in a car and spent some time, but Edinburgh was like 4.5 hours away. Pumpki has extreme car sickness, so we have always constricted our journeys to within 2 hours so that she doesn’t get too uncomfortable. We also tend to avoid windy  roads. The drive to Scotland would involve everything - a long journey, lots of hilly roads and sitting in a car. But Pumpki is 9 now, and we hoped she would be able to handle most of it. The biggest advantage of driving was that there was no time constraint to start to catch a mode of transport and boy was that a big sell for Pumpki since she hates waking up on time to catch a train or a flight. We could also pack our stuff all willy nilly, dump coats, carry extra shoes - the world was literally our oyster :D :D

It was immense fun driving through the lovely sunny weather. We took frequent breaks, swapped the driving between ourselves, snacked and the kids dozed a bit too. We started with lovely weather in jolly ol England and ended up with downpour in bonnie Scotland. The irony! Anyways, we can’t be slaves to the weather right? So we geared up to take charge of the trip anyways. The evening we reached, we visited my dear friend J. It was just so lovely to give her a cuddle and see her 2 darling daughters. My kids and hers bonded like they had known each other for a long time. Her eldest even came and mentioned that our family was so like theirs. Even J said to me that she had been telling her kids that we are the most similar family to theirs that could be :)

After some refreshments we headed off to the beach which was a 20mins walk from their house. We girls walked, we chatted and the husbands caught up. It was like we started off from where we had left in Ipswich. We went to a small park and J mentioned how we used to chat in Ipswich in the evenings in the park. It all seemed like yesterday quite literally. Time flew in hearty conversations and as we bid goodbye after 4 hours it seemed the most satisfying 4 hours ever. The next day we had plans to visit the Scottish highlands. But we still had one more day that we could potentially spend with each other. There were no concrete plans, but we finished day 1 with promises to meet again :) 

A road trip plan

 Its been a while since I posted on what happened the week after :) So here goes :) 

I made a friend during our stay in Ipswich. She was the wife of one of K’s colleagues. We used to bump into each other when she used to return from work and I would be in the local park with my little ones (I was on maternity leave then ) The casual hi, how are you, nice weather encounters led to more conversations. We realised we both intermittently used the same gym ;) We tried to motivate each other to go for the same classes. Some more casual conversations ensued. She was a nice cool person to hang out with and we enjoyed each other’s company.

Then life happened. We moved back to Leeds. We still kept in touch with the usual hi, what’s ups. They moved to Edinburgh and things moved in parallel non convergent paths for both our families. She ended up having her second child and a 2 daughters family like ours. We bought our first homes. We changed jobs. A lot seemed in sync happening in different planes. We kept in touch, discussing more than the weather. We discussed kids, husbands, jobs and gradually maybe everything under the sun. 

So this year she turns 40. I wanted to make a special gesture, just because. I couldn’t think of a good gift to give her. That’s when I had a light bulb moment! How about gracing her with my company :P I know not a lot of people would think of that as a gift ;) but I was kind of sure that she would appreciate it. I proposed it to K and he was surprisingly convinced that it was a good idea. Thus the  plan of a trip to Edinburgh took roots.

Easter break plan

We have been waiting for the Easter break. There was no earth shattering reason but there were numerous small reasons. 

So, the Easter break is for 2 weeks and comes around April first week. It's the time when spring is in the air. The bulbs are awakening and the tulip heads are budding out. There are sporadic rains in just the right amount which give the newly blossomed leaves after winter a lovely green sheen. It's just the right temperature on most days. The increasing hours of sunlight in during the day also bring in a degree of happiness. Given the cosmic alignment of such happy stuff taking a day off in itself makes one feel happy. 

To top it we were asked to look after a 3 month old golden retriever puppy for a week. Our family adores golden retrievers. After Lucky  this would be our second chance to look after such a young pup. It could also be our redemption. We were sent the picture of the puppy Scamp and he was supremely adorable. We jumped at the chance and said yes.

Our first week of the holiday was thus going to be occupied. For the second week I proposed a road trip to Edinburgh. I had a friend when we were in Ipswich. We have managed to keep in touch. She turns 40 in May. So I thought it might be a good idea to pay her a visit. K agreed quite easily for the trip as well! So that was our Easter break planned. What remained was execution!

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!