Murder of a recipe

 It was Pumpki's birthday last month. It comes bang in the middle of Christmas and New Year when everyone is too busy celebrating one or the other. This year also we were in the midst of day trips etc. For her birthday we had plans to go for a lunch to a place that served Kerala cuisine which is one of our favourites. The evening we were to check out some light installations in a park. We had a pretty packed day and had to squeeze in baking a cake in the morning.

But, the previous night my sister recommended that she would bake the cake since I was pretty tied up in giving the kids a bath etc. We had had a long day with travels to some place. She was not keen to leave the baking to the next day morning in case something went wrong. 

As usual the kids had wished for Devil's food cake by Shivesh . Now this is a luxurious 3 layered super rich but super fluffy chocolate cake with waist-increasing chocolate frosting. My sister started the process. Mid way she realised there wasn't enough flour! Thankfully we had self raising flour and she being the master baker was able to make a judicious judgement on the amount. If it was me, it would have been quits and a dash to the shops. She went on to the next super crucial ingredient for a chocolate cake. Cocoa powder. There was absolutely  none! URGH! Retreatttt! Quick change of plans! It was going to be a vanilla cake now. The cake also called for curd. We thankfully had jjjjjjust the right amount. My sis literally scrapped the bottom of the curd container :D 

Somehow we managed to procure enough materials to get 2 layers going. Now for the exterior. We did not have dark chocolate. Just white. We weren't sure the kids would be gung-ho about it. So opted to plain buttercream frosting. I was in charge of the external decorations. I made the buttercream.  As I started applying it, I realised that the cake hadn't cooled enough. This caused the buttercream to just melt down the cake instead of sticking onto it. Was everything supposed to go wrong today?! 

Again a quick change of plans. I decided to slather the cake with strawberry jam. The kids would be  fine with it. So well jam it was. By this time the cake was a decent temperature, so I put the buttercream in a piping bag to pipe some random designs out (facepalm) It was close to 2230 by then, which is laaaaaate by my old woman standards :) 

The cake didn't look great. But it was consumable. A murdered recipe can result in a zombie cake at best :|

 

 

Its morning already!

 15th December 1500 hours was when I logged off last year. It was a fabulous time to log off. I had 2 days to myself before the school holidays kicked in. It was spent fabulously on myself. 

Once the holidays began, the tasks with kids began. Keeping them engaged and entertained. Taking them on walks. My sis, the kids and I took a long walk to a nearby shopping mall and had a blast of a day. K was on holiday on Christmas eve and we made a trip to see some stalactites and stalagmites. It was a wonderful day out with amazing food. I used to spend the nights with my nose deep in a thriller. Till K gave me a nerve chilling whack commenting that if I paid as much attention to the new technology I was going to start working on from next year as I was paying on the novel, I would reach great heights. It was probably a comment made in jest, but it reminded me of my school days when Papa had made a similar comment on some subject I wasn't paying attention to. I am not sure if I made any improvements in the subject, but I remember being hurt and being a bit more diligent. K was right. I was about to start working on a tech stack I had no idea about. It would be a good idea to spend some time at least in brushing up some fundamentals. And that night I started. It was not a good feeling to open the laptop and do technical reading, but the course was easy to navigate through. It also gave me a sense of accomplishment. I had to chug on. :)

Christmas was a blast! We had gifted the girls a Lego each. They started working at 9 in the morning and till 2130 they were up making their intricate structures! It was amazing to see them so hard at work and also so patient to get going. Chiyaa is the patient one and persists on a task easily. She also likes following instructions. So she was in her elements dealing with the construction. Pumpki was an eye-opener.She did spent a lot of time handling a lot of intricate details herself. It was just amazing. When they went to bed, they were quite upset that they had spent the entire time just building and not playing :) And the next day they were being dragged to a sea life centre :D

The trip to the sea life centre the next day was fabulous. I drove and it was brilliant to drive at nearly 75-78kmph on the near empty roads. The trip was fantastic especially for Chiyaa who soaked everything in. The girls got some time to play in the evening while I retired to some more studying. Another trip awaited us the next day. Till we had 3 days of relative quite while we prepped for the New Year.

On New Year's eve we had a few family friends over. And the weekend was quite sedate with some walks. I had the desire to plan a trip, but then the course work also tied me down. Eventually I was able to complete the course on Monday which was a holiday which made me give out a big Whoop! Whoop! :) Last night was spent ironing clothes, getting the bags in order and frenzied cooking to prep for the coming week. I had proper frayed nerves and even ended up shouting at the kids for no good reasons. But then a walk with Chiyaa while listening to music sorted it out. 

We all had trouble getting to sleep at "normal" times and think I was up past midnight reading a book :| The alarm going off at 0530 this  morning the worst sound I have heard in 2 weeks

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.