The cleanse post

 The spring half term gets over today. And I can look back at a wonderful 2 weeks of  this year. The first week was occupied by a trip to Jersey. It was a fabulous time away. Though we would have liked the weather to be a bit warmer, it was still a very lovely time. A trip we would definitely want to make again. 

Once we were back from Jersey, K felt a bit poorly. We blamed it on the travel stress. But something struck him as odd and he decided to take a Covid test. It came out positive and he happily retired to the bedroom with his stack of anime to watch :) I took a test too though I felt absolutely fine. It was just so that I did not come in too close a contact with the kids. I came out positive too :( I did not feel unwell at all. But to avoid the sickness from spreading to the kids, I decided to curtail hugging or kissing them, atleast for the first 5 days of recommended isolation. 

It was hard to stay away from the kids. But they managed themselves fabulously. As soon as they had 2 positive cases in the house, they started performing tests on their toys. Some toys tested positive while the others negative. The ones which tested positive were immediately sent for bed rest while the healthy ones started making cards and reading books (from a distance) to the ill ones. It was amazing to see the girls play into the late afternoon with this unique scenario. 

Since we could'nt step out, the girls were pretty much home bound too. But it was amazing to see them play and engage with each other. With some guidance, they had their food, took their shower and generally minded themselves. I could not hug them or kiss them till the 5 days of recommended quarantine and they kept asking every day, if it was 5 days yet :) 

At the end of 5 days, boy did we give them a squeeze!! It is amazing to see how self reliant my little girls are. They manage a ton of stuff by themselves. As the Easter long weekend kicked in, we were thankfully out to roam the world. There were a lot of walks with the kids, tasks in the garden and general enjoyment of sunshine. As the kids go back to school today I yearn for the lovely time with them again.

A lot of little steps

 The adults kept looking at the weather app like mad people. After the soaking of the previous evening we were very wary of getting drenched again. But it was supposed to be a super duper sunny day and we decided to make the most of it. 

The first visit was to Gorey Castle which was a splendid monument. It was a beautiful and picturesque structure with some breath taking views. The star of the tour was a cat called Maggie who loved being cuddled by all of us :) 

 

The next stop was for food and this time we decided to take the bus to get to the restaurant. K and I always like to travel and soak in the life of the locals. And taking public transport to get from one point to another is our preferred way to do so. The interactions we can have with the local people and the time spent just marvelling at how local life moves on is best accomplished by travelling like the natives and dining like them too. It was quaint to see the main roads being so narrow, for Jersey is a small island after all. And the people were so friendly. The  bus driver gave us detailed instructions on how to get to a certain point, they would offer to let us know when our destination was reached. One time while waiting for the bus, we forgot to raise our hand to haul it(its standard practice here, if you dont raise your hand the bus doesnt stop. How would the driver know whether you are waiting for a ride or just hanging around in a bus stop :D) When I glanced at the bus a millisecond later I was aghast. A passerby raised his hand and the bus stopped a few metres away. This would have been an unheard of incident in Leeds :)

Our next stop was the Elizabeth Castle. This castle is set near the sea, and one of the ways to get to it, is via walking on the sea bed in low tide! It was the most amazing experience I have ever had. Walking the super long stretch with the kids towards the towering castle on the sea bed felt unreal. End of the day we checked our phones and had walked a whooping 12kms! Even the tiny feet of the kids. 

 

The next day was a bit relaxed since the first stop was an old barn depicting the rural life of Jersey. For me it was a bit underwhelming because I felt my grandma's house which is atleast a 100 years old now holds way more history. From history it was unto to realm of science with the Jersey Maritime Museum. This highly interactive museum was such a delight! I do not enjoy museums a lot, I get bored. But in this place I was reading everything and soaking up the science, the geography, the history, the people who pioneered the maritime relationships. It was just super duper amazing. It was like three subjects from year7-10 back in school in a two storey building :)

 

Penultimate day we made our first visit to an  old Celtic site. Which was followed by a unique trip to the Jersey War Tunnels which gave a view of life under Nazi occupation in the island. It was a very different experience where the trials and tribulations of the local people was superbly depicted. It was again a museum which had me enthralled. 

 

Jersey was one of a kind trip. For a small island it did pack a punch. There was still so much more to see, so much more to do. We walked a ton through the roads and hope that one day we can go back and recreate it all again. 

Crossing a body of water

 The pandemic is over. Atleast for most governments :) So we planned a holiday :) 

This was to take care of the Easter break from school. My holidays are planned way in advance. Atleast 2-3 months in advance because I am a very jittery traveller. I need a lot of preparation before I get going. And this is true for any travel, even travel to work etc. I need a lot of prep. Anyways, so we had the tickets booked somewhere around February. We had no idea what the rules would  be like by early April, but since we were fully vaccinated, we reckoned it would be fairly easy sailing.

Our trip was to the island of Jersey which is crown dependency of the UK. It is not a part of the UK but the UK is "responsible" for it. Funny political stuff. K and I both have an affinity towards beaches and beach side holidays. I infact hate mountains with a passion. So going for an island was an obvious choice. The island weather looked promising as well since it was closer to France which is lucky to have better weather than England. 2 weeks prior to the holidays it was "scorching" in the UK with temperatures around 17 degree Celsius. We were looking forward to amazing weather! But as luck would have it, around 8 days before the slated vacation, the weather started taking a turn for the worse with 17 loosing 10 degrees. Wish I lost weight at such alarming rate.The dipping temps created a wardrobe chaos. We had been geared with floral dresses and skirts. And now, it would  be jumpers and cardigans and jeans and boots and gloves and all sorts of paraphernalia :( . Such was the mayhem that 2 days before the journey we were shopping for appropriate clothes. Not too hot not too cold, just right for layering. We were proper Cinderellas. :D

All wasnt smooth sailing from here either. News channels were flooded with news of murder and mayhem in the airports. Seemed like since a lot of ground staff were calling in sick with Covid, there was a scarcity of them. This was causing delays in flights and people were kept waiting fro 2-3 hours. I do not follow the news much, but K was super impacted by all this. He is an even more jittery traveller than I am. He was insistent we start earlier etc. But the taxi driver who is an acquaintance now assured us that all would be well if we start as the usual time. We reached the airport nearly on time. There were long queues, but then check in glided in smoothly too. 

The flight was fairly smooth. Jersey weather was fabulous. It was to get worse over the next few days. Check in to the hotel done, we set off in search of food and found a lovely place serving paninis, sandwiches and wraps. The name of the place was The Taste and indeed everything was very very tasty. :) Lunch done, we took a stroll and were utterly properly drenched in a downpour! We crossed a body of water from the UK to land in a place to get doused by water from the heavens! God knows what the future days had in store for us :|

Damn commute

 

As I have lamented time and again, I am having to come in to work twice a week. I need to use a satellite navigator since I am totally not used to the roads. Given that I use a motorway (highway) I would forever use a navigator since it would warn me of any incidents and upcoming events in advance. I am also out of touch with handling so many things too. There is my phone, my car keys, laptop bag, handbag (which contains lunch, snacks for kids for pickup, mask and the kitchen sink). I keep forgetting one thing or the other and its super annoying.

Yesterday I could not locate my car in the car park! That was the first horrible thing. It was literally there and I could not see it! How ridiculous. At one point of the journey, I was concentrating so hard on following the directions on the satnav, I totally missed seeing a signal turn red! Thankfully the traffic was slowly ramping up, there were a load of honking vehicles and ended up clearing the traffic. It was such a horrible mistake which had my legs shaking! Reached school safely and was greeted with the angelic faces of my kids.

 

I tell you I am not liking this commuting business at all!

Been 2 months or is it 2 years?

 Both. 2 months since I last posted. There was nothing sensational to post. Life went on in its own merry pace which is what we need now is'nt it? The pandemic is more or less a thing of the past. And while that holds true, another thing of the past is the back. GOING BACK TO OFFICE. It has been over 2 years since we went to work. And on 21st March, we were summoned back. 

I hated any conversation about going back to work. I loved my work place which was bang in the middle of the city. I used to have monthly lunch dates with K which I loved. Over the pandemic, my company gave up the lease of the office space and took up one with a subsidiary. Now this place in in the middle of nowhere. It is a dry office building. And I dislike the commute which will force me to drive every day. No more reading a  book while commuting to work. Also I had built my life around working from home. I did the pick ups. I was there when the kids were back. We were able to extend their after school activities. All that would change. I started looking for jobs, fully remote ones. I did manage an offer but the remuneration was not what I was after, so I had to decline it. 

The anticipation of returning to work was horrible for me. I could not imagine the rush of dashing through the morning. My mornings after some quiet time at work involve running behind the girls, plaiting their hair and getting their breakfast sorted. But things would be different once at work. I was full of a weird trepidation. Like I used to feel when I used to come home on vacation from my college hostel. I would keep counting my days of pure bliss. And as the time to go back to hostel came closer I would be filled with dread. It was similar now. As the day came closer, I felt weird and uncomfortable.

But anyways the day came! I woke before time. Finished my morning chores and got Chiyaa's braid done. I was about to get started with Pumpki, but K stepped in and said that he would do it. I started off to work. My drive was smooth (beginner's luck). I got a bit lost in the office floor where I could'nt find where I was supposed to sit. But otherwise it was all right. 

Lets see how I keep finding this "newest normal".

A gift from God?

 Everyone faces the January blues. The end of the relaxed Christmas days are awful. And what stretches in front is a whole new year, with all plans up in the air, holidays still nebulous and the weather still not the one to warm the hearts. Luckily this year, since 1st January was on a Saturday, we got a day's leave on the following Monday. This made the first work week back, a 4 day one! Woo hoo! A single non-working day kinda made all the difference. 

The next week, there was all kinds of jokes in my team where we all made fun of finally having a much cherished 5 day working week back. That evening when I went to pick up Chiyaa, I could see from the class window that her face looked glum. I was a bit worried that she had a fight with someone or some incident that made her upset. As soon as she was out, she complained of a headache. We were sure its nothing and back home gave her the recommended dose of paracetamol. She felt much better, but that night had a raging fever. Which called in for a PCR test for Covid the next day and a day off school. She spent the day playing with  Lego, re-reading Harry Potter and watching some television. The next day her PCR test came back positive which meant she would need to isolate for a minimum of 5 days or a maximum of 10 days. If she got a negative home test for 2 successive days within day 5 and day 10 she could go back to school. Not ideal, given the fact that she loves school, but then there was no way out. Strangely, with one kid not going to school, the workload seemed lesser. There was one less uniform to take care of, one less bag and bottle to check, one less head of messy hair to comb on time and one less kid to pick up (which surprisingly saves time!) Also since she had to isolate, I didnt feel the extra pressure of taking her on walks and keeping her active. She could literally be at home. I ensured she had a bit more fruits at home and a daily dose of vitamin C in the form on 2 mandatory oranges. Luckily Chiyaa is quite self reliant as well, and manages herself with books and toys. So that she does not become totally lackadaisical, we put some educational sites up for her. She took to them quite well and completed all the required courses. It is quite cute to have a kid at home too. She roams around from room to room and I could go for occasional cuddles to her. She would come up with sudden Harry Potter trivia and bore us to death. It was awesome to snuggle with her at night, since we kept the kids separate while sleeping. Sleeping between both of them is spine crushing, but just one is swell :) 

 We started taking daily tests, but even on day 6 and 7 we were not getting the negative results. It was a very very faint line, but not  a sure shot negative. This was bringing us close to 20th which would be her day 9. 20th is K and my anniversary and we had planned the day off. We both are into running. K much more than me now! He will be running a ton of races this year. I do not believe in driving to a place, paying money and running a race to come 1021 in it. Like a few for fun is ok, but not on a regular basis. But for the first time ever we are having a local town run, being organised by the local run club of which K is a part. Since he is running all over the world, I told I would be keen to run 10 kms in that race. But I havent run that length in the recent past. So 20th was the day decided by us to run and check how I was faring. Now 20th happened to be day 9 for Chiyaa. We needed a negative result on day 8 and day 9 to send her to school. Day 7 the line on the test was super duper faint, in fact you would blink and miss it. We were confident that we would get a negative on next day. And we did!! Phew! On 20th morning, we got her ready on time. It was quite a change after the past 10 days when she was getting up whenever she wanted and spending some time reading in bed :) But being the enthusiastic school goer, she got ready and took her test. It  was a sure shot negative!! Yay!! The girls dropped at school off went the old couple on their run ;)

The run was fabulous. It was horribly cold, but it was amazingly sunny. What else do we need? Run done, we came home to some fabulous tea and rice kheer made by my sis. After a quick shower, we popped up to a local middle eastern restaurant. The owner happens to run with K in the run club. He also happened to be lunching then. And he happened to take an item off our bill! What a sweet though inadvertent anniversary gift! Once out, we spotted a plant shop nearby and of course I had to make K spend on a couple :)  We had absolutely no engagements for the evening. Which meant K could play video games and I could play Lego with the kids! A God gifted day indeed :) 

C for??

 Cooooooovid. 

Yep. And this attitude led to biiiiiiiiiiig mess up at home yesterday. 

Chiyaa came back from school yesterday with a headache. Her face was all droopy and her teacher recommended getting her tested. The school has been sending emails that headaches, an upset tummy and puking are some of the complaints kids had before testing positive for Covid-19. Since she had a headache we got the home test kit out to test her. 

Now the test kit works like a home pregnancy test. You take a swab, mix it in a solution, put the solution in the kit and wait for the die to come to a certain point. The two points that are marked in the testing kit are a C and a T. Chiyaa asked what does C mean and the  tester in charger Mr K responded "C for Covid." "What does T mean?", asked Chiyaa. "Err I dunno, but C is what we care about" came the prompt reply from the person who doesn't believe in reading instructions. So we tested her and it went up to a C. She started crying. Children are very deeply impacted by the diagnosis because they have heard and seen all sort of glum stories about the disease. They are yet to realise that the disease is highly endemic now and also here to stay. She started crying and seeing her so did Pumpki. She was really worried for her elder sister. In all crying and sobbing it was very hard to take the test on her. Somehow we managed. We all got our "C"s. Now a 5/5 on the tests had me all perplexed. What are the odds. Then I searched the internet and found that C is for Control and T is for Test. And 2 lines in the C and T zone mean positive and C in fact means "not Covid-19". 

My God did K get a thrashing after his misreading of the results. He himself had a mighty good laugh. But my question was, all this while whenever he took the test, he had been claiming hes negative. By the way he reads the results, I am sure Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta have all had a picnic with him ;) 

PS. Since Chiyaa had a headache, we did book her in for a PCR test in the lab and unfortunately she did come back as Covid positive. Shes fine, just complains of the headache and isolating till the end of this week.