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 😀

No start without a hiccup

 As I said in my last post, we were making our first trip to the airport in our car to catch the flight to Marrakech. The flight was at 630 in the morning, which meant a 0300 check in. Which meant at least a 0130 start from home to reach airport within the time. Which in turn meant a funny night of trying to sleep but not sleeping actually. 😉

We had an early dinner. Around 1830 in the evening everything was wrapped up, kitchen cleaned up, dishwasher loaded and run. 1900 I asked the girls to brush their teeth and get into bed to get some 4ish hours of sleep atleast. They did so with amazing enthusiasm. There were no complains. They wrapped up like little kittens and tried to sleep earnestly instead of fooling around with art and craft or books as they generally tend to do. I still had some chores in and around with packing food for the flight etc. I went up to have a look at them an hour later and they were really asleep! That was something indeed! 

I tried to get some rest as well. There was a raging storm outside. As Storm Gerrit raged, K and I worried about our travel. The rain was relentless. When it reduced a teeny tiny bit, we rushed with all the luggage and packed the car so that we didn't get drenched at the last moment. 

We tried to get some rest. But there was nagging thought or other at the back of our heads. Finally it was 0100 and we could rouse the girls to make our way. It was very exciting and novel for them to scamper around the house in the middle of the night. More than the real thing it is these small experiences I feel that make up life 😊0130 and like thieves we got into our car and off we went!

The rain was pure madness. Visibility was poor and it was tremendous effort to drive. But the lack of traffic post Christmas made for some solace. We finally made it at 0245ish to the airport. It was just as quiet at the airport. The staff were immensely helpful. Our checkins were done fluidly and off we went to wait :) 

Pending Post

 In the mayhem of all the refurb work that was going on in our house I did not mention the holiday we had in December last year. After our Iceland trip in 2022, we were keen on some place warm for our next holiday. K had seen the ice and now was in for some desert. Somehow Morocco in general and Marrakech in particular dawned upon us. In late 2022 itself we started thinking about it( Yes we are avid mad planners, especially me 😁) We would go sparse most of the year and then undertake the holiday to Marrakech God willing in December. 2023 mid year was filled with concerted effort towards looking at ticket and hotel prices, zeroing in on things to do, places to see. We soon realised that it was a big country and Marrakech itself would take up a good 5 days. Also since it wasn't a European country, we couldn't be sure of some of the amenities. It would be a good idea to be cautious and keep our touring plans a bit conservative. This was an a excellent cry from the madness of break neck planning for Iceland. Some where in the month of June we booked our flight tickets and the hotel. There was a good 6 months to our upcoming vacation and we weren't even excited about it. It was just something we had talked about and just went ahead and did it. Something like buying a packed of butter biscuits 😐

We did not want to hype the kids too much either. Hence it was quite late in the game around a month later that we divulged the upcoming plan to them. The months rolled by with the usual house work, work to earn the salary and school stuff. Finally around December when the holiday stood like a reality, we put our foot on the gas. The locations and tours we wanted to go on were booked. We decided clothes and things to pack. We had also decided to drive to the airport instead of taking a cab. That would be a first for us after nearly 13 years of existence in the UK. A thing to be excited about. 

Christmas holidays started and the trip to Marrakech was upon us!

Curtains drawn

 Finally it’s February and finally a few things are falling into place. As I had said in my last post, this year is going to be a supremely unplanned year for me. The construction work is finally drawing to an end. Our driveway is cleared and we can finally park both our cars instead of scouting for and stealing places on the road. We started moving stuff in to the new room which is to be the ‘girls’ room going forward. Things were a bit unclean with still some smell of plaster and paint remaining. We cleaned to the best possible extent and after a couple of days it was more habitable. The girls were ecstatic to be in their new room. As part of regular maintenance work we got the fuse box of the house upgraded. It wasn’t of aesthetic value and not a visible change. But we added in some changes to the electrical fixture which gave the feel-good effect. We have to get the carpets done all over the house as well. At the moment it is done in three rooms and we are loving the feel of the new carpets. We have some more work in the living room and the stairways before we can jump on it. The  curtains are also going to be redone all over the house which will again add to the overall overhaul of the house :) 

Its will be 6 years in this little place we call home on 26th of this month. Doing these small changes feels like giving some tlc to this home which has given us so much. As the tasks slowly draw to a close we hope for another 6 years of pleasant moments. 

It's a wrap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting used to the mess

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

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

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

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

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

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