2024 year end post

 I have not my yearly ritual for last year. I did not do my annual summary which I definitely do before the year turns around. But this year I was very sick to do it. So its late but anyways here it is.

I had absolutely no expectations from 2024. I remember driving back from school one December evening and telling my sister that I had no plans, no excitement for 2024. I had no holidays to look forward to.  The  house extension was still in progress and I had no idea when it would get over and I could have control over a normal house again. My sister very maturely had said go with the flow. I took it as the mantra for the year.

The house extension which had started in October 2023 took upto end of January to get done. The house was just one part. There was getting the furnishings, painting, decorating, carpeting. We also went on to buy new sofa, new dining chairs, repainting the entire house and getting all the curtains redone. It took quite a lot of effort, time, money. But slowly but surely it enhanced the look and feel of the house. The total upheaval made us feel better overall as well.

In the month of April - May Amma  reached our place and my parents reached my sister's place. It was good to have both sets of parents in the same town. 

Around the same time, K decided to volunteer for guide dogs. Going with the the flow this was something we hadn't anticipated would happen in our lives. But we did get accepted and it was a whole different suite of experiences dealing with puppies. Again we had hoped things would go swimmingly,but we saw ourselves not being competent enough to raise puppies given our family and work conditions. So we down graded ourselves to be boarders. We took care of puppies when their original owners were incapable of doing it for some reason. It was  still a very enriching experience and we had unmentionable joy looking after our favorite Imber. 

The weather was very murky for the good part of the year. There was a lot of time spent indoors watching the Olympics, T20 world cup, IPL and   a host of sporting events. Towards October to bid adiue to our parents. We had ventured now where for the entire year. But then an opportunity presented and we decided to go on a holiday in October. It was an immensely relaxing 4 days.  Things started really winding down in the months of November and December.  There were some bad news with respect to jobs for friends for which  I am eternally grateful to God for helping us keep ours. 

This year we have ended up really going with the flow. There were unanticipated travels, unexpected moves at work and unprecedented moments with friends and family. Overall over the year, we are at a much better and improved place from where we started on 1.1.2024 

Here is hoping who ever chances upon this post a year of improvements and extensions and enjoyment of those enhancements. May good things come your way ❤️

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.