Trip to Severn Valley

Yesterday was another beautiful British summer day. We we went to Severn valley. The view from the French windows of the tea house was stunning to say the least. The valley full of trees,with the steam train chugging through was a sight to behold!

We first went on the riverside trail and then on the woodlands trail. It was a good 3 hours walk along the bluebells, watching the canoers  and boaters row past with stops here and there to listen to the lovely brooks amongst the woods and picnicking on the rocks with a view to the river.

Both trails had cosy natural coves made of trees with the sun shining through the golden preautumnal leaves..we had a lovely family time sitting and chatting in these coves or simply sitting together holding hands with our wriggly seven year old sitting on our laps playing the 'silent game'. ( Though this did not stop the young one from saying 'pause game' and proceeding to say whatever she had to!)

We also took the vintage steam train for a small part of the way back and the view  as it went through the greenery was astounding to say the least.

On a whim, we also checked with one of our friends who had newly moved nearby to see if they wanted to catch up. A quick hello turned out to be a long visit with a game of cricket, wine and a long chatty dinner and Oreos ice cream for dessert!

Their house is way away from the maddening crowd and extremely elegant. It had a huge garden with lovely trees and a field beyond. It was on a kind of 'millionaire's row' , so the experience was quite novel for us. Their young one was a good friend of ours' and an ex classmate so it was also a surprise 'gift' for the two young ones.

They had a whale of a time looking for rabbit burrows, disrupting the cricket game and generally exploring around the garden and the house!

We came home around  10.30 pm with the kid fast asleep with a smile on her face!

What a wonderful day it was!

Here's to many many more such days!

US trip August 2015

It has been a year since the US trip but wanted to record some thoughts for memories' sake.

The main purpose of the trip was to meet my brother's family in Atlanta and get to know each other better as families. Which we did.

I and the little one went for three weeks and K joined us after the 1st week.

Chitlu enjoyed the huge trampoline in the back yard and loved trailing her niece who was 14 years old and a musical prodigy of sorts!

She loved running through the huge ambling house ( as houses in the US tend to be!)

She was very comfortable with my patient and loving sister in law.

Though she was initially wary of my very tall and reasonably built nephew..she soon got comfortable with him as well.

Of course her mama ( her uncle,  my brother) was gentle, playful and fondly indulgent with her and allowed her to call him 'dino' since she thought he must have born with the dinosaurs as he said he was 48 years old!

Unbelievably K had 4  of his college mates/ ex colleagues living around the same locality and we were asked to dinner at each of their places over the course of our stay there. Chinnu
with her British accent and huge brown eyes was a hit everywhere we went!

We were taken to the Atlanta aquarium which was huge and wonderful and the 4d shows were her favourite!

In the zoo she loved petting the animals and calling her Raja mama to view each and every one of the creepy crawlies that he was patently averse to!

We also went tubing in the Chatahoochee river! It was as funny as it could get! The sun was shining bright so we thought the tubing would be a breeze in the cool water. What we did not realize was that the tube left us burning all over with just our bums immersed in ice cold water! (Imagine a flat lying tyre - that was the tube!) It was  a long winding float down the river and by mistake K , the little one and my niece got off the tubes on a small strip before the actual landing which was further down.

I could not the bear the thought of going farther away in that silly tube, so when I could not navigate to this stupid (wrong!) stretch , from the middle of the river, I simply  jumped into the river (off the tube) and pushed the tube away. Only later realised the depth of the river (!) and started swimming desperately to the shore!

In the meanwhile, K is simultaneously shouting encouragements to me to swim safely and asking the other tubers to please recover the tube that I had so inconsiderately pushed away! ''20 dollars, 20 dollars'' he kept saying! (Grrrr!)

Finally when we all tied ourselves together and floated down to the actual strip.. we found that some bright spark from the tubing company had carefully fished out the tube I had sent floating without once wondering whatever happened to the poor soul who was supposed to be on that tube!

My nephew who was 17 found the entire episode hilarious and would not stop teasing me and K! :)

Never again shall I ever go tubing!
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The highlight was our trip to Florida with our cousin, her hubby and her two lovely boys. The three families stayed in a holiday townhouse and we all got on very well. Pattu slept on a Mickey Mouse bunk bed and was very thrilled!

We celebrated her birthday along with one the boys and had great fun decorating the house with balloons and bubbles and donning party hats and cutting cakes!

She had breakfast with the princesses at Disney and of course was deriliously happy. She was dressed as Elsa complete with tiara and everyone at the resort addressed her as a princess ! The employees at Disney Florida were a delight especially after the sour faced ones at the Paris Disneyland.

We went to Epcot and to the other resorts. Her favourite ride amongst everything was splash world and her favourite show was Beauty and the Beast where she was made part of the show along with the other kids!

My favourite bit was the disney fireworks in the evening. It was truly magical and memorable. We saw the same in Paris too but we were shivering in the August weather and the crowded alleys did not help the enjoyment. Here, I laydown right in front of the castle lawn and thoroughly enjoyed the magical show!

The trip to NASA (Kennedy Space centre, Florida) was quiet enjoyable as well. The 4 d film on space was quite an experience.

Once back to Atlanta we went on a day's trek to Amicalola falls and enjoyed the view from the top of the valley below.

The trip to the botanical gardens in Atlanta  was great as well.

One special personality to remember from the trip was 'Star Bucks', the cute chocolate Pomeranian in one of K's friend's house that Pattu petted so much that he growled only for the second time in his entire life!

We still tease her about that!

Perspective

This summer of 2016 is turning into one of the best ever! The weekends have been full of sun and breeze and with good friends for company we have been exploring Bosworth park, Ryton pools park etc. Boating in the lakes of Bosworth park, walking around the huge lake, picnicking ..repeating the same at Ryton pools with the additional perk of riding our bikes through the dense woods has been nothing short of fantastic!

Our young one rode the bike with us, the entire distance we did and also did the hikes and was still active in the evening too! Touchwood for the fitness!

The three kids - our R, her best  friend S, and our new kiddie neighbour N had a blast on the play areas, the muddy pool and boating. The ice creams in different colours helped their bonding too;)

No longer my little one, the young one also went Strawberry and Rasberry picking at Matlins farm followed by a trip to the war memorial park wither friend T. Her school friend T and her then came home and played till 11 pm!

She is definitely having a more roaring social life than either of us!

We also went to two houses for varalakshmi viratham and the other ladies there talk about having seen her the years before in these functions but do not remember me at all!

Now, to the real point of this post. While driving to and back from these places we get some nice songs on or the chart toppers from SAAVN. Sometimes we go nostalgic and this way we were listening to ' Taareef karoon kya uski jisne tumhe banaya! ( How do I praise the one who made you!) which is a romantic track of yester years.

Of late there has been a similar tamil song that goes ' Evan unnai peththan? (Who (the male equivalent) the hell gave birth to you!) which is also supposedly romantic.

K usually is very chilled out about this ( like he anyways is about everything else in life!) so I was quite surprised when he quipped for the 'Tareef karoon' song - how beautiful and elegant this song is when compared to the crass version of the latest song!

My suspicions were immediately aroused. I said ' That is new for you.. you never really bothered about these things before!'

K sheepishly replied ' Well, I now have a daughter and they could be , you know, if you take the literal meaning, in a way singing about me!

Aha! So that is the matter!

So  looks like God knew exactly what he was doing when he made K the adoring dad of a daughter huh?

:)