Summer 2017 - Part 4

The next day my LASEK was scheduled. The first 3 days were much, much more painful that I had imagined, The main culprit was the protective lens in my right eye that felt like a thousand glass pieces with their sharp ends up the bottom of my upper eyelid. Today is day 8 and still my right eye does not feel completely pain free. The left eye on the other hand just felt like a single eyelash was stuck inside! Strange that!

The CM was of great and kind help when I could not open my eyes for the first 3 days. On day 4, the lenses were removed to my great relief and while I was still sensitive to light I atleast was not in so much pain.

On day 5, my energy was back but I was not allowed/could not browse, read the kindle or watch Tele. So, I was restless from the morning.

Post the CM's piano class, I had an epiphany and asked an extremely reluctant K to check if Harry Potter studio tickets were available. Poor K had other plans for the day but could not refuse to check. Earlier in the holidays when I had checked them for the CM , no slot was available throughout the holidays.

Suddenly a 5 pm slot came free. After some 'not-so-gentle', whiny persuasion, ( K never could resist my wily charms! :)) poor K gave up and booked the tickets. We quickly packe dup and left for the 1.5 hour dirve. We first visited the Bhakti Vedanta ISCKON temple, where the CM fed the cows at the goshala. We then went to the HP studio. I was more excited than the CM and we both happily checked out the Cupboard under the stairs, the Great hall, the boy's dormitory and my favourite, Dumbledore's room and the pen sieve and memories stored there!

I spotted all the golden snitches with either K or the CM's help ( I still was wearing sun glasses indoors attracting strange looks, but who cared! I was in HP world!). We loved the Weasley family kitchen where we made the carrots cut themselves, the scarf knit itself and the pan wash itself! , calling up the quidditch broom into our hands and flying on the brooms. I could not enjoy the forbidden forest because of the flashing lights but K got to see his favourite character ' Buck beak!'

I loved the butter beer, Hogwart's express and looking into the Privet drive house where the Hogwart's envelopes were floating about! All this while, the CM was listening to the audio guide exploring how the movie was made while I was excitedly peaking into the displays!

We left after a good 4 hours, mighty happy and visited our favourite Saravana Bhavan that used to be our frequent haunt in the days we used to live around here.

We had a late dinner with a nostalgic chat about our days and friends here ( who have since moved to Canada) and came home post midnight.

On the drive back, we listened to LBC's Nick Ferrari in which a 100 year old lady had dialled in to reprimand him about his comments about the Queen. Enough said. Much fund was heard/had.

School starts again day after but as I am sat writing this in a note book using a pen ( how quaint!), the indulgent dat and husband is having  a well-earned lie in, the CM is reading the 'Half Blood Prince' in her kindle and I am wondering when I would be able to transfer this from my notebook tot he laptop without my eyes hurting! ( Did this on day 8 - today! Eye still a bit blurry, so mostly touch typing - hoping to correct errors later!)

Another lovely summer holiday draws to a close! Here's to many more such family moments!
:)

Summer 2017 - Part 3

On the Saturday, we had a party and cake cutting for my CM and the 2 year old who had turned 2 only a week earlier. I had carried decorations over and spent the early morning decorating the entire place with little T's help.

Post the celebration, we went to Ullswater for a boat ride and the two 8 year olds had a go at steering the motor boat ( with K right next to them of course) and really enjoyed the same.

We went exploring into the woods and unfortunately we spotted a fish struggling for breath by the lake. It was a silver and golden fish and my 2 wards were frantic with worry. Though as a life long vegetarian, I had not handled fish before, I took the poor fish by the hand and dropped it into the water. Unfortunately it kept gasping upside down and never did flip back. The 2 kids were quite subdued on the walk back.

But then, on the way back, there was a wishing well full of coins and the tree next to the wishing well had roots and branches in which the coins were firmly entrenched. ( Am not sure if they got sucked by the roots along with the water or something else was going on there). This aroused their curiosity and the sadness of the fish was soon forgotten!

We were driving and dining in areas officially declared as ' Areas of outstanding Natural beauty', so we took our time doing both. I was meeting the rest of the families properly only for the first time, but luckily we gelled well. The men were good friends already from K's time in Glasgow some years earlier.

The next day, we went to Kill Hope lead mining museum. I first got it clarified from the local expert  that Kill Hope is from an ancient Anglo Saxon language wherein Hope meant valley and Kill referred to the mining 'Kiln'. The kids had fun sieving for green, pink and purple coloured rock crystals. We all then went underground through a very small, dark tunne with water upto half our wellington boots. We were properly equipped with miner's hats and torches. It was a bit scary initially, but Michaela , the guide was really friendly and knowledgeable.
It was a truly adventurous experience, having to duck for some of the way trying to experience what the miners had to do a 100 year ago. We saw the underground water mill, the 'thunder box', the gallendas and much more. The CM was scared but coped well and dealt with it maturely.

Post this adventure, we made our way to High force water falls, It was very similar to our Amicalola experience in Atlanta with a wonderfully green and leafy path leading to the majestic water falls, Post this visit, my CM surprised us all with some really good cart-wheels that she has been surreptitiously practising for a while!

We all then took a very long walk at Derwent Reservoir just for the beauty of the view.

We then headed to an Indian Restaurant in Allendale and while we were all nodding our heads off at the table, one of the dads passionately regaled us with his childhood escapades in a Kodaikanal boarding school ;)

The next day, we cleaned up the place good and proper and left for our pony trek adventure at Hexham. The ladies including the girls went first. I went on a tall and sturdy male stud called Blaze and the CM went on a cute pony called Blue bell. Once again, the view from the horse back, on the trail, was spectacular.

The families then had a picnic lunch, said our goodbyes and we proceeded to Dudley to celebrate the CM's birthday at the temple.

After a long drive back, we did just that and reached home exhausted but glad of the good time we had.

...To be continued

 

Summer 2017 - Part 2

The next weekend, in the morning, we went with the same Cotswold group and one other family to Dinosaur land at the Birmingham International airport. It was reasonably good. But because our cheeky monkey ( CM hereafterwards) had been finishing off Harry Potter books with a furious passion during the week, every Friday evening we ended up watching the movies of those books that she had finished to round off her Harry Potter experience.

So, she was quite cranky on Saturday mornings! She ended up in tears when one of the boys said something mean ( it was really mean, though at this age, I imagine they do not realise how mean they sound!). Usually she takes it in her chin and gives it back, I guess this time, she was too tired to fight back. So, as soon as the event was over, the other two families stayed back for a catch up, but we left. To cheer her up, we used our usual formula - A trip to the library, followed by a Subway sandwich and hot Chocolate. As soon as we stepped in to the library, she perked up! Sleep was forgotten, lots of books and reading with hot chocolate naturally happened.

By the time we came home, it was time to get ready for the 'Innisai Maalai' , a karaoke evening organised by the local tamil sangam. I went with a mild fear that it may be a bit boring but it was a pleasant surprise to the contrary. I met a lot of my fiends, lots of fun and food was had. I sang 'pattu padava' - just a few lines and K sang ' Mun Paniya!' (really badly but we both wanted the CM to know that you do not always need to be great to give things a go!) It was a good evening.

On the sunday, we went to K's colleague's house for lunch and a fantastic, fun-filled, long, chatty afternoon ensued for all of us. We left their house only late in the evening.

In the long weekend, given it was the CM's English calendar birthday on the Saturday and Tamil Calendar birthday on the Monday, elaborate plans were made.

On the Friday, all of us travelled to K's work city. The CM and I stayed in a day hotel and I worked from there while the CM got on with the next Harry Potter book. We thens tarted the 4 hour drive to Allenheads. We had 2 other families joining us from Glasgow. We had booked a lovely old school house on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the moors below. The green rolling hills and the rustic plethora of lakes made for a very enjoyable drive.

Between the families we had two 8 year olds (incluing our CM who was turning 8 over the weekend), one 2 year old and one 3 year old. The two 8 year olds had met once before and had gotten along famously. Throughout this stay, they were thick as thieves and when we left T, CM's friend even had tears in her eyes at the thought of letting her friend go!

They slep by each other on the bunk beds in our room and always travelled together in our car while T's parents and younger sis travelled in hers.

...to be continued

 

Summer 2017 - Part 1

This summer, as always was a wonderful medley to remember. thought there wasn't much of the sun throughout his summer, as always, the three of us were determined to make the most of the holiday family time and that was exactly what we did.

One weekend, we went to Cotswolds with my SGT dance partners and their hubbies and kids. The gentle gold, typical Cotswold bricks, softly highlighted by the even softer rays of the sun were a sight to behold! The families started with a picnic by the river in 'Bourton on Water' while the kids went splashing about in the shallow river.

We then took the kids to the model village. This model village was as authentic as it could be with great detailing even tot he stained glass windows of the town's St Lawrence Church. the organ music playing in one of these model churches was, for me, a particularly enjoyable detail.

We then went to the very small but beautiful St Lawrence's church, lit candles and walked about town, with the kids creating a ruckus wherever we went!

With the kids dutifully continuing to raise hell (1 8 year old, 1 7 year old, one 3 year old and one 4 year old - perfect ingredients for notching up the noise pollution!), we went to a posh restaurant by yet another gentle brook to have tea/hotchocolate/Birtish chips.

The kids played cricket and foot ball in the lovely grounds of the restaurant and us adults happily chatted into the dusk..

We came home really late but 'happy tired'!

The next day was a trip to our favourite Ryton Pool with K's colleague and family. I got along well with the Colleague's wife as we were both working in the same field. Us ladies went cycling, while the dads and kids spent time in the play area. We rounded off a wonderful day with a chatty dinner at an Italian restaurant. The kids already knew each other through bharathanatynam class and were busy ignoring the adults and making their own plans!

The Friday after, we invited this family over for dinner and once again the evening turned out really good with good food, hearty laughs and happy kids running around the dinning table while we chatted.

The next day, just the three of us went to the Black County Living Museum. The highlight was the very real 'Victorian Classroom' with a strict school master that around 20 of us, children and adults attended. We really had fun as most of us played our parts seriously as instructed beforehand by the teacher. It was as authentic as it would have really been in Victorian times. We also enjoyed playing the old time games like jumping rope, catching the ball on a top and K enjoyed chasing steel tires with a stick!

The sunday of this week, we went to a petting zoo for the cheeky monkey and then to Warwick park. Lots of icecream was had and regretted ( by me!) including  surprisingly not-yummy Nutella icecream!

..To be continued