Birthday 2018_Part 2

One of the dads was very thrilled to find a all day £2 parking which was so steep that as soon as we opened the door we almost rolled out sideways. Not wishing to rain on his parade, we all praised his resourcefullness and made our way to King Arthur's Cafe. Like all health conscious women, I ordered a tame chocolate milkshake and was happy with my lot while one of the mums ordered a sinful Butter scone with clotted cream and strawberry Jam. Not content with indulging herself she offered that calorific spoonful of heaven to us and that was it. There was a collective quick visit to heaven and back.

We then made our way by walk downhill to Merlin caves. The caves themselves were quite rocky and the kids and us enjoyed stepping on the stones to the other end of the cave to view the sea. Though we all wet our shoes while slipping into the water int he caves, we loved the adventure. We came out and built some cairns(stacked stones). There was something very peaceful about the process. The young one as usual was adamant about being original and did a three column stack instead of a single one.

There was a thin waterfall that was tall and elegant to look at and the kids played by the beach again. We then made the uphill hike back, were very pleased with ourselves and went straight back to Aruthur's cafe to order ourselves some scones! We also bought their famous cornish pasties from Pengena pasties. We had also packed some briyani and curd rice and those were dutifully consumed as well.

We then played some lovely music and drove through some extremely scenic routes to Dartmeet. Once again there were stepping stones and we had a lovely time listening to the playful brook through the stones and playing amongst the slippery stones. Unfortunately it was getting dark and we did not have the time to spend in the park nearby.

So, we all made our way back to Gloucester services, had our supper and said our good byes.

Reached home around 1 am and K impressively started at 7 am the next day to drive 3 hours to work as he had an important meeting.

Thus we wrapped the young one's last one digit birthday!

Birthday 2018_Part 1

As always for the young one’s birthday we had planned ahead to go to waterside Cornwall with two of our friends and their families. On the Friday, we took the young one to the Birmingham temple, had a good darshan (as it was also varalakshmi vratham on that day..), rushed back and packed for the 4 day trip.

In the morning, the  three families started together apprehensive of the traffic we might encounter over the bank holiday weekend. However the traffic was surprisingly smooth. We had a lovely stop as usual at the Gloucester services. I bought two Victoria sponge cakes for the birthday celebrations , one for the young one and another for one of the mums. The three girls were in the same grade ( but in different schools)and enjoyed themselves while the 4 year old boy and the 3 year old gi and rl trailed their older sisters wistfully. A usual, my young one being the naughtiest, was a hit with the little ones!

We then drove to the Weston-supermare pier. The children rode on the ponies by the beach and then made their way to the fair ground. The young one went on her first ever giant roller coaster and screamed non-stop but got down with a grin.

We all stopped at a near by diner for lunch and then the mums went on a long walk by the beach while the kids built their sandcastles.

We then made our way non stop to Cornwall, this not being a problem as the route was quiet scenic. The three girls came in our car and talked incessantly. I just plugged my imaginary headphones in (as the real ones were tragically left behind in a hoodie at home!)and enjoyed the view.

With some difficulty we found the place and it was a pleasant surprise. It was a lovely  huge accomodation spread out in separate lodges by the lake  and amongst a forest of  trees.  We had 2 houses booked, one with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and the other with 2 beds and baths. Those who live in europe would understand what a luxury it is to have a bathroom for each bedroom!

The place was furnished very well as well. The other two ladies were expert and extremely fast cooks and I was their able assistant. In no time they made fantastic sambhar to go with the piping hot idlies.

One of the mums had just returned from India and had brought vegetables from her organic farm. The flavour was unbelievable.

The kids took charge of one bedroom, one of the mums with her little one the other bedroom and I took the other bedroom with the other mum.

All the boys including the little one went to the other house. Both the houses had a fantastic jacuzzi as well.

So, I made sure I got up early and enjoyed the Jacuzzi. The dads readied their house for the young one’s birthday party by dutifully festooning their house with balloons and other party decorations. In the meanwhile, we all had toasts, chocolate milk and omelettes so the kids could go for their morning swim.

The young one already received her Harry Potter backpack from one of her friends and was thrilled. The mum said went for a lovely walk in the drizzle, watched the kids and dads swim and came back for a chat,some tea, pulao and egg masala. The dads were not expecting to have cooked food so were delighted. We all then dressed up and went to the other house for the birthday celebration , cakes , photo sessions and a lot of presents. (invluding a harry potter lego figurine, which alas, turned out to be Voldemort!)

We then drove  to kiz world. The dads and kids had a great time climbing ropes and roller skating while the mums went for a lovely walk in the woods nearby. 

We all then returned home to a sumptuous dinner  of egg masala for me, Maggie noodles for the kids and apparently fantastic chicken gravy for the rest of the crowd with cake to finish things off. We also had lovely  chocolate milk for the kids while they cosied up and read books or watched television in their room.

The kids formed a band called the jewelettes,named themselves after jewels and introduced a password for us to enter their room! Great fun for them but very annoying for the rest of us!

The next day , once again after bread and weetos and a birthday celebration for the mum with yet another fresh cake, we set off to land's end.

The weather was sunny and pleasant though with a slight wind. Post a photo session at the cliff edge, the kids and dads went for the 4d show of the dinosaurs and aruthur's quest while the mums went for a cliffside hill walk. For me, this was the best part of the trip as I really enjoyed the views from the cliffs, especially at the far end where the green and blue waters clashed and swirled down below.. The walk was good fun, especially with all of us chatting and snapping pics where we could.

We did not realise how time flew and with the sudden realisation that the dads may not exactly be enjoying themselves we rushed back, only to see that the kids were all fed, entertained and were now happily shopping for knick knacks that the mums would have strictly said no to!

Us mums then went off to have the famous Cornish pasties and returned for some scrumptious clotted cream icecreams bought by the dads ( milkshake for me!)

We made our way from Land's end to Portho beach. The kids had a good time playing in the waters though it was getting slightly chilly. As always, they found yet another dog to pet and play with.. We then changed the kids quickly, made peace with all the sand in the car and then made our way back to the lodges.

I was quite knackered from the day and went straight to the jacuzzi. The other ladies and one of the dads made Chicken Briyani and rasam. I made a quick egg burji for myself and the young one. Quickly we finished our dinner first and I made my way to bed. The others stayed up till 1.30 am sipping locally sourced liquer and chit chatting away. When did the kids go to sleep - none of us have any idea as the door was firmly closed and password protected!

The next day, we ladies chatted with tea for a while and then quicklye used up as much of the the left over food as we cooked and packed just in time for check out. Sadly, this is when we discovered the biking trails with the bikes for hire, the boats available in the lake , the table tennis table and the tennis court. The kids played table tennis for a while and then we left for Tintagel Castle at Tintagel.

..to be continued

Summer 2018 part 2

The next day dawned nice and bright.. but not the young one or her dad. They overslept and dilly dallied on the breakfast and by the time we stepped out it was 11 am. Globe theatre was duly cancelled.

We went around 12 to the Palace Theatre at Shaftesbury avenue for the 1 show and the lines were around the block! But thankfully it moved fast and by then the young one had on her Griffyndor Cloak with all the Hogwarts badges and her wand out!

Post the security check, we both went in , bought the HP play exclusive book ( 5 pounds! Day light robbery!) after giving K a kiss and a wave sending him off to the imax nearby. We sat in the Grand circle. The century old theatre was ornate, impressive and majestic. However the seats were so close next to each other and in front of each other that I could not but feel claustrophobic!

The drinks and eatables were astronomically priced but thankfully there was free water! We sat down to the first 2.30 hours of the show and what a show it was! Mind blowing would be an understatement. This was my first English theatre experience and it was fascinating. The young one kept comparing it to the movies and as she was wont to do kept spotting the strings and the optical illusion bits till I explained to her in the 20 minute interval how unlike movies, on stage, they have to get it right live and get it interesting and provide us an amazing experience with what can be done live.

*spoiler alert* #keepthesecrets

This is strictly for our own memory to re-read and enjoy.

Given the above, the 'incendio' effects, the papers arranging themselves in Harry's office, the duel between Harry and Draco, the flight of the dementors, the book case swallowing Scorpius and Delphini, the effects of the poly juice potion - Scorpius, Albus and Delphini to Harry, Ron and Hermoine , the bond binding Scorpius and Albus , the transfiguration of  Harry to Voldemort, the final battle between Delphini and Harry etc were absolutely awesome.

I loved the actors especially the ones playing Scorpius and Draco Malfoy. These two artists were so good in their act and also so graceful and athletic in the fight scenes and the cruciatus scene ( in the maze) respectively, that I became an instant fan.

This was not how I had imagined Scorpius at all and this was loads better. Rarely do we say this about any adaptation of a book and that says something about the actor!

They took 3 curtain calls finally and the third one was a complete standing ovation.

The young one was really good with her attention span and while I was worried she may be scared of the dementors ( they were absolutely fantastic!) flying over our heads - she kept trying to hi-five them :)

In the 2 hour bread before the second part, we nipped off to Saravana Bhavan and from there to Trafalgar square, the National gallery and Picadilly Circus for a quick photostop. We have been here several times , however the young one seems to have completely forgotten. Hence the photos now to remind her yet again!

We then took the tube back to Hangars lane and from there picked up our car and drove home with the young one sleeping in the back seat and K and I holding hands and chatting through the drive.

Reached home after midnight.

Another precious memory to draw from if and when I feel sad. My own patronuses :)

Summer 2018 Part 1

For this summer, the plan initially was to cover all of Eastern Europe and Austria. Prague had been on our list for a long time and so were Hungary and Croatia. However, the weather here, turned out to be phenomenally good, that we ultimately decided to stay put.

The last two weeks in July were off to a flying start. The young one had just finished her stage 6 in swimming and the instructor said her technique was so good that she should be able to finish off stage 7 in a week. 

The young one also started swimming just for fitness thrice every week as she enjoyed it so much. (Never competing always enjoying!) But what was astonishing was that she would go to badminton for an hour, swim full laps continuously for 40 minutes,read for pleasure at home for some time and then go cycling with our neighbour’s kid for 2 hours, play with our other neighbour’s dog and come in only after half 8 in the evening. 

She really enjoyed having an active holiday. I for my part made sure she was fed and watered appropriately and for some time I could feel the muscles rippling on her arms and legs :) ( Her eyesight continues to be an issue though :( )

She made friends with all the neighbours in our cul de sac and it was very sweet to see her wave hi to all of them, all grown ups and us sheepishly smiling as we have only ever exchanged Xmas cards every year!

Especially our new American neighbour is so fond of her that she sweetly drops notes in the letterbox especially for her with pictures of their dog and messages from her dog as well!

She went for one week of every day half hour swimming and came back having passed stage 7!

For three weekends she then had a friend S sleeping over at our place, she went for a sleep over with N and one of her new dance friends D came over.  

S and her enjoyed the first sleep over so much that they promptly repeated it the week after. Though both the families had planned a day trip, a sudden scheduling clash made us drop that plan and opt for a sleep over and a full day  with a trip to incredible 2 included, followed by sumptuous home made dinner and cake baking at S’s place.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the baking as well the relishing of the cake afterwards.

We also went to the new Lego land discovery centre with her and another couple. It was exactly as boring as it was in Atlanta  3 years ago exactly to the day!( As google photos helpfully reminded us). But what we did enjoy was the walk along the canal and lunch with the friends afterwards.

One other week, we had another good friend and their new born baby come over. Both R and I thoroughly enjoyed cuddling the new born and another pleasant day was notched up!

Over and above all this she went swimming 3days a week, cycled every day with her friend ( who, if R was not out by the afternoon, will start dropping notes in the letter box prompting her to come out as soon as she can,) In all it was all very sweet.

We had guests coming over from Scotland one week and that week was her bharatnatyam ISTD exam. The poor guests were subject to 3 performances but it all turned out good as she passed with a distinction and 94%

She had also gained a distinction in her LAMDA and singing exams so plenty of kindle books were downloaded and subway sandwiches eaten as rewards :)

As a build up to her birthday we also took her to London for one weekend. I had severe back pain but managed to accompany her to Buckingham palace and the tower bridge walk. I then let dad and daughter spend the rest of the day walking with the dinosaurs at O2 while I  rested.

The next day was planned for Globe theatre ( on her request!), followed by Harry Potter and the cursed child , this time just mum and daughter time...

Letters to my princess 7

Kannamma

Sweetheart, you are awesome! As you grow day by day you have a joy and happiness bubbling inside you that is phenomenal. You are always high on life! You always skip rather than walk. No matter how harsh  a critic I am of something you do, your repartee is ‘No, I am good and I know it’

Sometimes it is even ‘ Don’t worry amma, As I try harder I get better!’. As of this moment you are not the best in anything. You are above average in most things. But you are the happiest and the most resilient.You never give up and failures  and hardships are just another thing in life to frown a bit, make a joke out of and move on! ( wait, that sounds like a lot like your dad,come to think of it)

You are never bitter or jealous about not winning and despite being an only child, you are happy to share or even give away stuff!

You rush home from school, do your home work ( even as the neighbour’s kid A knocks on the door to come out and play, you say I will finish the work and then go amma, that way I enjoy more!) go cycling with her come back do some more work, read a book and go to sleep, with a smile on your face.

Some days, you play tennis or go for swimming in the morning, piano, a whole day of school, then badminton, cycling  and you still have energy to do more!

When I wonder why despite all this you are not a swimming champ or a genius at school, your daddy says it is because you enjoy life and never focus on winning but on the process of swimming, cycling,  reading etc. You do it for the sheer joy of it and not for today’s win.You do it at your own pace and do not like the pressure to win/ finish on time! not even God can make you do things faster than you want to! And you are not even naturally slow that you have to push yourselves too much to get to be faster. You just can't be bothered.

He is sure this will stand you in good stead throughout life. I used to be disturbed about the lack of drive and ambition but the sound of your wonderful, carefree, joyful  laughter makes me want to bundle the same and treasure the magic even at the price of giving up all the medals and glory!

Past 2 years, in sports day you never won anything being the youngest and tiniest and having eyesight issues. The teacher said you could have the day off if you wanted, but you always said you enjoyed sports day as for you, it was not about winning ( of course, it almost never is)but about enjoying the day with your friends. And then you came home with two medals having carefully planned which events to play to your reduced height and strength. You amaze me..just the resilience after two years of disappointment and the grace with which you handled it.

The other day you won an award for your studies but did not tell us, as we were at your friend’s place and she did not get one and you did not want her to feel bad! ( She is 11 months older to you, bullies you and is always competing with you). You are able to tell her ‘ you are being unkind’ when she bullies you but have the grace not to brag when you win. Hats off da kuttima!

You still do not understand that you make mummy late to work almost every day as you will not hurry up and you still do not know how to handle your emotional mum ( The other day I said ‘you are going to send us both (papa and I) to an early grave’ and pat came your  cheeky reaction ‘ Do I get the house? ’.

Everything is a joke or play. Being serious is not your forte.

You are a marvel and wonder. My sweet heart, I am extremely lucky to come home to you every day!

Pattumma, nee kalakuda!

Amma

Day 5 Lisbon 2018

The final day dawned sunny again. After a farewell breakfast we checked out quickly and left our luggage to be picked up on the way back to the airport. We then went to the Jeronimos Monastery only to find a long winding queue though we were there at 10.05 for a 10 am opening. Luckily, D's pregnant tummy got us straight in, into the fantastic monastery. This was easily the highlight of our trip and it came as no surprise that this fantastic building is a UNESCO World heritage sight.

The cloisters and the high vaulted ceilings in the Manueline style were a sight to behold. The monastery's library provided interesting insights in to the history of the monastery. The portals, the ceilings and even the pillars were all ornately and exquisitely detailed with stone work. The church to the side of the monastery had fabulous, tall stained glass windows. The gallery from the monastery enjoined the church and gave a view of the inside of the phenomenal beauty of the church from atop. We could not but spend a lot of time admiring the beauty and reminiscing about the ancient temples and palaces of India that have this and more but are not very well maintained, if at all.

We then walked across the park and along the Tagus once again to the monument of discoveries and the Belem tower. We then crossed the park again to visit the Pasteis de Belem Cafe, a cafe open from 1837 and famed for its pastries.  We packed some delicacies to go, grabbed some sandwiches from Starbucks next door and took the tram back to Praca do Commercio.

From here we took the famous yellow bus tram which is more modern , costly and hence with no pick pockets as opposed to the historic tram 28. It took the same route as tram 28 ,with an audio describing the various landmarks as we wound through the historic areas of Lisbon.

The most impressive buildings on this ride for me were the Sao Bento Palace which is the current Portuguese Parliament  with its traditionally dressed soldiers standing guard and the  Basilica de Estrela with its  domed roofs.

Sadly that brought us to the end of the Lisbon trip. We realised that, as is the case with  many European capitals, a Lisbon trip has enough for 10 days if not more and not a mere 5. We missed the Monserrate palace, the moorish palace, the count's house tour and lots more..

The friendly locals made me want to comeback again like I would, just for the locals and their lack of prejudice  to Italy ( Not Naples), Catalonia ( Not Madrid), Athens, Mykonos, Cyprus , US, Singapore but not Kualalmpur, Paris, Switzerland or Edinburgh.

We got off there and took the bus back to the hotel. We picked up our luggage and took the aerobus to the airport. We battled the terribly long security queue to the woefully crowded lounge and the amazingly inadequate food court to another long boarding queue to be seated in the flightonly to be told that the flight was delayed for another 2 hours. Luckily that changed and we took off and made good time and the arrival was delayed only by 5 minutes.

There was still the 2 hour  drive back from Luton which was thankfully uneventful. We walked in exhausted and flopped on to our beds around 1am but with yet more wonderful memories to sustain us through the daily grind.

Day 4 Lisbon 2018

For the second time in her life, D had somebody message her in facebook that they had her wallet and could she come to collect it. She was extremely delighted and we decided to split. D and family were to go back to Sintra to collect her wallet while we would finish visiting Se cathedral and they would catch up with us at Lisbon.

We bade good bye to a very relieved and happy D and family and made our way to Se Cathedral.

The train to this destination covered all the main sights of Lisbon including the Praca Dom Pedro iv AKA rossio which was really cool with it's wavy tiles and alluring water fountains.

From the station we alighted to arrive at Praca Do Comercio , with the majestic statue of King Jose, shining in the late morning sun. The waves of the Tagus were shimmering in the sunlight and the view of the Vascodo gama bridge and the Christ the King statue from this side of the city was a sight to behold. We did stop the night before for tea  in the restaurant on this promenade but the view in the day was something else altogether. We took some snaps and made our way to Se Cathedral.

Compared to many other cathedrals in Rome , London and Paris, this was on the simpler side and while we enjoyed the stained class windows and the chapel there was nothing much to impress. We did enjoy the visit to the treasury which housed the catholic ritual ornaments and lots of artefacts from India. The stained glass work in the small balcony on the top part of the chapel was quiet charming.

We then walked down the hill to the utterly charming Rainha D'Amelia restaurant. It was an experience in itself as this tiny cafe with just 6 tables let us see those walking outside and also the tram 28 passing by Se Cathedral to the background of the soft music from the restaurant. The young one happily had a goat's cheese toast accompanied by hot chocolate with loads of cream and sprinkles while I had a light bean soup.

We bought ourselves some icecream and walked through the streets of Lisbon discovering beautiful squares, narrow tiled houses and scary pick pocketers. I was focusing on getting the young one to safely cross the roads while she was happily licking her icecream when suddenly in French and English several people cried out that I had 3 pick pocketers trailing me, trying to snatch my back while my focus was entirely on the young one. Apparently they ran away when the others warned me off.

The silly reality  was that I was carrying a huge bag with absolutely nothing  in it but my back up rain coat and sun glasses! K took us to the metro Restauradores  subway to top up the Viva viagem card and there I stumbled upon  the fantastic Luiz Ventura a Cheganca tile mural 'The Arrival'. I believe this type of art work is called the Azulejo. The work was so interesting that I was hoping to find out what it depicted. Unfortunately google did not seem to throw up any valid results ( Sacrilege!)

We then took the historic and graffiti painted  Gloria Ascensor across the road from downtown Lisbon to Bairro Alto. We had a fantastic hot chocolate at a restaurant up the hill walking the world go by through the open glass doors. I changed from my summer maxi to a costume more appropriate to the hilly winds. We lounged around taking in the lisbon city view, looking at knick knacks and taking snaps with a tawny owl ( don't ask!) while the happy D and family rejoined us. The wallet had been retrieved intact and they were raring to go.

We walked down the Bairro Alto district enjoying the more colorfully tiled historic buildings  and stopped at Amorino Baixa for some icecream and Macaroons.

P was keen to try  the ancient Santa Justa lift so we stood in line for 1.30 hours to go to the top to get a circular view of lisbon. We then went back to Praca de Comercio for dinner at the Can the Can restaurant. I tried Guincho which was like cherry  liquer and I liked it :)

Back to the hotel but everybody crashed. No kid swapping took place :)

..last day next

Day 3 Lisbon 2018

We had high hopes for this day as the weather forecast was very promising. While it rained all through breakfast, when we stepped out, it was gloriously sunny!

We took the train to Cascais. A ensured all of us sat on the left of the train to enjoy the lovely beaches and hence the fantastic views all throughout our journey. We arrived at bright and sunny Cascais in an extremely good mood. We made the short 5 minutes walk to the Praia da Rainha beach. The weather was most amenable, the beach was small but uncrowded and there were two small coves on the right side of the beach and large rocks to climb and enjoy the view.

We spent quite a while there relaxing while the kids ran amok building sand castles, jumping and chasing the waves and unfortunately also throwing sand on each other! Luckily,  I had taken a change of clothes so dried the young one as much as I could, dusted off atleast some of the sand and marched her reluctantly to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

The Indian lunch was OK but it served the purpose. We then walked through some jolly live music in the town square and spent some time taking photos against the back drop of the various blue and white tiled buildings.

We made our way to the Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes which was located in the Marechel Carmona gardens.Disappointingly due to it being the easter Sunday, the count's house was closed but the delightful gardens were open. We enjoyed walking through the tiny rock bridges, the peacock gardens where one of them enthralled us with a full feathered dance, the rock nooks and crannies with tiny rock benches to relax privately in and the rock hill from where to enjoy the view of the garden. The children had a great time in the play grounds while we lounged in the sun.

On the way back, we discovered that the house had a beautiful chapel right in the front, opposite which was a private beach! The sea, from across the count's house  went under the roads and under a bridge within the house's private's walls to form a private beach in a small cove. I found it extremely cool to have your own private sandy beach with waves washing your feet just a few stairs down the front garden of your house!

We then walked on the Cascais to Esotiril promenade to enjoy the sun, the sea and the breeze. We stopped to buy some icecream which was when D discovered that her wallet was missing. D and P went to the shops to see if anybody had handed them over while we took the kids to look at some local stalls. We made our way back through the lovely  old town centre to the Praia de Raina. Unfortunately D could not find her wallet so she rang to cancel all her bank cards. Meanwhile the kids picked up something from Mac D for the train journey back.

D did not have much money in her wallet so resigned herself to reapplying for her driver's license and the pan card. While D and family decided to try out the hotel restaurant, we made do with the left overs from lunch packed earlier as it was mostly vegetarian while D and family were strictly non-veg eaters!

The kids moved room again :)

..to be contiuned

Day 2: Lisbon 2018

On Saturday, we got up around 8.30 am and went down to the fantastic breakfast spread. One of the things I knew I would miss after the trip was the lovely hotel and the staff. The shower was blissful, the beds most comfortable, the staff friendly and the breakfast spread my second best! ( the best being my absolute favourite one in Mykonos with the sea view!)

A sat at our table on most days and R could not have been happier. I sneakily fed her lots of fresh fruits, egg and the potato Rostis while she was busy chatting with her friend, so by the time she reached for her nutella pancakes and croissants and doughnuts, she was already full! :)

We then caught the 40 minute train to Sintra from the Campo Pequeno station which was a mere 4 minutes walk from the hotel. The sun was out though there was still a slight chill in the air. We then caught the uber to the Quintas da Regaleira palace. While the palace and the grounds were beautiful the best part was when we had to climb some rock stairs to go through some  tubed fairy light lit dark caves on the other side of which were some beautiful stepping stones leading to more stones and a lovely rock bridge! The sides of the cave also had some gentle waterfalls which added to the allure of the place. We thoroughly enjoyed the  experience ..

We then went to the national palace, watched the trotting of the horse cart carriages in the roads just below the palace grounds  and spent some time at the famous Piriquita bakery. We had their famous Travesseiros that were to die for and also some queijaddas.

We took some snaps of the national palace and moved on to the Pena palace. The traffic was unbelievably bad and the hilly roads of Sintra were back to back jammed with cars so our driver took us through round about fantastically green reaching for the skies tall trees-filled scenic route and we snoozed in the car dappled by the afternoon sun!

The climb to the top of the palace via the fantastic palace gardens was a steep climb but D was game enough to brave it slowly and steadily!

The Pena palace was fantastic and like in many places D's advanced pregnancy led us to being taken straight from the back of the queue to the very front. Nobody complained and in fact most were very encouraging. The castle was very romantic and kids enjoyed the hogwarts-like entrance and the moat and the watch towers.

The view from the balconies over the tree covered hills was fabulous.

We had some light snacks in the restaurant and made our way back to the station.

On the way we stopped at a local restaurant to taste Sintra's famous port wine and nourish ourselves. The kids fought and made up ( yet again!) and we made it back to our hotel quite late in the night.

That still did not stop the kids from getting together in our room for the night..

...to be continued

Lisbon : Easter 2018

Usually we spend Easter holidays shivering but generally having a good time at one of the Butlins' with one of our family friends. It has been an Easter tradition for the past 3 years. But this year, given that we had exhausted all the Butlins options, we thought we would go in search of the sun to Lisbon.

We were going with another good family who have been really helpful especially in the month of Jan/Feb 2018 when I was suffering from chest infection. The lady D, despite herself being in the family way, drove R to her classes and when one night I could not breathe and had to rush to the
A & E, R stayed overnight at their place.

D is now 6 months into her pregnancy but was still game to travel. The fact that her elder daughter A was just 11 months older to our R made it an ideal match. K and P were recent ex-colleagues and got along famously already.

The plan was to travel to Luton on Friday morning and take the afternoon flight to Lisbon. With fond hopes of the bright sun, we packed light clothes and braved the bitter cold wind of the Luton car park to board our flights to Lisbon. The kids went in one car and as usual had a whale of a time to the detriment of the hearing of P and D!

All through the flight the kids sat next to each other and made grand plans for the rest of the holiday , most of which involved staying the hotel room all day playing games, going swimming in the pool and watching lots of tele in the evenings!

As soon as we landed, D and I were sorely disappointed at the slightly chilly and windy weather in Lisbon with a slight drizzle of rain. Though in a scale of 1 to 10 this Lisbon weather would score 5 to UK's 9 in the bitterness of the cold scale, we were still disappointed..

We checked into the Jupiter Lisboa Hotel, where the staff were friendly, the rooms were huge (especially by European standards) and neat and lovely and the roof top pool was awesome.

We then stepped out to go to the skyride Gondola by the Tagus river. The uber drivers were quite helpful though only rarely did they speak English. However P had a love for languages and would always try to converse in Portuguese and that helped us a lot. He taught the kids to say 'Obrigado' which meant thank you and the kids would generally say it everywhere and all those faces at the receiving end would melt into huge smiles and usually some candy for the kids! :)

We passed by the famous oceanarium to get to the skyride. Though the oceanarium was one of the best in the world, given that both kids had been to the acquariums in Atlanta, Barcelona, Dubai and London.. we thought they would not miss much if we skipped this one!

The sky was still drizzling but we made the best of it and enjoyed our ride across the beautiful Tagus and the view of the Vasco da Gama bridge, Christo Rei ( Christ the king) on one side and the city of Lisbon on the other.

Our thoughtfully packed, extremely light, summer clothes were totally unsuitable to we walked to the Vasco Da Gama mall and spent several hours looking through the shops to buy a suitable coat. We di not want to buy anything expensive as it was not that cold and we had good quality coats back home for that purpose. D and I  spent almost 1.5 hours looking through the various shops and finally selected something from Zara!

We were very chuffed over the time spent in arriving at this saratorial choice since over the next 4 days, we saw different colours of our coat on more than 20 ladies in the various tourist destinations.

Obviously most others hoped to catch some sun but caught the last vestiges of winter instead in Lisbon :)

We had chinese dinner at the food court, some ice cream and left happy tired to the hotel. Our rooms were next to each other so on alternate days the kids stayed in each other's rooms and had a great time playing Kludo, having midnight parties and generally being up to no good.

..to be continued.

Singapore and Malaysia 2017 - Part 2

Day 6

After a much needed restful morning, we had breakfast with mangoes from the agrotech park that V had gotten up early to visit, completed packing and went to the Durian Perangin waterfall and pool. This was a beautiful area admist lots of  greenery, some mosquitoes and a  swaying bridge. The kids and K had a  lovely swim and I had half a dip as well. C and V opted out of a dip.

We then proceeded back to Kuah town and visited langkawi parade for a egg fried rice lunch and some quick duty free shopping. We then realised that we should have done more shopping as everything was really cheap in Langkawi as it was duty free throughout the island and also due it being a port town, Kuah town was especially cheap for lots of branded items.

 Back to the homestay, and after the  usual confusion due to the home stay being helpfully named after the airport, we boarded our flight back to kulalmpur. This flight was cheerfully decorated with posters from Kabali but we were all too tired to care. We had a quick Veg dinner on the Air Asia flight  and unusually but understandingly, there was not a peep from the tired kids.

We landed at KL and took the one hour fifteen minute journey to the PNB Perdana hotel.

We checked into the spacious rooms and despite the concern about the not perfectly clean sheets or the drops of water in the tub, we drifted off to sleep.

Day 7

This hotel turned out to be wonderful looking but badly maintained with extremely poor service. The location was brilliant as it was right in the centre of the city. Must have once been a fantastic venture which has now fallen into bad hands.

The one advantage was that we had breakfast in the hotel, so got up, had breakfast and marched out  in the morning for Petronas ticket booking. Turned out that no tickets were available but made a  jugad for 31st night with an associate there. Kids played by the fountain below while the dads made the arrangement for the newyear's eve visit to the towers.

 We then went to Batu Caves to the wonderful murugan temple. Though the monkeys were scary the tall statue, the caves up the 272 stairs and the Ramayana caves down below made the visit worthwhile.

We then proceeded to the pavilion mall, apang mall and surya klcc all of which had phenomenal Xmas displays competing with one another. The kids had a lovely time dancing to the music and singing along to the Xmas carols.

The plan was to visit Jalon Alor for some street food but once again the smell of sea food put us off. So we quickly changed plans and moved to the mall area.

We had a lovely late lunch  of Malaysian veg dishes at Simple life in one of the malls and packed some for dinner. Kids watched Indiana Jones together and were off to sleep as we carried them to their respective rooms.

Day 8

The next day saw the CM do some swimming in the hotel pool and playing in the play area both on the 9th floor. We then went shopping in the Berjaya mall which was disappointing to say the least..Dinner ordered to the room from Saravana bhavan was a further disaster. But the kids were happy monkeying around as unusual.

For the first time in her 8 years the CM had tears in her eyes at the thought of the holidays coming to an end and of her having to leave her friends R and K behind. ‘ I like getting up in the morning and getting to see them!’ She sobbed. I never thought the CM could be so emotional! A revelation for me.

I reassured her that we could keep in touch through skype but was quite surprised that the kids still bickered with each other before going to sleep. C said it was their way of coping with the impending separation.

It was all very touching and very sweet.

Day 9

On the last day we went to the Theon Hou temple, prayed in gratitude for 2017 and wished for a healthy and wise 2018. Tried shopping in the pavilion mall, had another diastorous Sara and bhavan lunch at a different place , rested a bit at the hotel and then went for the PETRONAS visit. The visit was really good and by the time we made our way back to the hotel the streets were quite raucous withe celebrations in full swing to welcome the new year.

Rushed back, the kids cut the cake as per yearly tradition to welcome the new year and the younger ones went off to sleep. The cm and both sets of parents then watched the spectacular fire works display from the French windows of the hotel floor and thus dawned the new year.

We said our good byes and good nights and left for our respective rooms.

Day 10

Due to the issues with my back and the fact that K had to go to work the next day we had booked BC tickets for the return leg. We enjoyed some quite time in the lounge and some snacks before boarding.

Though the first leg to Dubai was a tired looking 777 we still enjoyed the BC experience, stretched on our flat beds and had a lovely time. The food though was disappointing as always.

We were hoping to spend some time in the Dubai lounge as well but that was not to be. We rushed to the next flight and the A380 BC was fantastic. Everything was brand new and very comfortable. Alas, the food was no better. K said it was the vegetarian option that was the issue. The normal meals were all quite ok.

We were planning to be awake but it turned out that all three of us slept through the journey. I only managed to catch three movies ' the battle of the *exes', which was about the iconic match between Bobbie Riggs and Billie Jean King, 'Mark Felt' which was about Deep Throat and the watergate scandal and 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' which was about A.A. Milne, the author and the real Christopher Robin - Billy Moon. I loved the first and third movies but the second put me to sleep!

We were back home before we knew it and the complimentary chauffeur took us home in the cold that is so integral to this part of the world!

So dawned our 2018!

This year is critical to us in so many ways, K's business and  R's 'big leap' . For me this year is about these two mentioned before , as with respect to me, if the year was the same as 2017, I should be OK.There is just one last millstone that I want to get rid off and K who has helped me get rid of the rest has promised he would help with this one as well.

2017 brought home to me very clearly, how very much K is handling and how well. He took care of my millstones, resolved 2 of them, handled R's eyesight difficulties, spent an enormous amount of time with R on Piano and Ganidh,  arranged the entire trip and lots more ..all of this., on top of his daily job  and the early morning extra work on the new venture that he is so very passionate about.

I have never seen you so passionate and committed about anything else in your life (except of course things that are important for R and I)

Hope 2018 makes it all worth it for you K. In my brutally honest, and despite my usual cynical, assessment I cannot but see that  you really deserve it!

Singapore and Malaysia - 2017 Part 1

For the xmas holidays in 2017 the plan was to once again hook up with C, V and the kids R and K and do a joint holiday, as has been the tradition for the past 3 years.

We started from home to Dubai. This was a A380 model flight and was wonderfully comfortable. However, we had booked the very last seats in this double decker flight and that gave us plenty of space at the back ( the way to the upper deck) to exercise, stretch and move around a bit. Though I was apprehensive that this may be incovenient near the toilets, given that it was way back, not many made it that far and the easy access made a comfortable travel for us. The service was excellent but the vegetarian food was appalling.This sadly turned out to be the case on all 4 legs of the flight, onwards and return though while returning we travelled in BC with emirates.

From Dubai to Singapore we travelled in 777. This was a tired flight but given the seats at the very back and a restful sleep, this turned out to be easier than we had imagined. So 14 hours of travel, successfully managed.

We landed in Singapore Chiangi airport. I have been to Singapore twice before but this was the first time with K and the CM. As always, the airport was immaculate and the xmas decorations were a sight to behold. We were hoping to join with C's family, once their flight landed but that was not to be.

Day 1
Straight away on landing, we had some breakfast at 'Wangs' and therein was our introduction to Singapore's famous Kaya Butter Toast. And it was love at first sight for the CM and me. :)

Having exhausted all the entertainment that Chiangi had to offer, we made our way to the Destination hotel . Whilst we were settling down, C's family arrived. They were received at the airport by two more of their friends with whom we made an aquaintance as well.

They thought, given that we had travelled 14 hours, we may want to rest. But what they did not realise was that , the A family, with it's bunny battery on, never rests! Thus, we all made our way to Marina Bay Sands, had a wonderful view of Sinapore in the night on the top floor including the specatular light and fountain show and the carousel and lighting up of the Super tree grove singapore. Fresh from the cold climes of UK, we thoroughly enjoyed the gentle breeze of the hotel terrace and the balmy 24 degrees of the Singapore night.

The kids had a gala time joshing with one another and kick starting the holiday with the warmest of hugs and the sweetest and silliest of games! It was wonderful to see them pick up exactly from where they had left quite some time ago. ( C had visited us at home around April  if I am not mistaken)

From there we made our way to little India for dinner.

The kids wanted to have a sleep over, so C and I went to our room and the hubbies and the kids slept in their room. C and I chatted through the night and barely had 3 hours of sleep!

Day 2 

The next day we had a leisurely breakfast at Saravana Bhavan at the food court at  Suntec tower. The kids also played in the fountains there and were generally up to a lot of mischief.

We then proceeded to a photo stop at the Merlion and across the bay from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Some cold and milky ice creams followed and we chatted our way to the Gardens by the Bay.

Since we had already had a beautiful view of the gardens the night before, we did not spend much time there but proceeded promptly to the Cloud forest followed by the Flower Garden, both of which I loved. Singapore is indeed as expensive if not more than the UK but what you get in return for what you pay is much more than the UK in my humble opinion. Everything is maintained to very high standards and the experience is truly wonderful which does not make you resent the money spent.

We came back to the hotel to freshen up,. It being christmas eve, I surreptitiously got the CM's gifts ready for her to open once we came back. I also changed to the dress that C had bought for me as a gift. To my delight it fit me perfectly  and we were all set to go.

I had been to the night safari before and thoroughly enjoyed it. This was before the CM was born and even then I wanted K to visit as I knew he would love it too.

We had a phenomenally wonderful time at the night safari. K and the CM and C's family, we all enjoyed it a lot. Little K's loud commentary about the animals only added to the fun.  The CM particularly enjoyed the  'Creatures of the night' show as the MC was very entertaining. She particularly liked the  raccoons foraging the bins kept for the show to demonstrate how they can sort the rubbish correctly in to the recycle bins.While C and family stayed back with their other friends, K insisted that we went back to the hotel as he was feeling very tired.

Unfortunately, the CM had other plans. We originally were planning to wrap up dinner in the complex opposite the hotel. But the place smelt so strongly of non vegetarian food that the CM refused to have any food there and batted her puppy eyes at her dad for a subway sandwich.

Of course, nothing else mattered to K anymore. We all trooped into a taxi and took a wonderful tour of singapore all the way to  Clark quay, which is where a subway was. To be fair, we thoroughly enjoyed the views of the The Raffles palace, Swissotel ( where I stayed the two times I visited before), The Arts House ( formerly the old parliament house) etc. The cab driver was also quite chatty and explained the historic significance of each of these places. I am always fond of late night drives and visits and I enjoyed this one as always..

The  CM had her subway and we then went to a hotel by the river for K to have a freshly caught fish. (I am sure there was a posher name to this, but for me, they are all fish!) We were there when the clock struck 12 and there were happy exclamations of 'Merry Xmas' all around.

We came back quite tired but the CM still had the energy to pipe up ' So, it is xmas today! May I open my presents please? '.  Of course she could and she did. She was very happy with Santa's gift of a new year party dress, Michael Morpugo books , Bad Dad by David Williams and a whole lot of Suppandi books all the way from India!

Day 3

The CM had already announced to everybody that they are all to accompany her to the roof top pool next morning for a swim, so the dads dutifully marched the kids to the roof top and had a lovely swim. I joined them later and by the time we all got ready, we were all quite famished.

Unfortunately K got into his head that xmas day was a day for a proper south Indian breakfast , so he dragged us half way across singapore in search of an elusive restaurant called Laxmi Villas. We never did find it. I was fuming out of my ears by now, so we all went straight to China Town to see if anything would be available near the Mariamman temple there. With no such luck, we settled for Kaya Butter sandwiches which turned out to be a saviour for K. Grrrr

We then went to the fantastic Buddha tooth relic temple and I had a lovely time praying, looking at the wonderful buddha statues, the hindu/chinese fusion gods and goddesses, the meditation hall and the terrace garden with C and little R.

The rest of the gang took a rain check and had ice creams from the card outside and the CM settled with her icecream to read her kindle books.!

We proceeded to the hotel to check out and make our way to the airport to catch the flight to Langkawi with a stop over at KL. We knew the kids would enjoy Chiangi again, so we went an hour early, checked in and let the kids do their thing. We also had a wonderful pastry lunch at the 'Baking house' whereas K and V in their quest for Indian food had a lacklustre lunch at one of the airport Indian restaurants.

The flight was loads fun as the three kids sat together and were giggling, playing and chatting wonderfully just on the inside boundary of being irritating or loud or rude. The air hostesses were so charmed by them that they got extra peanuts and drinks :)

As these were short flights, they were not supposed to have food. We were telling the kids this, when little K piped up ' But I did see a lady with a trolley go by.. there definitely is something'. I think almost half the flight laughed!

K had a funny experience too as he tried repeatedly to charge his phone and the air hostesses would gently but politely keep pulling the plug out without saying a word. It was much later that we discovered that  we are not supposed to charge during take off or landing or 10 minutes after that! K's confused face was a sight to behold!

The tele screens had no headphones as it was a short flight, the CM had great fun watching Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets without head phones but narrating the same to little R and K.

There was a very brief stop over at KL and then an extremely quick flight to Langkawi.

The Langkawi airport , being an island airport was very despondent especially after the flashy charm of Singapore. The cab guy who took us to our home stay ( cunningly named 'Kapal Terbang' which means airport/airplane in Malay'. This lead to lots of confusion whenever we wanted to get to the homestay from anywhere as the cab drivers would start driving to the airport and it was most amusing when we wanted to take a cab from Kapal Terbang to the airport on our last day there!), was absolutely useless. He started selling visits to us claiming to be a well versed local but when we asked where we could buy fruits or bread he said he had no clue!

We managed to spot a seven eleven on the way and stopped to stock ourselves with some bread and egg.

The homestay was a huge villa with a wonderful garden and a small rubber plantation near by and the whole thing sorrounded by woods and fields.

The lady and her family who owned the villa, lived in the outhouse and they had quiet a few  cats and 8 rabbits. The kids were in seventh heaven! All the time we spent there, the kids had a gala time feeding the rabbits, stroking them and following the cats around..

I loved the jack fruit trees, rubber trees etc and the back-home like high ceiling-ed , wide open and spacious rooms all joining towards a central hall.

Be it Singapore or Langkawi or KL, the one thing that I was not happy about was the luke warm water. I know the temperature there does not warrant hot water, but even so, after a long day's travel, I always preferred taking a hot shower to wash the dirt and tiredness away. :(

We all drank Milo and went to a restful sleep.

Day 4

We started the day with Toasted bread and butter, milo drinks and boiled eggs. We spent the entire Day at oriental village. First, we took the Cable car over Mount Maching Chang. The view over the mountain and the Langkawi island and southern thailand was fantastic.

We then took a  walk over the sky bridge with see through glass boards, had loads of fun looking though the glass and making Titanic poses at the edge of the bridge.

We then went for lunch at the Indian Restaurant within the village. The kids fed the golden fish in the pond by the restaurant for a while and while we were waiting for the (ultimately, most disappointing and extremely silly )Skydome show, they went into the rabbit park and terrified the poor creatures trying to be overfriendly!

We then went for the skyrex which was a show similar to Birmingham dinosaurs in the wild show. The waiting time for all these was a good 20 minutes and we did not think it was worth it at all :(

Lastly we went for the 3D art museum ‘ art in paradise’, which was really good.

We caught the late night Uber and luckily this time the cabbie was a good lad who took us to a fruit stall where plently of fresh fruit and some noodles were bought.

Day 5

V decided to turn chef for the day and made egg omelette, tasty noodles ( discovered why it was so tasty much later, there was MSG already mixed  in the pepper which he had used generously on the omlette and the noodles :) ).

We then made our way to the Kilim geo forest which turned out to be the best experience of the trip apart from the cloud forest in Singapore. We visited the bat caves where we saw  stalagmites and some stalactites that grew towards the sunlight due to the algae on them.

The motor boat gave us a view of Thailand on the other side of the hills and also we saw a lot of monkeys and crabs next to the dense spider-like mangrove roots that were clearly visible as it was low tide. Needless to say, the kids loved the experience.

The motor boat then took us for a view of eagle feeding. The elegant rust gold eagles ( this beautiful species, we later found, is the symbol of Langkawi) with their majestic glide against the blue sky and  their graceful dive to pick up the fishes to feed on was a sight to behold.

The boat then took us to the  fishing farm in the middle of the water body. The guide was fantastic and he explained very interestingly how sting rays suck in their food/ prey, how a barracuda’s teeth that can crush bones, how the puffer fish that blew up on touch, how the lazy fish lived up to its name and  refused to even move for food, and how  the crab (?) fish that swam on its back used its front legs to crawl on the land etc while picking out each of the fish mentioned above from its top open enclosure next to our feet and demonstrating what he meant. I believe  it is possible that I may have enjoyed this even more than the kids!

K once again had a freshly caugh fish for lunch while the others just sat around him and felt sorry for the fish and made sure K knew it!

We all made our way back to land went to the Spice Village restaurant for lunch. Our cabbie was a lady and she was most charming and knowledgeable.

 We went back to the hotel, freshened up a bit , the kids played some monpoly and went back to the Tanjung rhu beach with its warm water. The kids had a great time swimming but the dads were not very happy as the beach was way too crowded and the water was  filled with the smell of petrol due to the numerous motor boats about.

 K and I went to the alun alun spa for a wave massage with firangi pani oil and ginger tea for me, and I loved it. K loved his herbal massage as well.

In the meanwhile C, V and the kids enjoyed the fire martial show on the beach and had some play time under the night sky in the beach.

The CM and us went for a subway dinner while C and family went for Pizza next door.

C and I went back to the homestay with the kids while K and V had their boy's night out.

..To be continued

Letters to my Princess : 6

Dei Vaalu

You are 8 now and our life is a battle of wills that we knew it would be. You never rush and no one in the world can make you. Be it getting ready, or preparing for a competitive exam or taking a shower, all in your own good time and not a moment sooner. You love to sing in the shower and sit and relax with the towel wrapped snugly around you before you could be bothered to dress up.

You don’t believe in making yourself unhappy for anything or anybody. You do not understand nor can you relate to an ambition or drive that could make your life hectic. You work really hard but the pace has to be your own. You need to enjoy what you do, when you do it, otherwise you do not see the point.

You had your bharathnatyam recital and you smiled your way through it without any mistakes.

I constantly worry about this total disregard for the rat race. What is your future going to be like? I want you to be happy, secure , kind and independent. I do not want you depend on anybody for money or kindness. I would like you to be self sufficient in both.

K feels you would do just fine. You find joy in book, tele and  friendships. You are not at all competitive but full of cheer. You are increasingly kind and have always had a great sense of humour. But you are also overwhelmingly naive. You fight, make up and laugh in under a minute. You simply cannot relate to having grudges. Though even at this age your friends are not like that. Even to A who is a mean bully to you, you are kind and friendly.

You are the only child I know who can laugh through her tears if something funny happens when she is passionately crying!

When I try to dress you up when we are in a rush or if I have a photo of you in a swim suit or if I try to drag you along in a shopping mall you ring out loud and clear ‘ It is my body amma and you cannot  drag, take a photo or dress me up if and when I do not want you to. Thanks’. I always listen to you and stop what I am doing. Hopefully in this world of smart phones and Facebook it is the right thing to do.

Your handwriting is really good but only when you want it to be. You just showed your teacher that you can do superb handwriting but will only do it when you want.  Your teacher says that even if it is not your class’s turn for the library, you would just tell her  ‘ Mrs L, please may I pick some books from the library’and she just could not find it in her to stop you from marching in to the library whether it is your class turn or not !

I am not anvery confident mum Kannamma but you are a very confident child who is very clear about her life. I am just not sure if it is ok to let you be or should I push you to line up the trophies. But more and more it is becoming cleare that  I don’t necessarily have that choice. You are so clear about what you would like to do, when and how that probably I just need to step back and watch you do your swag march in life🙃

Love you da thangame!

Amma

Piano Grade 1 and Azhagiye!

So, the Cheeky Monkey had her Piano Grade 1 exams last week. She is the youngest in her group by a year. While the other boys and girls were getting tensed about what would be asked and if they would get through the exam without making any mistakes, she lost sleep wondering what if the examiner turned out to be a ghost or a kidnapper!

The day of the exam dawned. She had her 3 pieces pat down and played so well that some guests who came the week before were mighty impressed. However, the exam also had some sight reading and aural questions and I kept asking her to practice atleast once before she went into the exam at 10.45.

Stubborn as she is, she simply refused and excused herself to the restroom and stayed there till the last minute. She then went in for her exam, sat in the wrong piano that did not have her track in it -despite clear instructions from her teacher to sit in a Black piano ( she went straight to the pretty silver one!) came out, called all of us in to complain - and once we made her sit in the right piano and trooped out - I sat outside with my heart in my mouth.

She traipses out post the exam and says confidently ' Amma, I think I would get a high merit - not a distinction though - I may have made some mistakes in the aural repeats. By the way, the examiner sounds really posh! :) ' . Well, let's see when the results come, I thought and we went our way for Mehendi and back to back Diwali parties. Given that her half term holidays had started that day, we could afford to relax from all the tension of practising for the exam the previous week.

The results were announced and guess what - exactly like she said - she scored near perfect marks for her pieces, but due to the aural questions, she received 84 - a high merit - when 87 meant a distinction!

I was a bit disappointed and asked her ' See what happens when you are careless, you missed distinction by a mere 3 marks. You need to aim higher kannamma!'. And the wise old one trapped in my cheeky monkey goes ' Azhagiye! Azhagiye! ( a song from a maniratnam movie that we all went to , that means ' Oh my beautiful') calm down amma, you need to be happy with what you have! I am very happy and proud, ok?'

Well, I guess I may not have a concert pianist in my house but I certainly seem to have a cheeky monkey that is determined to be happy to be herself despite her annoyingly critical mum! Given that the critical mum is also one that easily melts for her cheeky monkey, this mum is fondly proud of this fantastic attitude from her young one that is so astonishingly different from her own!

Love you vaalu kutty!

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

Greek Vacation 2017 : Part 3

Day 5

The next day, we took the champion jet ferry to Santorini. It was a quick 2 hour trip, once again, pleasant and enjoyable. But here lies the turn in the tale. My entire dream of visiting Greece, centred around Santorini and Mykonos was beautiful beyond my dreams so I had high hopes for Santorini. But Santorini, turned out to be a disappointment. It was very very crowded, not as neat as Athens or Mykonos,  the cute cobbled streets and the white and blue homes of Santorini were not half as charming as that of Mykonos and since the famous black and red beaches  and even the mono lithos beach had industrial affluents being dumped in them, the beaches were no good either!

We stayed at the Orizontes boutique hotel, once again with a sea view (the view and the rooms were fantastic but the shower was a horror!) at Pyrgos. On day 1 we had lunch at the fantastic Metaxi Mas Tavern which welcomes you with free tequila shots and once you have finished lunch, sees you off with dessert on the house! Suprisingly reasonable compared to the sky high prices in Mykonos.

Post luch, we set out to see the famous Oia sunset.  We first went to Fira town and took the  Santorini cable car. Ridiculously the 15 euro one way trip lasted less than 10 minutes and gave no special view. The Singapore cable car, the Capris cable car in Italy and the Panaromic cable cars in Switzerland will take umbrage if they knew this one called itself a cable car and charged such prices!

We shook our head, scratched our chins and made our way to the Fira town bus centre to catch a bus to Oia. On the way, we bought the young one a traditional greek dress and the leaf crown. Once again, the crowd was unbelievable and given we had seen the sunsets at Mauritius, Kanyakumari etc, we were not very impressed. More so, after we had a beyond fantastic view of the sunset from the decks of our ferry back from Santorini to Athens, especially as were were travelling towards the sunset and the nicely cool wind and the gentle rays of the sun provided the appropriate back drop!

We had dinner at Bao Concept in Fira town, which is the first time I have tasted the Chinese Bao buns! They were soft and lovely and the restaurant itself was very good. We then took a taxi back to the hotel – any trip from anywhere to anywhere seemed to cost us 15 euros in Santorini, no matter what!

Day 6

The next day, we went on a boat trip on the good ship Albatross to the volcanic Nea Kameini and the Pallea kameini. While dad and daughter turned away after a half way hike, never the quitter, I went all the way up to see the volcanic rocks and craters, smugly enjoyed the fantastic view from the top and on reaching the ship again, promptly demanded to be pampered the rest of the trip as I could feel every painful twitch and muscle in my calf that seemed to say – know when to quit silly woman, even your not yet 8 year old does!

The boat then took us to the hot springs for which one had to dive from the ship and swim a good distance in not so shallow water. All three of us opted to stay in the boat and wave gaily at all the other swimmers wading into the orangish water full of sulphur from the volcanoes!

The ship then made its way to the Thirassia island where lunch and a gentle swim at the pebble beach ensued. The princess and dad explored the eels and fishes swimming underwater and did what they usually do when in any water body – have loads of fun!

We came back to the hotel, quickly dressed ourselves up and visited the Megalachori traditional village in Pyrgos. At the end of the village we visited this lovely bakery, cunningly called the ‘Bakery and Pastry shop’!. The cheeky monkey was dressed as Goddess Athena with the costume bought in Fira and all eyes were on her! We had lovely pastries and icecreams, discussed about Bollywood and made our way back stopping at all the lovely blue domed churches ( that we missed in Oia – which is where all the signature Santorini phots are taken – due to the mad rush there!)  in the village and generally messing about amongst ourselves.

The best part was K telling the young one the story of Porous and Alexander and her asking philosophical questions like ‘ Who was the goodie and who was the baddie and if both were goodies, why did they fight!’

Day 7

We had a very relaxed morning by the pool , packed up and took the 9 hour ferry back from Santorini to Athens. Though we were booked deck seats again, given the complete lack of crowd ( was it because of the earthquake the day before at Kos, we are not sure) we were told there was no need to upgrade and we were given access to the poshest section of the ship.

We had a lovely time catching up on movies from our ipads, walking around the deck and taking in the views every now and then and of course eating in the lovely restaurants. It was a smooth sail and surprisingly relaxing. We held hands watching the sunset and the hues that the setting sun infused the clouds with, was sheer poetry by nature.

From the Piraeus port, we went back to our Athens Avenue hotel to our marble baths and cloud like mattress! 

Day 8

After a lovely breakfast later the next morning, we made our way to the national gardens in Athens. Once again, clean, beautifully maintained, free and an oasis in the centre of the city.

Post the mandatory chocolate milkshake and reading of our kindles, we went to Plaka again for some souvenir shopping for friends and back to the hotel again to pick up our bags and make our way to the airport.

We came away from this trip with two key take aways. The Greeks can be abrupt and almost rude in the way they talk but they are actually very gallant and extremely helpful. And Athens could be a weekend trip and the rest of the time is better spent in Mykonos. Santorini, is just hype ( purely in my personal opinion) and the money i sbetter spent on one fo the other quieter islands.

All in all, this trip was like all the other ones. Full of suprises, mostly good, some not so good, wonderful memories and overall , yet another experience to cherish and save for those rainy days that are bound to come J

Greek Vacation 2017 : Part 2

Day 2

The next day we went to the Panathenaic stadium, the Parthenon and the Acropolis museum. The tour guide, Anastasia was very good and gave us the story and history behind the pieces in the museum as well as these ancient structures. We then proceeded to Cape Sounion to the temple of Poseidon.

 Throughout, the heat was balanced by the cool winds and the emerald views of the Aegean,  on either side  on the drive to Cape Sounion was fantastic and ethereal.

I also loved the view of the yachts, boats and the weekend swimmers jumping off the rocks directly in to the water all from the top of the hill where the temple of Poseidon was located.

Day 3

We took the Hellenic seaways ferry to Mykonos from the Piraeus port. We had been booked deck tickets which were ridiculous, so we upgraded and sat in the very comfortable lounge chairs for a mere 12 euros! It took around 6 hours to reach but we did not feel it as we had our ipads and tablets pre-loaded with good movies, good food was available, the restroom (atleast the ladies’) as with anywhere in Athens and Mykonos – were extremely clean, no matter how many tourists came and went and we could walk around and breathe in the fantastic sea air whenever we liked. We also went up to the front of the deck to savour the fantastic views and enjoy the cool winds.

At Mykonos, we were to stay at the Hotel Paradision. Now, if I were to dream of a hotel that would be my ideal place of relaxation, this would have been it. A small establishment of may be 15 rooms if not less, it was beautifully and tastefully decorated in blue and white. We had the Sea view room and what a view it was from the cute balcony! Breakfast was home made and the best I have ever had with atleast 20 items laid out every day. The breakfast area was by the pool which in itself overlooked the Tourlos bay. To come down to the fresh aromas and to watch the sea and ships and have breakfast was the highlight of my day. (Though this did not stop one particular American to ask if they had any ‘diet coke’ as he came down for breakfast! There were 20 home made items, an assortment of tea, coffee, chocolate milk and juices but no, he would like a diet coke please!)

The fantastic Stefanos beach was a mere 10 minute walk away and it was breath taking to say the very least. We went straight down and had a whale of a time. One caveat is that all the restaurants in Mykonos were very very expensive as much as anything in Athens was cheap by UK  standards. The cheeky monkey enjoyed the swim and looking for fishes in the crystal clear water and frolicking in the golden sands. There were many other famous beaches like Super Paradise, Elia beach etc but Stefanos was small, uncrowded, beautiful and just perfect for us. Even the walk to and from the beach, due to it being uphill, awarded heavenly views and a real feast for the senses. All the while, the sun was beating down but we did not feel the heat as the nicely cool wind kept things just right!

The walk to the hotel is a very steep uphill, which was a bit of a challenge but then given the hilly terrain of both Mykonos and Santorini, if you need views, an uphill walk, comes with the package.

Day 4

The next day, we had booked a cycling trip to Fokos Beach with Yummy pedals. We rode though the reservoir of Ano Mera (stopping first at the Paleokastro Monastery) with around 11 other bikers  mostly American and some Italian.  Dimi, the tour guide was friendly and informative. She stopped near a church by the road and explained to us the greek concept of ‘Dhama’ where a family prays for something and has a very small, single room church built as an offering. Sometimes these are built within the premises of a family home. Every day, the lady of the house ensures that incense and lamps are lit and outsiders are allowed to walk in and pray as well. We stopped at one such church overlooking a hill and small though it was, it was beautiful and very well decorated.  Dimi or Dimitra said that in most cases, even weddings are held at these small family churches, which means barely the bride, groom and the priest can make it inside the church while the rest of the wedding party stays outside!

The trip was fantastic but because of the large group mostly made up of fit adults, the difficulty level of the terrain was quite high. We were the only family, so we had to adjust. K and I took turns on the electric bike pulling the trailer carrying the cheeky one and this was easy. Whenever we took our turn on the normal bike, it really did prove quite difficult. The beach itself was unsurprisingly beautiful, but after Aigos Stefanos, we were too spoilt and just took a small dip in the water. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the onward trip, but the return uphill was killing, to say the least!

We then went back to the Vioma Organic farm that was run by Dimi’s parents. The young one had a great time feeding the donkey and the goat in the farm and chasing Oscar, their dog, under the tables and chairs.

Dimi dropped us  back near one of the Kato Mili ( the famous Mykonos wind mills) and from there we  took a walk around the streets of Mykonos and passed the Mattiyianni street and reach the old port. The streets were marvellously white and blue with the cobble stones winding a playful path throwing surprises when least expected. The famous meletemi winds were in full force and there were a few seconds when I was worried my slightly built cheeky monkey may get blown away!

But while K was enjoying his freshly caught fish by the old port, we had  mum and daughter bonding time, exploring the shops and brazenly walking into gold and diamond outlets to check out the Hellenic designs! As always, with her chocolate brown, big eyes that melt anybody and everybody (except her mum who knows the cheekiness that lies behind those puppy eyes!) opened doors everywhere for us! Every body was keen to chat with her and were only too willing to answer all her inquisitive questions!

By this time, we were long overdue for a fight, so K and I duly had an argument and I stormed off along the coast making my way by walk to the hotel all the way from old port to the new port! I had assumed dad and daughter would catch a taxi and I could upbraid them for making me walk while they sashayed in by taxi. Alas, the poor souls had hoped to catch me half way so they followed me all the way by foot and by the time all three of us reached the hotel, we were too exhausted to continue the fight and pressed each other’s feet and massaged the calf muscles in sympathy!

Dad and daughter still had the energy to go to the fantastic pool and have a wonderful time. Dinner once again was a disappointment as the veg options were spinach pie, rice in stuffed peppers and fried manoumi cheese – all of which were wonderful but not continuously day after day and especially at the outrageous Mykonos prices. We discovered that the best way to cover lunch and dinner at Mykonos is to go to one of those charming bakeries and grab a pie and an icrecream for less than half the price at a restaurant! Something to remember for next time J