Day 100

Oh my goodness!! I never thought I could ever do a 100 happy day posts in this lifetime. Not even in my dream or in that other fantasy world I always dream about!

A big big big thanks to Maya for initiating this series. It gave me the opportunity to look at life with a positive attitude, to go hunt for happy moments, if not create one and capture little cute happenings in daily life that goes unnoticed and unappreciated otherwise.

The happy quotient of this post is that I have reached 100, a goal that I thought I would never reach!

And excited to wrap this up with my blog buddy Prachee. As we were nearing 100 pretty close, we planned to publish our 100th post at the same time. More fun 🙂 The idea is for our common readers to see ours posts one after the other.

All our common readers – Please do let us know if your WP reader showed our post one after the other! Small joys 😀 😀

I have few more posts sitting in my drafts and will get to them soon. I am not going to stay away from this space for longer.

Thank you all for reading me!

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Story of an earring – Day 99

Friday morning – As usual I brush my hair in car on the way to LHB’s school. The morning routine is to first drop LHB at his school and then drop me at station. So, in that 15 mins, I brush my hair and get ready. While brushing my hair, I notice that the earring in one of the ear is missing. I check around, get off at LHB’s school, jump twice to see if it falls down from my jacket/dress, check under car seat but all in vain. I couldn’t find it.

M checked around after going back home – the bed, under the pillow, kitchen, bathroom (only places that I frequent at the house) but all in vain. He couldn’t find it.

Friday evening – I came back home and ran my check again -the bed, under the pillow, kitchen, bathroom but all in vain. I couldn’t find it.

This is a gold earring that is more than a treasure to me. It is Amma’s earring that I borrowed from her like 20 years ago and never returned. I enjoy when she says “I did not give that ring to you. You took it from me and never returned”. I want to owe her something forever and like to keep it that way.

No matter, what earring I change to , this takes its place in few weeks and stays there until there is a need to change to another earring. I feel soooo comfortable wearing this.

I ranted about missing the earring to the whole world and its cousins except for the guy who sat next to me in train. He escaped by 1.5 minutes, the time I needed to calm myself down. The thought of never seeing it back again made me feel miserable.

Saturday morning (7:30am) – M demanded me to come downstairs right away. The half asleep me cursed him under my breath and slowly pulled myself downstairs. He asked “Is this what you are looking for?”. My eyes were blurry and when I rubbed my eyes and took a second look I jumped so high that I was about to hit the ceiling. Yes, I he found the earring. It was struck in the bathroom sink very close to the water outlet. It has stayed there for more than 24 hours beating the odds of getting washed out. I mean it is the frequently used sink of the house. It was just hanging in there for someone to come and rescue so it can stay with me forever and ever. I had goosebumps all day and texted my colleagues about finding the earring. Those who suffered my sobbing session on Friday.

I am ever grateful to this man of mine for finding this earring. I would not have been this much happier even if he had bought me some gift!!

Presenting the precious earring that is 20 years old and will grow older with me for the rest of my life 🙂

Best Friday evening ever – Day 98

I don’t know if I will get a Friday evening like today ever again! What made it so special?

• Coming back to a clean home (not just living room but Adi’s room, dining table with no papers, floors swept, everything at their designated places). Adi and LHB surprised me with a clean home.
• Dishing out crispy dosas to the clan while they relished and had an extra one.
• Cleaning kitchen and empty sink.
• Watching a family Indian movie (all 4 us in the living room wrapped inside blankies).

That is all I need to call it a best evening ever. Mind is so peaceful and calm!

Thanks to my folks and happy weekend to all of you!

Weekend visitor – Day 97

We had a visitor this weekend from LHB’s school. It was Penny the puppy (I would have run a 100 miles if it was a real one). Penny takes turn every weekend to spend time with a child from LHB’s class. This week was LHB’s turn and the boy was super excited. Penny came along with couple of board games, books and a journal to record the details.

This is what we did over the weekend with Penny 🙂

Of high school elective orientation, surprise reader – Day 96

Monday evening, Adi and I went to the high school to attend the orientation for this specific “elective” that I chose for her (remember all the drama and how she finally liked it). The girl already decided to chose this elective in high school. Happy mommy 🙂

It was mind blowing to be around the high school kids. They all were so energetic and so cool that I just want to go to high school again! It looked like college to me and all I was doing in that 1.5 hours was to picture Adi in that environment. My girl is going to high school in few months. Goshhh!!!! I am a high school mom.. OMG, OMG, OMG!!!! Someone stop me from jumping!!!!

Tuesday, I went to LHB’s school as a surprise reader. He didn’t know about it and was pleasantly surprised to see me 🙂 So when I surprise him like this on some evening to go pick him up all he does is run towards me and I spread out my hands to wrap him up and carry as high as I can. That moment is a moment to cherish forever and ever. Coming back to the reader part, I read a book about “people in the neighborhood” – community helpers. My hero got to sit next to me as we read to the class. Each kid had so much to share and followed the rule to raise their hand and wait for their turn to be heard. I felt like a teacher for around 20 minutes with a bunch of 5 year olds sitting in front of me and those curious pair of eyes staring at me 🙂 🙂

I love these school visits. For that matter anything that keeps me closer to my darlings 🙂

Today – Day 95

Saturday’s are usually busy day and today couple of more items were thrown in to it. No complaints though. Enjoyed all the tasks and happy that I got them all under control.

7:30am – Wake up
8:20am – Gym time (forgot to wear my Fitbit so lost recoding almost 3000 steps)
10:00am – Arrive home, have quick breakfast and tea
10:30am – Start with lunch prep (cauliflower biryani, veg briyani and onion raita)
12:15pm – Take shower
12:30pm – Sit with LHB to finish Tamil homework
1:15pm – Visit post office for LHB’s passport renewal
2:45pm – Drop LHB at Tamil school. Today he was supposed to dress up as what he wants to become when he grows up. He chose to be a police. Luckily, I was able to borrow police costume from a neighbor and the guy rocked it. Thanks to M for training him to say “Vanakkam, En peyar LHB. Naan kaavalar aaga pogiren, Nandri” (Eng: Good afternoon, My name is LHB, I am going to become a police officer. Thank you!)
3:15pm – Pickup a princess doll cake I ordered for a friend’s daughter’s birthday party. It was done by a baker from neighborhood.
3:30pm – Visit Adi at her friend’s place to drop some stuff that he forgot to take for the club meet.
3:50pm – Drop the cake at friend’s place surprising their daughters.
4:25pm – Arrive LHB’s Tamil school and discuss about annual day prep details
5:20pm – Indian grocery shopping
5:50pm – Meet neighbor and return the police costume
6:00pm – Arrive home, make Tea and relax for a while
7:00pm – Start cleaning home, brief visit of colleague and then neighbor
8:00pm – Continue with cleaning!
9:00pm – Friend and family visit to share cake and goodie bags from birthday party as we couldn’t go due to other commitments.
10:30pm – Load dish washer, clean kitchen.
11:00pm – Notice that Fitbit shows 9k. So, call Amma, walk and chat about Sridevi’s demise. Done with 10k in spite of missing Fitbit for morning gym 🙂
11:30pm – Sit down to draft this post!!

Publishing it at 12:00am 🙂

 

Singapore vacation – Part 2 – Day 94

It was a 10 day trip covering top tourist attractions in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Here is the travel itinerary. Hope its useful to someone planning a trip!

Day 1 – We reached midnight and decided to take it light on first day. So, spent morning with cousin family, went to BFF home for lunch and then visited M’s school friend in the evening.

Day 2 – Jurong bird park. Surprisingly this topped Adi’s list when we spoke about favorites from the trip. Dinner with friend at Little India.

Day 3 – Flew to Langkawi. Spent the evening at beach and just roamed around the streets exploring options for next day.

Day 4 – Mangrove day trip, sky bridge and eagle square. The day trip is a popular package for any first time visitors. Spent most of the day in motor boat, visited bat cave, floating fish farm, eagle watch and spent some time at a private island beach. Evening went to sky bridge. The cable car ride was breathtaking. Then took a cab to Eagle square to just take a picture in front of that humongous eagle.

Day 5 – Skipped other plans and decided to spend the day at beach. We stayed just opposite to the beach and what I enjoyed the most was the hot breakfast provided by the hotel at roof top. Flew to Kula lumpur in the evening and retired early after deciding on the plans for next day.

Day 6 – The location of hotel at KL was unexpectedly far from city so we hired a taxi for all day that would take us to all places and then drop us at the airport in the evening. Initial plan was to explore local trains but we settled with taxi as suggested by hotel front desk to make the best use of 1 day at KL.

Started the day at 6am – visited Batu caves murugan temple, oldest Mariamman temple, Twin tower, Suria KLCC mall, Chinese temple and then reached airport. The driver cum tour guide was an awesome guy. He took family pictures from best spots and bought us a water bottle at Chinese temple. We chatted about Chinese culture and how things are changing with generations. I have couple of interesting happenings from today to share and it deserves a separate post. Boarded flight back to Singapore in the night.

Day 7 – Cloud forest, Gardens by the bay, Merilion, Flyer and dinner at extended family’s home.

Day 8 – River safari, Chinese temple at Little India, China town, Mustafa shopping, dinner with cousin family at Anjappar chettinad restaurant.

Day 9 – Sentosa (It has water park. we didn’t go prepared with change of clothes but still couldn’t let go of the water slides 🙂 )

Day 10 – Legoland at Johor Bahru Malaysia. We took a tour package where the provider will ride us to/fro to the park and help with immigration clearance to enter/exit Malaysia. The uber ride in the morning to reach boarding point was an interesting experience. The guy we booked came on time but turned us down saying he doesn’t have permit to ride 5 year old, then we had to book another cab that took forever to come and we got caught in the peak hour traffic. It was a mad rush but we made it to the bus.

Day 11 – Fly to India. My cousin and her 2 year old came with us too.

Rest of the vacation time was spent in India with attending an engagement, marriage, LHB’s 3rd tonsure and ear piercing at family deity temple, first ever late night movie show with M, visiting local temples, friends, friend’s parents, relatives, solo weekend trip to Chennai, meet with college friends, meet with school girls gang, Ganesha making for Vinayakar chathurthi and unlimited gorging of all delicacies prepared by Amma.

Jurong bird park

Roof top breakfast

Beach view from hotel roof top

Langkawi private beach

Langkawi Sky bridge

Langkawi Eagle square

KL twin tower

KL upside down house

Chicken satay with peanut sauce

Someone finished all parts of HP in this trip

Beeg boy on the way to board flight

Yummy lunch with homegrown veggies – almost all parts of banana tree and greens are in this plate 🙂

Vilakku poojai at local temple

LHB study time 🙂

Countless playing of Monopoly with unlimited snacks

Salt dough ganesha by Adi

FIL decorated Ganesha with flowers from front yard

Perfect day – Day 93

Yesterday was a perfect day after a long time..

• We all woke up late, had late breakfast (crispy dosas with red chutney and molaga podi)
• Adi and LHB put up tent in living room, arranged it with board games, snacks and I let her dream come true by granting permission to order pizza for lunch.
• Gorged on pizza topped with pinnapple/jalapeno, chicken/onion combos and hershey’s soft baked cookie cake.
• Watched a movie in the afternoon without disruption while rest of the clan had a siesta.
• Nice long hot shower. It is a luxury these days!
• Visited friend’s home in the evening
• Had masala chai at their home and then we all headed out to bowling
• Non stop chit chat with friend while kids had fun at bowling centre.
• Go to an Indian restaurant for dinner at 10pm and ordering like 10+ dishes just when they were about to close the kitchen.
• Have sweet pan and kashmiri pink tea on the way back to friend’s home.
• Continue with chit chat while watching LHB dance to tamil video songs at their home.
• Arriving home at 1am.

Perfect day 🙂 🙂

 

Singapore vacation – Part 1 – Day 92

A long due travel post. I will try to recollect anything that is left in my memory.

Last year summer, we decided to go to India as a family unlike the previous year when M and I took turns. So, we thought it would be a good opportunity to plan the first international family trip en route to India. We started the plan with Italy, moved to Dubai and finally settled with Singapore. Dream big and settle with reality 🙂 🙂

Good side was we had extended family and friends at Singapore. A friend helped with visa processing and cousin opened her doors for stay. A special mention to cousin’s husband who prepared a detailed excel sheet for us to answer all our silly queries and helped with local itinerary and flight bookings. We would hop on to a call every other day to go over the details as the travel was getting closer. He made us totally feel at home and comfortable. Not everyone knows or follows this genuine art to make others feel comfortable.

The best part was all that chit chat the cousin’s husband, M and I had every night. After having dinner and settling kids, we will sit down around 10pm to plan for next day and talk everything but plan until 1 am or 2am. The cousin with a 2 year old baby in hand and a 7 month baby in tummy will be half asleep on the other room pleading us to retire soon. We were never out of topic. He even spent the whole night with us in Singapore airport from 7pm to 5am talking non stop with couple of doses of kopi/tea during our return journey to US. The plan was for him to just come and meet us in the airport to exchange luggage but he ended up staying to chit chat till it was time for us to board the next flight to US.

This is what I call as the highlight of the trip and made this vacation more memorable to me..

• Stay with cousin family, cooking with them
• dinner with a school friend who helped us with Visa. We saw each other after almost 20 years!
• lunch at my BFF home. Seeing her after 12 years!
• dinner at an extended family Akka’s home
• impromptu evening visit to M’s school buddy’s home
• family time not worrying about errands to run, train to catch or mundane tasks to complete

It was a trip filled with fun and laughter besides the customary visit to all top tourist attractions to take pictures and check from the list.

Day by day itinerary in next part..

Must watch – Day 91

Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did when I heard it the first time.

Just close your eyes and listen to this magic!