Something Something

I have posted in a while and thought I should catch up. Actually I am writing this with a big smile in my face! The Princess and the Pilot are busy dancing to their current favourite song "Something Something" from the movie "Something Something Unakku Enakkum". This is the third time that they are listening to the song from Music India Online. The princess loves music and dancing and can memorise songs pretty fast, but it is the pilot who suprised me - not only by knowing the lyrics but by also dancing to them!

I was kind of upset last week because my diet was totally shot! I manged to gain about 1.5 kgs of the hard lost 6 kgs. So since yesterday I have come back on the wagon. I read somewhere that it is better to eat till you are 80% full rather than totally full. So this is what I plan to do. I am also planning to "Streak". It's not what you think, but it's doing something consistantly for as long as you can. So my streaks are going to be A) To do 100 crunches daily; B) To do a minimum of 35 minutes everyday in my elliptical and C) To walk atleast 10,000 steps daily. Once these three streaks become a habit, I will think of some other habit to alter. Hopefully writing it down here will make me accountable. I did A and B today and have some 2800 steps to complete C.

Gotta go and make dinner for my hungry monsters...

Catching up on sleep

I have been so sleep deprived the last few weeks that this weekend all I seem to do is Sleep! Most nights I am asleep by 10 pm and then wake up only after a good 8-9 hour sleep. Then there are the afternoon naps that I do with the kids which last for another 1-2 hours. Looks like I will be giving Kumbhakaran (for those who don't know, this is a mythological figure who was supposed to sleep for days together) some run for his money.

I guess my sleep bank is severely depleted and this is one way for my body to catch up. I usually am up by 4 am daily Monday to Friday so that I can cook and then also put in atleast 45 minutes of exercise daily. So my daily sleep quota is only some 5.5 to 6 hours daily. I usually need 7-8 hours of sleep everyday and thus my account is severly overdrawn.

The kids had a lovely time at the picnic yesterday. I forgot to take my camera along, so I don't have any pictures of it. The rain did play havoc but this was also fun. The place was pretty deserted with just us (around 16 adults and some 8 kids) and some serious joggers. So we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves. There were some 2-3 kids their age and they all played together, got wet and generally had loads of fun. For a change the guys were in charge of food and we girls just sat there chatting. We are going to do this again - this time on Holi - and play with colours also. I am so looking forward to it.

I have to now check bawarchi for some interesting receipes; my inlaws and SIL are coming for lunch tomorrow - she is just back after the wedding, so it'll have to be good...

Some thoughts

Two days into my long holiday and I am soo bored! Just how much TV can someone see. As I write this I am seeing the movie "Bhagam Bhag". This is Govinda's comeback movie and stars Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Lara Dutta. It's a sort of a murder mystery movie with some good comic acting by Akshay and Govinda. It's a good movie to see on a rainy day like we are having right now. We are also planning to join some other families for a picnic but with the sky being so dark and it raining I am not sure if this picnic will pan out as planned.

The Pilot and the Princess fight like cats and dogs at times. Other times, they can't be away from each other. There are times when DH or me want to take them out seperately, but they won't come without each other. I usually feel very proud of my children that they are so close to each other, and then also want this closeness to be there all their life. Every day in school, they have this little ritual which now even their teachers like to see. Since they are in different classes, we usually go first to one class followed by the other. On reaching the first class, they will give each other a huge hug followed by a kiss and say byee to each other. Aww it looks so cute daily and gives me this huge smile which I take to school with me.

I have some readers now! Thank you Orchid and mommyof2 to visit me regularly. I love reading your blogs and hope you like reading about our life here also.

Gotta get ready now for a wet picnic. Will be back later....

Bits and Pieces

Hmm, what should I write this warm and nice Friday evening. I know - this post will be about the little bits and pieces that I was thinking of today but didn't think would make a full post.

First - today is my baby sister's birthday! Happy Birthday sweetie. Although she is not little any more - but I always think of her like that! Since she moved away far away, I've been missing her a lot. We just spoke on the phone and this brought back loads of memories. Have a great day sweatheart and a fabulous year ahead!!

We are off to a long weekend ahead! Singapore and parts of Southeast Asia will be celebrating the Chinese New Year from tomorrow onwards. To anyone who does celebrate this and happens to see this post, Gong Xi Fa Cai to you and your family. This year will be the year of the Pig and apparently this pig year is supposed to be very auspicious - something that comes only once in 60 odd years according to some Korean experts. So expect to see a lot of little piglets as the year goes on. Thank God the Princess and the Pilot were not born in some very auspicious year like say the year of the Dragon as that would mean a bumper crop that year and lots of competition when it comes to school admissions. As it is I have nightmares about the ballot process and what would happen if one of them gets in and the other doesnt. More about this in another post.

I better stock up on essentials and groceries today and tomorrow as from about afternoon tomorrow, all shops and services will be closed as people gather for the Reunion Dinner. Then the first two days of the New Year are traditionally for visiting family and friends and we get to some sort of normalcy only from Tuesday onwards. Guess I could go to Little India if I was desperate but the thought of driving there really puts me off. I'd rather just stock-up.

I have nothing else to add (probably a first in my life!), so I'll end this here....

Have a great weekend everyone and see you tomorrow...

Family versus Career

What to write about? Now that I finally got the guts to tell people about my blog (mostly family), I have started feeling the pressure to write and to write well. Is this what writers call 'Writer's Block'?

My domestic helper who has been with us for the last four years has indicated that she would not like her contract to be renewed as she would like to go back to India and get married later this year. Now comes my big problem and dilemma - should I look for another helper or should I like the thousands of working women here in Singapore manage alone (with the help of family and the day care)? My current helper came highly recommended as her mom was also working in my grandma's house and so she was highly reliable. When I first started looking for someone to look after my babies, I wanted someone totally reliable and this girl fit the bill totally. Plus she is young and so has no major hang-ups. She looks after the kids wonderfully and we all will really miss her when she goes back to start her own life. With new rules in place I am quite hesitant to go to an agency for a new helper. I don't know how reliable she will be and if she will treat my kids well when I or DH are not around. So I guess I will be bringing up my babies alone with help from my MIL and mom. We need to talk and get the basics in place before September (when the contract ends). So many things to do.

Along with this dilemma comes the issue of my career. My biggest question is should I stay where I currently work or should I move. Both answers have their own pros and cons and the end result is that I am thoroughly confused. Where I work now, the pay is pathetic; but I can come in late if there is an emergency and noone will question me. Ditto for leaving early at times. Also the work load is not too heavy (except for some 2 months in the year) so I can leave at 5:30 pm every single day and noone will comment on my lack of commitment. On the other hand, if I move I lose all these advantages, probably the salary will make up for this and I may even have a career path all charted out unlike here, but at what cost? I really need to sort out all these things in my head very soon and take a decision on my career fast.

Another thing I need to do pronto is to lose weight fast. I have come to this conclusion that if and when I go to interview for a position, the interviewer does not see my competence and intelligence as well as my ability to do the advertised position well, but my appearence first! And living in Singapore where the average Chinese woman looks svelte and slim, this is defiitely something I need to work on. I have started exercising regularly and watching my diet, so I am on the path to good health. As of today I have lost some 6 kgs so hopefully things will only get better.

Musings

I finally have my first readers! Well I bit the bullet and told my sister and dad about this blog and they have read it. I was expecting comments, but no such luck.

Last week I finally enrolled the Princess into Ballet Dance Class. She was asking me for these classes for a while but there was no space at the class where I enquired and it was just last week they called back saying that there are slots open for a class which starts in April. So the Princess and her friend who stays close by and who is her age will be ballerinas come April. The class is for a total of 11 weeks, so lets see how long this ballet craze goes on. On another note, the Princess has decided that she will be a doctor when she grows up. I don't know from where she got this in her head, but she has been pretty consistant with this for almost 4-5 months now. On day I casually mentioned to her that her aunt R is also a doctor so now if anyone asks her what she wants to be when she grows up, she immediately pipes out "A doctor like R aunty"

The pilot as it is clear wants to be either a Pilot with SIA or a doctor (this depends on his mood - or whether he is aping his sister or not). He, as most boys would be - is machine crazy. He loves all vehicles - be it planes, cars, buses, trains. Even if the vehicle in question is a cartoon, he will see it and come to me exclaiming about it. One thing for sure, he shares this love for vehicles with his dad and I can forsee the future where father and son will go happily to motor shows and leave us girls at home.

Speaking of girls and boys, nowadays the gender distinction has come to stay in our house. For practically everything they do, it is either a girl thing which boys can't do or a boy thing which girls cant do. For me who believes in equality of the sexes, this is something I just can't let my son or daughter grow up with. So I keep telling them - "no it is not a girl/boy thing, everyone can do it".

Two Posts in 1 Day??

Am I so free today that I have time to write twice?

Not really! This morning as I was cooking I was thinking about this blog and how there is absolutely no traffic in it and if I was right in concealing mine and my family's identity and not having any personal information and photos in the site? All the mom blogs that I have visited in the past have loads of snaps of the family, of the kids and even the pets. I also pondered if a good blog used photos to personalise it and if photographs made for more traffic to the site.

Then during lunch when I was surfing the web and reading some blogs, I read something that made my decision for me. You can read about it here. Once I read it, I felt totally justified in my decision not to name my family and not to post pictures. I belong to a closed group where I have shared pictures because this group is by invitation only and so I trust them. I also have my personal photos in a password protected website so that family and friends across the world can have access to our pictures.

The internet is a wonderful invention and it has helped us be in touch with all our near and dear ones with the click of a mouse. But let us not forget that this was created and invented by a human being. And like all inventions and creations, what one human being creates for peaceful purposes, will be misused by many other human beings.

My Trip

Well here is the report on my recent trip to Chennai. We decided to fly the new budget arm of Air India called Air India Express as the fares were very competitive and for us with five tickets, this would have saved us a real bundle!

Our adventure started at the Singapore Changi Airport. As we were checking in we saw that the flight was scheduled to depart as planned. Then came the fun part - as we were five people travelling as a family we were under the impression that we were entitled to a maximum of 35 kgs in hand luggage. of course this would not mean a big bag, but a smaller bag, which can be filled to capacity. So we had a small trolley-like bag which was filled with the kids milk, the video camera and change of clothing for all of us. In addition we had 2 hand bags, the kids had a small haversack bag (their school bags) each and a plastic bag with jackets and sweaters and some food in it. So this girl at the check-in counter now says to put each of our carry-on luggage to be weighed and none will weigh more than 7 kgs. As expected the trolley bag weighed some 11 kgs. Inspite of me arguing with them, they wouldnt budge, so right there we had to scramble moving stuff from one bag to the other. The camera went on the neck and then the bag weighed about 7.5 kgs, which they graciously allowed. We were also well within our limit for checked-in luggage and then when we got the boarding pass, we realised the flight was now 2 hours late. The ETD was 7:30 pm and we were at the airport by 5 pm, so now we realised we had to spend almost 4.5 hours at the airport!

Next stop immigration. Again Air India had to show why they are such a paranoid airline. All passengers travelling by Air India had to go through something called Channel B. This is a seperate door where there is a uniformed policeman who checks your tickets and boarding card. He also ensures that each piece of your luggage is less than 7 kgs each and it does not exceed the dimensions prescribed by the airline. So what he did was to take our trolley case and then fir it in a mock up of the dimensions. By this time I was so angry I remembered why I don't like Air India and vowed that I will never take my national carrier ever again if I can help it!

The flight was also terrible. The stewardess had apparently never heard of the IATA regulation of giving infants the extra seatbelts with which to attach the parent's belt with. Then when asked for pillow before take-off, she said after which I agreed to. The kids were tired and were out as soon as they sat in the flight but no pillows. Adults asked and got pillows but kids were ignored. This went on till I raised a stink, when magically pillows appeared. I was so fed-up and angry by the time we reached Chennai.

What I don't understand is that on our return trip we had such a different experience. Based on this experience we reached the airport 3 hours early but it was such a contrast. The person checking us in was not bothered about the weight of our carry-on luggage and didnt blick an eye when we tried to check in more pieces. In fact he asked us to check in our carry-on luggage also but we had to decline as it didnt have any lock in it. The flight was also very smooth with better trained stewardess around.

Too long post, so I'm gonna end here....

Posting after a long time

I just realised that noone in cyberspace knows that I blog! :-(

Probably the fault lies with me - noone knows this blog address or probably I am not interesting enough.

Anyway enough of this self deprecation, the main reason for starting this blog was that for a long time i had wanted to restart writing in my diary to chronicle my life, to look back after a while to see what I did and feel at certian points in life. So in that way maybe it is better if noone reads it as many things will be very personal.

I was away in Chennai the last week and so could not post. Am rushing for work now, so won't have time to write about my experiences. But I will definitely write more this evening.

Catch you later...