Day 27: All about the Tum!

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Today has been all about the tummy. So much so that it has been calling out for a respite since mid-afternoon.

The plan for today had been a ‘fun-day’ for Daughter. She had a fun day owed to her, which is another post all for itself (in the drafts at the moment, whether it will see the light of the day or not, is another story :)).

She wanted to go to Cadbury World. Somehow we had heard some not so great reviews of the place so it never figured in our list of things to do despite living under an hour drive from it. Since Daughter was fixated on going there for her ‘fun day’, we decided to go there today. The plan was that we would reach there as soon as it opens (10 ish), take the tour (we read it takes around 2-3 hours) and then have lunch somewhere outside. A pub lunch was on our mind. 

You might have noticed that there was no mention of tickets. We just assumed that we could book it on the way. I could book it in the phone while Husband drove. We had a really heavy breakfast of dosas and all we needed to do was get ready, when Husband decided to book the tickets. Only to realise that it was completely sold out until 3:15, which left very little time to see the whole place. Disappointed we decided that it made sense to shelve the plans for another day (when we do book tickets in advance).

What do we do now? Daughter just wanted to be at home. We wanted to step out at least for a drive. Finally it was decided to go to a retail park since I’d started to have second thoughts about my Christmas party outfit. Also I needed shoes to go with it (or anything else I might pick up instead). Daughter finally agreed to come when we promised her a browse in the Wh Smith there. The amount of times we go into Wh Smith to look at books! We try to avoid buying books from there given that Amazon is half the price most of the time, but nothing gives daughter more happiness than browsing the book shelves there. So I give in, at the risk of being book stalker!

So we went shopping, found nothing. Daughter found lots of books she wanted but we managed to persuade her to wait for the Amazon delivery. At this time, I’ve got to mention that there was the tantalising smell of caramelised onions emanating from the hot dog stalls. That smell is enough to get me salivating. 

Even the tummy, full after a heavy breakfast was soon rumbling with hunger. Our feet just took us to our favourite restaurant. 

And we ate. Creamy Mushrooms, Bruschetta, three different types of Pasta along with a side order of onion rings (husband’s favourite), all washed down with mojitos and orange juice for Daughter. We are so much that our tummies gave up after a bit; we had to give up after a bit and get the leftovers packed.

Sated, we could have all settle down for a nap, however, Costco was nearby and we couldn’t leave without a cursory trip there. We landed there only to realise that neither of us had remembered to bring our membership cards. That was easily rectified and soon we were in mass shopping madness. Christmassy stuff, books, food! Of you remember we hadn’t any space for dessert at lunch. Costco has a concept of samplers. Daughter loves tasting the samplers. They clearly knew we didn’t have dessert coz we got offered chocolate crepes and Lindt chocolates for sampling. Why would they waste such delicious food as samplers is beyond me. Surely people don’t need to be told that these are delicious!

Any way, we piled some more food into our bellies and plodded on. There is one benefit of being too stuffed is that we don’t pick up junk. We didn’t get tempted to pick up any unnecessary food that we might have otherwise. We did a spot of Christmas shopping, Daughter got a book (£7.5 cheaper than at Wh Smith) and that was it. 

It was 5:30 by the time we go home but our tummies still felt too full for its own good. Husband and I had to go for a walk to feel human again. We had full plans of skipping dinner to give our tummies a rest.

Alas. I’ve got the worst metabolism in the world. No matter how much I eat, I’m.hungry by the next meal time. Like clockwork. So come dinner, I’m hungry again. Thankfully, the leftovers came to my rescue. 

Now, all I want is to sleep and hopefully wake up early to work some of the calories I’ve ingested today, off. 

So how was your day today? Did you have a fun Sunday?

Day 26: My Time and Us Time

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​This post cropped up in my head while reading Saritha’s post Chaos vs Calm. 

While I totally agree that a family has to do things together, I’m also extremely fond of my ‘me time’. Intact I need time to myself. I written about this earlier as well. I’m a person who likes calm. While I wouldn’t force my child to be quiet or make her play without making noise. That is a different sort of fun altogether, isn’t it? When her friends are over and running up and down stairs or creating an absolutely ruckus in the house, it’s a lot of fun. Daughter when she is be herself isn’t very noisy, unless she is playing something upstairs in which case we can hear huge thumps over our heads. At those times I’m just very grateful that we live in a detached house with no worries of disturbing neighbours.

Having said that, I do like the calm. I do like being alone at home. And I think I’ve enjoyed being home alone since as long back as I can remember. When I was young, my parents would sometimes leave me at home to study (I must have been in 9th or 10th) while they went out with my brother. And I remember loving it. I couldn’t tell you why exactly but I think I’ve loved the quiet since then. I’m not saying that my family is a very noisy bunch or anything like that, but I seem to like the solitude.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that while I really enjoy meeting people and being around people, I also absolutely love my own company. Which is probably why I love early mornings before everyone else wakes up. The early morning stillness, nothing apart from tweeting birds and sometimes during the winter months, the fox that wanders into the garden and me and the book I’m reading. Pure bliss!

All this is probably just a round about way of saying that for me, alone time, is very very important. And when Daughter eventually goes to University, I would like her to go to a Uni in another town or who knows, may be even another country. She needs to go where she needs to go. I wouldn’t want her to be local.  I strongly believe that living away from your parents helps inculcate an independence that I think comes handy as you wade through life. I would always want that opportunity for her. Who knows what the future holds but hopefully she will get that chance too.

As for us, while I’m sure both of us will miss her terribly, I do hope we would have built a life which will keep us busy. I would hate to burden Daughter with the feeling that she is leaving two distraught parents. That, I believe, is one of the biggest gifts that we could give our children. The knowledge that their parents’ life does not completely revolve around them. I know for a fact that if my dad hadn’t been the independent, self sufficient person he is, I would have had a whole lot of different sort of worries right now.

While as a family we need our time together, each of us also need to live lives of our own as well. And in some ways, being able to spend time with one-self goes a long way, for me. Family time and me time, I believe can co-exist and that for us, is a very strong part of family life. All of us do things separately as well as a family. Each of us are individuals after all. With our own set of likes and dislikes. I might, for instance, prefer to read a book in my favourite part of the house, Daughter might be fashioning little things out of clay in another, and husband might be glued to the TV. And then of course, all us might spend an entire morning walking and having the best of times as we did this morning. 

And then again, this is what works for us as a family. It might be completely different set of ground rules for another family. Each to his/her/their own, I guess 🙂

Day 25: When in doubt, just spout nonsense

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is what I find a lot of people doing. And that is going to be my strategy to do a post today. I hear you ask, ‘what’s new?’ But I’m going to ignore it .

So what do I talk about today?

Do I tell you about how cold it was this morning? I felt unusually cold this morning. Switching off the alarm at 5:15, all I could do was snuggle for a little longer in the duvet. My plans of an early morning run on the treadmill went flying off into the cold morning air.

Did I tell you about my ambitious plans to exercise every morning before I went to work? No? Well, I haven’t been sticking to plan by any stretch of the imagination. I did start off well, went walking outside for a couple of days. Then went on the treadmill for a few days in the morning. And then it stopped. I woke up really tired yesterday. Almost didn’t go to work. Then dragged myself to work because I was dressed and all. Eventually, I gave up and came home when I started feeling too ill. With that all exercise has stopped. Now I’ve got to see when I get my mojo back.

It was Black Friday sales here today. It was never a big thing in the UK. A recent import from the states, it has become a ‘thing’ in the last few years. I’ve never shopped on Black Friday. The only thing I bought today (when stepped out for a stroll at lunch time) was a bottle of smoothie! But apparently people have been making most of the deals, according to the radio. This morning they had been interviewing folk who were our shopping and people did seem very chuffed about the deals. 

It’s nearly ten in the night. The time when my eyes are closing and I’m ready to drift off into oblivion. Bliss. I can’t wait to shut my eyes and drop off.. Tomorrow, hopefully I’ll think of some thing a little more interesting to read. 

Day 23: Partywear Woes

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‘Tis the time to be merry..

However for some of us its also the time to be weary. Weary of walking in and out of stores. No no, I’m not talking about Christmas shopping. That reminds me, I need to do that too, but before that I’ve got something more to worry about.

‘What do I wear for the office Christmas party’

I haven’t been to any of the office Christmas parties after I’ve joined work over three years ago. One reason or the other. This time it looks like all the stars have aligned. And a bunch of us have planned to go so we would have the  company too. The only fly in the ointment is what do I wear.

Let me explain. With my five feet nothing height, getting hold of the right clothes can sometimes be a  challenge. Even regular wear. I can find the most loveliest of clothes only to find that it’s  not available in petite. But with regular clothes I do manage to get hold of something. It’s been another story when it comes to evening wear or party wear. Not only do I need clothes that fit me, I have some other considerations to add to it. 

Here’s my wishlist

  •  something smart and yet not something that makes me stand out. 
  • a dress for which I can get shoes that I can actually walk in. With some of shoes on offer I’ll need crutches to be able to move on. Sigh.
  • Something affordable. I’m not spending an exhorbiant amount on a dress that will languish in my wardrobe until I can another occasion to wear it to.
  • And finally, something that hides all my tyres and make me look trim and sleek. 

Not a great deal to ask for, I’d have thought but clearly I was living in an imaginary world. I’ve walked in and out of all the possible stores and have one outfit that I could just about make do with. The next two weeks, my lunch hour will be be booked for this. Fingers crossed I’ll find something half decent.

So anybody else in a similar boat as me?

Day 20: Just Desserts

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I’ve been obsessing over making a lemon drizzle cake since Friday. You know those days when you long to get stuck in and make something. 

Friday went by in a whizz, we made an absolute last minute plan to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them and went straight from work/school to the cinema. What a treat it was, although I have to say, towards the end, I could have done with some of the action/destruction scenes edited out. But that’s just me. Other than that it was such a fun movie. And I love Eddie Redmayne. Having overdosed on nachos and soft drinks I certainly didn’t have any energy left to bake a cake. 

Saturday we had a Diwali night organised by an Indian organization and again the day whizzed by before we knew it. 

Sunday dawned nice and early when I was woken by a throbbing head at 4:00. I forced myself to go back to bed. All of us woke up late and only managed to have a late brunch. Through the morning, while I was making paniyarams, Lemon drizzle cake was playing on my mind. I was in two minds, too much heavy eating has been going on and baking a cake would mean some more torture for my tummy. That was when I remembered this vanilla and lemon pander donuts recipe.

You know instinctively, don’t you when you come across recipes that will work for you? This was one such recipe. My favourite flavours and no need to fry! What more can I ask for? So I threw in the ingredients and whipped it up. And how did it turn out? Absolutely delicious! Daughter and I loved it, husband didn’t like the lemony flavour. Unbelievable, isn’t it? I love citrus flavours in desserts, while he can’t stand it. I’m not complaining though, it just leaves more for Daughter and me. 

Where are the pictures you ask? Didn’t get a chance to take any. I halved the recipe since it was an experiment and it was over in minutes. 

I’ve got to make more now. Or should I make the lemon drizzle cake next? Decisions, decisions!

Day 19- Book Review: The Memory Child by Steena Holmes

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I’m trying to be good. Today’s post done before 8 in the morning. Let’s see how long I can keep at it. 

Today’s post at the book blog. One of the reasons I decided to do this blog marathon was because I have a huge backlog of book reviews to get through. Around 35 odd reviews which are pending. I’m hoping to make a small dent in that number by the end of this challenge. And hopefully will continue posting book reviews through December as well.