Random Nothings.. Post 5

You know what I missed most when I took a blogging break. It was the inability to jot down random stuff that happens to or around me. For some reason, I could not just start a post and hit publish.

And now with the NaBloPoMo, it is a pleasure to write everyday, and just because I do, it somehow seems easier to blog. I had never thought that I could blog on schedule. Well, I still don’t but I seem to be able to do it on a daily basis at the very least. Which to me, is good enough. The only thing I wish I could do was reply to all the comments, and read everybody else’s posts – that would have been perfect!

I went shopping this morning, and everywhere I turned I saw people dressed totally weird. I mean, there were goths, girls with hot pink eyeliner, my eyes hurt just looking at them. It felt like some kind of fancy dress parade was on. Shops full of beachwear in bright colours! Summer/Spring just brings out the excitement in the air. I get the feeling that it makes people enthusiastic and adventurous in general… Or maybe it is just me 🙂

There were men standing outside the entrance of shops or just inside the entrance, holding on to buggies, looking bored, and then out comes the wife/partner, ‘Love, which of these looks better’. ‘Both love, both, just choose, and lets get going’. That is so what happens when I go shopping for clothes with husband 🙂 I am sure husband would have wholeheartedly sympathized with these men 🙂

I think I did far more looking around and window shopping than actual shopping. Not that I am complaining. I only wished I had a camera on me to click some pics. There were some amazing flowers in bloom and shops with ‘Sale – 70% off’  looked just as good. It is another thing that all the items in the 70% off section have only sizes like 6 and 18 😦

One thing that really upset me was, when I was waiting for the bus. An Indian( or should I say, someone from the Indian Sub-continent), spat while walking by and the spit landed a cm away from an elderly British gentleman. I was so appalled. How can people do stuff like this? Spitting and that too almost on somebody. It was gross. The gentleman just moved away. I couldnot see the look on his face, but I was so so embarrassed that somebody who could be classified in the same ethnic group as us behaved so badly.. I have so much to say on this but I guess that is fodder for another post.

So how is everybody enjoying your weekend? We have a birthday party every weekend. Sigh!  Did I tell you that I am so tired of socializing that I feel like locking myself in a cave?

A Place Called Home

It is funny to think how a once alien place becomes home. All it takes is time and friends.

A few years back when we had first come to the UK, we had felt quite lonely and desolate. After having a wonderful circle of friends and family in Bangalore, London had seemed quite cold( both literally and figuratively). Our lives revolved around work, deadlines, and weekends devoted to housework and sightseeing.

Slowly we made new friends and acquaintances, some at work, some at obscure places like Pizza hut, where we ended up chatting to our next table neighbours, some in our apartment lift. London soon became home for us. The fact that local shopkeepers and even cashiers at the neighbourhood supermarket starts recognizing you. And just as you get comfortable, life has a way of  handing you something new to tackle, and we had to move to Leeds.

The same cycle started all over again.Moving to another new place, making new friends, finding new avenues of having fun, starting afresh. Why am I talking of all this today? From that point where we knew hardly anybody, today, I hardly have a day to myself. Ever since we got back from holiday, my days have been super packed with activities, and Poohi’s school is yet to begin. From an Eid get-together to Ganapati Puja parties, it has been such a busy fulfilling time. Today I invariably run into people I know in the super market, or in the library. It gives one such a feeling of belonging, a feeling of familiarity. Then again, getting to know the cashier at the supermarket might also indicate that I shop way too much there 😉

And when I look back, I am just thankful for everything, for good friends, for the life that we have here, for the knowledge that every place can feel like home. All it takes is a little time, a little effort and some like-minded people – that I have invariably found everywhere I go.