Days 202 - 203 : Saptami & Ashtami!

This year we celebrated the 7th and 8th days (Saptami and Ashtami) of Durga Puja over the weekend. Celebration to me and the hubby, is mainly just going to the temple. Usually to the pandals by the Bengali Association of Singapore, but given that has turned insanely crowded and commercialized over the years, we decided to skip it this time.

Instead we made two trips - first to our favourite little Toa Payoh temple on Saturday and then to the Ramakrishna Mission on Sunday. While the celebration at Ramakrishna Mission seemed to be very much on the usual quieter side like that of an ashram, the celebration at Toa Payoh was more in line with what I was familiar with from Kerala - well decorated dieties, a spectacular Golu or Bommalattom, and little girls all dressed up to sing and perform Bharatanatyam and Kolattam! It was so beautiful and brought back a lot of childhood memories!

While seeking Durgaji's blessings is a big part of the puja, it also happens to be my annual sari wearing time. Incidentally my DSLR also happened to be at home and not on his sojourn somewhere (I tend to leave it with my film team more often than keep it with me).

So this year, we took the opportunity to also take a lot of good family pictures and I am incredibly happy about that!

297 more to go.

Days 191 - 197 : Kanpur!

I had a last minute planned, beautiful short holiday in Kanpur where I relaxed a lot, shopped a lot, read a lot from my Flipkart overdrive purchase, ate a LOT, spent a really good time with the in laws, visited the beautiful Sai Mandir & Iscon temple and in short had a fab time! Madam enjoyed thoroughly too  and didn't want to get back to Singapore. I believe it is all best explained via a bunch of photographs. Actually I was so relaxed that I didn't even take enough pics, seems like! But still, here you go.  

Madam all set for her flight to Lucknow, with her luggage, her activity book and big smile! 

Enjoying the chairlift with her Dadi!

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi! 

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi! 

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi!

Attitude @ Kanpur

My Flipkart purchase!

303 more to go.

Days 174 - 179 : Being Lazy!

Yup, it's official. I have become really bored of the blogging. Rather I have become rather lazy about it. Not that things haven't been good. But the quiet days continue to be quiet and with quietness, I realize, comes laziness.

So quick recap.

Sep 10 - Had a fab time at a friend's place celebrating his dad's birthday. In the evening went with the husband on a "date night" - with a little bit of shopping from Raffles City (trying to spend the vouchers I received at work for my "excellent service"), dinner at Podi (after a really long time and I thoroughly enjoyed their pasta with curry leaves) and drinks at the Gravity Bar at Carlton Hotel, which my newest find for a nice, quiet place with some good music of numbers from 1990s.

Sep 11 - Back to Shanghai, but not before I bought myself many books from my favourite airport bookstore at Changi! I watched a couple of films too, including Hail Caesar, which was set in the backdrop of Hollywood a few decades ago, and was fun with many a surprising moment.

Sep 12 - It was a public holiday in Singapore, but I was working away in China. A day full of meetings, productive ones thankfully, some yoga in the evening, and some reading before bedtime. Not bad.

Sep 13 - A couple of meetings in the morning before the flight back to Singapore. Watched a couple of films, but nothing to write home about. In fact, I don't think I actually ended up watching anything fully. Back home, was surprised by the husband who had come all the way to the airport to pick me up!

Sep 14 - The husband took off on his business trip, so it was me and Madam and Onam. To celebrate Onam, my brother in law and sister in law came over, we went to the temple (I even wore a sari!), got a really good sadya packed from Swaadhisht, relished it, and felt pretty happy about the whole thing.

Sep 15 - The husband was still away, so it was me and Madam again. We talked a lot, painted a lot, "worked" a lot, exercised a lot, played a lot and goofed around a lot.

Am loving these quiet, lazy days!

321 more to go.

Day 146 : Birthday Celebrations!

The husband and I have our shared birthday in two day's time. But as luck would have it, I will be travelling to China tomorrow and will be back only well post the birthday.

So we thought we will have our celebration in advance.

First we had a celebratory dinner with our usual gang at Canopy in Bishan Park (that was actually a couple of days ago) and it was immense fun!

Today we went to the temple, together with Madam, because every celebration needs to start with a note of thanks to whoever it is that has designed all this.

Then we took Madam for her favourite activity - the animal rides at United Square - followed by nuggets and juice from McDonalds. That's "celebration" for her, irrespective of occasion.

And then, late at night after tucking Madam into bed, the husband and I went out for a glass of wine, some cheese and a lot of conversation, to one of the nice restaurants in Club Street. That was our celebration.

Thus wrapped up pretty much all the celebration for the 2016 birthday. Small and sweet!

354 more to go. 

Day 133 : Star Birthday!

The husband was on a business trip in Bangkok, so it was just me and Madam enjoying a Sunday together. In the morning, we set off to my brother in law's place and realized that he and his wife had bought a handful of gifts for us! Reason? The husbands and my upcoming birthdays and oh just by the way, early birthday gifts for Madam too (her birthday isn't until the end of October!)

So Madam got a beautiful white dress for her birthday that came complete with a dainty purse and a tiara, all of which she loved. I got a handbag and in appreciation of my moviemaker self, a clapper board and a scrap book that looks like a clapper board. The husband got a shirt and wait for it... a polaroid camera! I, of course, told everyone that the camera will be mine. 

Because, really, no amount of digital photographs are ever gonna match the beauty and adorableness of a physical photo, especially one with the lovely look and feel of a polaroid photo! 

All the gifts, captured in three different pictures. 

After spending some time there, feeling grateful for these great folks and falling in love with the gifts, Madam and I made our way to the my favourite temple in Toa Payoh. Because, incidentally, it was my "star birthday" - i.e. the birthday as per the Malayalam calendar (so, yes.. I did get a handful of gifts, rather unexpectedly, on my birthday!).  

Madam and I reached the temple even before the shrines had opened, so we spent some time walking around first and they we went followed the priest as he opened each shrine and did the prayers. The weather was lovely too - cool and breezy, and the both of us had a lovely evening together. 

So that's how my "star birthday" was spent - showered with a lot of gifts, a lot of love (must mention that my parents, uncles, aunts and cousins all wished me one after the other - in fact, apparently my uncle and cousin had a race between them as to who will wish me first! How cute is that!), a lot of quality time with Madam and a lot of smiles. Perfect.  

367 more to go. 

Day 71 - 72 : Maxing it Out!

It was the weekend after the "D-Day" and I was feeling on top of the world from the good news we received yesterday - We can go back to a normal life, at least for six months! That was awesome!


So I did what I usually do best. I decided to max it out.


I went to the temple to say big round of thank you.


I booked two holidays - one to Phuket in July and one to Bali in August.


I spent some good time catching up with friends, in laws and of course, the husband.


I took Madam on many outings - to the temple, to United Square for her favourite ride followed by Japanese food at Ichiban Boshi, to get her favourite Thai food from E-Sarn (the only place where she heartily gulps down vegetables!), to play with her best friend K at the Singapore Cricket Club.


I ate a lot - Japanese, Thai, Indian and an overload of home cooked food.  


I read a lot - current it is Anita Nair's "Mistress" (once again, such beautiful language but terrible plot!)


I did a lot of yoga - so much so that I realized I can now do Heron pose (Krounchasana) and Compass pose (Parivritta Surya Yantrasana)!


Yes, I maxed it out and man, did it feel good!


428 more to go.

Days 66 - 69 : The Wait.

Madam's next MRI scan is scheduled for the 27th of May. Which means, that I spent the last few days thinking about pretty much nothing else. There are so many unknowns that would get their answers on 27th. Is the tumor growing? Is the excess fluid in her brain under control? Is there pressure in her brain?  Would she need to do microradiosurgery immediately? Life had started to seem normal over the last few weeks, would all of it go out for a toss?

I found myself returning to these questions over and over again and it took all my willpower to ignore them and move on with whatever I was doing at the moment. I realized that if I don't keep myself fully occupied, I would simply worry myself silly.

So that's what I did - I immersed myself in activities. Work helped because there were several important meetings that I had to prepare for and I had evening calls every single day running past midnight, I applied to film festivals (which are more time consuming than one would think), I spent a lot of time with Madam, painting, reading and going on outings, I did a lot of yoga, I finished reading a book (one of Simon Brett's Fethering mysteries) and I took mom in law for pain therapy sessions for her knee problem - after which we celebrated with some really good food and drinks at TCC.

In fact, I was so focused on keeping my mind occupied that when my poor husband came over and started a conversation saying "I hope she is fine...", thereby expressing his nervousness about what might happen on 27th, I mercilessly cut him off with a "Sorry, I don't wanna think about it. Am gonna read my book" and promptly did just that. That was probably rather selfish and not very considerate, but well, that's what I did. Because thinking about it gives me palpitations and I don't quite enjoy that feeling.

This focus on distracting myself did work pretty well in a few ways - some of those important meetings turned out pretty well, I spent some good time catching up with the in-laws on our outings to the pain relief clinic and TCC after, and it was also nice when Madam joined us on an unexpected weekday afternoon trip once. To a large extent, all of this did help me forget about the upcoming day too.

And now the wait is almost over because tomorrow is the 27th. I have completed all the admission formalities and we are ready to go. Am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed.

431 more to go.