Friday, December 18, 2009

Curtains, Clothes, Grass and Guests

These last ten days have been quite busy and between family functions, falling ill and sorting out the household help, I’m going a leetle nuts.

My last update here was whilst I was recovering from a virus attack. Now it’s whilst I go into denial about all the work I need to get done, before friends arrive. Usually I wouldn’t be overly worried. I mean, these are old friends. They already know how messy my room usually is. Unfortunately right after the friends leave, the in-laws arrive. And so everything has to be presentable, and this means curtains (to begin with). It also means bed sheets and pillow cases on the spare bed (instead of piles of washed clothes waiting to be ironed). It could also mean a married people’s kitchen (with veggies and fruits and juice and spices and grown up stuff). However, since we (my friends and i) hardly qualify as grown up, its going to be junk food all the way.

This poses a problem you see, since I’ll have just one day, between the friends and the parents, to grow up, bring vegetables into the house again and clean up all the cola/maaza/beer/vodka bottles.

Then there is the garden. I’m a city girl, so my idea of a front lawn is velvety grass, gorgeous colours and landscaping. What I have instead, is a garden, half of which is green (the other half has no grass on it so its brown). There is also a tree bang in the middle of the yard, bamboo fencing which is in constant threat from the blue bulls around and ugly rose bushes which have only leaves and thorns. Oh, and there is also a gardener whom I’m going to have to yell at (again) tomorrow for work not done (again).

Why does this stress me out? Because the mother-in-law is an expert garden-person. She even knows the names of all the flowers and can make them grow to be the size of footballs. And when she comes visiting, she’ll have to be told that the brown half of the garden is a cricket pitch while the green is to play golf on.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Continuing...

I just realised that my previous post ended quite abruptly. I blame the medication.

How to Tell if I'm Really Really Sick

1. I readily drink tea - in fact ask for tea several times a day instead of complaining how vile a drink it is.

2. I dont sleep much (as opposed to sleeping a lot when i'm hale and hearty).

3. I stop eating (normal food i.e.) and prefer boiled rice and toast to anything else.

4. I lose interest in Facebook and the Blog (much to the shock of the Fellow).

5. I miss the Fellow even more than usual (no one to press my legs and back).

The last two days have gone by in a haze of high fever and painful cough attacks. I even managed my first fainting spell and have mainly survived on medicines and dry toast. Today, after 48 hours, i'm strong enough to get out of bed and not look like i'm dying (or contract swine flu as was the worry to begin with).
Also, the fact that i'm blogging is a sure shot sign that i'm feeling better - not fine - better. I mean, at least i'm now able to sit up straight long enough to type this out (and not wilt away like a creeper which cant stand up on its own).

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Why I Havent Been Blogging

Travelling across north india.

Moving house.

Stressing about all the mess that had to be organised.

Figuring out maid politics and staying away from it.

Dealing with all the dust and super-sensitive immune system.

Preparing for a family function.

More travelling.

Three days of family, fun and food.

Missing the Fellow.

A whole day of walking around the bazaars of Jaipur, Hawa Mahal and City Palace.

Nodding and smiling at the titular Maharaja of Jaipur.

Gossiping late into the night with the sister and aunt.

Waking up to an aching body, heating up with fever.

Spending an entire day in pain and coughing like im dying.

Missing the Fellow even more - no one to press my aching legs.

Drinking hot water and eating hot halwa courtesy the grandmother.

Thanking the stars that the family is entirely made up of doctors.

Discussing the possibility of infection with Swine Flu.

Thanking the stars that the family is entirely made up of doctors.

Being handed a mask for the safety of everyone else around me.

The dog taking one look at a masked me and whimpering away under the table.

Cancelling travel plans.

Preparing for another 3 days (at least) in pain and away from the Fellow.

Sigh. Can you blame me for not writing?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Tomorrow It Ends

Since June I’ve been living out of a suitcase, going from one city to the other all over the country. Tomorrow my nearly 6-month long vacation comes to an end. No more late mornings (ok, maybe those are still possible). But definitely no more tension-free days for me now. Come Monday and I have to begin the whole dealing with the maid (damn, I need to look for a new one!) thing, get the new house all cleaned and set up (at present it’s worse than a dump), try and see if I can make the garden resemble something green and living, get a hundred thousand things in order again, make social calls, smile at stupid people and mentally conjure images of shooting them, so on and so forth. Aaaaggghhh!!!

It’s no wonder I’m panicking (a little). In almost half a year I haven’t had to bother about anything really, except which city I’m going to next. And even before that, it had taken me 6 months to get used to the idea of keeping house and being all responsible and all that. I had just about set some kind of a routine when the Fellow took off for that course of his. Now, when we finally go back home, I’m going to have to relearn everything and get into the practice of doing it all over again. And since it wasn’t too much fun the first time (being grown up sucks you know), I don’t think it gets any better this time round. To top it all, just then when I’m all nicely settled in again, the Fellow is bound to get posted out to another god forsaken place and we’ll be back to square one.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Carton-full

The Fellow and I decided to go to a second-hand bookstore today.

There is something about piles and mounds of books that make me happy. It doesn’t matter that there is an inch of dust over everything (never good for my insane allergies), or that I have to look through hundreds of books to find one or two worth buying. Just being there makes me more than a little happy. And when I come across a book or a comic that I had read as a child (and never seen ever since), there is no stopping me from jumping around all gleeful. And then I stick it under the Fellow’s nose, and insist he read it and get appropriately excited. Finally, after several hours of browsing, excited squeals, careful pondering and monosyllabic conversations, I stand before a huge pile of books which I’ve finalised, and look at the Fellow (with as innocent a look as possible) for his reaction to my low willpower.

At times like these I’m really glad the Fellow is also a book-worm. This way he is able to understand my lack of self-control and overall happiness when I’m around books.

For now, we have a carton full of books, and several more days of holiday left. Yay.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Weekend

Saturday Morning:

Waking up late. Lounging around in pyjamas. Maggi. Omelette. Tea. Old Sandwiches. Random fruit. An amused maid. Weekly laundry. Sheets drying over the exercise rod. Waiting for someone else to have a bath first.

Saturday Evening:

Bhel puri. Kala Khatta gola. Lebanese food. Coffee. Free chocolate pastries. The promise of free soup. Window shopping in some really quaint shops that smelled wonderfully woodsy and warm. Mall hopping. Stationery shopping. Video-gaming. Playing the keyboard and singing in the middle of the shop. Standing in queue at the food court for half an hour. Driving home with the cool air on your face.

Saturday Night:

Lots of noise. Even more attempts at cheating. Girls.Vs. Boys. Some major ass-whooping. A clear winner. Boys sulking at the result. Saturday night with Pictionary.

Sunday Morning:

Waking up even later than Saturday morning. Ordering in brunch. Facebooking on computers and phones. Finally getting out of the house post-afternoon.

Sunday Evening:

One mall. The Colour Factory. One cup. One elephant. One mask. Loads of creativity. Lots of paint. Even more fun.

Sunday Night:

Television. Facebook. Downloads. Blogs. Iphone games. PSP games. Everyone is doing their thing. Yet doing everything too.

It’s been a good weekend people. What did you do?