Yes, that’s a hat-trick!

On our last two anniversaries Satya transported me to an ultimate zone of preciousness. He made me feel on top of the world and I still think dearly of those amazing celebration dinners. This year on our 9^th anniversary, we agreed to go to P.S. Café on Dempsey Hill which is well known for its amazing food and ambience. I’d heard him making the reservations myself so of course there was no reason to think any different. On the 6^th of July 2015, we both came home a couple of hours early from work so we could dress up and leave for our ‘date’:). I wanted to wear a sari so he dressed in Indian style too, to give me company. I was conscious that we’d probably be the only ones in Indian wear at Dempsey Hill but it was my special day and nothing can make me feel more special than a lovely sari, so I went for it nonetheless! We drove off and at first I asked a few question about the route but then with my non-stop chatter I stopped paying attention to where we were heading. We reached a place called Duxton Hill instead of Dempsey Hill and that’s when he told me that a change in venue and menu was part of his surprise!

He had booked us at Saha, which is a signature Indian restaurant in Singapore, run by an award-winning chef Abhijit Saha. We entered an elegantly decorated restaurant with dimmed yellow lighting and an array of paintings representing India. The hues of dark red, brown and yellow in the décor were earthy and so typically representative of India, yet in a modern way. The ambiance was idyllic and romantic. By the reserved corner table near the window, we tried to absorb the various innovative (geeky) food options on the menu, while I, delicately, sipped at my Sauvignon Blanc. Our extremely courteous waiter explained the menu and served us a welcome drink and an amuse-bouche to tickle our taste buds! We ordered a starter which was a fusion of Indian chole and bhelpuri with Mexican topping of sour cream and avocado salsa! Yes, who would have thought that went together, but it did! My favourite dish was another delicious starter, ‘textures of lamb” which showcased Indian flavours, styles of cooking and was presented with utmost grace! We also ordered a couple of mains from the seafood menu and they were extremely delicious. And of course, we both loved the highlight of our dinner, Gulab-Jamun cheesecake! (Chef’s compliments on our anniversary)

Satya managed to sweep me off my feet, once again! I was blown away by the surprise and we celebrated our 9 years of togetherness with elegance and style. It’s superfluous to say how much I love him and how much our love has grown over these years! Three cheers to our 9 years! The big TEN, here we come!

Yohaan ‘isms’ – 2014

Owing to my selective (read - poor) memory (it’s really weird what I can and can’t remember, so I don’t trust my memory one bit),  by mid-year, I realised that some of the laughs we have had this year will be soon forgotten. They were all due to the cuteness and innocence of Yohaan’s 5 year old brain and really had to be recorded in some way. So here we are!

Now, I don’t need to worry about my failing memory and we can all enjoy a few simple giggles even years later.

Firstly, At 5 years old- he believes he wants to be fireman or a soldier!

August 2014

Yohaan: Mama, Manish is my best friend.
Me: oh really, why do you think so?
Yohaan in utter disbelief at my stupid question: “he knows my name!!”
Wow! Welcome to a world of simple expectations and pure innocence.

31 August 2014

Yohaan’s football club had friendly matches at another venue. He had recently joined so he was not a part of the team. I took him to the match so he could observe and understand. His club wears red and they were playing against the blue team. I asked him to observe how his team plays and asked him to cheer when they pass or kick or make a goal.

He decided that he likes the blue team better so I explained to him that he belongs to the red team so he should cheer his team, not the other team!

Uh-uh, no way that was happening today! 

I was so amazed to see this behaviour in him. But I realised how much he has to still learn about life. Team spirit and a sense of belonging can be achieved only over time. He won’t belong, just because he is told to belong. He has to spend time and sweat over something before he begins to love it.

This reminded me of the message from the fox to the prince from ‘Le petit prince’.

 "It is the time you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important."  …. You are responsible for your rose..."

7^th Sept 2014

3rd football class (Sundays only), the club organised a prize distribution ceremony for good performances over the last year for all age groups. Yohaan is lead to the 4-5 age group seats and he seats himself on the front bench and attends the whole ceremony with his group. After the prizes and the speeches, we were dismissed and I saw him shoot a terribly hurt look back at me. (I was sitting at the back with the parents) I braced myself for what was to come next. He came to me and seemed genuinely upset that he didn’t get a prize! So far he has only been to parties or occasions where every child gets something to take back home, so this award ceremony was very new to him! On our way home, we had a long chat about the awards being a reward for coming for football practice and trying our best. I reassured him that if he keeps going for practice regularly and trying his best to learn and improve then he too will get such an award and I will be so proud of him. Well, he tried to understand it, but it still didn’t go down very well.

However, he recovered from the intense grief, as soon as I told him we have noodles for breakfast when we get back home.

15 Sept 2014

Yohaan is 5 years and 4 months old. Speaks clearly and like to make up stories and plays along.

On the phone, “hello mama one second, baba has come early, he wants to talk to you.”
Changes his voice : “hello (gruff impersonation), how are you? I came home early.
Me playing along: “ oh hi baba, wow you are lucky, so did you finish all your work?”
Yohaan : YES
Me: “Good,  what time is your Yoga class?”
Yohaan as himself: “Mama, its only ME, Yohaan.” (SO proud he could trick me)
Me: “ oh! really! I thought it was baba on the phone”
Yohaan: Wicked laugh! Hahhahehe
LOL

From the ages 4 to 5 yohaan loved to tease with these fav words:

Mr. Mama! Mr. Baba! Mr. chicken loppi! Mr Chicken hoppi! chiki pakalu!
Mr. potato head! (pronouncing head with a loud Hhh eeaaaa ddd)
You have a durian face!
You are a banana man. or you are a banana head.
Oh you stinky shoe! Khi khi khi he has the most amazing laugh.

He loves to crack jokes too. They aren’t real jokes but totally funny nevertheless. (a fav joke is the "Knock, knock, whose there, its poo-poo (so similar)")

Words mix-up

He’s been doing that since he started speaking and to most new words, these are ones I can remember...
Fosa – sofa
Hostipal  - hospital
Shinish – finish
A Papartment – apartment
gantapi - ganpati

8^th October 2014
Yohaan and I were playing in his room after dinner. Yohaan had taken his Thomas and friends blocks and had hidden Spiderman inside one of those. The plan was to show me a magic trick and make Spiderman appear.

When he was ready he said, “mama I have a cunning plan, it will blow your mind!”

Well, the trick didn’t, but his sentence did!! LOL J Amazing how he picks up these phrases!

22^rd October 2014 – Diwali season.
General lazy time on the bed. Yohaan was rolling around and I asked him, “Yoyo, how much do you love mama?” So he made a tiny pinch with his fingers and said, “ this much” to which I made a grumpy face. To please me, he then changed it and said with wide arms, “ no thissss much!” We hugged and cuddled.

Observing our little drama, baba decided to try his luck at the same game. “Yoyo, how much do you love baba?” Baba asked. Once again Yoyo makes a pinch and says, “this much”. Baba followed the cue and made a grumpy face. Then Yohaan widened his arms ever so slightly and says, “ok this much”. To which Baba said, “why only this much for baba and so much for mama?”

Then with a very matter of fact expression on his face, Yohaan said, “because mama has chubby cheeks!”

We all burst out laughing! He has the most amazing logic in the world. Works well for me! :)

20 November 2014

School holidays have begun and Mr Yoyo is enjoying himself. I call him around lunch time on most days. I have the typical routine mom-questions on, what he ate, where he played and what he studied etc.  So I spoke to him today as normal and was about the hang up. Then he stopped me.

“Wait, wait! Mama, so tell me, what you are doing in office today?” (followed by who, why and when)

HAHA it was sudden and totally unexpected, but I managed to scrape thru the interrogation. :) He is growing to be very smart and observant.

30 November 2014

We went out for dinner to little India as we were craving Biryani. Google showed the first review of Juggies as the best biryani in Singapore. (well, if that was the best I cannot hope for much in Singapore as accordingly to us, what we ate, was NOT biryani at all! and it’s miles away from being the best! )

Well that aside, on the way back we drove past a mosque and Yohaan asked, “mama, what is this with the moon and star?” so I said, that is a “masjid” where we go to pray “Allah, Allah”… so he mimicked, “azza azza” and did his “laugh at one’s own joke thing” (which no doubt he has got from me ;))

Then, we passed a temple (south Indian) with a few big statues of Hanuman and Ram in bold colours. So he asked, what is that? So I said, that is a temple where we pray to Gods like Ganapati and explained that that particular statue he was looking at, was of Hanuman. He knows ‘Ganatapi’(as he calls it) but he had not heard of Hanuman from us before and wanted to know more. I tried to explain,  “it’s a very powerful god. He can lift a whole mountain. He has the body of a man and the face and tail like a monkey”.

To this Yohaan exclaimed “ whoa!! what!” a mixed sound of wonder, amazement and disbelief in those elf eyes.

We all burst out laughing at his truthful and obvious expression. A truthfulness which only a child can show. It shows how conditioned we have become. We have learned to believe without questioning. (even things that obviously don’t make sense to a pure and innocent mind of a child)

So here were some of the memories, stories, laughs of 2014.

Birthday special - GOA

So, this year we decided to go to Pune in December for the first time ever in 8-9 years. We both also wanted a nice relaxing time together, which we never manage to achieve whilst in Pune. So we chose to take time out from our Pune holidays and go to Goa. This has been on our agenda for many years and we wanted to make it happen this time. Hence, we did our bookings months in advance! Our friends confirmed they would join us too and we were set.

The road trip to Goa was so refreshing. It brought me back in touch with nature, our villages and farms. These are the things we miss in our ultra-modern and sanitised lives in Singapore. As we crossed many fields, bullock carts, roadside temples and vendors, sheep, cows and monkeys, on my mind’s checklist I ticked off several boxes and smiled. The cool breeze from the rolled down windows touched my face and I soaked up the earthy smells of the Indian countryside.

The kids were asleep in the car so the drive was very peaceful. We reached our destination, Miramar Residency, by mid-day. After a short break and a change of clothes we headed back out in search of some 'amazing beach-time'. We landed up at Baga beach and toasted to our arrival into Goa. For the next few hours we danced around in the water, had some delicious prawns and fish preparations. Finally, we went back to the hotel for our well-deserved sleep.

The next morning, to humour my request, D found out a church which was on the way to Martin’s corner (known for its amazing food). The church was closed for preparations for the midnight mass as it was 24^th Dec but the sister allowed us into the church via a back door. We sat down and said a few quiet prayers. Then, back on the road, we made it to Martin’s Corner by 11am. Having had a heavy breakfast less than a couple of hours back, none of us felt we could eat at that time and as a result, we drove around and reached Majorda beach. This was a very beautiful beach! We could walk/wade a long way in, there were some big waves and it was not very crowded either. The kids had plenty of fun - They loved the waves and played in the sand and looked for shells, hermit crabs, small crabs and starfish. The food was also pretty good and so were the cocktails.  Finally, by the time we felt satiated enough to leave the beach, Martin’s corner was closed (post-lunch), and we didn’t end up eating there at all.

That night, we decided to go to Terry’s for dinner. After we reached there, we were surprised when Satya’s friend Mohit and his family showed up (they had initially cancelled their plans to come with us). The evening mood was then even more elevated and we had a good dinner together, catching up on old times and the events of our day.

The next day, 25^th Dec, we decided to go to another beach called Bogmalo. However, on reaching there and looking at the crowds on that small beach, we changed course and headed straight to none other than? Majorda beach, of course. We took sunbeds and spent another most AWESOME day there at the beach. We had lunch from the shack and took turns napping and swimming and playing with the kids. All day long! 

Being Satya’s birthday dinner, we decided to try our luck again at Martin’s corner. We reached only a few minutes before the crowds started pouring in and luckily secured a table just in time. I ‘managed’ a cake from the pastry counter they had, and we sang for Satya as he cut the cake and blew the candles out for the 35^th time in his life. We ordered our first and only round of drinks during that dinner as what followed was so truly awesome that we had no inches or even cms of space left inside our tummies to accommodate anything else. That ‘seafood platter’(which is one of their signature dishes) will be one that I will remember for a long time to come. From the time that platter arrived at our table, there wasn’t much said or heard except the occasional “hmms” and “ahhhs”. The crab was lovely and my favourite was the most orgasmically delicious lobster with herbs and white baked vegetable sauce. Fish, (mega) jumbo prawns (as they were bigger than any I’ve eaten before) and everything else was also really yummy and to die for indeed!

Thus was the end of an amazing and relaxing holiday, food adventure, crazy time with friends and the 35^th birthday of the most special man in my world!

Run for fun!

Today, Satya and I ran and completed a 10km run! Did we think we could do it? Well honestly we had no clue, until we crossed that line.

We participated in the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 10k on the 7^th December 2014.

We have being meaning to do this for over 3 years and finally Satya took the step forward and booked us in. We had exactly 6 weeks to train which is quite less for first timers but due to our last minute decision, this is what we were left with to train and prepare. Thanks to the internet I quickly secured a schedule for us to follow and we tried to stick to it. At times we had to work late so had to swap a few days around on the schedule.

About 10 days before the run I fell sick and had to skip important training days, to the verge that we thought I would not be able to make it. Satya also developed an ankle pain which he was very nervous about. Finally the day arrived and we woke up early and prepared ourselves. Took an early bus and reached the venue well in time. The atmosphere was so energetic and vibrant. Thousands had gathered and we were all united in our aim to challenge ourselves. The organisers had arranged for cheering squads/bands for us all through the run. There was also a Punjabi bangra band dishing out great uplifting beats. Satya and I jogged at a conversational pace all thru and were amazed at how much we had to catch up on and chat about! The energy from the other participants charged us further and hardly felt we were working out. We took a walk break at about the 7k mark and then picked up the pace again. Closer to the finish line the sign boards were larger displaying how close we were getting and the cheering from the crowds was getting louder! (much needed too) We felt somewhat like a mini celebrity to be out there doing our best and being cheered for. We posed for a few pictures on the way and crossed the line, hand in hand!

What an amazing experience, what a victory! Are we going to do it again? Hell, yeah!

At NOX - Celebrating eight years of trust!

After the amazing experience last year on our anniversary dinner, I had secretly concluded that nothing could beat that spectacular experience for a long time to come. Well, I was clearly very wrong as I am blown away by our anniversary dinner experience this year!

I could sense that Satya has something up his sleeve but I couldn't put my finger on it. We had a great anniversay morning and the day was pretty calm with just phone calls from family and friends. Satya had booked a table for us for dinner but refused to tell me where or which cuisine. I had been passing subtle hints for the past week or so before our anniversay, that mexican food is so delicious :) so all my hopes were in that direction.

So that evening we got ready, donning our special looks to kill, and we left home to go on our 8th anniversary dinner date like two love-struck teenagers! Yoyo was fed and safely asleep at home. We hung around at Arab street at one of our favourite places called 'Beirut Grill' where we had a drink each and watch the belly dancer and her incredible moves along with other shish smoking folks. All was going smooth until Satya suddenly called for the bill and said we've got to go somewhere else for our dinner.

We got up and walked round the corner of the same building, less than 50 metres, and came to a restaurant called "Nox". There was a waiting lobby on the ground floor with several people sitting around with members of the restaurant staff in some deep discussions under dimmed white/blue lights. There was a long bar cum reception out in front and to the right was a locker space like the ones we have in a gym which I felt was pretty wierd thing in the decor of a restaurant and there was no food in sight. That is when it stuck me that he has booked us in at a 'dine in the dark' restaurant!!

I feel pretty handicapped without my glasses and hate dim lights in general. I also appreciate looking at my food, so I was not sure what I was getting into! I had recurring thoughts of dashing out the door or trying to persuade Satya out of his madness but I played along just trusting him completely. A part of me was willing to try something new and crazy!

We hung around at the lobby with our drinks while they prepped us on the process. We handed over our watches and phones (things that can produce light) which we then stored in one of those lockers I had seen earlier. And with bated breath we entered the door to the staircase that took us to the restaurant in the dark, upstairs. Our guide came to receive us and I was even more shocked to know that all the staff on the other side of that door whom we would meet, including the ushers and the waiters, would be blind!

We were guided along the way and shown our seats with the clockwise orientation of things on the table. It felt so strange. It was absolutely pitch dark. I had never experienced this kind of darkness before where I couldn’t even see my own hand! The food was served in 4 bowls in each course and it was a three course modern French cuisine menu with nuances of other cuisines. The experience of eating without being able to see is really indescribable! Of course we didn’t select our food so we had no clue what it would be and had to rely totally on our sense of smell and feel of textures and shapes to know what we were eating. It was no mean feat as the chefs had some pretty clever techniques going on there to create the suspense in each dish. Later on they showed us pictures of what we ate and I must say we missed the mark, on many dishes, by miles! But we did manage to guess some perfectly too. J

It was such an enriching experience to be really in touch with our senses, our food and ourselves like never before. We had no distractions. None! No other people (especially good looking ones), no phones, no lights, no décor disasters to comment on,  no attractive  or terrible designer clothes to look at, no food photography maniacs, and not even each other’s faces or expressions! It was a pure feeling of listening to your inner mind and blocking all external forces out.

We spent over 2 hours in darkness, hand in hand, and we communicated more than what we had done in the last two months! We guessed the various food bowls while enjoying the experience. Helped each other along the way and waited for each other to finish the dish before going on to the next. Our past years flashed in front of our eyes from our teenage days to parenthood. We realised how grateful we are to be together, to achieve what we have achieved together and extremely grateful for all the future plans we have to go back and work on. We were grateful for the senses we possess and became acutely aware of how others without those sense survive. We were truly humbled!

Satya succeeded once again in making this date as memorable as the last and we look forward to many more to come. Happy anniversary hubby!

Living in the present!

I spent most of my days in 2013 brooding over a variety of things. Life, age, existence, time, money, stability, love, relations and never ending responsibilities to name a few. If I had nothing else to occupy my mind, I always had Yohaan; do I spend enough time with him? do I teach him the right the right things? Am I being a good parent? Bottom line was, that I always felt worried due to our changed circumstances.

However, looking back, the year 2013 was one of the most amazing years of my life!

Satya was finally with me in Singapore and happily employed! Yohaan started liking going to school. The year was packed with fantastic events. We visited Bangkok and spent a couple of days exploring that amazing history and culture and tasting delicious Thai food. We holidayed at Bintan (Indonesia) at a resort with my colleagues. Visited India for my cousin's wedding which was a super fun time with family. I went to Bangalore to meet my friends and we had an amazing time together reliving our college days. We visited Bali which was the best beach location I have ever been to in the world and we vowed to go there again. We watched live Formula 1 racing in Singapore, where the event also had performances of Rihana and Dhol foundation. We visited Phuket in Thailand with my parents, which was a fairly fun adventure trip. To top all this, my hubby treated me to a fancy anniversary dinner at ‘Jaan’ and all this fun had started right on the first day of 2013 with an unforgettable new year’s eve at an awesome beach party!

To add to it, 2013 saw us surrounded with visitors at our home. We spent time with Aai-baba, Shekhar dada, Monita and Jinky, Tracy and Oliver who visited our home. My parents and sister and family also visited us and we had an awesome time in December. We were invited to and we hosted some interesting festival-time lunches and dinners, including those where Yohaan was the main invitee J and we were the baggage that went with him!

On the work front, I received praise, an amazing number of hires, and overall satisfaction at work and met great colleagues! My office arranged some amazing activities like movie night, dragon boating session, game of lazer tag, session of wine tasting, company dinners, farewell lunches, MM 40th anniversary celebration, and TRULY every day could count as “an event” in this action packed year!

Today when I look back, I think, wow! what an amazing year it was! But last year, I had the time and urge to brood at the drop of a hat! Why? Something deep inside me was sending distress signals. And although he may not voice it out loud, I believe hubby dear was also sailing the same troughs and crests with me. What goes on in our brains can be very difficult to decipher at the time when things are happening...

Everything suddenly appeared crystal clear in Feb 2014 after I came back from my visit to the UAE. I became a changed person! This refreshing visit to the desert and reliving the memories of superb times spent with our friends helped me come to terms with myself and my life. I understood that it was the longing of my life in the UAE buried deep in my heart that was causing this unhappiness and I had to let go! Thankfully, today I feel at peace with myself and my surroundings! This peace has come to me by accepting my present and wanting to make it better and I give the credit of this revelation entirely to our trip to the UAE in Feb 2014.

Today, I no longer live in the past! Only brooding does!

Super Seven!

Yes, our 7th wedding anniversary! It depends how we count, and the number of years we have been together vary. We just count as it suits us from time to time and this time the lucky number is 7. (and a grand 15 in total)  :)

It was also our 1st anniversary of being in Singapore! Last year (2012) we celebrated this day with fluttering hearts, about twenty thousand feet up in the sky, clinking our wine glasses, aboard the SQ flight bound to Singapore with Yoyo sprawled across our legs between three seats. A memorable day to mark our entry into realising our new dreams. Hence, this year we had more than just our anniversary to celebrate! We celebrated our resilience and success!

Amazingly enough, leaving no stones unturned at planning the event and keeping the element of surprise, Satya had booked us a window table on the 70th floor at 'Jaan' - a modern french cuisine restaurant at the Swissotel at Stamford in Singapore, overlooking the Singapore skyline. A perfectly bright blue sky with beautiful misty clouds in the distance reflecting the rays of the setting sun, welcomed us into the restaurant. As the evening progressed, we toasted to our successes with bubbly Champagne and a canape of amazing 'palate pleasers' by the Chef Julien Royer.

The dinner was 5 course French menu with a modern touch to it! I cannot describe the flavours we ate as they were truly sublime and we've never experienced such delicate yet strong flavours ever! Each flavour, so cleverly combined with the other that it left an impression not on our palates but etched it into our minds.

This has been the most romantic and memorable time ever with Satyajit! He absolutely nailed it and I felt I was on top of the world! (literally was too!)

Cheers to our journey so far and cheers to many more...

 

Superman - Man of steel

Our social committee had organised a movie night for all staff at Cine-Leisure mall today. A whole screen was booked for our staff only and a mini-buffet was set before the screening. Teresa has come to drop Yohaan to my office.  And as all things must have some extra element of excitement, she got off at the wrong bus stop! After a few phone calls and a bit of coordination and pacing up and down the streets by me, she finally reached the spot! Yohaan was super excited and was eager to watch superman.

 

The movie started and since it revolved around how Superman was born and sent to earth etc., the superman, as we know him (in his suit), didn't appear until almost the mid of the movie. However, in the meanwhile, Yohaan' s impatience kept growing and in a fairly quiet movie hall we often heard "where is superman?" "is he superman?" "why is the boy crying?" "is he baby superman? "is he boy superman?" much to our embarrassment he spoke loudly and frequently! Thankfully my colleagues didn't seem to mind his occasional murmuring or at least were courteous enough not to say anything to us.

Overall, I liked the movie, I liked the new superman and his old father played by Russell Crow! They looked super amazing and like real supermen! Yohaan' s interest in the movie grew after the arrival of superman in his superman attire. But the comments didn't stop! They just changed to "Super", "awesome!" "that's so cool, mama". It is an amazing feeling to hear these comments from a boy who has just turned 4!

 

Towards the end,  when superman's power weakens and he zooms past trying to rescue someone he let's out a loud groan. Yohaan wasn't too pleased with his super hero becoming weak and our taxi ride home was filled with questions about how could Superman have become weak?!

 
And then came the kiss! It was an unexpected and an unnecessary kiss even in my eyes, but Yohaan's expression summed it up entirely. The moment they kissed, he looked at me and said "ahuh!!??" in his own sweet and innocent accent! His Baba laughed at his expression and then promptly got a good smack on his hand for laughing at him! Hahaha...

Thanks to Superman for the wonderful time we spent with our, little superman!

20 June 2013

 

Dragon Boat

Mott MacDonald Sports and Recreation club (MM SRC) a group within MM Singapore, is run by a bunch of active and creative staff members who are sponsored by the company to bring the staff together on several sporty, social and team building activities. These include bowling challenges, badminton and soccer practice and matches, barbecue at the beach, birthdays of the month and new year dinner and dance and several others. One activity recently organised by the social club was that of 'Dragon boat' training lesson.

Jumping at this opportunity at exploring something new, I signed up and showed up on time at the Kallang Gaelic Dragon boating venue on the 14th of April 2013. Filled with nervous excitement and accompanied by my colleague and partner in crime, LeeKhiang, who is an Environmental Engineer, I geared up with the life vest (not a jacket just a thinner version of it) and my light weight wooden paddle. At the venue, there were other people gathering around who looked really professional and were wearing similar clothes to represent various teams. They were preparing for a challenge for which they would be travelling to Borocay for the dragon boating race and were there that evening to practice their opening group dance! Needless to say, we looked and felt like complete amateurs (at dancing and paddling!) and were praying that we'd blend into the crowd or become invisible for a while! Much to our relief, the Gaelic Dragon's didn't have any opening dance before the training!

It was an exceptionally good day in Singapore when we set out towards the boat. It was slightly windy with a light cloud cover, enough to hide the harsh sunrays but keeping it bright enough to enjoy the outdoors and cool enough to enjoy sweating. Best of all, it wasn't raining. It's unlike me to say that, 'not raining' was a good thing, as I associate rain with fun! But in this case, rain would mean the probability of thunder and of course, lightening! On the days when rain is accompanied by lightening, all boats are called back and that would mean there would be no training lesson. For that day, I was happy with no rain as the fun thing. :) So, with the weather in our favour we stood in front of our boat and the trainer 'Lee' gave us a good 10 mins induction on how to hold the paddle, how to sit and how to paddle (practicing in the air) using the back muscles rather then the strength of the arms and other safety tips. Hmmm, momentarily going back to Lee, the name must have brought a very dashing Chinese looking young trainer with a muscular lean body and bulging biceps in your minds! Right? Well you wish! Sorry to disappoint you, but, our trainer Mr. Lee was a be-spectacled, senior Irish gentleman with a very polite demeanor and whose cheeks kept turning a hint of darker pink with every minute in the heat. Yes! I surely caught you stereotyping there! Guilty as charged!

Now, going back to the training. To the say the least, it was tough! Not recommended for the weak-hearted. Trust me, when I signed up for paddling, secretly, I was hoping that I could stop if I were tired and let the rest continue and no one would notice. However, in reality, stopping for a break was out of the question! The boat is narrow and if you are not paddling then you are bound to be hit in the face or back by the movements of your teammates around you. Well, no reason to panic, I did ok and didn't take any secret breaks or punches. The training was divided into three main points; Technique(style), timing(teamwork) and power. We practiced with varying combinations of these three points until we were sore. The training was well spaced out and we paddled for a fixed number of counts (starting with 5 and progressing upto 60 over 1.5 hours) with 30-60-120 seconds breaks in between and some additional training tips every now and then for better coordination and speed.

One part of the correct style is to look at your partner while paddling so that the body posture is right and you also know if your timing is in sync with the others. So, in other words, you are not looking at the water or at the scenery around you! This was another surprise that I had to deal with. I had imagined I would be paddling away and looking at the birds and the skyline of Singapore along in the Kallang river...hmm not really. We went all the way up to the 'sands by the bay' area and finally stopped for while to take in the view. Suddenly, it felt very peaceful and serene to be sitting in a quiet boat in the middle of the river. Taking deep breaths we absorbed the modern beauty around us.

Our captain turned the boat around and we continued our journey tracing our steps back to the starting point when I dropped my paddle into the river! Hmmm, the boat had to go back to fetch my paddle and as a punishment for dropping it, I was asked to paddle the whole boat back alone for a count of 30 paddles!!! (thankfully two experienced people joined along to save my life and we made it ashore! Phew!) What an exhilarating end to an exhilarating evening! I'll surely be going back for more...

Paddles up!

 (the picture of the boat is an illustration, we looked almost like that though our boat was less fancy)

(Sana and LeeKhiang posing with our paddles)

Monkey morning!

Today started off as a regular school day morning. My hubby left home and I got my boy ready for school and off we went to the bus stop. An interesting duo we were, "a groggy-eyed mama and a grumpy baby". Well, so far it was a fairly boring and regular morning but not until long.

When I reach the stop, all of a sudden, I heard some commotion in the corridor near the bus stop. The bus stop I am talking about, is really just the front lobby of our condo apartment, where the school buses pick -up and drop kids. A couple of people ran out of the corridor and much to my amazement, emerged a full grown monkey after them. He sat on a bench, just about 10 meters away from us and looked deep at us with unflinching eyes. It was about half the height of my son with a 'dude, what's up?', sort of friendly gait.

He stared at me perhaps, trying to gauge what our next move will be and I stared back with pretty much the same thoughts racing in my mind. Finally, after a long minute of staring, screaming, oh-ing and ah-ing in awe and astonishment, I decided it was time to attempt a move towards the bus. I darted towards the nearest open spot. To my horror, the monkey got off the bench and followed us. I quickly reached the bus and handed over my son and his water bottle to the aunty in the bus and asked her to shut the door. I stood by the bus while my sister-in-law called for the security guard. Then, cooly, just like he is one of us, with a regular groggy morning feel, the monkey went past me and climbed up the compound wall.

He came, he saw and he left! Guess if he was out on a 'human-study' tour, he would have learnt that 'human mornings' were not very different to 'monkey mornings'! Inspite of these brief moments of commotion, the kids in the bus seemed calm and disinterested and surely, it appeared that neither the kids nor the monkey could understand what the fuss and panic I was making was all about!

Oh well, at least his visit made my morning a special one!

Familiar

Few long months ago I left the familiar behind.
The streets and the people,
everything that I belonged to
and that belonged to me...

These months taught me that real joys in life aren't those which
we race after but those which we miss en route!
A shared cup of tea, a game of scrabble, an evening walk
and those familiar smiles...

Ordeals made my mind tougher and then began the consolation.
Weaving a new spirit into the gloom
and joy into the new spirit.
To carry me on...

Newness faded away, excitement died down and ennui crept in.
The new suddenly felt familiar again and the old,
archived to a distance memory,
to flip thru on a lazy Sunday afternoon...