Celebrations galore

Writing from Bengalooru. Getting completely pampered and can get so used to this. On a three week trip back home, we spent the first week with the inlaws in Hyderabad and will spend the rest at my place in Bengalooru. Will post separately on the Hyderabad week, but highlights were - my sis in law was visting at the same time and the girls had an absolute blast with her, so much so that A was walking around at night looking for 'Bua'; a lovely visit to the Hyderabad Zoo (we saw so many animals!), catching up with an old friend, Mission Impossible 4, and some fun time for the kids at GVK Mall Fun Zone.

We reached Bengalooru day before night. My parents had planned a surprise party for us last night. The surprise element was kind of ruined as one of my cousins mentioned to me that I'll be seeing you on Sunday when i spoke to her earlier, and I had planned to catch up with a friend on Sunday night in B'lore and when i told my mom about this she asked me for her number to speak to her and that immediately made me suspicious. But it still remained quite a surprise as i expected only one of my cousins to land up and some uncles and aunts but so many landed up! My mom had called most of my cousins in B'lore and friends of my cousins whom we knew!

Thank you dear Mummy and Daddy for the lovely surprise. I had an amazing time catching up with everyone and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins!

My parents had bought Diwali crackers and diyas and stored them for us, so we lit the diyas on the balcony in the evening. Then as the party started we burst crackers. S enjoyed the hand sparklers and kept asking for more. She also liked lighting the flower pots and chakras and wanted to keep on bursting crackers!

Many of the younger kids were quite adventurous walking around with sparklers in their hand , so most of the time we had to make sure no one was setting themselves or anyone else on fire!

After the crackers, i relaxed for some time with my cousins, gossipping over wine and making them promise that they would visit us in Zurich soon! Then the kids started getting a bit restless so we took them inside the house (the party was in the garden outside) and they played with bubbles, all the toys from upstairs and generally went beserk. The younger kids (including A) took turns in screaming for their mama/papa but the older ones were pretty busy among themselves.

S bonded with her cousin M who is a year older and the two were like glue during the party, except for a brief meltdown from S when M refused to return the Hello Kitty bag S insists on wearing around all the time! If you look carefully in the crackers picture above you'll find her wearing it even while bursting crackers!

The hubby and I were quite embaressed to cut a cake celebratting our 10 year anniversary but the kids made us feel more at ease by more or less attacking and demolishing the cake before we got to cut it :)

The food was a mix of catering and home made food, and I hogged on Goldcoin and spring rolls. Am sure i'm going to be putting on at least a couple of kilos on this vacation.

We had a great time and as usual at the end of it i wished i was back in India with family and not so many miles away. But I guess living in Bombay and working and fretting about the work deadlines and whether the maids are looking after the kids properly is very different from holidaying at home ! Thank you again dear Mummy and Daddy for taking such a lot of effort, and putting together such a grand party, we really enjoyed it and so did S and A!

New Years resolutions

It's been a long time since i made New years resolutions, but this year I feel there are so many things which are in my control and which need changing that it merited some resolutions on my side

1. To spend more time doing activities/playing with the kids. Too much time is going in housework now. My target is to spend at last one hour in quality time with the kids daily, which does not include dropping them/picking them from school. Earlier when it used to be bright till 9 pm I would take them daily to the park in the evening. But now it gets dark by 4:30 pm so that activity is gone, and in the evenings i just end up doing some housework while the children play by themselves.

2. Exercise at least 4 times a week. I've more or less managed to do this in the last few months, and have to stick with it.

3. Read at least 1 book a month. I very ambitiously joined a book club, but so far I've not read even one of the books or attended any of the meetings. As a start i want to read at least the book club book for the month plus any others i can manage.

4. Try to sleep by 11:30 every night, and get the kids to bed by a reasonable time. The both are linked to each other. The kids take a long siesta in the afternoon and are unable to sleep before 10:30/11 in the night. After that i need a couple of hours of me time to watch TV/surf the net etc and i end up sleeping only around 1 am. And we all have to get up at 7 am for school so all are exhausted. Need to shift this back by at least 11/2 hours and have the kids asleep by 9 pm and me in bed by 11:30-12 max.

5. Cook one new dish a week. I'm only sticking to the staples and what's the point of having to cook if at the end of it the onyl thing you can show for your efforts is making rasam and sambhar. So one new dish a week is my target. Doesn't matter if no one eats it!. Baking is also included in this.

So that's my list. What's your list of 5?

A very homemade birthday celebration

Last week was the hubby's birthday (he now officially enters middle age!) and we celebrated it quite differently from how we usually celebrate birthdays. The girls made cards for their Daddy. S made it all by herself- she loves drawing and playing with the glitter glue and stickers, - and wouldn't let me help (even to put the stickers the right way up). I mostly made A's card - she doodled all over it and stuck the stickers, but the glitter glue and design was all mine (wicked glint in eye). It was fun making the cards, think I'm going to get the girls to make cards for all occasions now.

I baked a lemon cake. Ok, it was a ready mix from the shop, but the mixing of the eggs, butter and water into it was all my work, so let me take credit for it. The cake didn't turn out looking that great (the tip said to cut a small line in the middle about 15 mins into the baking so that it fluffs up well, the cake ended up looking quite funny with a large split in the middle after baking as it puffed up quite a bit). Still it tasted yum!

The cake and the cards...

During the day, I took the hubby for his first ice skating lesson. I don't really know how to teach ice skating so we just held hands and skated along. Not so romantic though- more like he clung on to my hand, and i pulled him along! But it was good fun. The kids were at school and it felt like we were sneaking out for a date! And not a cheap birthday present i might add. The teachers here are so expensive, that if I charged for the class I'm sure I would've earned quite a bit!

So all in all quite a homemade birthday celebration.

At night we went to this restaurant called Crazy Cow for dinner. It was recommended by a friend who said it was a kid friendly place. But we got lot of strange looks as we walked in with the kids at 9:30 pm (kids are usually asleep by 8 pm here), but we just ignored them and went about our dinner. The kids were busy with balloons and colouring, and apart from an incident where A threw her balloon at the hubby which led to his beer spillling all over him, it was fine (and quite funny i might add).

Wildnispark

Last weekend we went to the Wildnispark Langenberg (http://www.wildnispark.ch/). Its a nature trail in the woods, where you can walk past animals in thewild . They are behind a fence, so that can't attack you (and vice versa) but the setting is more natural than a zoo. Even the animalsare quite different from the ones we had seen till datein the zoo. The woods are beautiful and nice for a long walk, even without the animals.

We first saw some moose, didn't realise till now that they are really quite big (and quite daft looking).

Then we walked past the deers and S and A had a great time picking up leaves and feeding them. The deer were quite friendly, and one even gave A a friendly lick! Then we saw some reindeer and S was excited to see the animals which carry Santa to the houses.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

The trail went on for a while, past wolves (we didn't sight any) and wild pigs till we came to the picnic area. Many families had brought elaborate picnic baskets and had lit fires from the logs lying around the place and it looked like a blast. We were not so well prepared and had to make do with lunch from the cafe there. That wasn't so bad, it overlooked a small pond where bears came to drink water and A had fun looking out for Baloo.

After lunch we went to the children's playarea which had a lot of unique stuff. One was a set of hanging seesaws, where there were two criss crossing logs and ropes hanging down from the ends of the logs, and if you sat on one end, the person on the other end would go up, and when they came down you would go up! There were many climbing frames and ropes, and a swing going from one tree to another. S has great fun (think it overshadowed the animals!) and it was a welcome break from the long walk.

We saw a family with twins (about 21/2 years old) and triplets (about 6 months old), and I was amazed. How do people manage here, with so

little help? I can barely manage my two! And they still find the enthu to bring the kids out to nature trails and parks, I would just be dying of exhaustion at home!

After the park, we saw some Ibex . One of them seemed to be nodding off, and we took a cue from it and decided to head back home in time for an afternoon siesta.

Zurich has become quite cold now, and we were all so tired after walking around that we slept straight for 2 hours in the afternoon.

A's antics

So what is A upto?

She's started speaking a lot suddenly and some of the things she says are

'Appy' for happy

'More' when she wants more of something (mostly snacks)

'Over' when something is finished, usually followed by 'More' if it is snacks

'Mummy, Papa, Akka (for S)' - sometimes when we go to pick up S from school, A will run to the door and knock on it and say Akka loudly

'Two, three' - never one

'No' never yes. Vigorous nods of the head for indicating yes but no yes

'Banana', today she pointed at a banana and said Banana and when i asked her if she wanted it she nodded yes and ate half of it by herself. I know it sounds strange that i'm getting excited over a toddler eating a banana but we rarely eat fruits in this house! (snacks yes)

'Schuss'- that is German for bye and she says it to her friends at the creche

'Bye' also

'My'- that's for me. If i'm giving some water to S, she'll point at herself and say My which means she wants water as well. Nearly everything given to S is mine now.

'Tuck'- meaning stuck, if her hand is stuck in something, or her foot is stuck in the pram

'Naanoo" means herself. Her favourite game is saying 'Papa' and i have to point out where Dad is, 'Mama' and I have to point to myself, 'Akka' and I have to point to S and 'Naanoo' and I have to point to A. Today i tried to mix it up by pretending i didn't know where 'Mama' was!

'Auter (for water)' and 'Poon (for spoon)' - she has to have a bowl of water and spoon in front of her while I'm feeding her for her to play with. As soon as i get her food in front of her she'll say 'Auter, Poon' and won't start still she gets them. Her favourite toy i think is 'Poon' because she comes into the kitchen whenever I'm cooking and opens the top drawer and takes out all the plastic spoons. I recently bought a whole set of colourful plastic spoons much to her delight.

She has just started enjoying books. Daily in the morning when i'm giving her her breakfast I have to read 3-4 books to her. Her favourite now is Goldilocks and Barney. Sometimes in the night when i read books to S she'll also get one of her books and come sit on my lap

She still loves to put things into her ears. Clay is her favourite for that

She's a number one copycat. Whatever Akka does she has to do. So if S wants to do some drawing i have to give a sheet of paper to A as well and give her some crayons as well. Its so cute when S comes and gives me her drawing and tells me what she's made, A will also come and hand over her drawing to me and look at me and wait for me to say Good/nice or something like that. When it's activiity time for S (some evenings since its getting dark at 4:45 itself these days and we are unable to go to the park I do some writing or number activity for S from a book) then I have to do activity with A also at the same time or she gets really upset. Usually i have to give her a pen like S has, a book to doodle on and now the latest craze is stickers.

She has all the bad TV habits of her sister (encouraged by lazy me). She loves Dora and Diego, knows camera, map, backpack, Boots etc etc and am sure she's picking some some Spanish from the programme as well. She loves Monsters Inc and knows the opening scene by heart (when the monster comes into the room and the kid screams). I know I know Monsters for a < 2 year old? But she doesn't usually pay much attention after the first 15 mins.

She loves to tease her Akka. Akka has her favourite pink bag in which she keeps her favourite toys (usually small pink items!!! like pigs, balls etc) and S is very possesive about the pink bag and pink toys. Whenever A wants to tease her which is pretty often she'll grab the bag/toys and run away from S as fast as possible with a very determined look on her face! The other day she went looking for the bag when S was in school and happily played with it much to her sister's ignorance.

A and her Akka continue to have their fights. Its now spread to hair pulling and hitting, only stopped when both start howling. But pretty soon they are playing together again and S keeps instructing A to do something, which A half the time doesn't bother with! They both love to wear school bags and walk around the house saying bye to me. Today I saw A taking a bag to S and asking her to put it for her so that they could walk around the house. If only S could feed her and put her to bed also!

Dear A, you're suddenly growing up so fast. I feel like I was waiting for this for ages, but now that it's happening I suddenly want to slow down time and keep you a cuddly cute babbu longer.

Amazing Atzmannig

Last Sunday we went to Atzmanig ( www.atzmaennig.ch/ ). Its a kind of adventure park for kids in the middle of the mountains, but also has an amazing rope adventure section for adults and kids, and converts into a ski resort in the winter. Its about a 45 mins drive from our place, and we were lucky with theweather as it was nice and warm (in early November!). Perfect day to spend outside.

The park itself is beautiful and you could just spend time idling in the restaurant looking out at the mountains.

View from the restaurant

But we had come there for a kids day out, so that had to wait, and we first hit the kids attractions. S loved the tobaggon ride. You have to take a chair lift to reach the top of the tobaggon ride. We rode over grazing cows and S was

delighted to hear them tinkling away as they graze (all the cows herewear bells around their neck so you can hear them a mile away). The tobaggon ride was 700 m and S and I went doubles while the husband waited with A below. And then we reversed when S insisted on going on. She was all set to go a third time when we had to finally distract her with the attractions at the kids playground.

The kids playground set in the middle of the hills.

Apart from the usual slide, swing and rope walk it had trampolines (on which S and I both bounced), a carousel (no I didn't go on that with her), a trampoline jump section (with the harness) and a kids car section where they could drive cars/bikes around a track. S managed to drive a car pretty well ( better than the way I drove on the highway to the park) and the cheapies that we were we put A in a stationery car (without putting in money to make it move) and she seemed happy enough on it.

After that we headed out for the rope adventure park section. This has a series of rope walks connecting tree tops, with varying levels of difficulty. Its mostly for older kids (6+) and adults, but there are two kindercourses for 4+. S is still a few months shy of her fourth birthday but it was safe enough (they put a harness on the child which attaches to a rope on top of the walk so that even if the child loses their balance they won't fall to the ground) so we thought she could have a go. S initially found it a bit tough and was nervous in bits. Part of the walk was simple for her- she can easily jump from one thing to another, but finds it scary to completely let go and swing from the top of the tree to the bottom. A couple of times the harness got stuck on the top- you have to pull ithard at junctions and she found it tough to do that, and either we had to climb up and help her along, or some of the kids behind her would push the harness for her. It was overall a great experience for her.

After all the activities (most of which A slept through), the kids were starving, so we finally went to restaurant and fortified ourselves with fries and chilled beer, while basking in the warm sun.

It was a testing day for S and me though- her on the rope walk, and me driving on the motorway- it's the first time i was driving on a motorway here and the speed limit is 100 km (and they get upset if you go below the speed limit as well) and I found it really tough to go beyond 90 km. The highway was curving and I was scared what would happen if I lost control on a bend. The husband said that the curve was engineered that you could maintain 100 km or they would prescribe a lower speed limit, but I was not convinced. Felt very similar to us telling S not to be scared as there was a harness and she would not fall. And also similar to her having kids much faster behind her, who were giggling at how slow she was (kids can be mean!!) I looked in my rearview mirror and found the driver behind talking on the mobile in one hand while maintaining a speed of 100km. All in good time I say.

Happy Diwali

This was the first Diwali we celebrated outside India, and one of the very few I celebrated away from my parents :( We really missed the festivities, the lighting of the diyas, the crackers, meeting relatives and the sounds and smells of Diwali. We're thinking next year we should probably be home for Diwali and stick around here for Christmas.

We did our bit to celebrate Diwali. We woke up early morning, had oil baths, gave the kids oil bath and did a small prayer. We went to the temple in the evening, there's as ISKON temple right next to the house (only one of two temples here!) and it was so peaceful being inside on Diwali night. People were chanting hymns, and lighting small lamps for God.

At home we had a pot luck dinner for other friends who were missing home like us. The food was great, as everyone had brought their specialty and I like a cheapie used only paper plates and cutlery so we didn't have to spend much time clearing up. Only it finished at midnight and the kids refused to sleep while guests were around (there were two other kids as well) so S was quite exhausted for school the next day. Poor A was also exhausted as I have to wake her up and take her along to drop S at her school so she ends up getting up and having her breakfast early even on non daycare days!

Myself and another mom in S class wentto their school and spoke to the children about Diwali. We split the class in half, and showed one half a small video about the origin of Diwali -attaching the YouTube link..

Diwali story for children : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCrvOKOp0oA

There is one gory scene in this in which Lord Rama beheads Ravana, so we had to pause before that part and forward over it so as to not expose young children to such violence (I grew up watching large effigicies of Ravana and his brother being burnt, but that was another time and age..). We had divided each class in two so that they could see the video more easily, and we decided to talk about Diwali in both the classes of that year , and each set watched the video twice, so in all there were 8 pausing and fast forwardings and ensuring that there was no accidental showing of violence! We showed it on mute and spoke over the animation.

While one half of the class was watching the video, the other half was doing the Diwali activity with the other mom. This was basically sticking paper picture of diyas on cards, colouring them in, sticking stars and other glittery stuff on it and basically making a Happy Diwali card they could take home. Each kid also got a Diwali sweet and a Diya (except poor S, we didn't have enough diyas !!). It was nice speaking about Diwali to the kids, and after school, S kept saying Happy Diwali.

I've got my mom to buy diyas and crackers for us to celebrate Diwali when we come there in December. Till then...wish you all a very Happy Diwali..

Children talk

"S stop seeing the I Phone and talk to mummy". Somehow I thought I would not be having to say this for another few years at least!

Usually on the way back from school, S and I chat about what she did in school that day. Today, I was busy chatting with another mom before getting into the car and absentmindedly agreed to S's request that she play on the I phone. And when I started talking to her in the car I got no response other than "I'm playing on the I phone".

Sigh, i wonder what the teen years will bring...

London trip, children activities

Just back (ok when i started this post a couple of weeks back) from a weeks holiday in London. We had a great time, meeting old friends, eating all sorts of yum food, playing in the parks with the girls, going for musicals and general lazing around. Am splitting the London post in 2 parts, with the first focused on what activities we did with the kids, and the next one on all the restaurants we ate in and some of the non kiddy stuff we managed to squeeze in!

London is amazing , among other things for the range of activities it has for kids. I had shortlisted 4 musems to take S to (A would tag along but did not really expect her to appreciate much there!) but we managed to go to only two.

The first one was the Musuem of Natural History which had a special exhibition on dinosaurs. As soon as you enter the musuem there is a big skeleton of a dinosaur, and inside there was an entire section dedicated to them. S was not much interested in the history, but was quite amazed at the range of dinosaur skeletons on display. I was taken with a skeleton which it had taken them 19 years to research and assemble, what patience! At the end of the exhibit they had set up a dinosaur replica which was quite big and moved around and growled (is that the correct term?). S was a bit scared when it came near her, but A was most non perturbed and cheerily waved bye to it! After the dinosaur section we went to the animals section of the museum, which had a wide range of animals (stuffed, not the cuddly types). There was a section on mammals, and tons of stuff for me to learn as well. Both the kids like animals (we've been to the zoo some 5 times in the last 5 months) and spent quite some time in this section. These two sections itself took more than 2 hours and the kids patience was running out, so we decided to call it a day at the musuem and left to grab a late lunch outside.

The growling dinosaur

After a couple of days we went to the Science Museum. This was located right next to the Musuem of Natural History and very close to where we were staying. The Museum's basement has a Garden section for young children (2-5 years) and S and A were happy playing with boats in the water, learning about shadows, music tones etc. Then we tried to involve S in a bit more advanced scientific stuff and took her to the automotive section which had a range from steam engines to rockets. But she was not that mpressed and wanted to go back to the Garden area

and play! Finally we compromised on a Imax 3D movie about animal rescue and the hubby took her for a 45 mins show while I walked around the musuem with A. A was asleep in the pram so I decided to check out the Maths section and felt most ashamed that I remembered nothing of the integral and differential calculus and was amazed at some of the stuff on display- such as the complex polygons etc. It would have been nice to explore some of the other sections of the Science musuem, but after the movie S had had enough of the Science museum and was raring to get out and play!

In the Garden section of the Science Museum

Then there were the parks....

Lady Diana Memorial Playground: This is in a corner of the Hyde Park, and with its collection of varied playitems quickly became the favourite for S, and we ended upgoing there 2-3 times. The main attraction is the ship and you could climb right upto the top. They also enjoyed the series of musical instruments- drums you could hit with a stick, xylophone with a hammer, a piano you could jump on, a rotating inward drum, two spinning circles etc. The teepees were also interesting and many kids were inside having their own picnic. There was a section which had wooden sheep and tunnels and S had a ball climbing on top of the sheep, crawling through the tunnel etc. There were the usual swings, slides, sandpits etc, but the main attraction were these offbeat items.

Battersea Park : This is such a beautiful park and my favourite. We only had a couple of hours to explore it as we were meeting friends for a late lunch elsewhere so we immediately headed to the adventure playground. It's for 5 years plus, but many of the activities could be done by younger kids so S managed to go on most of them, and we avoided the slightly elder (and more adventurous activities) like the bouncy castle (there were older kids bouncing so vigorously on this I was sure S would fall off the minute she went on it). Her favourite was the tyre on which you sit and are swung from one side to the other, and the really high slide ( i was scared to go down it as the speed at which you went down was directly proportional to your weight). She enjoyed the ropes (you had to climb up an incline holding only the rope) and a sliding platform (a kind of box which is about 10 ft X 10 ft ) which keeps inclining from side to side as you run from one side to the other. After some time we went to the younger playground just outside so that A could have a go as well, and some of our friends joined us there. They have a daughter who is S age and both of them ran around the park having a blast. We then went to the children's zoo in Battersea Park and that was really nice as well. It's got smaller animals like ponies, goats, otters and children can reach out and pet some of them. There were also many playareas within the zoo and S was more interested in playing on them with her friend than seeing the animals. They were busy going down tunnels, bouncing on the trampolines, sticking their heads in animal cutouts and climbing up fire engines, and I had a tough time getting S to leave the zoo (we were getting terribly late for the lunch) and she agreed only with a promise that her friend will come and visit us in Zurich soon.

The sliding platform in the adventure playground

Kew Gardens : This was a bit poorly planned by us and we ended up reaching there with only 11/2 hours to see the entire gardens and have our lunch (before leaving to catch the matinee of the Lion King musical, detailed below). We went straight to the kids section which comprises an indoor "Creepy Crawlies" with an interactive exploration area for children and an outside Treehouse section which is a playground with high structures for children to climb up and run around in. There are many different kind of playstructures in this like thin inclined blocks for kids to walk on, a large swing to swing from one tree to another, bug shaped bouncy things (i f

orget the correct termn!) The cafe had a nice children's menu and for once S ha something new (baked potato with cheese). I was most unhappy in the cafe as there were two agressive pigeons jumping onto tables looking for food and I am moritified of birds, especially pigeons. We had a quick lunch and ran from there. We missed out on the greenhouse which a friend mentioned had a lovely collection of lilies and the main attraction the Xstrata Treetop Walkway, a 18 metre high 200 metre walkway around treetops. Note to self - next time keep at least 4-5 hours for Kew Gardens.

Wandsworth Common: We were meeting my school friends and their families in an open air cafe in this park and the kids got a chance to enjoy this beautiful big park as well. This was a bit far from where we were staying - we had to change two buses and walk about 1 km from the bus stop to reach the middle of this park, but it was worth it. The cafe had a great kids menu and was next to the playground and once we were through with our lunch, the guys kept the kids busy in the playground outside while we girls caught up for a gossip (I was meeting these girls together after 18 years! and there was so much to catch up on). But the playground must have been nice as the kids played for ages, finally only coming back inside after it got too cold to play outside. The park had the usual lake, bowling green etc in addition to large football fields and lawns.

Hyde Park: We went to Hyde Park a couple of times as well. The first time it was late in the evening and we just walked by the lakeside, went near the ducks and spent some time running around in the grass. The second time it was afternoon and we played frisbee on the large lawns, and S and A were thrilled seeing squirrels running around looking for acorns. The squirrels are quite brave and come right next to you and don't move away even if you go closer to take a pic! But overall I found Hyde Park a bit too big. We missed finding the kiddie playgrounds both times, and the weather was a bit too cold to just sit down and laze around in the grass.

The other kiddie things we did were:

Lion King the Musical : I took S to see this musical. She's seen the movie about a 100 times,

and I've read the book to her another 50 times. She knows all the characters and is quite excited about seeing animals. The website said that children above 3 were allowed, but it was recommended for children above 5. The site also said that if the children make noise then we maybe asked to leave without a refund. So S was warned many times that she had to be very quiet in the theatre and not talk loudly. We went for the Wednesday matinee show from 2:30-5 pm, and it was still housefull. It was awesome to say the least. Amazing. The characters, the singing, the dancing, the way they've done the dresses for animals (the cats especially) and the main characters- Pumba, Timon, Zhazhu, each one of them was exceptional. The young Simba and Nala were acted by children and I was really impressed how well they could sing and dance and were so natural on the stage. I would highly recommend this for adults and for children. S was fine most of the time and thrilled when Pumba and Timon came on and Hakuna Matata was performed . She got a bit tired by the end of it, being asked to keep quiet for 21/2 hours was a bit much for her and we'd had a hectic morning at Kew Gardens, so she dozed off and missed the last climatic scene in which Simba fights with Scar. But she had fun, and so did I.

Hamleys : We rounded up the holiday with a trip to Hamleys, one of the oldest and largest toy stores in London. The girls were enchanted at the entrance itself...there were people dressed up and blowing bubbles while you enter and a man inside blowing balloons and giving them to the children (he was demonstrating a tube of balloon paint which you could mix and blow into a balloon with various colours). The store had employed a pretty smart marketing tool, they had employes demonstrating the wondrous toys at many points on every floor, starting from magic sets, to remote control cars, to boomerangs which come back to you after doing a full circle, a hoop you can control without touching, and I was tempted to buy quite a few, for myself, in the name of the girls. A's favourite part was the cuddly toys section and S insisted on candy from the sweet shop. We ended up buying quite a few toys and books for S (English books in Zurich are very expensive) including her current favourite from school "Stick Man".

It was overall a great time for the kids, and we were lucky to have taken a service appartment so close to the parks and the musuems. Must go again soon, next time I'll try to take S to a puppet show and a circus! They have them here as well, but they are in German!!

Note to Myself : 1

Don't schedule anything during your toddler's naptime which you can't get out of within 1 minute

Yesterday I decided I'd had enough of looking like a hairy bear and decided to wax myself in the afternoon during the children's nap. S usually sleeps like a log so nothing to worry about, but A has a habit of waking up after an hour and having to be tapped back to sleep. So I had one hour to get my stuff done.

But suddenly A decided to wake up in half in hour and started howling loudly. I was in the middle of waxing my arm, so had to rush out with the wax strip stuck to my arm, wearing a towel and rock A back to sleep. 10 minutes later I rushed back to the bathroom and decided to hell with it, I'll leave the right arm half done and just quickly have a bath before she wakes up again. But no, just as I was pulling that strip off, again A woke up and this time she took 15 mins to get back to sleep. In the meanwhile some of my hair had slipped from the ponytail and got stuck in the wax on my arm, and I had to pull it off (ouch!!).

I managed to get in a quick shower and then watched as A slept peacefully for the next 11/2 hours.

Never again..

Coffee mornings; Still more technological advances that continue to amaze

So I volunteered to be a class mom in S school , and one of the responsibilities is to organise coffee mornings/ evenings or lunches with parents so that (a) they get to know each other, and (b) discuss common ideas/concerns .

There are two class moms per section and there are two sections in the preschool year. We decided to host a common introductory coffee morning for both sections as the children in both sections know each other (they have snacks together daily, and celebrate birthdays etc together) and we felt it would be nice for the parents also to know each other. And it turned out to be a good idea. Firstly the budget was bigger as we could combine two sections (yes we have a budget for organising coffees!) and also since all parents would not turn up we would at least have a decent turnout for the coffee morning so it wouldn't be only us four coffee moms chatting with each other.

We divided the work amongst us and my responsibility, other than sending out reminders to parents and catching them when they come to pick up their kids and reminding them about the coffee morning (I've never followed up more!!) was to get the croissants and bread. I arrived with it, late as usual (in my defence I was waiting to give a lift to another class mom in S school, and the venue was in the main school (where S will go next year, the preschool is in a smaller campus about 15 mins away from the main school) and when I reached was really surprised to see a table laid out with a lace table cover, beautiful decorations, nice plates with slices of ham, cheese spread out and chocolate cake, jam cake etc in beautiful dishes. I never felt more shoddy with my stainless steel plate for the breads and microwave glass vessel for the croissants!

One of the co organisers was carrying a pink and white polka dot stroller suitcase in which she had brought all the stuff and was telling us how her Grade 6 daughter refused to walk with her when she was coming inside the school because of the bright suitcase. I had to laugh. And here i was worried about S wanting to be a pink pig for the Halloween party coming up.

Coming back to the coffee morning, there were about 14 of us, and one of the class moms is also a part time teacher for the other class and was telling us (after we bombarded her with questions) about how the children go for their Waldkinder (walk in the woods) walk each Monday morning for about 2 and 1/2 hours. I was amazed, S walking for 2 and 1/2 hours. It seems they walk for about 1/2 hour, then they reach a place where they do some activities in the woods such as scratchings on leafs , collecting sticks for making stick men, collecting acorns and walnuts etc and then walk back for about 45 mins. The teachers are still exploring new areas and trying to figure out whether they can go to a place in the woods used by a local school for their Waldkinder which has a place for bonfire, toys etc or whether to make their own place. Wow these kids really have a good time. No wonder S wants to go to school everyday (touchwood!).

We also spoke about the cooking lessons, and what was nice was that some parents were combining this with their festivals to cook something typical of their culture. For eg today is Jewish New year and yesterday two of the moms got together and made a Jewish dish (i forget the name) in the class, and spoke to the children about the significance of honey (to have something sweet so that the coming year is sweet) to them, made a honey cake as well, and also got the children to make bee cut outs from paper. And this is the parent's initiative itself. Am thinking I should do something for Diwali. And its not only with the cooking. One of the fathers mentioned that he had gone to the school to read books to the children and he read the stories in French , and the children loved it.

The class is really international and I think kids at this age can adjust so well. S came to me the other day and said that a boy in her class spoke only German and I asked how she spoke to him and she only smiled and gave me a funny look as to why it should be an issue? And the father said the same thing, they have just moved from France and the children know only French but instead of putting them in the French school they've put them in this school so they pick up English. His daughter who is in the preschool has adjusted very well and is having no problems in the class. His son who is older is finding it difficult. I think its really awesome for S to have such exposure at such a young age.

The coffee morning ended with discussions on outings to be organised with the kids during the October holidays and various suggestions- some homework for me and the other class moms!

And I continue to be amazed with how technology has changed our lives. Today I got an email from the school to go online and book an appointment with the teacher for the coming parent-teacher meeting, using some Doodle application. With that I could see what time slots are free and book in advance. Far cry from the days my mom used to be first in the parent teacher conference on the second Saturday of every month as the rush used to be the least then! Ok I know you're wondering what is the big thing here and I agree. In office I always used to hear from the old timers how different it was when there were no laptops, when there was no intranet to circulate credit notes and credit notes were approved physically by circulation, and there was no mobile so people would not be available 24X7. But I never gave it a second thought as I had no reference point. I had not worked in such circumstances and had nothing to compare the situation with. Similarly in B school I could not imagine not having a computer center or any such thing. It is hitting home only now as I find S doing things which I had done 30 odd years ago and suddenly it feels so strange how much things have changed. And how old I've become! Sigh, soon A will know how to the use the I phone better than I do. S already does.

Technological advances

When I was in school, communication between teachers and parents was mostly through letters/notes/reports put in the child's bag or given to the children to give to their parents. Details of forthcoming parent teachers meeting would be passed on through the children. I being the earnest, hardworking student that I was would immediately pass on all such school notes to my mom, while my ingenious brothers would hide all that they could. They even convinced my mom that there was no PTA meetings in their new school during their 11th/10th standard, and imagine my mom's surprise when she met a teacher while she was shopping alongwith my brother and the teacher accused her of being a lazy parent and not coming for any PTA meetings.

Anyway cutting to the chase, communication between school teachers and parents was not very regular and usually through the children.

And then S tells me today that a boy T in her class did not wear his jacket when they went walking to the woods (its actually quite a big deal as its very cold here now and inside the school its heated so kids don't easily agree to wear jackets in anticipation of the cold outside) and the teacher told T that she would send an email to his mom that he was not wearing his jacket!!!!

I couldn't help smiling. Agree that everything is online now, all school events are put up on the site, the weekly bulletin is online, but a pre school teacher sending an email to a parent about a child, and the child understanding what an email is. I found it quite funny. And imagine, now kids will have to be doubly ingenious to breakthrough this cosy nexus of teacher-parents. How will they now hide information from their parents? Hack their parents email accounts and delete all teacher's mails? Break their mom's iphones and put viruses in the home computer? The mind boggles...

Dear Ajja and Ajji

Dear Ajja and Ajji

You left just yesterday but we already miss you terribly.

Ajja, you came daily to drop me at my school and pick me from my school, never mind that you you had to rush through your morning coffee, or skip it completely sometimes and catch a hurried breakfast afterwards, or rush through a morning activity between the dropping and the picking up. You spoke to my teacher, asked me daily how my day was , what I did, whom I played with and even remembered the names of my class mates. A adds, Ajja you felt so sad when you came to drop me and heard me crying as soon as mummy parked the car and tried to cheer me up. When you came to pick me up, you always said cheerful things and tickled me from the front of the car to improve my mood.

Ajja, you let us destroy your playing cards set. S says, you taught me the four suits in cards (something even Daddy does not know yet) and am waiting for you to teach me bridge when I grow up. A says, you patiently watch as I throw the cards all around the room, or start bending them, happily babysit us and play silly games like wearing rubber bands/bindis etc to keep us amused. You never get angry with us even when we shout loudly during your afternoon nap, or barge into your room looking for a change of clothes (S specialty).

Ajji dear, you love and pamper us unconditionally. S says, you tie my hair up every morning (and make sure its well brushed and oiled, not hurriedly put into a ponytail like mom does) and never lose your patience however much I scream. You read so many stories to me, in the afternoon at night during the day whenever I ask for one. You give up your afternoon nap to do activity with me and still have the energy and enthusiasm to take me to the park while mummy has her German class. You whip up new delights for me to eat and patiently watch as I dilly dally over my milk and food.

And A says, I am nannoo and you are ammamma. . You are my big mommy. Always finding time to sit in the toyroom and play with me, teach me drawing, entertaining me while mummy tried to feed me, and consoling me when I fight with my big sister. You involve me in all activities you do with akka, be it drawing, reading, puzzles. You don't mind when i open all your creams and liberally apply them over myself and you, attack and destroy all your bindis and general make a complete mess on your bed. You patiently play with me in the afternoon, while mummy is either napping (lazy mom) or out somewhere and put me gently to sleep when I'm tired, not when you are feeling tired. You always find time to pick me up and hug me even when you're in the middle of cooking. At the park you watch as I run after S trying to do whatever she does, and keep all the pebbles I keep coming and giving you.

We miss sitting on your bed, putting the fan on and playing with you and Ajja. Come back soon.

We can't wait to see you in December. Do remember to put in the second swing!

Love S and A

The concern is overwhelming

So today was one of those exhausting days with school drops and pick ups, exercise, grocery, doctor's visit, park etc all squeezed in and literally no time to sit down and catch my breath and I was quite exhausted by the end of it.

When i was giving S her bath at night she looks at me and says "Mamma you are looking tired". I say, "Yes dear, today was very tiring" Then she again looks at me and says "You are looking sad". I say "No dear, I'm just very tired, I did blah blah blah blah today".

She looks at me for some time and looks worried, and I think she's going to tell me to relax or offer to clean up her toys at night or something to that effect, when she looks at me and says in a worried tone "So who will read books to me at night?"

Clearly she has her priorities right...

Pizza time

S had her first cooking session today in school. Once a week the teacher takes small batches of children in the class and cooks alongwith them. Today was S turn and she helped the teacher make salami and corn pizza. She proudly showed it to me when i picked her up from school, and ate half of it in the car (she is such a fuss pot when it comes to pizza otherwise and wants absolutely no toppings on them!). Her daddy got the other half at dinner time at home (i couldn't have it due to the salami :( and proudly pronounced that it was the best pizza he's had in Zurich!

S has been offering to help me with the cooking when she sees me struggle in the kitchen and keeps saying that when she grows up she will buy the vegetables and cook in the kitchen. No dear, its your time to play and have fun. And make fun things in class. Which reminds me, moms also get to volunteer to cook in the school, have been too lazy to put down my name..should get around to doing it soon. Any suggestions what to make?

Just an update

The update for this month

1. S has started sleeping on her own! We got her a Car Bed (Shaped liked Lightning Mc Queen from Cars) and kept it in our bedroom itself, and she's taken very well to it. Sometimes she asks me whether any crocodiles will come, but usually she falls asleep pretty fast after being tucked in and is finally getting a good night's sleep without being kicked and poked by A. In the mornings she climbs onto our bed for huggy time before the morning routine starts.

2. I got my car. Yippee. I got a Blue Renault Clio and am highly thrilled with it. Its a manual car and its quite strange to have the gear on the right hand side, but its a small car and easy to drive and park. I'm still getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road and the other day on the way back from the park , I took a turn onto the main road and was about to drive on the left hand side when I saw some cars coming towards me and quickly shifted to the right. The left hand drive is also difficult to get used to, and I find myself leaving too much place on the left hand side of the car and too less on the right (sometimes end up scraping the kerb). Am highly scared of the trams here and the 10 000 road rules so I'm only driving the kids to school and back and slowly venturing to other closeby places like the park, the doctor's clinic etc. My main three handicaps are parallel parking (can;t do!), starting on an incline (big issue here as we live on a hill, I use the handbreak everytime I start on an incline otherwise the car starts sliding backwards) and being a big scaredy cat (and driving very slowly)- I've got many honks and frustrated looks from the people in the cars behind as most of the roads in the city are narrow and you can't overtake easily. Maybe I should get an L board and people will be more patient!

3. My parents are here and the girls are loving it. S was anyway very close to my parents and A is also now becoming very attached to them. In the mornings my mom gets S ready for school, S dresses herself but insists that her Ajji brush her hair and put two rubber bands and four clips for her! My dad comes with me to drop and pick S at/ from school and listens intently to what she did that day at school. Then S afternoon nap time has been replaced with activity time with her Ajji and bedtime has my mom reading her favourite books to her. A plays with her Ajji while I drop S at school (after they leave she will have to come with me to drop and pick up S) and is totally thrilled with the small things my mom has - a clip box for S, alarm clock, powder box etc . Today after I got A back from the daycare, my mom opened the door and A ran into her arms. Sometimes I really wish we were back in India so the kids could spend more time with their grandparents. They will never get such unconditional love and affection here.

4. A's break in period at the daycare ended today. It spanned a week. The first day I sat with A inside the whole time . The teacher sat with us and tried to engage A in some play activity. The second I sat with her for half an hour, then said bye to her, waited outside for 45 minute and came back. The third day I sat with her for twenty minutes, then said bye to her, walked around outside for 1 hour and came back. The fourth day i just dropped her off and said bye at the door and picked her up after 1 1/2 hours. And today, I just dropped her off and picked her up after 2 hours. Touchwood, its steadily improving. She still howls when I leave, but I believe from the teachers that she settles down pretty soon. Today I left my key behind when I dropped her off and had to go back inside after 2 mins, and while she was howling when I left, 2 mins later she was silent. And asleep when I went to pick her up after 2 hours! Dear A, I hope you are happy and safe in the daycare and have fun playing with other children and teachers there. Also I hope your behaviour doesn't change as soon as I blog about how you are improving!

5. And finally the weather has been burning hot here. 31 degreees everday and it feels much hotter as the sun rays are more direct here and the places are not equipped for such hot weather, most of them don;t have AC/fan. I'm actually looking forward to the autumn setting in!

Growing up

S recently turned three and a half, and A one and a half. For me, this is a big milestone because when A was an infant then through the sleepless nights (for the first month and a half she slept only around 4 am, and from the eighth month onwards she suddenly started waking every hour) and the difficulty in feeding (from the time she was 3 months to 7 months A would refuse milk every other feed and feeding her was an exercise in frustration), and through the difficult periods with S (she would scream when I started feeding A and have sudden mood swings related to me spending time with A) at the back of my mind I kept thinking let S turn 3 and 1/2 and A turn 1 and a 1/2 and things will improve.

And touchwood they have. So mothers with young kids, have hope.

Physically, the work required is much lesser. Their meal times and sleep schedules coincide. I continue to make life difficult for myself by feeding them different food from each other, but I A already asks for whatever S is having, and feeds herself the same from a bowl while I try to feed her her normal diet. So I guess very soon their diets will also coincide.

Emotionally, the two are great company for each other. In an earlier post I had mentioned how great a baby sitter S is. And its true, I'm able to get a lot of the housework done with S entertaining A. Half the time in the kitchen I can hear S inventing some game for the two of them to play together, or giving A a lecture on how she was not supposed to do something. The other day I found them both lying on the bean bag together and reading books!! S was looking through the pictures in her favourite book, and A ever ready to copy her sister was also lying down and reading a book (which was upside down).

If S was not around I would find it a lot tougher to look after A. When we go on holidays, many a time the kids would be playing quietly (or not) together while the hubby and I can chat- whether it be at the beach when they play in the sand together, or in the hotel room where they'll be jumping on the sofa together. They have a ready playmate in each other, and also get confidence in being together- S used to refuse to sit alone in a playroom in a restaurant while the hubby and I ate, but now with A in tow, the two of them can keep each other busy for a while in a separate play room while we have a meal without constant interruption. The park is also much easier as A insists on doing whatever S does and is now physically capable of doing many of the things- swings, slides ( not climbing up though), sandpits, paddle pool etc. And S does look out for A quite a bit. Sometimes I can just sit on the bench and surf the net while the two of them play in the sandpit secure in the knowledge that if A does something very naughty I will hear a sharp note of admonishment from S.

Yes there are challenges and difficulties. I find it difficult to do activities with S because A wants to do everything, so if S is writing something in a book A will also want a pen (and the next thing I know the sofa is full of scribbles!) and I'm able to spend less time with S and A individually than I would have liked to. Sometimes I feel S is getting slowed down because of A, because A wants to do everything S does and I end up telling S to stop doing something, or do it later (which never finally happens). Hopefully this will get solved once their school routine is set in because twice a week S will be in school on days when A is not at daycare and I'll get to spend time with A, and once a week A will be in the daycare for a couple of hours after S school gets over, and right now I've promised myself to do something fun with S for those couple of hours every week.

So my darling S and A, you've both grown so much and adjusted to having each other around. I hope you always remain the best of friends (and make life easy for me :))

First days of school

Last week we had the first day of school for S and first day of daycare for A. I was quite impressed with S school and the way they handled the break in period. The previous week S received a postcard from her classteacher welcoming her to the school and saying how much S would enjoy it. I put it up on the fridge and S was most excited. She managed to remember the name of the teacher, which was quite a mouthful and proudly showed the card to daddy, Ajja and Ajji(who arrived early last week). The first day for the children was split into two first days with half the class attending on the first day and the second half attending on the second day so the teacher got to spend more time with the children on a one on one basis. The timing was also shorter with the session only from 8:40-11 am and increasing upto the normal timings of 8:30-12 pm from the second week (next week). S ' turn came on the second day which was good as we had the parent teacher orientation the previous evening and S came along and met her teacher there.

The first day was a challenge for both me and S. First we had to all get up at 7 am (and not the 8:30 am we have all become used to) and finish the morning routine of milk, A's breakfast, their potty routines, getting dressed etc etc by 8:10 am. And I had to drive to S school (I really really regret not driving more in Mumbai now as I'm so scared to drive here now and actually its much simpler as the traffic is extremely orderly here) and I have been driving only some 3 times here (my car came last Friday, yippee!) and refuse to drive without a trained driver next to me (just in case of any emergency like me completely panicking and being unable to drive but more on that in another post). So for a couple of days before S' first we had a dry run. waking up the kids at 7 am, getting them ready by 8:15, me driving with the hubby to S school and back. On D day, the hubby had to be away in Germany for a conference so my dad kindly escorted me to S school. I prepared S throughout the journey- mummy can't come inside with you, I'll come and pick you up at 11 am, you know the teacher you met her yesterday, have fun and play with toys. But still when I dropped her off in her class room I was worried, what if she got scared and starts crying? Will they care for her and pamper her the way they used to in her school in Mumbai? Or will they expect her to be old enough to look after herself? But I needn't have worried, Thank God, as the first day went off really well. I left S inside her class, kept her bottle of water and box of biscuits on the table (no time for her breakfast, she just had enough time for milk) and waved good bye and left immediately. When I went to pick her up at 11 am (again kindly escorted by my dear Dad) she was fine , happy, and the teacher said that she had been comfortable throughout. She had played, had snacks (fruits and bread) and done activities quite happily. Luckily, touchwood, the second day went well as well, and now its the weekend.

Dear S, you are growing up so fast, you've become so much more independent, and confident now. I hope you are always happy and comfortable in your school, and remember your mummy will always be waiting to hear how your day went.

A had her first day in the daycare on Friday. There is a breakin period of 5-6 days where the parent has to be with the child in the daycare and gradually start leaving the child there for short intervals of time, and by the end of 5-6 days once the child is settled in they are left for the full period. I've enrolled A for three half days, keeping fingers crossed. On Friday we were there only for an hour. In the first half hour the children formed a circle with the teachers/caregivers and sang German rhymes. A was least interested and refused to participate and sat on my lap watching the proceedings with little interest. I tried to do the actions (as i could not sing along in German) but A was not impressed. At one point she got quite aggravated and threw herself on the floor in the middle of the circle much to the other children's astonishment. The second half hour went better. The younger children (3 months to 2 years) moved to the other part of the daycare and A started playing with the toys there by herself while I sat at a table and spoke to one of the teachers. She was quite happy for some time by herself but after a while she came next to me and insisted on sitting on my lap. I knew it was time to go. From next week they've asked me to bring her in for longer and start going out for brief intervals and the plan is that by next Friday I should be able to leave her for her full session (8:30-11:30). The teachers seemed to be quite kind and caring, they had the younger ones on their laps and were reading out books to them and the children all seemed happy. So I hope A settles down well next week. A you are a clingy little thing, most happy on my lap, smiling at other people, I hope you are happy in the daycare and are well cared for, and have fun and make friends. I have not thought about what the option is if A is unhappy, guess we will take things as they come.

So the girls are off to school. People ask me what I will do with all this FREE time. Well other than the fact that I will be dropping and picking them up for half the day, I also have lots of exciting housework which needs to be done and cooking so that I can spend time with the kids once they are back , so as of now don't have any exciting plans of what I;m going to do. Just want the kids to be in some kind of routine because once the winter months set in it will be difficult to take them out to parks/other activities as easily and then the school/daycare will have to be one of their main entertainment avenues!

The benefits of Hindsight

December 2009-March 2010

Me, listening to November Rain in my room in campus, for the 100th time, crying bitter tears about not clearing any interviews, convinced I'll never get a decent job, end up in a PSU, not have a great career. Rewind song, lock door, puff away and weep copious tears.

Forward to August 2011

Me, running on the treadmill, listening to November Rain. Watching S and A sleep in the bedroom. No immediate plans of entering the rat race. Looking for excuses to delay applying for a job as much as possible. Know that a year or two is not going to make such a big difference. Rewind song, increase speed and incline on the treadmill, run some more.

Aah the benefit of hindsight. If someone had told me none of this matters 11 years back..

Luzerne and Engelberg

Our trip to Luzerne and Engelberg was our first overnight weekend trip in Switzerland, which we took in early May. Just getting around to post about it now.Luzerne is about 1 hour's drive from Zurich and we reached there in time for the 12 o clock lunch cruise on the Luzerne lake. Beautiful cruise which went alongside mountains, literally took our breath away. Spent half the time sipping wine in the inner deck and the other half gazing out at the mountains on the outer deck. We were lucky with the weather, it was a sunny day and largely cloudless and we could see far into the horizon.

The lunch menu did not look particularly appetizing and we decided to try our luck at Kanchi restaurant back at Luzerne which we had heard about (the only South Indian restaurant near Zurich). Unfortunately by the time we reached the restaurant it was2:45 and it was shut! Could not get over this, mostof the restuarants back in Bombay have their peak lunch time crowd at 3 p.m. Anyway we spent another half an hour looking for restaurants, but most of them shut around 2-2:30 so we had to grab a quick lunch at the Migros take away (which was not that great). We drove to Engelberg , which is a mountain town and reached there around 5:30 p.m. Our room had a balcony and had a lovely view of the mountains and after hurriedly preparing and feeding their kids their dal rice we sat back and enjoyed the view. The town was pretty quiet and the kids played in the central park for sometime after which we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which finally had some spicy food.

View of the mountains from the hotel room

The next morning we drove to the Titlis base station and started our journey up Mt. Titlis. The first stretch is a cable car ride and we had the car to ourselves. A fell asleep for the whole ride and S was thrilled to see pigs (her current favourite, obviously because of their colour) in the farm over which the cable car was moving. We saw cows with bells, making lots of noise while grazing and a farm barn with a trampoline outside and spent many a minute giggling with S imagining pigs jumping on the trampoline. As you can see our conversations hardly border on the intellectual :)

The cable car ride up, the farm barn with the trampoline

The second leg of the climb up Mt Titlis was much more crowded and was on a 360 degree

rotating cabin (Rotair). The concept is nice, you can see the snow covered mountains in front andas the circle rotates around you can see the valley and the field you are leaving behind. But unfortunately it was peak tourist season and we were pressed like sardines in the closed cabin. I was worried for the children, making sure that they were comfortable and only too happy to get out at the second post. The third leg was a faster cable car, but much bigger with room for about 50-60 people on it, and we reached the top pretty fast. The top of Mt Titlis was breathtaking, snow covered mountains all around and lots of snow for S to play in. A was a bit overwhelmed by the snow and sat on my lap and refused to get up and walk around/play in the snow. S had a ball, making snowballs and throwing them at us, sliding down the slopes with the hubby/me and generally running around. It was very cold, and we decided to skip the snow fun activities. Actually I decided to skip it, since S and A are too young for it, and the hubby is not a fan of any activity involving height and speed. Next time.

The children got a bit cranky with the cold and we rushed to the open air cafeteria and fortified them with hot fries. As I mentioned it was peak tourist season and the main tourists are Indians (courtesy Yash Chopra films, can you imagine there was a cut out of Kajol-SRK in a DDLJ still on top of Mt. Titlis and many people taking photographs with it!) and Chinese. And in the table we were sitting, the others had brought their own Farsaan and were enjoying it with hot chai (pity they did not offer us any).

We had lunch in the self service restaurant mid way. They had a special Indian pizza which we tried, but just turned out to be the normal Margerita pizza with some carrots and haldi!!

Good trip, but too overcrowded. It was not fun standing and being squashed most of the way up and down, while carrying two kids. By the time we reached the base, we were exhausted and were pleasantly surprised to see a vendor selling samosas/vada paz, pav bhaji and masala chai. We hogged on the samosas and chai and was it ever so yummy. We then drove back to Zurich, reaching home around 6 p.m.

View from Mt. Titlis

As good things come to an end...

And so it is with the Harry Potter series. Just watched HP and the Deathly Hallow Part 2 during the week and was thinking about how I watched the first movie with the hubby on our honeymoon 10 years back, and the last one with a friend while the hubby was babysitting our two kids... how time flies.

I'm a big Harry Potter fan having read each book at least twice and watched each movie. I was introduced to the series by a friend in campus and read the first three books back to back, mostly all night sessions (aah I miss those days sometimes, when I could afford the luxury of reading all night and sleeping through half the day). The release of each of the other books was a major event and I would try to get my hands on a copy as soon as possible. The flight back from London to Mumbai during a holiday in 2003 felt considerably shorter as I was glued to Book 5 , Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In July 2007, when the last book was released I was on bed rest in Bangalore, as I had some difficulties in the first trimester of my pregnancy with S. The hubby on a visit to Bangalore to see me was ordered to go and get the book from any shop in Bangalore, and I spent the next few days huddled in bed, reading till late in the night. The only problem I have with the series, as with most books I read is that I am very impatient and when the book gets too interesting I need to know the ending. So for book 7 I had to know who survived,so somewhere halfway through the book I jumped to the end, and having read the end and satisfied my curiousity I could get on with the book. In the series my favourite has been the third one, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The twist in the end was extremely unexpected and gripping and I must have read the book at least 4-5 times!

As for the movie series, while it has not been faithful to the books and the books are much better in terms of character and plot development, I've enjoyed the movies too for the entertainment. And I also like to put a face to the characters, to the school etc. The hubby accompanied me to the first few movies, being in the early stage of our marriage where we felt we had to do everything together. Then came the realisation that its best we do some things separately, especially movies where I had to explain most of what was happening (and the movies can be quite confusing for non book readers),and I quickly found other HP enthusiasts to accompany me. My nephew it was for movie 6, a friends for movie 7(1) and for movie 7 (2) I was all set to go alone, till a friend here mentioned that her hubby also had no interest in the movie and was enthu to come along. I liked the last two movies the best. The pace was much faster and the story telling more compelling.

So with a heavy heart I bid adieu to the HP series.

But guess what, The girl with the dragon tattoo releases December 26th and I just finished reading Millenium 3! Will keep you posted :)