A day's work

This post is inspired by a post sent to me by a friend wherein a mom has detailed her day's activities in a post so that her kids would know, later in life, how busy she was bringing them up. Its also triggered by some comments of colleagues who asked how I was going to spend my time now that I was no longer working, and also the hubby who asked me once when I had not done something urgent which was to be done, what I was doing the whole day!! So here's what a typical day over the last two weeks has looked like Get up between 7 am- 8:30 am depending on when either S or A gets up. 8:30 if I'm lucky, 7 if S is unwell or A is cranky 8:30-10 am: Prepare S milk, prepare and feed A her breakfast, prepare S breakfast, sit with her at the table and convince her to eat while having my breakfast, pack S tiffin for school 10-10:15 am: Give A her morning milk, put her down for her morning nap 10:15-10:45 am: Bathe S, get her ready for school 10:45-11 :15 am : Wake up A, take A along to drop S in school 11:15-12:15 : Grocery shopping, or any errands which need to be run 12:15-1:15 : Give A her bath, feed her her lunch, have my bath while the cook keeps an eye on A 1:15-1:45: Take A and go to pick up S from school 1:45- 2:45 : Feed S her lunch, have my lunch, feed A her milk, put both kids to sleep 2:45- 4:45 : Rest for me!!! 4:45-5:30 : Feed A her evening snack, prepare S evening milk, get them ready for park/activity 5:30-7 : Park/activity 7-8:30 : Give S her soup,feed A her dinner, feed S her dinner 8:30-10 : Do nothing time. Sometimes play with the kids, read them a book, or generally lounge in front of TV while having dinner. Can't read a book or surf the net as A would want to sit on my lap and tear the book, or type on the keyboard! If I'm lucky the hubby is back by 9, or else post 10! 10-11: Both their milk, change to bedtime clothes and putting them to bed. S sleeps with the hubby, so really only putting A to bed. 11-12 am: Read a book, surf the net. 12 am- 7 am : sometime only wake up for A's night feed, or if A is cranky, end up getting up at least 3-4 times at night. Which is why I end up sleeping in the afternoon to make up for lost sleep. In between there's the many trips to the bathroom for both the kids, and if any of them is unwell, well large part of the routine goes for a toss! Sometime we manage to squeeze in time for meeting friends for lunch, or going over to their house, them coming over. Whew I'm tired from just writing this. And that too when I have a cook and a driver. In Zurich I won't have either so really wonder when I'm going to find the time to cook! So please don't ask me again what I do all day!

A farewell to Mumbai

I feel strange writing this post because for the last 11 years I've lived in Mumbai I've spent a lot of the time cribbing about the city, comparing it to Delhi and Bangalore which i prefer and generally finding fault with mostly everything in this city. Yes it has more than its fair share of problems- pollution, overcrowding, lack of facilities, small schools, nothing for kids to do in the weekend etc etc but I've spent a significant phase of my life here with so many varied experiences that I find myself getting quite emotional at the time of farewell. My experiences have been on three main levels

Family : This is where the hubby and I rented out first house together and set up the house together. It was a 2 bhk in Bandra (near Bandra village) and it had a funny second room, connected through the kitchen. But the hall was large and the wind circulation was amazing in the hall. We were so excited about moving in together after marriage, we had a housewarming party and called over a varied group of friends and the evening was spent with two groups sitting in two separate sides of the hall (one with the hubby's colleagues) and one with my college friends. My brother and the hubby's sister in law visited us in this house and I remember my brother walking down to the chatwalla outside our flats and eating a bhelpuri and me getting all stressed that it wouldn't be hygienic enough for his US returned tummy. My sis in law had come for the IIT fest and she has the same sleeping disorder (I call it that!) that the hubby does which is not being able to hear anything when they are sleeping. One afternoon I had given her the key to the house, and when i returned early she was asleep and didn't hear the door ringing for quite some time. So i had to sit in a neighbours house for an hour till she woke up! The next exciting event on the house front was our buying our own flat in Mumbai. It was a 3 bhk TDR flat meaning the society was not so great, but inside the flat was quite spacious and could be made bigger if you enclose the balconies. We loved our house from inside (we ended up hating the society and our neighbours and ultimately had to sell the flat) and had done up each room with a different design. The hall had an orange colour with gold flowers on it, and we had put up our collection of masks on a wooden plank over the wall. The entertainment room had one side with a 3D cube design and the other side had glass panelling for our books and DVD collection. One of the bedrooms had a sand finishing on the walls where we stuck the seashells the hubby had picked up on a beach in Pattaya. Later that was made the room where S slept with us and we bought a slidedown curtain with a white teddy bear design on blue background. The main bedroom did not have a specific paint motif, but we had cane pull down curtains on the windows and a small cane sheet on one of the walls to give the room an airy look. Over time we extended the outside of the hall and made it into a balcony and S spent many a happy hour in the balcony looking at the birds, waving at the neighbours in the opposite house and generally running up and down. It was in Mumbai that both our children were born. S was born in this house and I remember bringing S home from the nursing home, and my mom doing a small pooja at the door, and us putting S to bed in the Moses basket inside the crib. The hubby had bought a rocking chair for me to feed S (never mind that that ended up another story) and it was a cosy comfortable room for S and us to sleep in. S took her first crawl, first climb, first fall, second steps (first in Hyderabad Ajji's house) and spoke her first words in this house. Her favourite was the balcony and she would keep running up and down the balcony, hjiding behind the window and playing peek a boo with us. The drawing room was her toy room, and the entertainment room turned out to be her entertainment room as well and she used to love jumping from the sofa onto the hubby lounge chair and sliding down. I miss that house . A was born after we sold our flat and shifted into another appartment down the road. This had a separate toy room for the kids and did they enjoy it. S was forever playing teacups, playing clay, asking to be read books, doing puzzles in that room and A would keep crawling and later walking around the room, more or less keeping herself entertained. We had a small swing also set up in the balcony of our bedroom and both kids used to love swinging on it. S went to her first playschool in Mumbai, and to her first main school.She loved her main school - the children in her class, her teacher and the activities and looked forward to going to school daily. I personally found the school a challenge to pick up and drop S- it was very crowded as the entire area was a school complex and most of the schools would commence and finish at the same time. But S loved it and she learnt a lot in her one year there. To sum, our family started in Mumbai and there are many cherished memories of the time spent here

Work: My entire professional life (bar a 2 months summer placement at the end of first year at B school) has been in Mumbai. The first two years, we were living in a chummery provided by our employers and given that the employer had recruited a ton of us from our B school it felt like an extended campus stint. We were too junior in the organisation to have any real responsibilities and were the general dogsbody for any flunky work which no one else wanted to do. It was great fun, living independently, earning your first salary, meeting clients, gossipping about your colleagues. Our chummery was in way in the suburbs and the daily commute to office was close to an hour, and the weekend commute to reach a good theatre was more than a hour and a half. But we didn;t really mind. We were young, enthusiastic and really independent for the first time. Our team in office was pretty close knit, and office was a fun place, despite the long hours. The work was interesting and I got to work on many different kinds of transactions. Then after a couple of years, I started getting frustrated. My ratings were not great as I didnt get along well with the big boss, and I was lagging behing in promotions. Our group's focus also shifted and it was no longer a happening department in the company. Most of my colleagues had moved to other more interesting roles or left the company. I asked for and got a role change, but found i didnt like the role much. I shifted to another company. Hated it. Hated the boss and the job and daily thought about quitting. Somehow hung on. Then about 51/2 years back I moved to another company, in a different role and have not looked back since. I really liked my job, liked the team and my boss. I got to work on very interesting transactions, and while the hours were long I didn;t mind since the hubby was also a workaholic like me, and I was getting recognition for the work i put in. I found that I could imagine myself doing my boss role about 10 years down the line and that is the kind of role I really wanted to prepare myself for, which was a first for me, because in the previous organisations and roles, I didn't aspire to reach the senior role. But after having S, I found that the work timings were not sustainable, and while the organisation was amazing enough to give me flexi time for 3 months after my 6 months maternity leave, I found that after A was born that it was getting very difficult to manage work and kids. Firstly the job had become less exciting and secondly I felt I could not contribute my best working for the limited hours I could put in. The Zurich posting for the hubby came at an opportune time. Before I could get too frustrated at my job, and enabling me to quit while the memories were still good. So I hung up my working boots in Mumbai, who knows where and when I'll be working again.

Friends: I was lucky to have some of my closest college and post grad friends in Mumbai with me, for most of my time here. Lucky because I feel you make the best friends you have while you're growing up, and share so many experiences, and also because I'm really quite bad at making new friends. Over the last 11 years there have been so many occasions and times to meet and celebrate, and so many other memories of time spent together. Some occasions which readily come to mind are -the initial birthday celebrations in the Kandivli flats of all the flatmates (the suprise parties thrown), the get togethers in Kandivli when our batchmates from out of Mumbai were in town, the suprise bachelor party (post marriage) thrown for me by myfriends, my suprise baby shower at home, a baby shower we threw for our friend, a bachelor party for a friend at Hard Rock, a suprise birthday party for another friend at Tasting Room, my second baby shower, my farewell party, Holi at Kandivli, then the latest Holi with kids (so very different, yet both so much fun!), Diwali cards parties, train rides to town to watch movies, all night drinking and gossip sessions, movies, girls nights out, taboo, dinners, kids birthday parties..the list is endless. My only regret is that for the period when I was initially married, and later when S was born I couldnt make the time to meet my friends as much. But over the last few months (aided by some very good maids to look after the children) I have been able to meet them more often, and again when I find myself comfortable and back in the groove, I need to move on. I know, looking after 2 kids alone is not going to give me much time for socialising, but there's something to be said for picking up the phone and bitching to a good friend, or even being able to catch a cup of coffee, or a late drink after the kids are asleep with someone who is you friend, and not your husband's colleague, or your child's friends mom, who are likely to be the only friends I'm going to be making in the next few years. I will miss you guys, and hope to see you in Zurich sometime soon.

A win win situation

Feeding A has become an exercise in innovation and entertainment. As such A is not a fussy solid eater, unlike her sister S who used to fuss over every solid meal and had the remarkable ability to vomit out the entire meal after the last spoonful if she felt it was too much. A usually has about half her meal without too much fuss, and when the tummy is no longer hungry decides its more interesting to play or jump out of the bouncer. Earlier with the baby maid and a plethora of toys to distract her, her mealtimes were somewhat easier. But here with limited toys and no one to help distract her I find myself having to innovate at every meal time. Add to this, the fact that A has now outgrown the baby cereal I continue to feed her for some of her meals (really have to vary the food when I get to Bangalore).

Sometimes i can get by with a couple of books . Later I started filling a bag with small colourful packets of coffee/tea/sugar with the hotel has and gave it in A's hand to play with. The next stage after this got too boring was for me to throw these packets in the air, and quickly feed A when she was distracted. Then this became too boring. So it was on to stickers. First she was ok putting stickers on a book. Now S sits next to her and hands her stickers for her to put all over S face!! Really S is very obliging sometimes.

But this morning really takes the cake. A refused to open her mouth despite the range of entertainment on offer. Finally I got a jar of cheeselings and handed it over to A hoping she would be distracted for some time. She made me open it and put in on my hand, and proceeded to take one cheeseling at a time and put it into S mouth. Each time S opened her mouth for the cheeseling, A would also open it and I would quickly get in a spoonful of cereal. Needless to say this was a win win situation for all. Snacks were off limits for S for the last few days because of the tummy bug she had, and she got cheeselings out of this (and a fair amount). A had her quota of entertainment for the day. And I managed to get A fed!!! I need to find a better solution for the feeding quickly, or else most of my day in Zurich will go in feeeding A!

Magic moments

There's no two ways about it. Bringing up children is challenging, mentally, physically and emotionally. But there are more than the fair share of magical moments which make all the effort worthwhile and much more. I find that I tend to get lost in the day to day upbringing of the children- the feeding, the bathing, the school round, the park round, bed time etc and rarely take a step back to enjoy these moments. This point was driven home in two recent conversations. One was with a friend whom I was pestering on when she plans to have kids. She mentioned that after seeing and hearing me struggle with my two she was in no hurry! Another conversation was with a friend who had a baby and had had a similar conversation with her friend. She made a very valid point, we generally tend to only discuss the difficulties with our friends/colleagues -the sleepless nights, the feeding problems, the restrictions, the difficulties when they are ill, and rarely share the good times. I definetly find this so in my case. I am anyway a whiner and given an opportunity could go on whining about my job, my life, blah blah. But I find I am also hesitant about sharing the children's good times with others (with the exception of my mom to whom I give daily updates on all the good and bad things which happened that day) maybe because I feel they may not relate to it, or may find it odd why I am telling them such things. So here's a post to share some of the magical moments which come to mind, which will help me also take a step back and look at the broader picture

I love it when S returns from school and tells me what all she did that day, what craft she did, whom she played with

I love it when S comes to me and asks whether I'm feeling better and whether my jaw abbu (hurt) is ok now and reassures me that it will get ok tomorrow

I love S singing along and jumping around in musical bonding class and enjoying herself

I love both the kids jumping on the bed/on the hubby and me

I love the hubby doing supergirl to both kids / swinging both kids around vigorously and the kids squealing in delight

I love kissing their toes, and tickling their tummies and arms

I love their splashing in the bath tub, S covered in bubbles during her bath, and A vigorously splashing the water during her bath

I love all the naughtiness that A has started to do- she puts on the TV with a remote, climbs on top of the sofa and starts changing channels. She takes all the food stuff from the drawers and puts it in her pram. She keeps disconnecting the phone receiver from the phone body (not so funny if it doesn't go back)

I love it when A puts on the musical toy and starts dancing to it

I love taking them to the park, watching A's excitement on seeing the ducks and S trying to climb new things everyday

I love S goodnight kiss and hug and how she announces I'm going to give you a kiss and a hug

I love it when S crawls into my bed in the morning, or will keep and pat my face to wake me up and never complains when I refuse to wake up but just pull her up and make her sleep

I love you two, and now I find that the times I wish you guys would grow up faster (like when we're in a restaurant and A refuses to sit anywhere but my lap) are getting balanced out with the times I wish you two would not grow up so fast. I will miss my cuddly bundles with their ready (and one of them toothless) smiles

I love A saying mamma mamma throughout the day

A series of outings

Over the last 2 months I've been to more bars and restaurants than I've been in the last 2 years in Mumbai. Its nice to be able to get time with friends, especially since we'll be moving out shortly. Also who knows when I'll be able to manage a night out in Zurich- a) I don't know many people there and b) Here we have the maid to help the hubby with the kids dinner and sleep and in Zurich there will be no one.

The girlfriends have been amazing and obliging with my requests to go to this place and another, and some in the middle of the week. So here's a roundup of the places I managed to go to in the last 2 months

1. Escobar: A new bar in Bandra, which boasts of having the longest bar in India. Was ok, they refused to give us a table to sit despite most of the tables being empty saying that they were reserved (for an hour later!) and made us stand at the bar, and finally when we managed to convince them to give us a table which we promised to vacate when the reserved party showed up, they made us get up one hour after the reserved time, saying that the party had arrived then. The consensus at our table was that we were not generating enough revenue for them with our lacklustre drinking! The crowd was a mix of young pretty things and their gym hitting boyfriends and some oldies who were trying to get their groove back (we saw a guy dressed like Bappi Lahiri there!). After our unceremonious exit, we went to the Taj coffee shop for dinner. That was good fun, we could hear each other, we saw Robin Uthapa and the soup was amazing ( i was on my liquid diet courtesy the elastic bands then).

2. Cafe Mondegar: I love this place. We used to go there quite often when we first came to Bombay- travelling all the way by train from Kandivli to town and would usually go there before a movie or before going to another place for dinner. I love the jukebox there and have spent many a happy hour listening to GNR / Pink Floyd. The hubby and I also used to go there quite often (earlier when I was working town side, on some Friday nights, or later when we went into town to catch a movie). I had not been there for more than 4 years- after S was born I didn't have the enthu to leave her and go all the way to town, if we went out leaving her we would go closer in Bandra itself. But this time my parents were at home, and between them and the maid they could manage A and S sleep. The plan was to have a couple of drinks at Mondys and then go to Chez Vous for dinner, but we ended up enjoying the music at Mondys so much that we just hung around there and had our dinner.

3. Barbecue Nation: This was a dinner with my old team from office- the team which I joined in 2005, all of whom had quit before me (I was the last of the Mohicans as my ex boss puts it). We try to meet once in 6 months, and my move to Zurich was a good enough excuse. I don't like the food in Barbecue Nation that much (its the same starters every time) but it was great to catch a couple of drinks with your old colleagues and laugh over old times and bitch about the current set of people working there. Our earlier team was much closer than the team currently working in my office and I realised i really missed hanging out with these people in office. Its been much more impersonal and mechanical, the last couple of years in office and everyone only looking out for themselves

4. Salt Water Cafe: This was a weekday lunch with colleagues who were still working (ha it was so nice to tell them I am off home to catch a nap, you guys go back to work!). My elastics had just come off and I enjoyed the food- the veg lasagne was nice and the portion was not too big so you dont end up feeling bloated at the end of the meal. One of the colleagues is in another team and she gave us good masala on our ex bosses. Its amazing how political and vindictive some people can be.

5. Kobe Sizzler: The hubby and I used to go here very often about 4-5 years back. When we were not so weight conscious and it also used to be very close to our house. I used to love their Spaghetti sizzler and used to drench it with Worcetshire sauce. Through a large part of my liquid diet I used to think about the sizzler and drool!! I was determined to go there once I could eat a bit better. I was highly disappointed and am surely not going to miss this place. The food was awful- i think they are using poorer ingredients and not cooking the food enough, the worcetshire sauce was clearly diluted and even smelt old. I couldn't finish my food and neither could the hubby. Not going back there

6. Eat Around the corner: This is the newly vamped Just around the corner. Again, not impressed. The best thing about JATC was the salad, and how you had a good variety of veg salads and could pile up your plate and make a meal of only salads. Now they allow you to chose only one salad and can't mix two. Of course you can buy as many as you want, but if you want just a small piece of say the potato salad then you're stuck with buying the small portion, and it becomes difficult to eat more than two small portions. Which means while you could earlier mix 6-7 salads on your plate, now you have only 1-2. Also the variety has drastically come down, there will in all 6 veg salads today, while earlier there would have been at least 10. The portion of the food is also really small (for me at least) - I ended up having a thai green curry-rice as well as a small portion of rajma/chole salad! I was meeting an old school friend for lunch- after something like 16 years, so that was great. I got an update on what school mates who I was not in touch with were doing and we continued our gossip on our common dislikes!

7. Blue Frog : I'd never been to this bar ever and had heard such good reviews of it that I really have been wanting to go for ages. So in the last few days of the baby maid being there (she's off from Saturday) I convinced the hubby to come back early from work so I could go there with my girlfriends (we had to have an early night since they were working). I really liked the place. It was stand up comedy night and the first guy was really good. Of coure making jokes on the World Cup and on Big Boss is definetly a good start, but i have a sneaky suspicion I was the only one who understood his joke on Teletubbies! The other three stand up comedians were not that good and the last one, who insisted on only making pondy jokes was awful. There was a break for some time and then a band came on to play. They were alright, some songs were good, some average. I think I had too much wine since I started giving gyaan (and had to stop myself) and became all senti and emotional. My stomach had that queasy feeling all through the night- that feeling which comes when you drink too much and I even felt senti about that- its been ages since I had that feeling and who knows when I could afford that again (certainly not if I have to get up in the morning and look after 2 youngs kids the whole day, instead of being heavily reliant on the baby maid as i was today morning while i drink two cups of coffee and eat a heavy breakfast to get back to a normal day). Clearly i had a glass too many if I could get senti about my stomach feeling queasy. I liked Blue Frog, it has a nice ambience and would love to go there on retro night!

8. Masala Bay: This is the Indian restaurant at the Taj. We went there with the kids last Sunday. The kids had already had their lunch and S was kepy busy colouring and eating the pappads and A (who refused to sit on the high chair) sat on my lap for most of the time eating a spoon and intermittently sat between the hubby and S and ate onions!! I had the chole kulche which was amazing. Usually i avoid the kulcha since its full of butter/oil/ghee but this time I went all out- in Zurich its going to be rasam rice most of the days and maybe chapatti/dal or chappati/sabzi if I'm feeling adventurous!

9. Elco Chat: I went once with a friend and took S along, and the second time with my parents (and we took S and A along). I love the chats there. I couldn't have my favourite which is the Delhi Papdi Chaat as i cant bite into the papdi, but I had the bhel puri and the pav bhaji. S enjoys the dosa there and eats by herself (i dont even have to cut it into small pieces like I do at home). My mom also likes the chat there and we try to go at least every other time my mom is in town.

10. Mainland China : This was unfortunately when I had my elastics so i couldnt eat anything and the soup also turned out to be a disaster since there were small pieces in it and I couldn't drink it. So i watched the hubby hog the buffet there and tried to stop from feeling frustrated. Of course I ordered from China Gate as soon as my elastics came off to make up for this (I am a Chinese food buff

So that's the exhaustive list as of now. Hopefully I've not put on too much of the weight I lost over the 4 weeks of liquid diet. Otherwise, I need to get back to soup dinners for a couple of days.

S first play date

Today S had her first play date. She is very friendly with N, a girl in her school ( N had comes for her birthday etc) and us moms decided to let S and N bunk their park outing from school today and instead play at home. Before you accuse me of making S bunk school, I was anyway not keen on sending S for the park outing because its really hot in Mumbai now (38 degrees plus) and the scheduled outing was for 41/2 hours which assuming an hour for travel, plus some time back at the school for snacks, would still mean close to 21/2-3 hours in the sun. S has just recovered from a long spell of cough and cold and I didn't want to risk her getting a sunstroke or fever from being in the sun for too long, especially with the packing and shifting over the next few weeks. Plus I take her to the park nearly everyday so she won't be missing much.

So instead, I took S and A (now I try to take A everywhere along with S so that S gets used to having A with her , and sharing my time with her, and really soon I won't have much choice anyway) to N's house in the morning and the kids had a great time. S and N played continuously for 2 hours- from blocks, to train, to clay, to make up (pretend of course), to cycling (S saw N cycling on her own and got motivated to try cycling on her own) to scooter to tea set to drawing with crayons. They also ran all over the house, throwing a ball at each other, jumping on the bed and generally were very excited to be with each other. For once S did not ask me to come and sit with her and was comfortable playing in another room away from me. Usually she would ask me to come and sit with her while she is playing with someone else- even if children come to our house to play! She even ate two dosas- the first she ate on her own, but then i fed her the second as we were getting late for home and for A's lunch.

A had a nice time as well- she chomped on the chocolate stick that was given to her, examined all the toys (some with her mouth also) kept looking at what S and N were upto, went up to them and played with their toys and once in a while would come and sit on my lap. She missed her nap time in the morning and I was quite surprised that she didn't get cranky till we reached back home (I guess so many new toys, children playing, and getting a lot of attention from everyone).

It was overall a nice experience, I loved seeing S so happy and A so comfortable. I didn't have to run behind the children much and was able to speak to N's mom. S and A have both started becoming more comfortable at our friends (who have kids) places also - or rather happily make themselves comfortable with their toys and snacks!

Sigh- just when the kids are getting settled, we'll have to move! I hope S makes some nice friends in her school at Zurich.

Look See

We went for our Look See to Zurich early April. My first impression of the place was strongly positive. We were extremely lucky with the weather, as it was sunny all the four days I was there. Before the sun came out and after sunset, if we were walking on the streets, it was cold enough to require a thick jacket, cap and muffler, but during the day, expecially if you were sitting in the sun, you could even get away with a light sweater. I had gone fully prepared for snow- with thermals, thick woollen gloves etc for me and for S and was pleasantly surprised.

The trip itself required a lot of planning and coordination. We decided to leave A behind, because it was going to be a hectic four days, and managing two youngs kids in a hotel room, their feeding etc while trying to see houses, see the areas etc would be a struggle and we had the luxury of my parents volunteering to come and look after A. Thank you so much Ajja and Ajji, so sweet of you to come to Bombay leaving your house empty and putting up with the demands of my maids, and so many other inconveniences just to look after A (and especially so that she would be in familiar surroundings) so that we could comfortably go and see Zurich. I am totally pampered and happy to admit it!

The flights itself were uneventful- we were travelling business, and the seats were fully reclining, and being a night flight, we got a good 6 hours sleep on the flight ( a big bonus after many sleepless nights with A). The first day we walked around Zurich city centre- there's a main road- the BahnoffStrasse which starts from the railway station and is the Oxford Street of Zurich, so to speak. It leads up to the marina where the cruises start. After a leisurely stroll, with S in the pram, we had an early Italian lunch (my elastic bands were off a few days before out trip so I could eat some proper food after ages) and managed to get some rest in the hotel before setting off in the afternoon to see flats. The flats on the first day were disappointing - the first one was very close to a railway station and we could hear the trains stopping and starting every 10 mins. The second one did not have car parking, and the rooms on the top level were too short for the hubby.

The next day was a Saturday, and none of the real estate agents work over the weekend so we had the next two days for sightseeing/shopping etc. Saturday morning we took the train to Utliberg. Its about a twenty five minute train journey from the main Bahnoff and we the last 10 mins are really scenic as you start entering the alps. The last stop is on top of a mountain and the view from there is amazing. There was a kids playground also at the train station and S had fun on the swing and slides, though she had to be careful as it was slippery with ice on the floor. We had ditched the pram, as the climb to the top was on on a track and S refused to walk so the hubby and I had to carry her all the way up! So we ended up going only some of the way, to the nearest restaurant about a 15 mins climb from the train station, though there are higher points about an hours trek away. Maybe when the kids are older! The one we went to had a huge tower which we could climb and get a great view of the Alps and of Zurich. We we went 3/4 of the way up and I suddenly got scared (I've found after my accident I get scared to climb/walk too much --hopefully this feeling goes away with time) and refused to climb up anymore. But the view was good enough - we could see the mountains on most of the sides and the city/lake on one side.

View from the tower

We had lunch at a restaurant at the base of the tower- it was an open air restaurant overlooking the mountains and it felt amazing to sit out in the sun, with the chill breeze, great view and nice wine. There were two couples at the table next to us, and they were having some wine tasting session I think as the bartender was sitting next to them, opening bottle after bottle of wine, and they would take a sip from their glasses and put it away. By the end I'm sure there were more than 100 glasses on their table and they must have been more than a little tipsy. Lunch was also good- there was more than 1 veg option on the menu and the ravioli was nice and fresh (again a pleasure to eat after so many days of liquid diet). S had her steady diet of fries!

View from the restaurant

After lunch we went back to the hotel for a long siesta, then at night we went to a colleague's house for dinner. They had two kids, and S immediately took to the elder kid after her offered her playdough to play with. She was happy for the toys and children's company after 2 days of househunting and boring (for her I guess) sightseeing and was quite reluctant to leave. As usual she did not eat anything even though there was a large variety on offer (found out that there is a lady who prepares Indian food in Baden, which tastes like home food, so that's helpful when we have guests, only we have to go all the way there to pick it up and its about 45 mins away!).

The next day, we went for a cruise on Zurich lake. We had to walk through the Bahnoffstrasse to reach the marina where the cruise starts, and the main street was completely deserted. No shops are open on Sunday! The cruise is for 11/2 hours and takes you on a round trip to the main areas on both sides of the Zurich lake (known as Golden side and Silver side). There were some really lovely houses on the lake on the Golden side and many parks and restaurants overlooking the lake-it seems they are packed in the summers. We saw the Lindt factory on the Silver side, couldn't smell the chocolate, but it seems it emits a nice chocolatey smell in its surrounding areas.

View of Zurich lake from the cruise

The cruise was beautiful, but S got quite bored - I really think we have to make an effort to make her more patient- here in Bombay she is entertained 100% of the time, she needs to learn to keep herself entertained also for some time in a day. Hopefully, when she doesn't have a choice in Zurich (like when i need to cook, or feed Aditi) she will learn! She was tired also and slept in the pram as soon as we got out from the ship, and slept all the way on the walk back to the hotel.

We had time for a small siesta (not me since I had to cook and feed S!) and then set out for tea at a family friends' place. They had a beautiful house in Zumikon and after seeing that, and seeing their kids playing outside in the garden, I felt quite tempted to agree to houses- so far I was against them because a) I'm a scaredy cat and would get quite scared in a large standalone house when the hubby is travelling and b) the extra work involved in maintaining a house! S even climbed a tree in their garden after seeing the elder son climbing a tree, and the road was a private road so the kids could go cycling down the road. Lovely.

Diner was in a Swiss restaurant in the hotel itself. I was looking forward to a fondue which I thought was a Swiss national dish, but they didn't have that on the menu, but I had a lovely puff with vegetable filling in a cream sauce.

Monday was hectic househunting day and we were scheduled to fit in 7 places that day. We fell in love with the first place we saw which was an independent house in Zumikon- very close to S school. It was in a nice quiet locality (ok all places in Zurich are quiet, but this wouldn't even have much traffic) and had a beautiful garden and heated swimming pool. The hall opened out into the garden and from the kitchen I could see the garden. I could imagine putting in swing and slide and S and A playing the garden, while i watched them from the kitchen! After seeing that house all other flats paled in comparison, and we half heartedly went through the motions. A couple of other places we liked (though a distant second) was a large flat in the English quarters which a huge hall and lovely terrace, and an appartment in Dolder (Zurich Hill) which is a lovely area, and the flat was huge with a master bedroom the size of our hall in Bombay! We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Audi showroom and the hubby was very disappointed to find out that there was a 5 month waiting for the Audi SUV! Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in the old city, a colleague of the hubby joined us and gave us the low down on what all formalities we need to complete as soon as we land up here. S had an early dinner in the hotel itself and slept as soon we reached the restaurant (on my lap there and in the pram on the walk back- love the child's life I say!).

The next morning, S and I took the flight back to Bombay. I was a bit apprehensive about keeping S entertained on the flight since it was a day one, but she was amazing (touch wood) and after a couple of Tom and Jerry sessions, slept for a couple of hours, then again Tom and Jerry, playing with a 8 month old baby a couple of rows ahead and numerous feeding sessions by me (how will I managed both kids alone in the flight??) we survived!

A was happy to see us and did not give me the cold shoulder I was worried about. My parents said that overall she was alright, but quite grumpy and was much more cheerful once we were back. We missed her too, next time we'll take you with us dear. S was overall not so thrilled with the trip I think and told my parents that we have only one room in Zurich!! I was quite happy, and keeping fingers crossed that we get the place we liked.

Addendum: We didn't get the Zumikon house - they gave it to someone else :( and even the English quarters flat with the terrace which was the second choice came back saying that they would need more time for renovations and lease possible only in July, which is too late for us, but we got the Dolder flat :) I like the flat, and somehow felt it was the safest while the hubby was travelling since it was in a cluster of appartments, but it doesn't have a lift and is on the second floor. We really need to work out the logistics on two young children, prams and groceries on this!