The adventures of Tall, Slim and Fat - part 2

Day One of the adventure ended with a biryani dinner at Slim's house. Of course there were idlis to go with it because I love them so. My adorable niece and nephew gave me the guided tour of their toy cupboard, also known as Pandora's box. We watched an impromptu bharatnatyam performance and answered/ asked questions and chatted with my brother in law while the aroma of fried papadams emanated from the kitchen. I tried in vain to draw a train for my nephew who dismissed it as 'you are doing it all wrong' and then proceeded to draw me a refined version of my cartoon. I feel old and yet young in the face of their innocence and enthusiasm.

Day Two was another breakfast of idlis and crisp dosas. Also the trying task of figuring out which podi I liked (the one without sesame seeds won) and wanted to buy to take back. But much before breakfast I was up at 5.20 to talk to Kid before his school day. He was in happy land as he was watching cartoons while his father got ready for work. 40in2006 was on her phone as well and by 6.30 my aunt and uncle had joined us for a good old gossip section. Lets just say we left no one out and all news and views were exchanged!

It was another morning of retail therapy, this time my lovely aunt joined us 3 cousins. I bought a very heavy cast iron dosa tawa to replace my horrid non stick one; and a second one for my Singapore sis-in-law. This from Murugan Stores where in actual fact I wanted to buy EVERYTHING - those neat rows of shiny stainless steel - cups, saucers, pressure cookers, plates, spoons et all - were all calling out my name. I refrained from going crazy but made mental note of what I want next time! Other small errands of bank, snacks and pressure cooker replating. Then on to Fab India where 40in2006 thwacked her head on the bounce back of the car boot and got a little forehead laceration. After a little TLC we all tried on and bought stuff. Kurtas and salwars that make all lacerations seem better and life brighter.

Lunch at Madras Gymkhana, the old haunt of my childhood summers. It stopped in time, this beautiful place, it's capped bearers serving food delights in the wood panelled and pillared main hall. The driveway was smaller than in my memory but then I have grown considerably in girth since my last Buttery Bar Saturday buffet. We ate a comforting lunch of fish fry and Russian salad, amongst other favourites. 

The drive home took us past the fugly new constitution building (?) opposite the venerable P.Orr and Sons. The purpose built building is however not to be used for its intended purpose but instead as a hospital. One without any windows and one that looks a bit like an alien spaceship. Poor sick people, not only will they feel ill but then to be subjected to this monstrosity as well?! 

In the afternoon we picked up Slim (who left before lunch) and her kids. We went to Landmark to browse books and music. And then on a semi wild goose chase to find a shop called Masala Chai. It's a blog I love and follow and I've been waiting to go and buy everything I had been admiring. The lady on the phone beforehand was vague about the location and then we couldn't find it. We drove up and down a 'kuccha' side road and found a board on a house marked 'Ashvita'. When we stopped to enquire we were informed that this was the erstwhile Masala Chai store and that the cafe (?) was closed. So we went in anyway to have a look and found, in one room, most of things I had seen online. Even though the woman was unable to explain anything and the aircon was shut off making it unbearably stuffy, I managed to pick out a few lovely things. 

Then a quick stop to buy sesame-less podi before heading home for yet more eating. Goodbye hugs with Slim and family. A quick 20 minute packing and it was off to the airport. More goodbye hugs with Tall, aunt and uncle and I was soon at my gate awaiting the overnight chariot to Singapore. 

Two days. Gone by in a flash.

The adventures of Tall, Slim and Fat - 1

I still don't believe it. On Monday night I got on a plane with my cousin 40in2006 and flew to Madras for a quick 52 hour jaunt. Of what importance this is to me cannot be underestimated. Thus far I have never spent a night away from my now FOUR year old. So this is a timely step. I've left written instructions for the very adept father who is a champion on most days anyway. This is not about his existing bond with our child but my inability to let go of 'the schedule', to hover less.

Anyway, enough about the technical vagaries of the situation (school bus drop and pick up, breakfast, packed lunch, afternoon entertainment and an evening routine) and on to this amazing trip.

My cousin 40in2006 (henceforth to be known as Tall) was coming to India to vacation for a few weeks and attend her college reunion. Once we knew this, and after some discussion, I booked a flight to travel with her on this leg of her journey. So she came to Singapore where we had a day and a half of chatter and food, before we flew to Madras on Monday night. 

An aside: To our delight everyone from the boarding call to the pilot and stewards were calling it 'Madras' and not 'Chennai'. 

My younger aunt R lives in Madras - the elder one does too but she is in SanJose looking after Tall's family. R's daughter is Slim. She lived next door to us (she in Italy and we in London for many years and we never met) and moved back to Madras a few years ago. When we were growing up I came to Madras every summer (a story you are no doubt familiar with and bored of) and so I have a million memories of my cousins. As we have grown older opportunities to meet and hang out have been hijacked by weddings, marriages, jobs, babies and sheer geographical distance. This is it. Our sliver of opportunity to catch-up and continue our bond of sisterhood and talk about our parents, spouses, children, work, friends, life. This flying visit is a chance for me to revisit bits of this amazing city, hangout with everyone and to learn to relinquish control of everything my son does. Also to eat my own weight in Idli's.

Yesterday Slim, Tall and I (Fat), the girl half of the Cujins, spent the day shopping and chatting and eating. I have not had a better day or more fun in an age. It was easy, we have so much shared history between us, and lovely beyond any words I can write. I'm pretty sure one of those Malls is now shut for business as in a 5 hour period we bought everything, a carload of stuff between us. We ate chole bature and Paneer Tikka and drank cold coffee (which only Indians know how to make!). 

Slim is a patient guide and adept shopper and with a great eye for design we made wise choices and got almost everything on our lists and more. But tomorrow is another day and no doubt some other part of the city is waiting for us to come buy all their stuff.

I wonder if I will have to buy a new suitcase once I am done? 

38

This was breakfast on the 16th. Remains of a walnut brownie and a glass of cold milk while I recalled my 38th birthday the day before.

I feel a bit like I'm in no woman's land, like 38 is not significant in anyway, just a slow lurch to a decade marker. I wanted a quiet day and I only sort of got it. More later. I have more brownies to nibble on. 

Wish me won't you? 

Hmmm cake

I wanted to show you more decor thingies I did, like the black masking train track on the floor and better shots of the giant cardboard boxes with their show box funnels that the kids loved climbing in and out of. Also a proper shot of the food train on its track. Sadly I relied on my phone camera and was too quickly distracted by the hordes of children to get any proper ones. 

But I couldn't not post these. The cake was a copy of something I found on Pinterest. Replicated by a local bakery with minor changes suggested by me. That's a real Thomas train, rescued as soon as the birthday song was sung and candles blown out. The kids loved the cake and the 5 kilos of it was polished off in no time at all! 

And the cupcake was made by my sister-in-law. It's just about the only sweet thing my savoury loving son will tolerate because its really not that sweet. The train cupcake holders added to the theme and these large ones were on the table with food for the adults. The kids table had smaller ones in red and white and blue polka dot holders and balanced on a tent cupcake holder. 

So cake, cupcake and food train. May the Fourth be with you my son! 

FOUR

And just like that, in what seems like the blink of the eye, my son is four. FOUR. I'm sure it's a cliche but really, where has the time gone?

We had a party this morning - 25 out of 40 odd invitee kids turned up at 10am. The function room in our condo looked amazing (even if I say so myself!) after my sis in law and I put in a lot of thought and effort into this train party. Having summer holidays and two kids (between us) to entertain we had the chance to do lots of DIY decorations. 

25 kids is a lot, a LOT of noise. We had a steady onslaught of activity - colouring Thomas sheets to coal tossing and chugga chugga choo games and an obstacle course -all from 10 to 11.30. Then he cut the AMAZING Tidmouth Shed cake. By then the food was laid out and famished kids fell upon it as if they had not ever eaten. It was a lovely sight - groups of children eating hungrily and enthusiastically. Accompanying parents had their own table of goodies to choose from.

Before we knew it it was 1pm and our last guests were leaving. It took 7 adults and two enthusiast children 35 minutes to pack, tidy and get everything back home. 

Kid got a huge loop the loop Thomas track as a present from us. His first words when he saw this as soon as he woke up were 'WOW'! He and his cousin spent all afternoon playing / reconfiguring it. 

Here's a few pictures to mark the day with: 

Summer holiday fun - 1

1. Planned our away days. We book ended our month of June with a holiday to Kota Kinabalu at the beginning and a trip to Hong Kong next week. We are incredibly lucky to be able to do this. 

2. In this in-between two weeks we are prepping for a massive birthday party for someone who is turning FOUR in July. FOUR. I'm not sure how we got to four but here we are. And apparently the simplicity of last years party of 8 kids tamely painting birdhouses and canvas handprints cannot be repeated. 

3. My nephew had a full blown superhero party in February. Ever since this is the conversation on lather-rinse-repeat at our house:

3 year old: is it my birthday yet/ today?

Me/ V: Not yet/ today. It's in July.

3 year old: Is it July yet/ today?

4. So 45 invitations have gone out - it is a train/ Thomas themed party and after devouring pintrest I had tickets printed up. About 25 yes-es I imagine as its international school vacations and many of his classmates (local timetable so back to school on the 1st of July) will still be on holiday with their siblings. 

5. We are wisely spending our time making props and games and thank you tags. Two pictures to give you a flavour of our days:

These are a set of solid wooden trains made by somebody's dad for him as a child. After his own kids played with and outgrew them he sold me the lot for $10. They were a bit run down and had a few chips, but essentially in brilliant vintage condition. We acrylic painted them one morning and they look fabulous. Prop for table.

This is a Troublesome Truck (for those unfamiliar with Thomas and his many many friends). It's a printer box donated by a friend, top flaps cut off and the whole thing painted grey. We loved making grey by mixing vast quantities of black and white - not grey enough, too dark and just right. Made the face with paper, stuck on googly eyes and a lick of black paint while Kid was occupied in the next project. Wheels still being sorted out. Game involving lumps of tissue coal.

So far, so much fun.

Holiday reading

Or shall I say re-reading.

North Borneo Railway

This is for M, who googles to check if I wrote anything:

Today was a day of two halves but I'm going to focus on the first half. While I am happy to lounge by the pool and walk on the beach and eat towering banana sundaes, those days of simply 'doing nothing' are far far behind us. Now we need to factor in the interests of our young man - and his main interest is trains. When Kota Kinabalu was just on a list of possible vacation spots and I was looking up the possible things to do here, I found the North Borneo train ride. The perfect fit for my train crazy child.

It runs twice a week, this dramatic steam train from the late 1800s and is a chance to venture into the Borneo mangroves from the comfort of your seat. We booked in advance as advised and left the confines of our beach haven to drive an hour back into KK. At the station we exchanged our email confirmation for 3 quaint passports and tickets and boarded our beautiful carriage with its wooden interiors. 

Then we disembarked to watch the steam engine reverse into position and couple up to the 5 carriages. It was highly exciting for a 3 year old - we even had moments of stunned silence. 

Once we chugged out of the station it was about an hour and a half journey to the end point with one 20 minute stop in between in a non descript village. The final stop was half an hour in another non descript place of small grocery shops and dark coffee shops. 

A tiffin box lunch (which sounded far better than it tasted) was served on the return journey, set up after that last stop. I'm glad we had had a good breakfast because really, only the fruit box was edible. 

The engine ran out of steam - hazards of old machinery - and with the firebox needing to be stoked we were delayed about 20 minutes on the return. The scenery was interesting but not spectacular - water buffalos, mangroves, rivers and seaside featured prominently. 

On balance it was worth the money and effort despite the poor food and delays. It was an interesting idea, a beautiful train preserved and a morning of tourism made out of not very much. 

As always it took me back to the train museum in Delhi in which I was so disappointed this last trip. We have the trains and possibly the expertise but lack the vision to see what could be. A luxury half day excursion from Delhi in a royal Jaipur saloon for example with a thali lunch and British tea. A relatively easy option compared to the royal rajasthan journey which is $300 a night. Or just a luxury restaurant on wheels. Just throwing it out there. It would certainly beat the rust heaps those poor trains are decaying into.

Anyway, half two was more relaxing, beach castle building and wave lapping, picture taking and delirious laughing. A lovely sunset meal in the beach restaurant and we are about to turn in. There are more sundaes to be eaten and beach/ pool bumming to be tackled tomorrow. Life, it eees tough! 

P.S. Random person in my sunset picture. 

Blue skies

That holiday I mentioned? We are on it. A whole entire week away from the rush of daily Singapore life.

This is day 2.5. We have spent the morning trekking up a very short but densely packed hill to watch monkey antics from a bunch of hungry orang-utans. A leisurely lunch later we are contemplating a nap and then an evening of sandcastle creation on a very wide, wheat coloured beach. 

This picture could be a postcard. It could also be anywhere - I have seen so many like it - Malpe, Sydney, Zanzibar, Barbados, Deal, Bali, Hua Hin to name but a few. This is Kota Kinabalu. Malaysia. It's beautiful and the sea is very blue. I'm not sure why I am so taken aback by this. Or what I was expecting to be so different in my minds eye. 

All I know is that I am happy as a clam discovering that real satay and Rendang tastes nothing like I've had before.

Curmudgeonly

1. I've been on a see saw of crazy these past few months. If it all came out in one giant rant you people would certify me for sure. These 'problems', as codified by me, are very first world, middle class everyday problems. In reality it's just the adjustment to a whole new city. It hasn't been a difficult few months, it's been a thinking few months as I've battled away various unsavoury things about here and taught myself to deal/ ignore. The thing that's got me to the other side is acknowledging that even if they are not world problems of poverty and war, they are very real problems in my world. Once I acknowledged that and stopped trying to squash them away they have all resolved themselves quite satisfactorily.

2. It's also been a ridiculously busy time. My parents were in town for a few weeks in March and although we mainly relaxed its still a gig keeping a house running. They have been followed by numerous houseguests ranging from a few days to a week at a time. I'm still in the anti full time help camp. I like cooking and being the one waiting at the bus stop to hear my son gush about his day. I have a cleaner twice a week (much like London) and the rest of the week goes by quite smoothly with a bit of planning and staying on top of the chores. The more I hear about full time help the less likely I am to give in. 

3. One of my public bugbears nowadays is the one kid vs two or more kids. It's the same argument I had when we didn't have kids vs people who did. Whether I have no kids or one kid or five kids the answer is the same - my life is as full and busy as the next person, it's all about choice and you AREN'T busier than us. People are shit at keeping in touch. Just accept that as the given and stop with the using your if-you-had-more-than-one-kid as an excuse! 

4. After scouring this city for cushions that would cost less than $90 and be pretty and match our very blue furniture I nearly gave up. Then I turned back to etsy.com (where my design heart lives) and after about 16 hours of trawling and twelve emails back and forth found cushions that might just fit the bill. The lady made up the block colour ones to break the pattern up and voila we had what we wanted. After weeks they have arrived and I have procured fillers and now suddenly the living room looks a bit more inviting. What do you think? 

5. June promises excitement. It's a month of no school. We have a week of holiday planned and a week in Hong Kong while V works. And two weeks of lazing in Singapore in between. Good good good.

Paradise is...

....your own cool swimming pool, a blue warm sky and bits of family. (N&P, R&T&P you are being missed as we sip Bintang!)

We are in Bali for a few days.

Morocco

In February last year we spent five glorious days in Marrakech. I never posted any pictures or wrote anything beside 'we are on holiday' from sheer laziness. I'm about to clear out my phone and thought I'd share a few pictures in lieu of the blank space this blog has once again become. Words are not far behind.

The first few are from obligatory sightseeing, although we only did touristy things on two days. The rest of the time was in this glorious hotel and its expansive grounds, far more expensive than was worth, but brilliantly quaint nonetheless. I'll let those pictures tell you how it went.

A year late but a memory refreshed from going through these today.

Random Mumbai conversation

Within 5 minutes of an appointment at a parlour in Mumbai the attending Lady has ascertained (in very direct questions) the following: so batao ji aap kahan se aaye hain? Aap kya kartein hain? Aapke Mr. kya karte hain? Aap kahan rehte hain/ kis type ka ghar hai? Aapke kitney bacche hain? Sirf ek kyon?

Now that I have answered all of these truthfully to the best of her knowledge (and I do use such occasions to create a lovely fantasy life - Monaco, Owner of a restaurant chain, CEO of a Swiss watch company, 15 room mansion, 1 {ok I let the truth out here} and because we are too busy and rich and don't want our children to fight over our wealth), my eyebrows are under attack.

And as I sit there teary eyed with pain she moves in with the killer questions, for which I have no answer: aapka beta bhi aapke tareh chubby hai kya? Waise aap itne chubby kyon hai?

15 minutes of my life I will never get back. But eyebrows threaded to match my glamourous (fake) persona and a new parlour pal with something to talk about.

I'm back.

Gong Xi Fa Cha

I am a few days late in wishing you for the start of the new Chinese year. It's the year of the snake.

We are in Mumbai on a weeks break, spending it with the in laws of all shapes, ages and sizes. Mother in law, father in law, two brothers in law, their wives and a child each. Eight adults and three children make for a very busy household.

Regular programming begins next week.

In the meanwhile feast your eyes on these fruit and veg that the kids spent an hour sticking and hanging up - the bright colours and symbolism of a full life - wishes for a wonderful year ahead.

A morning in Chinatown

Morning! Went for a wander down Chinatown way this morning. Started at the head of the beautiful yellow lantern snake and walked up and down all the lovely small streets ending at the tail of the yellow snake.

Bought a bunch of paper fruit/ veg shaped hanging decorations for the kid and his cousins to enjoy playing with next week. Also bought some little silk play bags for a cousin R and a friends daughter.

Home now. Tired and headachy but loving this Chinese New Year vibe that all of Singapore is giving off!