15 Marbles

Today I had to go collect something from someone in our suburb. I asked the girls if anyone wants to go for a drive with me. MsA, being the teenager with selective hearing didn’t hear or respond. Ms An on the other hand, was all excited and agreed straightaway.

She was so excited to go out in a car and made it a point to tell me. She asked if I had a spare set of sunglasses in the car like before and I said, yes and gave her the spare set. She put them on and sat up straight, looking out the window.

As we reached the main road, she let out a big sigh and said, “Oh! Mumma , I have missed this. This sitting in the car and relaxing, looking out the window and chatting.” It instantly broke my heart and turned it into mush!

All through out the drive, she kept reminiscing about random little incidents from before , when we were in the car going somewhere. After we collected the package, I asked her, “where shall we go next ?” Her face fell, “ Nowhere.. we can’t go anywhere, we need to go home.” I suggested taking a longer way home and that cheered her up.

I don’t know how we got to the topic of food, but I asked her about her favourite takeaway place and she replied with the name of our local Indian restaurant. I asked her why? Usually SP would suggest going there and both A & An would roll their eyes. Her response completely blew me over. She said , “ Because it gives me happy feelings, because I remember all the times we went there when everything was ok and we could still go sit and the restaurants and see our friends.”

She nailed it, didn’t she? Summed up everything in that little statement. I think it hit me more, because she is still my little girl , in my head, at least – she tells me very clearly, I am not a baby.And she is not.. she is all worldly and wise. But it breaks my heart that our children have had to grow up so quickly in this pandemic.

We came home and she was out playing . She saw our neighbor S and ran up to her and said, “Guess what ? I did something awesome today! I went for a drive in the car!” Both S and I said almost at the same time, “ we never thought going somewhere in a car would ever be such an exciting experience .”

Oh.. the things we took for granted… I leave you with a pic of my precious, enjoying the sunshine.

Another week has gone by and the weekend is here. Is it just me or are the weeks going by faster than usual. How did we get to the middle of September so quickly? Wasn’t it just March?

We finished a full term of remote learning in Melbourne. Term 3 ended on Friday and I can’t help but feel a huge sense of relief and accomplishment.

When I was growing up, my dad was deployed in a dusty factory town in Saudi Arabia. While we were there, the Gulf war broke. And everything came to a standstill. We were in a comparatively safer location but still on high alert. We had light outs as the sirens were sounded, there was always a little strange anxiety in the air. I have had a feeling of déjà vu since this whole quarantine has started.

Anyway, I digress, back to remote learning. The school in our little town was run by a group of mums who taught the classes. The plan was open school and syllabus was provided by the nearest Indian Embassy. At the end of each school year, the staff from Embassy School brought exam papers and we had to sit for the exams. I was the only one in Years 6 & 7, so that meant I didn’t have any classmates for 2 years. It was strange and alienating but we survived. When we returned back to India and rejoined regular school, it was so different and we had a new found appreciation for schools, uniforms, classmates, everything!

I can now understand how my mom felt at the end of the year and also know how alienating it is for my kids, to not see their friends and classmates. Some of the thing that are better these days are :

1) Technology – The kids are still a part of the class/cohort through virtual classrooms. The teachers are online and accessible to them by emails or student portals.

2) The internet has made the world so much smaller – we are able to remain connected to family, friends across the world. One day, both SP & I were in back to back meetings and Ms An was very upset & clingy, I called my dad on FaceTime and asked him if he could entertain her for sometime , while I finished my meeting. Ever since I have become a mum, I haven’t ever had the luxury of asking a grandparent to watch my girls, while I finish some work. So this was a first.

As the number of cases in Melbourne are going down, I am feeling more hopeful. I hope, this means that we can slowly return to a little bit of normalcy, as normal as possible.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the kids have school holidays for the next two weeks and then we have at least a 3-4 more weeks of remote learning ahead. But, let’s worry about it when the time comes. For now, let’s focus on peaceful mornings – the ones without wake up time dramas😊😊

More later,

Trish ❤️❤️

Today, I had to duck out for a work errand, so I decided to pickup a coffee.. coffee – from a cafe! This used to be our normal – stopping at a cafe to grab takeaway coffee..we, Melbournians love our coffee!

I love my masala chai but there is something about a freshly brewed coffee that kicks all my senses alive. So, as I said I got a REAL coffee today after what seems like forever. The last time I got a coffee from a cafe was more than 3 months ago.

The last time I went to the shops was 1 month ago- I went to pick up my click and collect veggies order. Oh I did duck into the corner store to pickup some milk as we were completely out. We are getting everything delivered , including milk and eggs, since April I think. I am happy to be in my little bubble , safe and secure.

The girls have been at home for exactly 6 months now. They have gone out exactly 5-6 times in these months – once/ twice to the dr, 4 days to school and once to the shops to get a gift for SP( same day as going to the school) . Of course they have gone out for solitary walks, but that doesn’t count as there is no interaction with anyone on those walks. In another 3 days, it will be 6 months since SP & I started working from home. Atleast I went into the office to collect critical items, SP hasn’t even done that.

Who would have thought that going into work or cafe or grocery store would become a sometime thing? It felt strange.. very strange. Who would have thought that using a mask would feel normal. Uncomfortable but normal. But I am not complaining, I feel safe when I have the mask on .

What’s your favourite coffee? Mine is Soy Mocha 🤤 and I enjoyed every last drop of it, noisily slurping every last bit of the magic potion. 🤤

Do share your favourite coffee with me 😊

More later,

Trish xx

Today we received a surprise package for the girls, from one of the lovely ladies in my study group. You know the excitement of receiving a package when you are least expecting it is far greater than the anticipation of waiting for one 😊 yes, when the postman knocked on the door, the girls and I looked at each other, then at SP,wondering if he had ordered something. The parcel was addressed to the girls & they were rapt! I am blown away by this little act of kindness.

MsA wanted to cook tonight, as she had to do a write up about cooking. And I gladly agreed. This meant that I was able to relax after work and not stress about getting dinner ready on time.

So, I spread a picnic blanket on the front lawn, grabbed a book and a cuppa and watched the world go by. MsAn played on the street, some neighbors stopped for a chat as they went for the daily walks or supervised their own kids. Mowgli was happy with all the extra attention too. The weather was beautiful too. SP came outside with his tea too, and we stayed outside for as long as we could, until it started getting dark.

Another day comes to an end.. looks like the lockdown fatigue is here to stay. Tomorrow is the last day of the school term for the girls. We have officially survived two terms of home learning. At this stage we are looking at atleast 4 more weeks of home learning after the school holidays. But, I am not going to think about it just yet… one day at a time.. This will pass.

More later,

Trish ❤️❤️