Last day of the year !

Not much happened in office today as all seem to be in a relaxed mood, so left early and got chance to do shopping which was quite stress reliever. If I were to think about the whole year the positives and negatives, the ups & downs, the highlights were the year starting on a happy note with a new addition to the family with Isha's arrival. Then the testing times for us as a family during my husband's illness, his slow recovery, followed by delayed start in office which gave me lot of time to spend with my family & kids and take care of them, everything came on track before the end of the year thankfully....touchwood and thank God for it. In midst of all these family weddings of my brother and then later of my sister which I was not able to attend :(

My hope and prayer for all is that the new year brings health, prosperity and happiness to all.

See you next year.

love

Upset & Fed up....

Heard about a bad accident my nephew & cousin had, this upset me, i hope he gets well soon and pray to God for his speedy recovery.

I am also very upset and fed up with way my office is handling the technical issue and a new clause coming in between which will have a financial impact on me. This is making me angry and i don't understand who do i contact and get all the answers for my questions.

The only nice thing which happened was we went out for dinner and it was good change after the regular home made food.

The new year is going to begun soon i have not thought of the new year resolutions and thinking what do i start this year ? I believe if you start a new resolution you should follow it very religiously otherwise don't start it.

love

Updates for the last week

I have been busy in the last week and had a lovely Christmas break in London with family and hence was not writing my blog. A quick update of the week:

Dec 22rd :
After office, met Mommy & Kids at Derby and reached Hounslow after a hour plus journey and met Papa. Isha was reluctant and scared to see her Nanu, she was just watching him and did not even smile :( Papa has got lovely dresses for her & Tana.

Dec 23th :
Bought the London travel day cards and visited Parliament, Big Ben & took the hop on /Off Big Bus tour of London and ended with a visit at Madam Tussad's. Quite an hectic trip for with the changing of the tubes and getting up and down the escalators/steps.

Dec 24th:
Took the Thames River cruise and saw the beautiful architectural designs of the old and new London. The Tower Bridge looks so big in movies but seems so small when seen in real time. Trip on the London eye to see the whole of London from the highest point, with the Christmas lights looked lovely. The lady at the London eye was very sweet as she allowed Tana on the ride, by telling that she looks/is 4 years old. The museums were closed and so could not see them.

Dec 25th:
Merry Christmas with a relaxed day at home with gossips, chat sessions and Christmas pudding prepared by uncle in Hounslow. Tana got her digital camera as present from Santa who left it in her hotel room, she believed the story ! Isha is too small to give anything and so we pampered her with kisses & love, she got a soft toy -a small horse. I am sure by next year she will also have a list like Tana for the gifts she wants from Santa.

Dec 26th:
Our day started with the visit to the Buckingham palace (see Papa & Mom at the palace gates in the picture above) to watch the changing of the guards and then to Harrods. Boxing Day - sale at Harrods was crazy and people were buying things which they did not even need ........just because it was on sale ! From there to Piccadilly Circus & Oxford street - I did a lot of window shopping but bought nothing. Ended with dinner at East ham - South Indian food.
Lesson to be learnt : Never order a North Indian dish in a South Indian restaurant and vice versa.
Funny Quotient: My Paa thought Boxing day meant people would be boxing ;0)

Dec 27th:
After a relaxed morning and lunch left London to reach Bradford by evening. Isha was very naughty in the train journey and kept calling all the fellow passengers in her gibberish and wanted to play with them.

Dec 28th:
I am back now to start office again and should get back into the work mode soon :) as i have lot of upcoming tasks to finish. Its very late now and so i take leave.


love

Yipee...My Papa is here

My Paa has arrived in UK and the temperature today is Zero degrees....a little shocking for him but then slowly will get used to it as this is Winter. I am so excited about his visit and looking forward to see him tomorrow.

I need to listen more and speak less when having discussions with anyone as that will let the other person tell more and open up.

love

Change in attitude

It was snowing with regular breaks and the weather was quite unpredictable with the sun and the snow showing simultaneously and i had never seen it before, so found it surprising and interesting. I have more things to plan as my Papa is arriving tomorrow in UK for the first time and i am very excited about it.

Why do some people change their attitude in the last moment and make you think why are they acting so funny and what went wrong ? Something happened which kept me wondering why is that person acting so weird ?


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Snow & Shopping !!!

It has been snowing in UK from last 2 days and the temperature has been in the minus....today it was -5 and we went out all prepared :) Went to a shopping mall/place called Junction 32 and shopped for myself without buying anything for the kids or hubby, got some good stuff at decent prices from the factory outlets.

In the past last week the travel was good, the hotels were perfect except that being a vegetarian the food choice is restricted to 1-2 dishes in this region, though i did not mind it as i am not much of a foodie. It sounds very cool and hep to be travelling for official work to conduct official presentations but no body ever mentions the hard work, the lack of sleep and hectic workload as you try to finish as much work as possible in the less time. Getting up early to catch the flight, missing food, family are sacrifices one makes for professional reasons. Learned about the expectations of client and also received inputs to improve my presentation skills.

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Missed writing my Blog

I am back, was travelling hence not been able to write my blog in the past few days. On Monday travelled to Brussels and stayed there for the night. On Tuesday reached Amsterdam for the business workshops, which kept me busy and away from my blog. I did not have Internet access and so was not able to get connected with the rest of the world. Though i travelled to 2 countries, travelled by business class, stayed in 5 Star hotels but did not get to see the place other than the office & hotel and the journey from the Airport to hotel :(

The Brussels airport is very big and beautiful. Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam which is the 3rd biggest airport in Europe, did shopping for hubby and Tana. Liked the architectural designs of the buildings in Amsterdam, and saw the 10cm record breaking snowfall ,first of the season for Amsterdam, which created a 700 km traffic jam in the north part of the country, i thanked my lucky stars that i was not in the North of the country!

More later

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Reading

Finished reading Robin Sharma's "Who will cry when you die", wonder why was such a title chosen as it is a self help book and talks about a lot of positive ways to improve yourself. I agreed with some of the points mentioned and disagreed with things i think are not practical. Overall i would say it is a nice book, should be read once.

Sometimes you feel so irritated and angry that you end up saying lot many things which you don't intend to say to your loved ones. I would generally resort to silence but now i don't keep quiet and reply back and sometimes regret the things i said. I need to go back to my old ways....silence !

Tana gets upset very soon now and starts crying, most of the time she is busy with her toys or drawing and i hardly get to spend time with her. And the little which i do seems to go away in so soon :( Isha's teeth has started showing a little and it might come out fully by the end of coming week. She has become very naughty and always upto some or the other prank.

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Retail therapy for essentials

Managed to do many pending tasks today and went to shop for shoes and other essentials which had been pending for long time. Tana & Isha came along and irritated a lot as they were getting bored and did not find it interesting, thankfully mummy was there to help me with them. Retail therapy is very relaxing sometimes, especially when u get all the things you want to buy otherwise it may get hectic. Our list of things is always pending with something which we always seem to forget buying :) so that we get a chance again to go for shopping. Sometimes you don't need a reason it could just be for therapy session.

love

Missed my train...:(

It feels really bad if you miss the direct train by 2 minutes and that happened to me and then i had to reach home late, Isha and Tana had slept by then and i felt bad and thought if only we had left office early, if only it was not foggy, if only....then the list goes on and on... when suddenly Isha
was up and smiled at me and played with me a little while. Her teeth is about to come any day, one can feel the teeth when i massage her gums. Hope it comes out soon and she is eased of her pain. Mummy was carry her the whole day as she was restless.

My dearest hubby got worried as he was not able to reach on my mobile as i was traveling in the train and had a worried look when i came home. So i think it is better to leave office early then have everyone worrying and waiting.

love

End of all issues /problems

Since i have joined the project i have been having an HR related technical glitch which has not allowed to change my status to onsite and has been causing a lot of stress and mental agony, God please end all of the issues/problems related to my FTR, i am fed and tired with replying and forwarding my mails to everyone.

Lot of review and rework was done and hence was late from office and very tired as got up at 4 to answer the HR related query :( and feeling zzzzz

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Relaxed day

Today it was a relaxed day and i did work at my own pace, reviewing of documents and updating them. When you don't have pressure of the deadline then the quality of the documentation improves tremendously as one can do the work in a relaxed manner. Also points which were ignored earlier become clear and more thoughts flow to improve the document.

Had an interesting discussion related to technical people having all the knowledge and experience but lacking in the communication skills and the functional who have the communication skills but lack the experience and technical knowledge are given more preference, this is the fact of IT industry and one can find hundreds of such cases. If you have the communication skills you can make people believe in justifying yourselves whereas the if you lack the communications you cannot justify and express the knowledge and are underestimated.

Isha & Tana speak to me on the phone daily and Isha blabbers ta ta ta and some gibberish and i love speaking to them and getting their updates.

love

Hectic day

Had a hectic day as travelled to London for official purpose and back by afternoon..phew, though i was in a cab it was hectic and i was tired. Have booked all the train tickets for the journey to be taken after two weeks to London when my Paa will be here :0)
London looked pretty with the Christmas lights and decorations all around and it had a festive feel. Visited the London office of my company, was very impressed by it as is beautiful from outside and inside, looks quite hep and posh !

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Prompt response

Giving a prompt response to the mails received especially if it is an inquiry is very important in professional circle and is business etiquette, it makes a lot of difference as shows your personality and the way you conduct your business. It could just be a one liner which conveys the message if you are busy or need more time to reply. This quality is lacking in many people i come across on a regular basis.

Isha had her Health review today by the health visitor/nurse and she said all was fine except for her weight which is low and needs to be improved. Now we have to work towards it.

I am travelling to London tomorrow for official purpose and pray my works goes well.

love

Paa...

Watched the movie Paa....it was a nice movie with a simple story and witty one liners, Amitabh was not to be seen anywhere and Auro was everywhere. Tana, me & mommy had a nice time watching it. Though i was expecting a lot more it simple and to the point.

A weird incident happened yesterday when i went to buy baby-milk for Isha, i did not find the brand i use and asked one of the guys working in the stores, who also happens to be my neighbour. He said how did it matter which brand milk she drank, i said she is used to Cow & Gate brand, for which that son of an owl replied, " it is better to have a dog than bringing up a child as they are not fussy and don't reply back, i just did that and bought a puppy "! I was shocked by his answer and how dare he say something like this to me when i was looking for baby food. I did not want to get into an argument so ignored him and just replied in your old age your kids take care of you and not the dog and i started leaving, when he said now a days no kids take care of their parents. I was very upset as i did not give him reply back as i was in a hurry to reach home as it was raining, mind you this guy is an Indian and a Sikh and not a local, just another Indian who grew up abroad. I want to drop an letter in his home which says may be your parents should have brought a dog instead of bringing you in this world !!!

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Ask and you may get ...

I was happy by giving the second chance to the help/maid service as the lady cleaned much better and with more interest, i guess with time she will become more better hopefully....wishful thinking!
I had asked for the changes and i got few of them. Sometimes it is better to ask instead of thinking should i ask ?

Isha is much better and that is such a relief...touch wood and God bless her.

love

Feeling better

Some days are not meant for you and some are made for you :) sometimes how much ever you try things don't go as expected and some times they just fall into place without any efforts. Now all this to say it was the latter for me as i tried all the possible venues to get the HR response it did not work and i gave up, then in the end saw a light at the tunnel when i saw their was some hope from the head HR who gave a suggestion which might solve my issue....hopefully!

Reached home late, but the look on Isha's face took away all my worries as she was so happy and excited to see me and started her ta ta ta.....:) she is feeling much better now and hopefully recover fully by this weekend.

love

Harass Resources

Human resources are meant to help the employee of the company and establish the link between the employee and the firm, but some company's HR work for harassing resources, instead of doing the work they prolong it and delay it as much as possible :(

Work in office was not hectic and so was busy checking and replying to mails. Isha was fine but still had slight temperature. Tana 's papa was supposed to pick her from school today and he forgot it!!!
Yes as he was busy in some meeting and only realised it when the school called to inquire about it.

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I am a Foreigner....... abroad

Isha was better and seemed a little playful, irritated as well, does not want to eat much and wants to stay in "godi" mos to the time. By evening she was crawling over the carpet and hence i decided to go to office as i have pending tasks for the coming week.

So here i am closer to the office site and wondering about Isha and her health ! In the train an interesting incident happened, a guy was talking very loudly and using the F word a lot throughout his conversation. A fellow passenger objected to it and asked him to keep his voice lower, this agitated him and he got more aggressive in his usage of abusive language and threatened that no one can stop him. One of the lady passengers called the Ticket collector who threatened the guy to calm down otherwise he would be forced to leave the train at the next stop. All the while when this incident i wanted to support the second guy who objected but could not because "I was/am a foreigner abroad " and both the guys arguing were locals. It would have only agitated the abusive guy and hence i restrained myself. If this incident would have happened in my homeland i would have been the first one to object and also supported the second guy without any second thoughts.

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Relief...

Isha was feeling much better and i was so relieved. The medication will continue for another 3 days and hopefully all will be well in the next few days. Tana feels a bit jealous with all the attention being given to Isha as i don't let her come near to Isha or touch her, scared that she will catch the flu.

Tana was reading some story book and it had a picture of a big dog in it, she saw it and said, "shayad woh bahut doodu pita hoga, isi liye itna bada ho gaya ! What an observation and conclusion.

love