there's something about the sea...

that is ever so calming and peaceful.... anyway just wanted to share that thought with you all - my special thoughts are with friends commuting to work on the tube (yes Harris- that would be you!), anyway, just sitting at this luxury resort, on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, called The Fortress enjoying the amazing view of the pool overlooking the blue/green waters of the Indian Ocean - all I'm missing is a Bellini, or well, any champagne coctail really - but for the joys of breastfeeding... will post the pictures when I've bothered to download them... in the meanwhile - enjoy sunny London - it's beautiful there too when it's sunny!

oh and for those looking for a review of the hotel - well it is ultra modern, with plasma tv's, bose media systems, and iPods, espresso machines and open-plan bathrooms. Beach rooms on the ground floor, with french doors opening out to ocean-views, and ocean rooms which are on the floor above, so you get a balcony view... we chose a beach room, cos it was easy to walk to the pool/beach straight from our room, plus better to avoid stairs with the baby! We got a bit of a deal since the hotel is not too busy these days, but with 50 rooms its far from a boutique hotel. Also the baby's high chair looks like its from the space-age, but lacks in practicality. But the view of the ocean is great.

Life is definitely not a party these days...

or so my latest blog title was meant to read... there I was typing away at how my days(& nights) are determined, not by me, but a precious little someone, whom we affectionately call "bundle" (private joke between M and me)... and many other such names, she gets a new one each day. Yes, so there I was writing a self-pitying blog-entry about how my days revolve around feeding, changing nappies, massaging (twice a day), bathing, playing and not sleeping because of said bundle... which leaves precious little time to blog... what with FACEBOOK taking up all my net-time... or like my mother likes to call it - BOOK-FRIENDS, (thanks to M, who told her I was always on "BookFace" just to confuse matters!!!).

but that entry never made it to the blog, because between the time when I was writing it, (which was probably last Monday), M casually asked me on Tuesday afternoon if I'd like to go to Singapore, we booked the tickets on Wednesday morning, and were off on our way on Thursday!

Singapore was a refreshing break from Colombo, and not least because my sister managed to make it from KL to come see us! Which was great - only Preeti would take a 5-hour plus trip on a bus from KL to Singapore to see me I think - that's why you've got to love your baby sister! Although , I do suspect seeing her neice was more of the reason she took this ultra-mammoth (mega-bus-esq (another private joke)) journey to see us. I hid Ayushi in the ultra-plush hotelroom bathroom, and told her that M had taken her with him... she almost believed me, but I'm a terrible liar so she found her within a few minutes.

Mausi & neice were reunited after almost 3 months, and knowing Ayushi to be the fussy little miss she is, I was quite pleased to see that she actually smiled and cackled at Preeti and went to her fairly quickly!

The weekend went by all too fast, but it was great fun, to have this almost surprise-like trip, especially since I wasn't expecting to meet up with P until next month! A little part of me even wondered whether M had planned it all this way???

so life may not be the party these days, but I don't think I can complain much either ;-)!

Material girl...

Got to Singapore this evening. Ayushi behaved very well on the plane, which is great seeing that her parents are determined to make her a frequent flyer! The stewards couldn't believe she was only 5 months old.

We decided to try out some "street food" at one of the hawker stalls, which is a large open area surrounded by small stalls serving different foods - malay, chinese, indian, sri lankan, and some Singaporean specialties such as the chilli crab, laksa, singapore flat noodles, and many more to choose from. The various stalls are ranked from "A" to "D" for cleanliness, it's as if Switzerland ran Asia... ( can't imagine this in Chowpatty or Bangali Market or even at Nana's or Pilaws... but then I guess half the taste comes from the dirt???).

M will be "working" tomorrow, while I will be introducing Ayushi to my own inimitable brand of retail therapy - driving down Orchard Road and seeing all the shops (Zara, Mango, Borders, Starbucks, and yes even good old M&S!!!) really brings home how much I am starved of retail therapy in Colombo - ah well, at least we have Odel, Barefoot and Paradise Road!

Good night for now - am too lazy to upload the photo's today - so that can wait till tomorrow, better go before M sings his rendition of all the cheese on MTV to A and she actually thinks that off-key is the right key ;-)

यह आप साb हिंदी प्रेमियों के लिए!

जिसका मतलब है, के मेरे रिश्तेदारों को छोर के ये और कोई नही पढ़ पायेगा...

सो कूल ना!

another set of doting grandparents......

so we're back in Colombo, actually we've been back for over 2 weeks now, but as all you parents of nubies will know, it's tough managing to find any time to yourself, and least of all to sit down and write on your blog.

From one set of doting grandparents to the next. Our daughter is a very lucky girl, she arrived to a beautifully decorated house, full of balloons and her second set of grandparents. For all those parents determined to do it alone, I strongly recommend involving your parents, partners parents if you can, or are lucky enough to have them around. I remember as a child only having 1 grandparentmy nani, who had about 15 grand-kids besides me, so in comparison Ayushi is a v. lucky girl.

However, I know that its not always possible for this to be a good solution, since people have different views on child-rearing and everyone has an opinion on everything, but as a parent its up to you to make the decisions and do what feels right for you. For my part, I know I am happy for the help and support I've received from both sets of grandparents ;-).

I think I've spent lots of time reading various books and discussing with my friends about whats the best way to go about things, but at the end of the day, I think I just ad-lib most of the time. What works one day may not work the next.

We took Ayushi out for her first outing yesterday to Cinnamon Grand, and she was pretty good. In fact I think the evening was such a success, that it was the first time she slept straight through from 10.30pm through to 5.10am... which was probably the longest we've got to sleep in a long time....

Thanks Ma & Papa...

for everything really, but mostly for the last six months...
Thanks for opening up your house to us... and letting me take over the tv at times (must have reminded you of my teenage years!), and monopolising the laptop...

I don't think we could have managed without all your help and support with Ayushi, and I'm sure she's going to be told about it for years to come...

goodbye again...

I can't believe I've been here in Wales staying with my parents for almost 6 months now. The time has just flown by. Well maybe not the last trimester of pregnancy, but definitely the last 10 weeks since Ayushi's birth. This is the longest I've spent

Ayushi, M and I are heading back to Colombo in a weeks time, which is exciting, but also kind of sad. My mother has been phenomenal in her help and support in the last 10 weeks. You could say she's been looking after Ayushi, and I've been helping her out rather than the other way round! Apart from that, she's had to cater for the streams of visitors that Ayushi's had, I don't think a single weekend went by since her birth that we haven't had my friends visit us!

No doubt my parents are going to miss Ayushi, especially since she has just got to the stage where she's starting to recognise people and interact somewhat. But all the more reason for them to visit us in SL asap!

We took Ayushi for her first trip to London last weekend, and enjoyed Guddu & Rishika's hospitality (yet again!). I was quite nervous about looking after her on my own, but I think we managed quite well. Here's some pictures outside Sunderland Terrace, where M used to live when he started work at Terra Firma, all those years ago, we loved this street, especially at this time of year when the pink magnolias are in bloom:

part 2...

the great indian batting line-up collapsed... and how. I do think there were a couple of bad decisions made against the Indian bowling side, but no time for excuses now. I really feel the Indian team is the most over-hyped underperforming team there is. But lets move forward not look back. What the team need to do is get some fresh blood, stop touting that "oh so amazing batting line-up", and try and find some decent bowlers...
anyway at least Ayushi still has SL and England to support for the cup ;-)

the big match...(part 1)

we're half way through the match, and India bowled decently, although SL still managed to get 254 runs... some poor fielding by the Indian side.
its do or die for India, SL are probably through, but if we win, we go in with the 2 points to the next round.

Ayushi seems a bit bored by the whole thing, as she spent most of the firs innings sleeping, but she did wake up for the end of the Sri Lankan innings and let out a soft purr to her dad!

Happy St. Paddy's Day...

Congratulations to IRELAND - what a win!!!

Who would have thought Ireland would beat Pakistan and how???
Good match!

the group of death...

its already started... for the last decade this has been a difficult period for M and me every 3 and a half years or so... the fun that is the cricket world cup... its all very well not to believe in borders and boundaries and be "International global citizens of the world..." but throw in a game of cricket and everything changes...

India played pretty badly today and lost to minnows Bangladesh - who played superbly, with a v. young side. As the show presenters on Sky put it, 1 point to the teenagers and nil to the OAPs, and indeed the Indian team do seem like the OAPs. The sheer frustration of it... whats the point of having a great batting line-up (Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, who between them have over 35000 ODI runs...) if they can't win matches...M tried to console me by saying that the Pakistani team were losing even more badly, that too to IRELAND (an associate member of the ICC). 'cos we do tend to support each others teams when they are playing...

but since India & SL are in the same group, labelled the group of death, we are now in the situation where we both have to wish the other's team to lose in order to progress to the Super 8 stage... the worst thing about cricket is that you wait all day hoping against hope that your team will still somehow turn it around and win the game, and until the last ball has been bowled you are hanging on a thread. The worst thing is how you end up spending an entire day watching and then have to deal with the depression. The only up-side is that we are no longer students, since the WC was always during exam time, which meant we'd spend an entire day watching cricket rather than revising, so if after all that our team lost, that was the absolute pits...

Poor Ayushi, this is going to be the start of many a tug-of-wars over which team she should support... its a good thing neither of into football, otherwise she'd have to choose b/w Switzerland and England...

Anyway, here's to a good match on the 23rd... may the better team win ;-).

Parenting - noughties style!

Its coming up to 7 weeks since the birth of our daughter, and even though we haven't perfected a routine a la Gina Ford, since I don't think I'm into her school of parenting, we have got into the groove of looking after Ayushi, albeit with a lot of help from my mom.

The first week I was at home, the idea of ever going back to Colombo to live in our own house, or more importantly ever leave my parents house again, seemed like an insurmountable task, but as I recovered from the c-section and got more used to my baby daughter the feeling that I couldn't even leave my bedroom did disappear.

Having a baby is a huge life-changing event (and I don't mean that in a bad way). However ready you think you are, or however much you really think you want the baby, whatever your reasons etc, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, not the websites (which there are hundreds of these days), or the umpteen books (Gina Ford vs. Attachment Parenting), prepares you for it.

That first night in the hospital, after M and my family left, it struck me that here she was, my baby daughter, and that I was solely responsible for her. Sure, the nurses were there with us (as I was a bit incapacitated with a catheter and the remnants of my anaesthetic), but it was still a daunting thought that I was responsible for this tiny little being, and that I had to keep her alive... I think I stayed awake listening to her breathe through the night!

This pattern continued on even after I had been discharged from the hospital, with M and I staying awake through the night, much of the first week since we'd get worried with every little noise that she made, but we soon learnt to sleep and wake along with her, and its amazing that I have been converted from someone who loves to sleep to someone who functions with no more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a stretch, how times have changed... but given the choice, I don't think I'd change things for anything...and as M and I keep telling ourselves, the sleepless nights are only a matter of a few more months...so for any of you thinking of having a baby - we'd definitely recommend it, but be prepared for your life to change forever ;-).

Another year older...

Another year - another birthday, yet, what a contrast from last year! Last year at this time, I was in Dubai on a short break with M, taking time out from our city jobs! This year, we're busy trying to get used to our new baby daughter!

2006: M & Preeti arranged a surprise birthday bash for me, and I was taken aback to see 40+ people in our kitchen. It was our last big house-party before we left London. I really felt I was getting old, since I was more concerned about my beautiful home getting trashed than just letting go and enjoying the party - but it had taken us almost 9 months to get the house to a livable condition! So much so, that I actually had to ask the last guests to leave at 3am in the morning, since we did have a flight to catch the next day at 5pm! I was quite relieved the next morning to find that M had thoughtfully called our cleaner to come in and tidy up the house.


2007: quiet birthday dinner at my parents house, with my parents, sister, M and our new daughter. Mamma cooked us a scrumptious Indian-Chinese meal, and I also had a proper cake - with my name on it! In bed with my baby daughter by midnight!

Introducing: Ayushi Fernando

After much waiting by her parents, grandparents, aunts and extended family, our daughter was born on Wednesday 24th January 2007 at 5.16pm at Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil. She weighed 3.66kgs, and measured 50cm in length. As you can see she has lots of hair, and at the moment we all think she looks more like the father than me!

Back from my break...

So I took a long break from blogging, mainly because, I was no longer in Colombo, so didn't seem much point writing about my last trimester in Wales!

The highlights of the past 3 months were

• M arriving to Wales and becoming a regular at the Cyfarthfa Retail Park, and the JJB Sports Gym, where he works out with the Aunties!
• Our 2 trips down to London to visit with our friends - thanks to G-squared for their great hospitality!
• My baby shower at the Savoy, organised by Preeti
• Christmas holiday week with Preeti - including watching M& her competing at Scrabble, and all 3 of us getting competitive with Monopoly - although, Preeti and I did make Mr. Finance himself go bankrupt ;-). As well as a visit by Sonu, Baua & Richa.
• New Years at Singh Uncle's. I think I owe Preeti a big one this year, to make up for her staying in Merthyr with me as opposed to spending it with her friends... hope we can have a good one in Colombo this year to make up!
  
• Hira's pit-stop visit to Wales
  

& then of course the waiting..................

Just another day in Paradise

M and I decided to make a quick trip before I leave for the UK. The choices were the Maldives or to one of the beaches down-south. The idea of doing the journey to the airport 3 times within one week was not too appealing to me, plus the fact that we left organising it a bit late, so we decided to try out the relatively new Amangalla resort in Galle, and set off yesterday morning.

The resort is beautiful, set within the walls of the Galle Fort and next door to the old Dutch Church, which has also been restored recently, having received funding from the Dutch government. We had a relaxing afternoon at the hotel, and enjoyed the pool, and other hydro-therapy facilities, as well as having the complimentary tea and scones on the verandah! Our room was decorated in beautiful old colonial furniture with a huge window overlooking the port. We decided to leave the exploration of the old fort and its many beautiful buildings for today.

However, this morning, we were abruptly awoken by the sounds of windows banging, and it felt like our whole room shuddered. At first I thought one of the other guests had left their window open and a thunderstorm had begun, after the 3rd bang however, M decided to go investigate. We could also hear people running in the corridor outside our room. He thought it was a large piece of furniture that had fallen, however within minutes of the 4th bang, we discovered that the bangs were in fact, the LTTE suicide bombs going off in the fishing boats in the harbour, less than a kilometer away and within view from our window. The blasts themselves were not that alarming, it was the subsequent intermittent gunfire that went on for the next 2-3 hours that was a bit surreal, and at one point the proximity of it all made us wonder whether they'd actually manage to get to our hotel as well?

The hotel staff moved us to another room, which was more towards the inner courtyard rather than facing the docs, and we spent the next few hours there waiting it out until the army finally contained the situation and a curfew of sorts was called. We decided to cut short our trip and return to Colombo as soon as M's father and driver got to Galle.

This hasn't been the first bomb to go off since I got to Sri Lanka, however, it has been the closest. The bombs themselves were not that scary, however the sounds of the gunshots will remain with me for a long time to come, it really brought home the fact that we are living in a country that is at war, and the civil liberties that we take so much for granted are always under threat.

Pictures from HK-KL Trip 2006

Pictures from our trip are here.

nei ho ma from Hong Kong

Even before we could get sad about Preeti's swift departure from Colombo, M and I jetted off for a quick 2 week break (from our break) to Hong Kong.

We've been here just under a week now and are both quite impressed by the amazing skyline, and I can't get over how high all the buildings are. It is also very very clean in comparison to London or New York, or as M put it, it looks like a larger version of Canary Wharf!

My cousin took us to a market, where I had to step aside each time after I'd selected things to purchase, since I couldn't keep a straight face while she haggled with the vendors (I guess I've got a long way to go before I can shop like a pro in Asia!).

We also managed to catch up with some friends who've moved to Hong Kong from London and Tokyo! It's so great to see some familiar faces after being a newbie in Colombo for the past few months...

Am waiting for a clear evening before I can post some pictures of the pretty night-time skyline, or even a daytime shot of the harbour!

Little England...

As Preeti is only here for a short while, we decided to take her to the heart of the country to see the picturesque hill country... some pictures courtesy of P Jha!

Sister Act Part 2...

Preeti finally arrived in Colombo for her very short visit this morning!

Day 1
As with all the other times that M and I have gone to receive her at the airport, usually at Heathrow, after her many sojourns to her various backpacker destinations and GAP years etc, we were late... her flight arrived on time, and even though M had given her a long list of items to buy from the duty free shop, she was out within half an hour of landing, while we were still on the way there!!! But she said she was kind of expecting us to be late since it was 8am, and I am not really a morning person ;-)...

After much debating between M and I, we took her to the Gallery Cafe for lunch, which I think has pretty decent, if somewhat overpriced food, but a beautiful building and a great setting to just relax and catch up - which is what I wanted. M's reservations were that the service is slow, (in this instance it wasn't too bad), and that in an article a couple of months ago there was some controversy about how the maitre de had been rude to a couple of Indian patrons and said that their-type were not welcome, but I don't necessarily think he meant Indians as such, for why would they have Indian Butter Chicken on their menu? Maybe the guests had been particulary difficult and annoying to deal with???

Its so cool to have the first visitor from my family with us ;-). Preeti was suitably impressed by our new home, and by the fact that we now have food in our fridge unlike London - I think the most telling statement was when she told my mom, yes Ma they actually eat properly now, not like in London - where they survived only on take-outs!!!

We ended the first day with some dinner at the Galle Face Hotel, at the Sea Spray restaurant which is a great way to spend the evening listening to the waves washing in against the walls...