In other news…

Dawn over Abu Dhabi, on the way back
Dawn over Abu Dhabi, on the way back

I returned from India

It was an unplanned trip, to attend to a family matter. Most of it was very boring. The smog kept me indoors, so couldn’t go for long walks. I’m off TV, so no time to waste there either, and I have no friends left in Karnal to go visit.

Reading was my only escape. I read Anita & Me, and Sapiens, and re-read a bit of Thinking fast and slow. Also read 3 issues of The Economist. Separately, read a 100+ articles in Instapaper.

I even had time to update the AcceleReader for Instapaper Chrome extension with a new feature, despite working on a really slow internet connection.

I met old friends

The visit did end on an exciting note though. On the evening before the flight, I met up with my friends from undergrad for dinner.

I had no clue what to expect. These were the people with whom I spent most, if not all, of my first 3 years of college. And yet I hadn’t seen, or spoken, to most of them in last 5-7 years.

I’ve long believed that friendship is just a bunch of shared experiences. Friendships are kept alive by creating these experiences, or reliving them. What sort of friendship would it be when we haven’t even met or spoken for better part of a decade, and not created shared experiences for even longer?

I’ll just say, I’ll need to revisit (refine?) my understanding of friendship a bit.

Paneer pakoda at Pahalwan dhaba, Murthal
Paneer pakoda at Pahalwan dhaba, Murthal

On weight gain

No running, swimming, spinning, walks, yoga, or pilates for 2.5 weeks
+ Home cooked Indian food for 2 weeks
+ Bazaar cooked Indian snacks every other day
+ Indian sweets at home

I expected the result to be a big jump in weight.

It wasn’t. Only gained 1 kg in 2 weeks. May have lost a lot more in fitness, but the actual weight gain was well controlled.

* This may have changed since (see fever below)

The house is warm

It was freezing cold when I left. The boiler had conked off. And the plumber, after an initial visit, had taken ill as well.

We’d been making do with a temporary electric heater. It was fine for R, since her tiny room heats up quickly, and stays warm forever.

My huge room, barely heats up even after an hour of use, and then cools down twice as fast.

Thankfully, R did manage to chase the plumber, and get the boiler going again. There was some more work remaining, that he just finished (barely 20 mins ago), but at least the house has been toasty warm since I returned.

Side benefit: The boiler now sounds more like a quiet home gadget, compared to the industrial boiler it resembled in noise earlier.

Fever

A reason to be doubly thankful that R got the boiler fixed – I woke up on Monday with fever, sore throat, dehydration, and body ache. (Which explains why I’m writing this post 5 days after arriving back)

More than the fever, it was the weakness and muscle ache that got me down. Dehydration was a worry since it didn’t budge despite drinking a load of water and ORS.

To make things worse, R was away Monday and Tuesday, so I didn’t have anyone to take care of Chewie, let alone pamper me. Thankfully, again, Chewie was really good to me – very loving, very restful, didn’t bug at all.

My big concern was that I may have contracted Dengue while in India. A dengue infection would’ve set me back on my fitness by a month, if not many months. All the work done in last few months laid to waste. Comparing my symptoms reassured me it was unlikely to be. breathe

The fever, body ache, and dehydration are mostly gone now. Only a sore throat, and some body weakness remain.

Probably the worst hangover of the weakness will be evident on the weighing scale tomorrow. I really gave up all control over healthy eating these last few days – cleaned up all the sweets in the house, as well as any other (unhealthy, but tasty) grub that I could lay my sick tongue on.

So, I’m planning to go tomorrow for my first workout in 3 weeks. Just as therapy for the shock that the scale will deliver in the morning.

Chewie, the limpet

The boy has been in an uber loving mode ever since I returned.

He refused to leave my side for the first 2 days – obsessively sticking with me wherever I went. I’d been hanging off the bed every night, so tightly was he hugging me while sleeping :)

I once managed to end up on the other side of a set of double doors from him. He came impatiently running over to me within seconds. He seems to have really, really missed me!

He had the best time when I was bedridden first part of this week due to fever. There was no longer losing me-time to my workstation, or to my workouts. He had it all. All day, other than his feeding and walking times, he happily snuggled up next to me in bed. The best he could’ve asked for after 2 weeks away :)

Finally…

I just discovered that my plumber has an iPhone X. Yes, the same one that launched some 3 weeks ago.

Though, he said that he prefers his iPhone 7 to the X: “It’s lighter, and simpler to use“.

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