Tag: DaysOfOurLives

Weekend diary

Saturday

Lazy wake-up. Walk to the pool, swim, sauna, steam, walk back.

Brunch. Croissants with ham. Wash & dry clothes.

Cleaned kitchen. Cooked lunch – chicken schnitzel with stir fried beans.

Went to David’s, checked out the table (👍🏽) and dresser (🖐🏽). He also offered the garden set (👍🏽).

Went to town after ages. Got a haircut. Didn’t buy anything.

Got pizza from the good local place for dinner. Our old cleaner delivered it; he now works for just eat.

Went for a late walk with Chewie and R. Sat on the mount and watched the setting sun while taking about work and people.

Sunday

Lazy morning in bed. Did a bit of work converting Autoconvert to typescript.

Went to Tesco. R did grocery shopping. I bought a 4 pack of Asiatic lilies.

Went to Lidl. Bought 2 Acers. R bought some misc stuff.

Walked over to B&Q. Bought coleus seeds and some planter trays. R finally got her jumbo sponge.

Walked back to Lidl. Bought 2 more Acers (☺️), some compost, a watering jug for me and, tomatoes for Benu.

Heated lasagna for lunch. Fixed the Virgin router (again!). Saw Leclerc was already out of F1, so lost interest.

Installed two new hangers for hanging baskets. Moved the small petunia basket to backyard, and large petunia basket to the front.

Spent more on garden – ordered lavender plugs for planting under the hedge, and lots of valerian seeds on eBay.

Went back to Tesco to get rajmah. Didn’t buy any plants this time.

Went to David’s to negotiate the cost of tables and dressers. He said yes to my first offer. Had mild regret that I could’ve gone lower. Got his spare, old step ladder (for free). Got two Roxanne geraniums. Saw a painting of 18 month old Maisie. Saw puppy photos of Maisie. Missed Maisie. A lot.

R came over to tell the scores – Liverpool had equalised, City were losing, United were losing, West ham were winning. She was grinning ear to ear.

Returned home and got back to the garden. Planted all 12 marigolds. Topped up last year’s chocolate & chili begonias with fresh compost. Planted the remaining red begonia tubers and 11 new chocolate & chili begonias. Planted the two Roxanne geraniums from David. Cleaned up a few weeds.

Sometime in between, city scored 3 goals and won the league. House went silent. R has been sulking and mourning since. Garden was a safe place to be for me. Chewie joined me too; with his ball.

Did more gardening. Then watered everything – front and back. Forgot the grass, but it was already quite dark.

Now getting ready for a shower and shave, before crashing for the night.

Good weekend. Lazy, but not very 🙂

(Post written to be read as if the John Gregor voice from Marley and me was announcing it)

The boy is back home..

… from the surgery.

Surgery went normally. He’s still under the effect of general anaesthetic, so feeling a bit groggy, and a bit pukey. We had to fast him for 12 hours before the surgery, and they gave him only a small meal afterwards. He’s starving. The GA effect means he’s unable to get up and force us to feed him. Instead, he’s just lying on the sofa softly crying… for food, for attention, for relief from the groggy feeling, and for his play time. But mainly for food.

Today has definitely not been a happy day. Not for him, and doubly not for me.

The only silver lining is that he’s back home, safe and sans-growth.

Mild, sunny & beautiful – is it really British spring?

Today was one of those beautiful spring days that makes living through the winter worthwhile.

It was sunny, but not hot.
There was a cool wind, but neither a gale, nor freezing.
And there was plenty of beautiful walking and riding done.

Met Charlie again on the walk today. Chewie & Charlie had a few mins of fun running around, again. At the end of an already beautiful walk.

Bike had a flat front tyre – a pinch flat, probably from the last ride. Quickly changed tubes, got a few mins of rest (while catching the Giro), and off we went – Raghi & I – on another beautiful Sunday’s ride in the shire.

We’d considered a few new routes for this weekend. But R wasn’t feeling too great before we headed out, so ended up riding the usual route out to Shere & back. With a couple new easy, beautiful climbs thrown in.

Despite starting off tired – in head more than body – and needing a gel after just 11K on the flat, R surprised us both on today’s ride. She comfortably managed to climb both the new climbs without stopping. She even managed our backyard climb, Down’s lane, without a single stop or slowdown. But what was most surprising, was that she let me eat ice cream at our turnaround point in Shere. She must have been in a really good mood! ;)

Post-ride plan was to not eat anything than a bowl of cottage cheese after the ride. A cold shower later, it quickly went for a toss. Ended up eating a bucket load of cashews and peanuts, some mini carrots with hummus, and that bowl of cottage cheese. And that was apart from the dinner & dessert. So much for control!

Yesterday’s stupid (and lovely) evening run meant that my step target jumped by almost 500 steps (as predicted) to over 10,200 steps. A morning walk and playing with Chewie in the backyard wasn’t going to meet this. So, went for another post dinner walk.
A lap to the crossroads with music. Then, dropped Jyoti at the station.
And another lap to the crossroads with Chewie!

This boy wants to come along on my walks no matter how tired or sleepy he is. I wouldn’t be surprised if, a decade from now, he gets up from his deathbed because dada seems to be going for a walk.

:) :( :)

Friday, the 13th – fornicating cows!

Nothing too special about this Friday the 13th. Slightly less productive than usual, and an encounter with fornicating cows.

Yup, that was the highlight of the day – an encounter with the fornicating cows.

I mentioned earlier that the cows are back on the mount. We’ve been passing them often on our walks, and they’re usually the meek creatures they’re made up to be.

Today, as we entered the last section of the mount, some of the cows moved towards us instead of moving away. Their manner of movement, too, was more aggressive than curious. Out of concern for my safety, and Chewie’s sanity, I backed off, and went back out the gate.

Just as we crossed back, one of the cows mounted another and started humping her. The reason for their aggression was well visible!

Continue reading Friday, the 13th – fornicating cows!

London town

The day had a good start – ½ kg weight drop, 0.5% fat loss, 0.3% water gain – all moving in the positive direction. Thank you weighing scale :)

Protein smoothie, bit of work, quick morning walk with Chewie, and I went off to London for meetings and meetups.

The meetings went well.
The post meeting coffee was good.
The walk from coffee shop to next meeting/up went quite well too.
Missing all the torrential showers we had today, and still getting all that walking in – excellent.
Hitting the step target just as I walked into the meetup room – perfect.

The meetup went well, though I couldn’t close the loop on a few conversations since I had to leave early, and couldn’t stay for the networking session after the Q&A.

First seat on top floor of the bus while going through some beautiful bits of dusk time central London – heartwarmingly good.

Got a good seat in the train, and it left within minutes of me getting in – ‘British efficiency’ good.

R & Chewie waiting in the car outside the station before I got there – ‘German efficiency’ good.

Happy dinner, catch-up of Gotham and, finally, getting crushed by R & Chewie as they lovingly plonked over my legs – good, good, and good.

Just making it under 2000kcal (1,973) – good!

When the worst thing about a day is that I went over my step target by 15%, it has to be called a good day, right? :)

A happy, summery spring day

It’s still spring time, but the weather today belonged in mid summer – temperatures in high 20s, bright sunshine with no clouds in sight, and a gentle breeze just to help stay cool

I went for my first bike ride (non commute/transport) in almost 11 months – the first since the mammoth 150+mile day in Wales last June.

It. Was. Beautiful.

Loved the feel of rolling along on a road bike on our Surrey roads and lanes. Beautiful sunshine, and fresh green leaves everywhere. The gentle SSE breeze helping stay cool on the way out, and helping out the tiring legs on the way back. The beautiful stream side in Shere, and a happy ride partner. It was so good that even the 3-4 dickheads in cars who attempted injury/murder couldn’t piss me off for too long.

Loved it! :)

(Returning to news of City & Arsenal drawing helped too – that 4th place is now in our own hands, 2 wins away.)

Add in an evening spent playing with Chewie, listening to soft jazz and enjoying the (now) pleasant chill in the air. The day could scarcely have been better.

On to the work week tomorrow – lots of SMR follow-ups, and IDT feature devs for me, and likely the last week in office for R.

Happy end to a happy week :)

View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards town center
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Cathedra
The oh-so-inviting stream in Shere
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Newlands corner
Moi at halfway point break in Shere

Peppy music, warm days, and the Apple invasion

The day began well, with me polishing off a few long-pending long posts in my Pocket. The walk got delayed, due to reasons coming below, but was a brisk, happy one when it came.

Thank you for the music

One of those rare days when I felt like listening to music on the walk. Not sure about what to play, just asked Google to play a random playlist of songs I like. It was fun!

  • Vangelis’ Chariots of fire theme,
  • Rolling in the deep, by Adele,
  • The man, by Aloe Blacc,
  • Hello, by Adele,
  • All cried out, by Blonde,
  • Peace on Earth, by Bing Crosby & David Bowie,
  • Khalbali, from Rang de basanti
  • Rumour has it, by Adele
  • Eko ile, by Fela Kuti & the Africa 70,
  • Feel, by Bombay bicycle club,
  • Kandisa, by Indian Ocean
    and continuing…

Charlie (a young Vizsla), and Monty (a forever young Jack Russel) wrestling each other to get more attention from me, halfway through the walk, just added to the delight.

Rarely have I returned from a hot weather, brisk walk so energised. (The brisk bit, and the protein smoothie may have helped too)

Warm, dry, dull days of my youth

The region of India I grew up in has a long, dry and hot summer. 2 decades of living there have trained my brain to expect (imagine) things when the weather turns warm and dry. Like today.

Thoughts of watermelon, cool water dips in tube wells & canals, hanging with friends from undergrad, cycling around with the only friend from my first school, smell of the earth.

Beautiful, torturous memories :)

Continue reading Peppy music, warm days, and the Apple invasion

The cows are back

Cows

Cows on the mount are back. A different herd this year, and fewer too – 6-7 against 18 last year.

Don’t mind the cows themselves, but their presence means that there’ll be cowdung mounds all over the place soon, and that we (Chewie & Me) won’t be able to play at our favourite much longer.

On the other hand, we’ve recently discovered a load of beautiful routes around our area, and this might just be incentive to insert more variety into our daily walks.

Pilates

Didn’t think that I’d get to chat and be friend(ly) with more people in a 4-7 person pilates class, than in a 300+ park run that I’ve volunteered at 7 times in last few months. But it is so. Funny world :)

Tid bits

Started a new book. And abandoned it within 10 pages. It was a business book with too much ‘values & beliefs’ and barely any nitty gritty of ops and customer service (the reason I picked it).

Lost my phone. And found it within 5 minutes thanks to the new watch. Had kept the phone on a shelf in Tesco while picking something, and forgotten it there. As I moved out of bluetooth range of the phone, the watch lost its connection and buzzed with the notification – reminding me that I’d left the phone behind.

Without being a smart watch, my watch is smarter than me!

Ran a marathon. Not that a 4:36 marathon requires much running. Continue reading Tid bits