Glasson -Village of roses!

It has been ages since we had a holiday. So when we went to the mechanic to replace our car's wing (ok.. the guy who did that gave us the money!),we found that he was in Glasson. Apart from repairing and re-painitng our car, he also did the job of a tourist guide. Wasnt he so proud of his village???

 

Lough Ree, the largest lake on the river Shannon,near Glasson Village. They call this village "village of roses.."

 

View from lake

 

Route towards lake..

 

"Wildlife Sanctuary"(the board says!) - on lake shore

Still untouched !

 

I took this cos, tall trees seem so rare in Ireland.Sided by big trees, the route towards Glasson. Photo taken from just 100kmph moving car.(i wasnt driving)

How to conquer--pictorial!

How to conquer!
 
Aiming the target… noting its position and height!


 
Just having a feel of the target…


 
Slowly, getting into the target..



 
Arrgh!! Reached half way thru it!!


 
See… I told you, I will do it!!

pic courtesy: my hubby, Sajeev

Masked friends!

There are 2 kinds of friends. One kind: who are your real friends who means ONLY ur good and who support u throughout and loves u like hell (like my ex-room mate priya!) and another kind who “label” themselves as ur friend and who are worse than an enemy. (I am not naming her!) Today I had an encounter with one of such enemy labelled friend.

 

Every single sentence she used, I could see thorns attached to it. The reasons being different. Some reasons are they may be jealous of ur growth –career or personal or financial etc, or they may be really unhappy with their own life. So they want to make themselves feel good by trying to make u feel inferior.

 

I never understood this worse-than-enemy-labelled-friend. Once upon a time, I used to get hurt by her words. Ok, that was years ago.  But lately I found the real reason behind all those. Its just that the person feels that she is in a worse situation that she cant change and that jealousy takes another form in surfacing up. She comes all the way like “o dear, where have u been?” u will never understand her real intention unless u get into a real conversation, with her. Soon u can see thorns coming at u, in sugar-coated dialogues. Soon, they will start insulting ur career [if she feels inferior to u, in her career] or insulting ur looks [if she feels inferior to u in looks] and ur financial position [if she feels inferior in that].

 

Once I had a neighbour aunt, who was very dark, and whenever she meets me she used to ask “Oh! darling, u have become so dark!.. What happened to ur face? Why is it so dark and full of pimples? Aren’t u taking care of it? U shud have been using “fair and lovely””. You would be confused whether she is really worried about ur face or whether her real intention is to hurt u… I got so upset after every meeting with her, and only lately I found her real intention. And that too, when my hubby told me, about it. [yea, he seems to be an expert in seeing through a person!!!]

 

Even about this so-called-friend, I used to tell him what all she commented, and he listened and asked me some questions about her life. After hearing my answers he told me why exactly she was behaving that way. And only then it dawned on me, the truth! She was exactly like that aunt of mine! But now it wasn’t color or looks, it was career, finance and family!

 

So guys and gals beware of those aunts and friends!! If you get insulted by them, just realise that in reality, u r just being the one of the preys of jealousy!! Just feel pity for them… nothing more!

My Amma!

My mom lost her mom when she was 21. She was the eldest of all three kids. My one and only uncle was in his teens, when my grandma died. She was barely 50 yrs old then. I know about her only through what my mom said about her. And there was only one photo that was left of her. She never looked like my mom. She had kidney failure and was under dialysis for years before she died. In fact she was bed ridden, even while my mom was 12. As she was the eldest, my mom often put herself in my grandma’s shoes. In fact when her mom died, it was she who signed the documents to bring grandma’s dead body to home. She used to tell that to me, always when I was a kid. But I never understood the seriousness of it. I have even told her once that “its no big deal! Anyone can sign the documents for a dead body!” I never bothered to think that it was her own mom’s dead body!

 

As my mom and her sister were unmarried at that time, our relatives and neighbours gossiped that my achachan didn’t want to get his daughters marry off, cos he wanted them to do house-chores! One day my mom heard this with her own ears!

 

Anyway after marriage, my mom preferred to stay with my granddad, cos she again thot that it was her responsibility to look after him, in my grandma’s absence. Though later it proved to be a mistake, she stuck on to it!

 

May be cos  of what she underwent, even when I was a kid she used to drill into me the feeling that she wont be there for me for long and I have to look after myself. She used to teach me, how to live, if she was dead. I was 8 yrs old, when she used to tell me this. I got so scared by this, that everyday when I returned home from school, I half-expected my mom to be dead. I was scared always! My dad used to scold my mom for making me think like this. But she was adamant that I must cope with her absence even at that age. I used to cook and wash clothes when I was 8 yrs old.

 

But the opposite happened, when I grew up. She started caring for me like a baby, when I was 22. May be to compensate for that ever-fearful childhood I had, now she cooks, cleans and even washes and folds my clothes for me. She feeds me with her own hands, when I say that I am not hungry. If I say I want curd, the next instant she goes to the near by shop and buys it for me. She buys all sort of eatables, for me if ever I express my wish for it. Those things never happened when I was a kid. I was treated like a grown-up then, and now I am treated like a baby. Even my dad says it’s ridiculous. But I feel I am having second childhood, with amma, now.

A time for family??

Our life (me and my hubby’s) start at 7 am, every working day. We can’t have a proper breakfast (in fact we never had one!) as both of us will be running around the house to prepare ourselves for office. By 8:15 am, I will be at the kitchen, to pack us lunch (I cook it, the day b4 and keep in the fridge!). Earlier we used to have lunch from our office restaurant, till my body started rejecting non-spicy, sauce-filled Irish food and mashed potatoes by constant migraine and nausea! Then by 8:30am we will be inside our car. The temperature outside will be 12 degree Celsius then.

 

From 9 am till 7 pm, we are in our domain. We don’t even meet for lunchtime. He will have it with his friends and me with mine. [His building is far away from mine, is one of the reasons!].

 

Now at 7 pm, the decision comes… who is going to work late… if he is going to work late, I have to drive home, alone and have to come back at 9pm or 10 pm to pick him up. If I am going to work late, he waits for me till 9 pm in the office. And if we come back at 7pm, I will go to gym at 7:30 and drives home back by 8:15 pm. After that I cook dinner and lunch for the next day. By the time we have dinner its 9:30 pm, and some TV till 11 pm. Cleaning kitchen comes in the middle of TV watching.

I don’t remember when I sleep…and the next day, the cycle repeats…

This is the routine of working couple here…

 

Sometimes when our parents or relatives ask, like “no plan to start a family yet?”, this routine comes into my mind. There my relatives and friends in India, have started their families. But they can… they have their parents near them… may be in different state. But they can always seek their help. What about me? I can’t bring my mother who is a chronic arthritis patient into this 5-15 degree Celsius temperature. I can’t bring my mom-in-law who is 65 yrs of age and who is down with osteoporosis.

Here I am so alone in this cold country, with only my hubby for help, love and support. Where would I find a slot to add a family into this?

Killing Combination!

Recently some new things are happening in my life :

1)      I have started going to gym.

2)      We are going to have neighbours in our semi detached home.

3)      I am dumped with work in my office

4)      My migraine triggers became very frequent, preventing me from eating every nice thing in this world!

 

Life changed so much after I started visiting gym. Now pls don’t think that I am going to gym, to keep my body in perfect shape. I have never done that in my younger (healthier and glamorous) days, why should I do it now?? But, I was advised by my GP to go to gym, so that it may reduce my migraine triggers (???). And now every evening at 7:30pm, after work, I spent 1 hr in gym, which makes me look like a thoroughly over-worked donkey, for the entire day !!!

 

One happy news is that we are going to have an extremely friendly couple as our next-door neighbours!!!  We met them yesterday, and I am more relieved (than happy) after that. Being in a semidetached house, good neighbours means peaceful life guaranteed!

 

I don’t know why, after sitting idle for 1 week at office, now I am dumped with a hell load of work. I come home at 8:30pm (which is very rare, as here, Europeans never work, after regular office hrs). The one and only silver lining in that cloud is that I will get overtime allowance for it!! Yippee!! After all money makes everyone happy!

 

Finally, my migraine attacks reached its worst form. Now I get an average 3 attacks per week which is ended by 6 injections per week. I am prevented from eating every nice thing including chocolates, ice cream, wine, meat and any food other than home made ones!!!! Yeeek!! How I hate that!!!! . I hate eating food, prepared by me. I can’t even eat burgers!!! The only advantage I see in that, is gym combined with home made food, may make me thinner!!!!

 

That’s what’s happening to me now a days!...

Work…work…work… migraine and gym! What a combination, to kill a woman!!!

Entry for August 15, 2006

I just loved hearing this....not for today....but i simply like hearing this... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXkZI8Eb4IY]

Simplicity !

I have heard different people describing others in different adjectives. Some are called “intelligent”, some “beautiful”, some “hard working”, some “sensitive”, some “egoistic” and what not. I have never heard people describing others like “simple”. And even I have never described anyone as “simple” too. But ironically, the word most people have used to describe me is “simple”. I have really lost count of how many times different people had told me the phrase: “you are so simple”. Now, can I take it as a compliment?? May be I can.

 
The first time I heard it was when I was in college. I was barely eighteen, and one of my classmates told me “swathi, u r so simple…and even u make things look so simple”. It went on. Years later my colleagues told me the same thing. Sometimes I feel a little bit unhappy that why are not they seeing that I am also “honest” and “hard working” or to some extent “beautiful” and “intelligent”. And to my utter despair, those are the two adjectives people have never used for me. As I am so desperate for that, I even ask my hubby approx 20 times a day “Aren’t I beautiful? Aren’t I intelligent?”. He got so used to that question that within a millisecond he says “Of course you are the most beautiful and the most intelligent!!” I know it’s a white lie, but I am happy to hear that lie.

 
Nowadays even if I open my mouth to ask him anything else he ends up answering the same readymade answer!!

 
I have always thought why I look so simple to others? I don’t know. Is it cos others are sooo complicated? Hmm.. not sure. I have never found any one whom I can describe as simple. May be its because my “simple” criteria don’t match with others’.

 
After I started blogging, I get mails saying “Swathi, u r so simple, ur blogs are so simple”. Again the same thing…”simplicity”. Classmates, colleagues and co-bloggers… may be I am really “simple” . But then what does simple means?

Our new home...

Yea, finally we nested in Ireland. No, no, not permanently… God only knows, for how long…

Even in this physical world when we are not here for permanent, how inappropriate the word “permanent” will be….*sigh*

 â€¦ so we settled here, for the time being, with our own home…the only difference is just that instead of paying monthly “rent” we are paying monthly “mortgage”
 now!

Our new Home- 47, Corran Raida
View from front.


 
Front door!

 
Entrance!


 
Living room


 
Dining room


 
My palace: Kitchen


         
Backyard view from kitchen


 
Backyard..


 
MasterBed Room1


 
Hubby’s Study room

Some more views!

Athlone castle


 
Our new home complex…



 
View from our bedroom window…


 
Ducks in River Shannon…

A Malayalee thot!

Living in Europe, with half of my mind and soul in India, almost every day I tell my husband “after 5 yrs, we will go back and settle in India”. And his answer will be neither a yes nor a no. He says “look, we didn’t plan to settle in Ireland, we didn’t even plan to come here. God only knows, where we are destined to settle.” And I just nod, cos he is right.

 

Last weekend, we met a mallu guy in a near by shopping complex.  As mallu’s are very very rare here, usually I jump upon seeing one. I remembered seeing him in a Pakistani shop, 2 months back. At that time, he wasn’t much in to talking to us. This time he was so eager to talk to us. It turned out that he wanted to buy a computer and from our last encounter at Pakistani shop, he remembered we were “into” computers, and wanted our help!  He wanted us to go with him, to buy a computer then and there. That much for jumping up at a mallu guy!

 

Next thing almost came as a bomb. He asked why cudnt we come with him and we told “we are moving into our new house” and he told sarcastaically “how long is the mortgage… 30 yrs?, whats the use for u guys? Ur kids may own it, not u!” And there evaporated my mallu-love. I told him “we bought the house, NOT to settle here. Tomorrow, when we leave for India, we will sell it, and it will be an asset for us”. And (then) he asked our job. He told “I never thot Indians came here as s/w enggrs, I thot all Indians were nurses(???). And why u guys want to go back to India??????” I strained my ears. What’s he saying now?. I told “what???”. He : “why u guys want to go back to India. Its such a desolated and poor country. What do India have, nothing...when compared to Ireland. Roads, shops, living amenities…nothing is better in India. We will ruin our lives in India.”  I: “are you crazy? I will die in India. We will go there after 5 yrs, mostly”. Soon it turned into an argument b/w me and him and my hubby in between. Finally my hubby dragged me out of the scene…

 

And I promised myself one thing “never even once, shall I ever jump up again on seeing a mallu…that was enough!!!”

 

When couples share jokes!

Today I was hearing songs from Dil To Pagal Hai. I don’t know which year it was released. Only thing I know is that I was in college then and madly in love. Now today when I heard the songs, it took me into that era, when everything was rosy red with love, in my world. One thing I did before my marriage was to tell everything about my past love-encounters to my hubby. Every human being related to me including my parents strictly prevented me from being so open, at that time. But later I proved I was right in doing so. As my hubby was also in exact situation like me, we connected like anything. I have seen some of my girlfriends hiding their past from their husbands. But I am in a situation now that I can even introduce my ex to my husband as “My ex!”.

 
The pun in that is we pull each others legs even now, on its name.  I usually tell him that I will tell about both our ex-s even to our kids, so that I can even introduce my ex to my kids!! Sometimes I even say that I will leave my hubby and run away with some Irish guy, and he says the same to me too. We had made this a usual tease and never had the least idea how this could be viewed by others.

 
One day when my mom called we were having our usual teasing and I told amma “Amma, I got bored with my hubby. I am looking for a Irish guy at work. I will soon leave my hubby and go with him”. I was actually telling this to my hubby, looking at him. Next thing I heard was my mom shrieking from other side of the phone. “Don’t you dare say that!!!!! And she began scolding me like anything” I couldn’t even tell her that it was a joke. She went on saying as if I had actually started an affair here. Finally I gave the phone to my hubby and he had to spend at least 10 minutes, convincing my mom that I was not leaving him and was not having an affair in Ireland! And after that we decided that our teasing and jokes should remain only with us and never go to relatives and friends esp PARENTS!!

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As I was tagged by Sab:

6 weird things or habits:

Honestly I don’t think them as weird:

1)      I love to eat meat curry mixed with buttermilk.

2)      I hate facial hair in men.

3)      I love to chew lamb/chicken bones for almost 15 mts [my hubby says, I was a dog on my last birth!]

4)      I can carry babies only on my left side.

5)      I eat only melted ice-cream.

6)      I paint toe nails, but never finger nails.

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