Trepidation... and Resolution!!

The only constant is change...

After four brilliant, beautiful years full of Tech City's amazing weather, Serenity and Calamity are returning to the City-that-wakes-up-early. So now you know what the title of this post is all about (It was just called 'Trepidation' initially!!). 

I'm thinking there will be more writing and venting once more - Such optimism, I tell you!
So my first innings with the city was an unmitigated disaster... Two and a half really REALLY miserable years - though towards the end, I had learned to suck it up and deal with it (or take it in my stride, if you prefer the sugar coating!)... the bad weather, the fighting with rickshaw guys, the being language impaired... all of it! I was a newly-wed, alone in a city with no family, no friends and not enough work to keep me happy. Freelancing meant working from home, and working from home meant being really really lonely... If I had friends, I think it wouldn't have been half bad.... and I did have friends...by the time we were leaving! But for the most part, it was lonely and sad....
This I began when the move was finalized, but I never got to complete it....
But so much has happened since I last wrote (many many moons ago!!) - Serenity and Calamity acquired a new family member (feline!!!) who we shall refer to as Hilarity - for all the laughs she provides every day! 

Hilarity as a kitten.... Such a pretty girl!

Hilarity today.... Throwing a princess tantrum!

She's a strange girl, loves company, but hates being handled. 

She's happiest sitting around people, but god help you if you approach her! 

So we moved, and Hilarity moved here with us (of course she did!! She's family!)

My second innings in the City-that-wakes-up-early is going a lot better... I have my own friends, I have a better grasp on the language, we live in a beautiful house by the sea, I have work, I have Serenity and Hilarity.... and I am finally happy here. 

The trepidation has been resolved... though it's early days yet, I think it'll be just fine!

....and so will I !!

The Three Musketeers plus One

There are many who believe that kids who grow up in cities, grow up without the luxury of wide open spaces to run and jump and play in. I did'nt. Strangely, even in the city-that-doesnt-sleep, are these oases of green (so far, so good - I'd say!) and we had one of those just over the wall! The folks call it the golf club - but for us, it was picnic spot, beach and park all combined. We were serial trespassers - and we enjoyed EVERY minute! We honed our athletic prowess on their grass! Slipping and sliding with no fear of hurting ourselves, jumping through sprinklers... Part of the thrill was running away from watchmen and vigilant members who tried to run us off. We called one of them Street Hawk (after an 80s - 90s TV series character) because he usually came after us on a motorcycle! 


We had pot-luck picnics and long jump competitions into the sand traps of the 8th hole! We believed in "finders keepers" when it came to stray golf balls. For some reason, we believed they cost a ton of money! There are no pictures of those glory days - nobody had cameras their folks would let them take along, but they're so fondly remembered... We had races to see who'd get over the wall first when Street Hawk came along... and the last one was always the 'rotten egg'.... We sure were lucky - where else would a bunch of kids find endless acres of green fresh lawn to run and jump and tumble on? 


The Three Musketeers plus One was us - born the same year, three girls and a boy - June, August, September and October. Today, one's in Australia, one's in Germany, I'm here and the boy is sailing the seas and seeing the world. He was a monkey - skinny and climbed to ridiculous heights to escape getting caught when we played cops and robbers (he actually scaled a coconut tree to the height of the second floor while we stood around beneath the tree screaming at him, and my mum and sisters having hysterics while watching from the third floor!) 


The two girls moved away while we were still in school, but the monkey and I grew up together, going to school together and laughing about our respective schools and their 'sex education' classes. One fine day, the scrawny monkey suddenly ended up wayyy taller than me (big blah - I was always the tallest of the group!) and then he realised his dream of being a sailor. He's first engineer (I think!) now and we always catch up whenever we end up being home at the same time... All of us are married now and scattered all over, but in my head, this is how we'll always be - one curly-headed tomboy, one quiet girl, one chatterbox and one monkey.

Squill Babies!

For the longest time, I've wanted a pet. Not with any misplaced maternal instincts, but just because I've never had one. Oh there have been numerous adopted cats along the way, Possi-billi, Poosa (because he was a pussa cat, not a pussy cat!) and a litter called Billi Idol, Billi Holiday and Billi Jalani. 

My mum's been anti-pet (I dont blame her, a third floor apartment isnt really the best place to accommodate animals!) and so I spent my childhood feeding stray cats. One notable mention:

When I was in kindergarten (and just after a serious academic accomplishment), someone gave me a couple of Quality Street chocolates. Now these are those famous "Gulf" chocolates with different coloured cellophane wrappers for the different flavours. As a child, it was fascinating to hold these up to the light and see the world turn a different hue. (I think thats where I got my rose tinted vision from!!) So anyway, I was fooling around with these, and I thawt I thaw a puthy kat... HE was just sitting there and chilling. Was I to know that this was a particularly mean tempered tomcat? No way. I was just keen to have my animal friend experience the wonder of coloured vision. So I placed the cellophane over its eyes. Suffice to say, the cat didnt take too kindly to having the light taken out of his bright sunshiny world. (are cats colourblind?) And all I had to show for my troubles were a set of bleeding tracks which the cat (ungrateful b@#$&!d!) gave me for my pains. My mother was confronted by a howling child with bleeding furrows in her forearm. She didnt know whether to laugh or be concerned about the reason for my battle scars!! ....sighhhh.... 

Anyway, apart from the background information, I have Squill babies!! (thats squirrel, you unimaginative goof!) I dont know how many there are yet. Serenity has forbidden me from poking the nest though I'm DYING of curiosity. I've always wanted a squirrel for a pet (meaning for as long as they'll stay. I like them better jumping on the trees - yeah, I LOVE squirrels.) This liking came about since Squishy. (Cue for another tangential deviation down memory lane)......

One (daft) woman in hostel (many moons ago) found a baby squirrel that had dropped out of his nest. Obviously the little critter was oohed and aahed over by the inmates of the hostel. (Women, remember? love little furry cuddly things)...so anyway, this guy was soooo little that you held him in a fist with his head poking out of the top... and as he was passed around among coos, one (slightly deranged but good intentioned) woman said "oooh I could just SQUISH him!!"..... and the name stuck. Unfortunate nomenclature - as you will soon see.

The original owner and her roommate grew really attached to the little guy and he had his own lil shoebox residence that they toted with them to the studios, mess and canteen... (they have to be fed really often through the day).... they also slept with the shoebox between them on the double bed and the (hitherto) unathletic little guy one night got out of the box between two slumbering humans. 

The End. Fin. Finis. Khatam. Squishy got squished. 

why??? ... why not??

so this would be my second blog ever....
and its kind of like starting over...
...."and besides that was in another country, and now the bitch is dead....."
(sorry Marlowe.....)
and actually, not a different country, just a different time.....
and the bitch is not really dead..... DAMN! :)
so yes, this is my second attempt to be verbal diarrhoea in print...
(so far, i'm succeeding admirably, methinks!)....
once upon a time design student, now just another wasted talent (!)....
i moved, and this is my new life... this is second life minus the surrealism...
welcome, to the machine!