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Wednesday 31 October 2012

Musings

Two children back to school and the rounds of friends's houses, afterschool activities and, for the little one, the playgroups etc begin. November seems crammed with weekend parties of all sorts. Very different from when I had just come to Birmingham years ago and didn't know anyone, was at home with a baby most of the time, other than walks, didn't drive etc. My must do for anyone with a baby under 6 months is to get out of the house at least once a day and socialise as much as possible.

In other things, there is this glut of eggs and a big pack of butter from Costco, and some semolina to be used. Have been baking cakes regularly, so for an alternative, am going to try baath / baarth/ baathk, whatever the spelling, this week. I use a mix of my MIL's and an aunt's recipe and it turns out lovely. Might freeze one for Christmas. Its wolfed down by everyone. Our non Goan friends wonder at the no flour thingie and a couple of Goan friends don't believe me when I say how easy it is. Will post the recipe and pic after baking.

Sunday 28 October 2012

Shopping and Moneysavingexpert.com

Nights out two days in a row without our kids, some sort of record in this household! Today the sleep deprived me spent the day shopping, mainly for shoes for our rapidly expanding children's feet and others.
Cannot find a neutral shade of girls shoes in size 1!!!! Either they have glittery things or bright orange and pink flowers on them, went to around 15 different shops without exaggerating. Now I will look online - mission of the week (sad as it sounds). We have found gorgeous dull pink, red, tan, dark brown shoes in the past for our daughter, but size 1 onwards seems this influx of heeled patterned strange coloured boots in this weather.
One good thing about the shopping expedition was finding these lovely ballet pumps for £2.99 at New Look, seen on www.moneysavingexpert.com. Highly recommend both the shoes and the website. Shoes are simply made, probably wont last long, but for the prices and colours, are fabulous. I got the navy and the tan.
The website is great, love the discount and offers posted in the forum and have benefited/saved loads from there. I have a browse of the Grabbit forum almost daily.

Saturday 27 October 2012

Skyfall review (?)

Sounds exciting to say review, dont think I will do a complete one but have so many thoughts on Skyfall. First time in years we went out without the children, leaving them in the safe hands of my Mum. Sold out for 7pm, got tickets for 7:30.
In a nutshell, the movie for me doesn't compare to the old James Bond ones, with Roger Moore and Sean Connery, but is great entertainment for almost 2.5 hours. Daniel Craig is good, Berenice Marlohe is beautiful and I wish she had more scenes, but Javier Bardem as the villain is fabulous. Scarily comic, that insane smile on his face, excellent CGI scene of his teeth and his portrayal of a cyber terrorist is very good.
The action scenes are classic, loved the digger-train scene and a few bits of the Scotland house scenes. Lots of explanations of Bond's background, M's 'betrayals' and quotes from English poets.
Judi Dench overshadows the other women and her scenes with Daniel Craig have so much chemistry.
Good entertainment without too much of thinking and a worthy second to 'those' good old Bond movies of my Dad's days. 

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Wet, grey and grim in halfterm..

Third day of holidays and its been non stop wet and dark, we have been doing and going to all indoor stuff. The promised playground trip and cycling will have to wait until the weekend, which is probably going to be freezing. Have been looking at pictures of our warm holidays...this is at Loro Parque earlier this year. Have tried amateurishly to block out people's faces.

Monday 22 October 2012

Football or no football......

This is a picture of the cake I made for my son's birthday last month. He loved football, loved his weekly classes, insisted on an expensive kit, started following bits of matches on TV, was looking forward to a Chelsea ground visit and so on. Delighted with the cake and the table football for his present.
Forward to a month later, booked him on a holiday FA course and he is in pieces this morning,s aying he doesnt want to go....managed to calm him down, reached the venue, met by lovely trainer, signed in and then in tears again once we were inside.....I have never seen him like this - wish I knew what had happened, anyway, apologised to the staff and left. Took him for a treat and then lunch and icecream as a second treat.
The mystery of his outburst, with no other reasons, had a perfectly normal evening and morning today - although he says he will continue his weekly lessons....
His dad is so much into cricket (as I tell people, it is rare for someone from India not to be hooked on cricket) and has numerous practice sessions and 'matches' with him in the garden. Wish there were training sessions for under 8's in Birmingham. Hopefully soon.
All is well in our house now, waiting for daughter to get back from day with her friend.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Music for me or the children......

Question bugging me - what do you do when your children want to listen to grownup music with some grownup lyrics.......
My youngest has taken a fancy to Bruno Mars' Marry You, after I heard it on the radio in the car and kept playing it.....all very well for a 2 year old but then the older ones started liking it and then I bought the CD. Yesterday they chose to listen to it and thought the Lazy Song sounded good. If you know the lyrics, you will know what I mean when I say they sang each and every bit of it around 10 times before I realised what they were saying! Trying to get them back to their rhymes isnt working either, dancing like they are at a rave to Bruno Mars is their new thing since last evening......and this morning before school.....and hopefully not this evening....


Monday 15 October 2012

Grand Designs.....and Ikea

The convenience of living in a big city with relatively efficient public transport, from home to the NEC by train in less than 45 minutes....and no £10 parking charges either. Apparently most of the city had descended on the Grand Designs show at the NEC on Saturday morning when we went. Fortunately left the children at home with my mum, luckily she is here for a couple of months (thats another post). It was a productive visit for us, with the kitchen and bathroom section, hopefully all will go well in the next few months.
Surprise of the day - seeing a Goan food stall!!!! Run by Savio from London who travels to exhibitions across the country. Tasted the Prawn Balchao - very good. Wanted to place an order for sausages but told he does them only in the summer :(. Restaurant called Olde Goa in Croydon.

Ikea have money off vouchers for this month! Another surprise. £5 off £20 etc. Looking forward to carting sacra famile along for a morning of sofas, kitchens, plants, odds and ends, meatballs and the play area. Not to forget the 35p ice cream cone at the end which isn't great but my children think is heaven on earth......

Friday 12 October 2012

Cornwall for us first timers....

After many years of thinking about it, worrying about taking babies/toddlers on a long car journey, we bit the bullet and went for a week to Cornwall in August.
It was like Goa! But but but much colder and cleaner.
Our first thought was why travel to Spain/Canary Islands etc when this is in the same country and then realised how cold it was in August in the water.....
But so beautiful and have recommended a trip to all our friends who have never been. The beaches are lovely - we were at Fistral beach in Newquay and 3 of the St Ives beaches. Our hotel was on the beachfront and had this lovely view from the restaurant, very child friendly, lots of children's activities etc.
Blissful to watch children playing in the sand/rock pools while chilling on the sand, knowing the hotel and warm showers were a few minutes walk away.
All worth the 4.5 hours drive from Birmingham, most of it traffic jams after the motorway.
This is one of the beaches at St Ives.

Monday 8 October 2012

Easy like Sunday......

Yesterday was a long relaxed Sunday spent at our friends house in Solihull, catching up with a big bunch of families, children busy playing together so temporarily forgot their parents, lots of nice biryani and fish pakoras/seekh kababs from Ladypool Road etc, then came home to find a box of little cakes left by a friend....Our friends who live in Solihull have only good things to say about the area. For us, the children's school, our neigbourhood friends and the accessibility of South Birmingham are enough reasons to stay put.
Bad news, very expensive branded microwave my husband insisted on buying has irreparably broken - 1.3 years after buying it so just out of warranty. Repairs are the price of a good microwave! What complete rubbish.....meanwhile we are heating food on the hob, warming milk takes ages, never mind....
Reminders to self:
Drayton Manor deal for tickets for £14/£10, need to book as a treat for children for good reports, spelling prizes, etc.
Need to start posting pictures.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Slowly comes the realisation after months of confusion, that our weekends are now going to be largely consisting of our children's social lives. Thankfully, there is also a new social network of their friends parents who share drop offs and pick ups.
Therefore decided to make the most of it and do a Costco trip. Have to mention the divine Margarita we bought, £13 something for 1.75 litres, gorgeous over ice. They have new red velvet cupcakes out for sampling which were nice but sold out to buy! Got lots of meat which unfortunately needs to be cooked to be edible - more planning and chopping onions etc sigh.......
Costco is very good value for money but doesn't have Aldi kind of prices. The quality of things is high and if planned, can work out reasonable. Would recommend a visit.



Friday 5 October 2012

My first post, after many months, almost years of thinking about it, planning it, waking up for the 3am children's crying and resolving to do it, and now finally.....
Almost nine years of living in Birmingham, three children, lovely but busy husband, a few jobs, some exciting and some boring and meeting hundreds of new people, here I am.
Lived all my life in India, mostly in Delhi and Mumbai, worked since I was 19, lived on my own, had a good job with prospects of something even better, a wide social circle and then my now husband proposed......Accepting entailed moving to a new country, which I put at the back of my mind, deliriously happy with the idea of being married to this man. Little did I know how much upheaval it involved.....more later...