Day 16 - What time is it?

Look at the 3 pictures below and tell me what time of the day do you think it is?
I haven't touched them up at all. So no editing, brightening, photo shopping done.
All 3 have been taken at the same time of the day, from the balcony in our downtown Wellington apartment.

The correct answer shall get a prize!!
A big hug and kiss virtually, allllll the way from this end of the planet. I'll even throw a coffee in which I will enjoy on your behalf if you can't make it here ;)

This post is part of Marathon Blogging December 2012 and is specially designed to increase your awareness about the planet you live on.
I know you are very grateful and indebted to me for that. And no I will not meet you in the near future for you to strangle me out of sheer frustration at this post and the level I have stooped to.
And before you even think, NO, this is not cheating. I have a post. This is it. Deal with it!
Happy Sunday :)

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Day 14 - Christmas Parade and Carols

In New Zealand, most of the work places shut down fully or partially around 15th December for a month. Yes, for a full month, work comes to a halt! Except the essential stuff, of course. Offices send out the year-end holiday shut down dates via email as early as May-June so that people can plan their holidays.
Most of the public Christmas events, parties and school functions are done with, by Dec 15th. After which people set out for their personal or family vacations, celebrations and escapes!
The Kiwis take their annual summer holidays very seriously. Holiday homes, villas and beach rentals are booked out well ahead in time (we found that out while looking for our December retreat). Home leases and employee contracts are signed up till Jan 15th and not Dec 31st, so that nobody in inconvenienced to look for new tenants or employees in the middle of their vacation.

The Wellington City's annual Christmas parade was last weekend. It was all that you expect from a parade and more. Here are glimpses from the parade and the party that followed.

It was a riot of colours!

The white ice queen

Summer sun = Fedoras and Hats!

The end of the parade

The party begins!

Darth Vader and his li'l fan!

Li'l girls in oh-so-cute-tiaras

Hospi (from Wellington Children Hospital) giving out free hugs

Crowds colourful and happy

The party goes on until evening and late night

The lights on the huge electric Christmas tree are turned on

Little sparkles of joy - my favourite pic of this lot

So much colour! Another facet of the previous pic

Listening to carols in candle light err saber light!

Happy Holiday season!! Just 10 more sleeps until Christmas eve :)

This post is part of the Marathon Blogging December 2012.

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Day 11 - My Coffee Mornings

Some days after I drop off N at the kindy (kindergarten as referred here) I stop to sit and have a cup of coffee while browsing through the day's news paper. Or I take it to-go and sip it while walking home. 

The cafe I go to, is this ancient looking coffee place with a grinding mini-factory right next to it so you can smell really strong coffee from quite a distance. 

My favourite is a mochachino which, as they say, is a cappuccino with a teaspoon or more of chocolate!! Here in Windy Welly they serve it with marshmallows. 

So there is no sugar in the coffee. You can choose to sprinkle cocoa powder or cinnamon on the top and 2 marshmallows on the side. I dunk the m'mallows into my coffee and that sweetens it gradually. So I drink coffee as coffee and then get my sugar hit at the end :) 

Some times it's just coffee. At other times it is accompanied by a friand, a scone or a puff pastry snack. On this particular day it was a blueberry and coconut friand. 

They do have a few Starbucks' which was and still is a personal favourite. But the locals prefer the millions of cafes in the city with locally ground and brewed coffee. And after tasting coffee there, I am a big fan too.

This is part of Day 11 of the Marathon Blogging December 2012. 

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Day 6 - Summer fun!

Summer has officially started in Wellington, NZ some time back. 
And we have been making hay while the sun shines and doing all the typical summery stuff - picnics, parties, visits to the beach, shedding those layers of clothes and jumping into the water! 

We have been -  

Getting summer flowers to brighten up the house. And yes, I do buy flowers for myself :) 

Eating strawberries and ice cream. Yumm! Hokey Pokey is a NZ favourite 

Having chaat parties with golguppas, bhel puri and tikki chaat. I used my measuring spoons to hold the accompanying stuff. Innovative, I know. The truth is "Necessity is the mother of invention" ;) 

We have been running through lush green parks, which are abundant in Wellington

Jumping into the pool and sitting there for hours

Blowing bubbles in the balcony

And being very pleased about that :) 

What have you been doing this summer... errr... winter? 

This post is part of Day 6 of the Marathon Blogging event December 2012. 

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Day 2 - Beach, Pizza, Talaash and Rajma Chawal!

The Marathon Blogging event where a group of us bloggers have resolved to write every day for the month of December is on! Check out the badge on the sidebar. 
To join us this month, send an add request to the Marathon Bloggers FB Group. 

Yesterday was Saturday and a not a very windy day (like it typically is, here in Wellington)! We drove down to Paraparaumu beach and spent time there. There were fluffy white clouds in the sky. The Tasman Sea waves were lapping up against the shore one after the other. Was a beautiful sight, close-my-eyes-and-lie-down-here-types!

N had a lot of fun, trying to catch the water in his fists, running behind and then away from the waves, playing with the stuff the water brought along.

We even drew some hearts in the sand; one for each of us, sized to match our heights. 

This was followed by a much needed tummy filling pizza lunch at Hell's Pizza. Hell's is a locally owned chain started in NZ and now spread across Australia and UK. Loved their collection of veggie and chicken pizzas. 

From here we proceeded to a quaint li'l modern village square with local shops, a farmer's market and ice cream, candy and honey stores along with other stuff.
I was amused by this sign on the door to an art gallery and gift store. Usually stores have the opposite sign. I thought this was cute and a stand-out!! I did go into the store with my double cream and cookies cone :) 

S and I looked at each other and thought "What next?" I am a big watch-movies-in-the-theater buff and this activity had reduced in frequency for some time after N was born but now we are back in action. We decided to watch Talaash, the latest Aamir Khan flick. And as expected with almost any Aamir Khan movie, it was a treat. Loved the taut, well edited and directed thriller. Well done Reema Kagti, Bravo!!

Came back home, had rajma chawal - a favourite in our house. Was inspired by Archana's post about making this. Loaded the dishwasher and while the hubby put the kid to bed I started on this post. All in all, it was a day well spent!

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Busy Bee

Busy is good. Busy is fun. Busy is tiring too! We have been up to a lot lately :) 

I wrote a guest post for ShopHealthy's blog. It is my recipe for Oatmeal and Walnut cookies, a slightly healthy-er version :) Check it out here! For the un-initiated, ShopHealthy.in is an online market place for all things healthy!! They deliver to almost everywhere in India. You can buy everything at one place, check out recipes and share yours too. It is a blogger friend's venture with her husband, in their quest to pay more attention to what they eat. Like they say, eat well, feel well and live well!

N has started a 5 day week at his school/kindy (kindergarten, as a lot of us call them). His earlier schedule of 3 days a week wasn't going too well with him or me. It was actually a bit unsettling. It feels much better now. He gets to play, learn and burn out the testosterone! I get time to clean, cook, read, write and watch Grey's Anatomy (we shall come to that in a bit!). Weekends seem to be a bit busy with trying to fit in the visit to the library, beach (summer is here in NZ), play area, skate park and hiking but that is good! 

I have started volunteering at a local community shelter. For now, once a week. Its a new experience and something I wanted to do some day. I have the time and perfect opportunity now. I look forward to learn something, to share and to broaden my horizons. I believe every time we do something new we learn a lot about ourselves too - our strengths, weaknesses. We test our beliefs, value system and even add a new skill to our repertoire! 

S started playing in a local cricket league, which I am very happy about. This way, he gets to play his fave sport, it helps him to stay fit, sometimes injured too (yes, when cricketers in their mid-30s try to take catches as if they were in their early-20s, they end up hurting themselves!!). He also gets some time away from me and N doing something that he likes which we all like to do in this family. 

I started watching this TV drama series - Grey's Anatomy which I have become hooked to ever since I saw Season 1, episode 1. Am totally loving it, finished Season 1 and on to the 2nd season now. 

I have been doing some fun cooking and a lot of cuisines - some new pastas, salads, pizzas,  frittatas, Mexican quesadillas and corn salad, desi gobhi parathas and dry choley veggie and grilled asparagus (yummy!). The husband says "I like it when you cook, keep at it." Why wouldn't he? He gets to eat all of it ;) 

N and I are doing pretty good this year in the 2012 PaperTigers Reading Challenge! Read details here... :) 

N has started reading and writing some words/letters. He is showing some great drawing skills too *Note the proud mommy effect*. He signed off Thank You cards for his birthday party with his name. 
He also co-relates things very well and has a fantastic memory in terms of things, places and people (but we do not r'ber mommy's instructions. Now that would make life so simple for mommy, and we wouldn't want it, would we?) 

Being busy is good, it makes vacations and days-off so much more fun!! Looking forward to a big, fun break in December with a lovely set of friends. 

Stay busy, stay happy!!

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Exploring Wellington

New Zealand is naturally beautiful all over. Every where you look there is some scenic view, some trail waiting to be walked upon, some flora and fauna waiting to be discovered. This place offers a lot to do, for all tastes, in a small area.
There are some activities that S, N and I enjoy as family activities and hiking or tramping is one of them. We have been to about 3 or 4 of them so far and want to do more in the summers.
Last weekend we covered part of another long trail called the City to Sea Walkway. We found a park on the way and the kid loved it!!

While some chose to run and bound through the green grass trying to catch the blue skies...

... others decided to hitch hike!!

We went downhill...

And looked up at tall trees.

Found some HUGE trees...

And swung high on swings in the park...

And New Yorkers we have our own Central Park too :) ...

Looking forward to more tramping. Keep in mind the hiking motto "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footsteps"!!

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N turns 4 and a tad cuter and wiser!

N turned 4 last week and with that S and I breathed a sigh of partial relief. Yay!! we made it through the terrible threes. But wait what might the 4s bring?
Then I read somewhere - " If 3-year-olds are busy, inquisitive, and fun, 4-year-olds are all that, magnified — yet with a budding maturity, self-control, and understanding of rules that help make life a bit calmer." I hope so. 
The 3s have been very demanding. But I can already feel the 4s being more pleasant :) 

When we were talking about how he would like to spend the day. He didn't really have a list of wants. He did not mention the word party. But he continued to scan every toy/gizmo/vehicle around him and let us know that he would like to get it as his birthday gift.  He was told to choose any 2 things - one from mum, one from dad. He did spend a lot of time thinking about what to choose using the phrases "Thinking", "Still thinking", "Still Still thinking" and ultimately chose some decent (subjective, I know!) gifts. On the actual birth day, we took him to an indoor soft play area that he loves. It was bright, colourful and happy and N enjoyed it with friends. 

We were reading a book a few nights before his birthday. It was about a boy named Angus who shares food from a goods train with people who need it rather than the rich and full, royal family. We do the "What did you learn/like/dislike discussion for the books we read?" And so N said "Mamma, it is a good thing to share things with people who don't have them. I would do that." That motivated me to walk in to my local soup kitchen/community kitchen for people who don't have homes, here in Wellington and I asked about what kind of donations they accept. They said pretty much anything was welcome. I asked N if he would love to share some of his birthday cake with them. He liked the idea!! So we ordered a big cake... 

... and decided to donate it to the soup kitchen after the party. We went to the kitchen after his birthday party and the staff and volunteers there were pleased and wanted to show N the place. His favourite part was the huge walk-in freezer, as big as our master bedroom. 

May the sharing and kind spirit continue. God bless you N!! 

I love this poem by Kahlil Gibran and I hope I can follow it while raising N.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

~ Source here

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