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Chai And A Chat #22 #ChaiAndAChat

04 Mar 2019 50 Comments

by Ritu in Chai and a Chat Tags: #ChaiAndAChat, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Catch Up, Chai and a Chat, Parents evenings

Well hello, again Peeps! I’m already chugging away at my chai as I type this to you. Yes. Week one of no In-Laws is over!

If we were sipping chai together I’d say “Yes! We survived the first week!
If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that things have been going pretty smoothly on the kids at the end of the school day front. They either come to me or to their uncle if he’s working from home, and that has been really helpful… except one day when Lil Man (he had to do something, didn’t he?) when he took so long to get to me, I wandered the roads outside our school for twenty minutes and even called up his school, only to find him sauntering into the gate, with a lollypop stick hanging from his lips and a blue mouth! He can’t seem to grasp that I have to fit a whole load of work into less time at the end of the day at the moment, so I don’t leave late, and takes his sweet time getting anywhere!
If we were sipping chai together I’d say that the migraine decided to come back with a vengeance too on Monday evening… I guess I am stressing a bit about everything. It made me go to bed early, after popping a pill, and I woke with it still there. More tablets and I managed to get through the school day, and once that finished, it reared its ugly head AGAIN! No fair! But please don’t worry, I am better now!
If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that I’ve had a few interesting emails over this week. The first was one from that blessed car servicing place, who tried to fob me off with a 20% discount on next year’s service, even though in my original email I had expressly said I would not be using their service any more. Then they came back and offered me a £20 refund… I still haven’t replied, since I paid nearly £300 for the pleasure of being carless for 2 days for NO REASON!
If we were sipping chai together I’d excitedly say we got some lovely news on Friday for Lil Princess. She got her first choice for her secondary school place in September. I can’t believe she will be going to big school soon, but am so happy that she got where she really wanted, as so many kids out there didn’t… seems the Government forgot there was a baby boom in 2007/2008 and places were going to be scarce!
If we were sipping chai together I’d let you know I got another email that, though it might seem negative to some, is actually really positive. I received my first REJECTION from an agent. This is, so far, the first and only one I have sent out, so to get a response was just amazing!

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If we were sipping chai together I’d say that my Tootie Frootie lades and I had a great night out on Saturday for a Comedy Night, a few bevvies and a bite to eat. We giggled our way through the evening!

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If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that I had a lovely video conversation with my Finndian family on Sunday morning and I can’t wait for a couple of month’s time when I get real cuddles!
If we were sipping chai together I’d let you know that we have managed to book a long weekend away to yet another Center Parcs too, this time in Elveden Forest! Another exciting time! We need to get booking activities now!
f we were sipping chai together I’d say that thankfully the in-laws arrived safely, though my father-in-law left here feeling a little under the weather. We were a little worried about the whole India Pakistan thing going on, especially as they closed the airport closest to where they stay, but they assure us they are okay, if wet, as they combat rain, whilst here we had three days of glorious weather, and on one day we were hotter than the tropics! (It’s wet now, but shhhh!)

If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d tell you that I have two busy evenings this week, with Parents Evening rearing its head. So School gets me for nearly 12 hours on two days… I know it is a long day, but I do enjoy catching up with the parents and discussing their children’s’ progress.
If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d mention that I don’t want to have anything else planned next week. I deserve a quiet rest of the week, after the parents evenings, but let’s see…!

Have a wonderful week, Peeps! Let me know how your week went!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 211 – Friendship

03 Mar 2019 32 Comments

by Ritu in Spidey's Serene Sundays Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Friendship, Sereme, Spiderman, Spidey, Spidey's Serene Sunday

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” – Jim Morrison

Oh, I do love it, Spidey, when you give me something to think upon, something that is totally relevant to life right now!

Friends are the family you choose for yourself.

There are so many types of friendships; the acquaintances, the ‘specific times of your life’ friends, the work friends, the kids’ parents friends, and the real friends.

You do indeed get to a time in your life when you find that, though you can surround yourself with people on a daily basis, there are only a few people, possibly as many as you have fingers on your hand, that are your real friends.

All through school, I had plenty of mates, friends who knew what school was like and we could grumble together, fawn over music and crushes together, that sort of thing. But I don’t think I ever really forged a true, strong friendship with anyone. Because no one at my school saw the full, real me. They saw the quiet Indian girl who was a bit quirky and fun, but not the Ritu who was the loud one at home and in family functions. The Ritu who embraced her Eastern roots and culture as much as she loved her adopted Western roots too.

That Ritu, and the one you all know today, really found those friendships after starting university. There, I learned more about myself, and became more confident being me. And there is one person, the Buzz to my Woody, who carried me through a whole loads of ups and downs over the last nearly 30 years… My beautiful best friend.

She is a beautiful soul, inside and out ❤

We don’t live close. We speak less than we ought to, but we have a connection that is always open. She knows me better than almost anyone.

And, I feel blessed to have at least one other person who I feel like that about too.

You hear me talking about my special group of girls, my Tootie Frooties, here in my marital hometown. We try and meet up regularly, to have a catch-up, a chat, a drink and a laugh, and they are all so special to me.

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But there is one who is another soul sister to me. Since we had children, well more since Lil Man was 4, we have connected, and she has been another one who I have been able to rely upon for support, laughs and general sisterhood.

Of course, I have so many blog friends who I count upon as true friends, those who I look forward to meeting yearly, and have personal contact with regularly, outside of blogland too! There are some of you who I have contacted for support as well as laughs, and I know some of you will email or message me for that same support, which I gladly give ❤

I count myself very lucky to have these folks in my life, and I want to thank each and every one of you for letting me be ‘me’ with you ❤

So… tell me, who do you count as your true, ‘be myself’ friends?

#SoCS March 2/19

02 Mar 2019 21 Comments

by Ritu in #SoCS Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Cele, Linda G Hill, School, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cele-.” Find a word that starts with or contains “cele” and use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Celebration time!

Yes, that is definitely the thing for us this weekend.

Yesterday we were on tenterhooks, waiting to find out what school Lil Princess would get a place at.

On that news that morning, there was a report about how over 100,000 children wouldn’t get their first choice of schools, and that there was even a shortage of places in secondary schools.

Apparently, in her year of birth, there was a baby boom. That was 11 years ago. Surely the government had access to birth figures and should have been suitably prepared… Seems not.

So, even though I was pretty sure she would get her first choice, especially as her brother is already there, there was still a worry.

And it appears that our county is one of the latest to send out the offer emails. Most letters were posted to arrive this morning, or emails sent to arrive in parents inboxes in the morning.

Not Kent.

No. We were advised that after 4pm the emails would start to arrive, and if you applied by paper form, your letters would be posted today and so you wouldn’t even know until tomorrow!

And I was impatient, checking my phone at every break to make sure nothing had sneaked in early…

Then at lunchtime, one of her peers’ mums, who works at the school, told me her husband had had THE EMAIL! And it was only 1.30pm!

Well, my brain went into overdrive then. Why had we not received notification yet? Had I sent the application in properly? What if she hadn’t got into her first choice of school?

It wasn’t long before, finally, that message pinged up.

She got in!

To the school we wanted, the place she wanted, and the same as her brother.

That allowed a wave of relief to wash over me.

So we have to celebrate her good news this weekend.

(Then we can start silently panicking about her SATS tests in May…)

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 2/19

February 28: Flash Fiction Challenge – Backup

01 Mar 2019 29 Comments

by Ritu in #CarrotRanch, Fiction Tags: 99-Word Fiction, Back Up, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills, Flash Fiction

Charli’s prompt this week…

February 28, 2019, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story using the term backup. You can back up or have a backup, just go where the prompt leads!

Back Up Required

“Back up! I request you all to back up. You are blocking the exit.”
Pete tried, in vain, to clear a path through the door.
It was always the same, when these guys visited.
He needed to get the band to their car, but it was proving to be impossible.
Just as he thought he’d made some headway, a huge scream erupted, and the crowd of teeny boppers surged forward, knocking him to the ground.
Typical. The boys had turned up at the entrance, with their dazzling smiles, unaware that their security was buried, and requiring back up himself.
Ritu 2019

February 28: Flash Fiction Challenge

Invitation #writephoto

28 Feb 2019 64 Comments

by Ritu in #WritePhoto Tags: #WritePhoto, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Invitation, Sue Vincent

Sue’s #WritePhoto prompt:

Every day, we walk past that gate.
It looks so creepy, and the walls are covered with this green litchen moss that indicates no-one really looked after the place.
I always wonder what is behind it though. The grounds inside are so overgrown that there is no way of glimpsing the house that it guards. Nanna said that it had been a beautiful house when she was young. There were always streams of folk in and out, parties happening regularly. She remembers standing near the gate with her friends, as a young girl, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beautiful frocks that the ladies visiting the house wore.
Then one day, the gates mysteriously closed, and never opened again.
Mummy says that bad things happened there. Someone died, and a child went missing. Nanna can’t recall what exactly happened. When I ask her, she just reminisces about pretty dresses.
There are so many rumours amongst the village.
A happy, fortunate family who suddenly befell an awful tragedy, with the man of the house being mysteriously killed in his house and their only child, a girl, disappearing. They say the lady of the house still lives there, but I can’t work out how. She’d be older than Nanna if she was still alive, and Nanna is quite old…
But just the other day, there was a report of a child going missing. She goes to my school. Her brother’s not been in this week. They must be so scared. She my age. She isn’t really my friend, but anyway… she went missing, and no one can trace her, beyond leaving school to walk home.
She’s often walked the same way as me.
Where could she have gone?
Today, I’ve had Drama Club so I’m late walking back. Sarah, my best friend, doesn’t like Drama so she went home on her own, earlier.
It’s getting dark earlier and everywhere has an eerie feel about it, especially as I get closer to that gate…
But today there is something odd. One of the gate panels is slightly ajar. I’ve never seen it open before.
Curiosity killed the cat, they say. It’s a good thing my name’s not Cat… I push open the gate and step through.
The house is there, masked by overgrown plants. But no sign of anyone around.
Who might have opened that gate?
I just have to walk up a little further. It’d be rude not to. I have to push away some of the brambles that have taken over the path, laddering my school tights.
Great.
Mummy will kill me.
The house looms closer. It really does look like it could have been a grand place.
Oh My God!
The door opens.
A little woman is standing there.
“Come on in Grace. We’ve been expecting you.”
Something pulls me closer, even though my mind is telling me to just run back to the gate, and out.
My body keeps going, and before I know it, I am over the threshold.
My eyes adjust to the dimness of the light in the hallway, and as I glance to the right, through a door, what I see makes me gasp in horror, just as I hear the front door slam shut behnd me with certain finality.

Ritu 2019