School Holidays

It’s been a week since BB & GG’s mid-year school holidays have started. However, vaccations are not a whole lot different than regular school days for them. Since they didn’t do well (read very badly) in Hindi, I sit with them daily for an hour daily. This is in addition to my mother-in-law and her sister doing school subjects like maths and science with them. S usually drives them to their home which is a 10 minute drive in the morning when he leaves for work. Then once I am done with my chores in the morning, I walk down to pick them up. We’re planning a short trip later in June to a neighbouring country, that’s their only ‘holiday’!

Thinking of school holidays brings to mind the days we used to spend during our school holidays. Then, holidays literally meant that – freedom from school, from studies and the regular routines. The entire duration would be only for mauj and masti (enjoyment and fun).  We would play the whole day, with morning devoted to badminton and the hot afternoons to playing indoors or just gossiping, coming home just to eat and sometimes not even for that, preferring to eat at whichever friend’s home we were at that point. Then only after the evening games were done, would we really go home.

But children these days have so much expectations riding on them that holidays is really a myth. I see almost all the schools near my home having some activity or the other for the children, most of the activities seem to be in the morning, for around 4 hours.

Guess, I should not complain too much, cést la vie after all!

 

In My Hands Today

Mr. and Miss Anonymous – Fern Michaels

Like many college students struggling to get by, Lily Madison and Peter Kelly help pay for tuition by making donations to a local fertility clinic. One day they meet each other at the clinic and find they have more in common than their mutual attraction, like the odd feeling all is not as it seems at the clinic. But their meeting is brief and Lily and Pete go their separate ways.

Twenty years later, Pete, now a wealthy entrepreneur, sees Lily in an airport and instantly falls for her all over again. While they enjoy their unlikely reunion, a story on the news captures their attention: the disappearance of two teenage boys may be linked to the fertility clinic Pete and Lily visited in college. In a shocking twist, one of the boys looks exactly like Pete. . .

Rajma Paratha – Indian Red Kidneybean Flatbread

I had made Rajma over the weekend and as usual made too much for all of us to eat. We had leftovers and I didn’t know what to do with them. I love Rajma, so thought I will eat them with rotis when I chanced upon this recipe by The Steaming Pot. I tweaked it a bit and voila – spicy, tasty rajma parathas which we had with a dash of ginger pickle and a quick raita of baby cucumbers, tomatoes and onions.

Rajma Parathas

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cup pre-made rajma masala, blended and pureed well to make it a smooth paste
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour
  • Some warm water to kneed the dough
  • 1 tsp oil for the dough
  • ghee/oil for the parathas (optional)

Method:

In a large dish mix the pureed rajma and the wheat flour and if needed, use the warm water to make it a smooth dough. Use 1 tap oil at the very end and mix into the dough to avoid stickiness.

Roll out into slightly thicker than usual parathas. In a non-stick tava, put the parathas in medium high heat and once the first side is done, flip and put a few drops of ghee in the first side. Repeat for the second side and remove and eat hot!

3 cups of wholewheat flour gave me around 12 parathas.

Sunday

Yesterday, after quite some time, we went out as a family. What with S’s erratic work schedule, we hardly get time to go out together. We decided to check out the new mall in Jurong East – JCube. My impressions – same as all the other malls. Nothing so very different except for one shop Payless Shoes. Wow! So many shoes and the best part is that there were so many options in my size. My size is longer than the average size worn by women here and so it’s quite difficult for me to get good and reasonably priced shoes. I tried on many, but didn’t buy any. I will definitely go back when (if) I start working again. GG was also super impressed there. She’s getting to the age when all these things – shoes, bags, make-up are simply fascinating to her!

The USP of this mall is that they have Singapore’s biggest and only Olympic sized ice skating rink. GG wanted to to go in and try it out, but since we didn’t come prepared, I had to persuade her not to. We’ve promised her to come back and try skating there another day though!

We also had dinner at Chilis. Normally at most malls, it’s a challenge to find food to eat as we are vegetarians. But Chilis had some vegetarian options and we had American Southwestern (Tex-Mex) food. The portion sizes were huge and we could not finish our food. So a lesson for the next time – order less and share!

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S’s dinner – Enchiladas

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My dinner – Veggie BurgerImage

My Drink – Strawberry Lemondae – Super Yummy

Our starters which we couldn’t finish and had to take home in a doggie bag!

In My Hands Today…

Behind the Night Bazaar – Angela Savage

Thirty-something Australian Jayne Keeney works as a PI in Bangkok. Shaken by a serious incident, she heads north to visit her close friend Didier in Chiang Mai, though there’s no relief for her there.

Murder is in the air and the police, led by Lieutenant Colonel Ratratarn, have no interest in justice. But Jayne does.

With some help from Arthur Conan Doyle, she digs deep—past the tacky glamour of the city’s clubs and bars, arrogant expats, corrupt officials, and a steamy affair—to find out just what happened behind the Night Bazaar.