2019 Week 36 Update

Another week. Actually this week was a good one where though I was not as productive as I would have liked to be, I still managed to get some serious work done.

We are inching towards the O levl exams and stress levels at home are quite high, especially with GG who is not a very good test taker. She is very hard-working, but somehow when it comes to exams, she falters. I usually have to send her to the exam after a lot of pep talk!

Noting really stands out as exceptional this week, so this was just my usual week. I am literally counting down to botht the start and end of the O level exams. I have downloaded a countdown app and almost daily check the number of days to it. Once the exams are over, I can really relax and let my hair down.

And then after the end of the exams, I am looking forward to our India (and Mumbai) trip. More on that later!

Have a wonderful week folks!

2019 Secondary 4 Week 36 Update

This week is the week of the September holidays for the children and slightly more than 40 days to the start of the O level exams. This was also a very short school week as on Thursday the children had a half day and no lessons because of Teachers Day celebrations. Friday was a holiday and the start of their school holidays.

GG has finished around half her prelims and will finish the balance of papers after the holidays. She has her weak subjects after the holidays and I hope she is able to do reasonably well in those subjects.

BB, on the other hand, has started getting back his prelims results. While he has done well in some subjects, exceeding expectations in some subjects, he didn’t do well in others.

I also went back to BB’s school to help out in my last Teacher’s Day celebrations which was a nice break for me.

That was all from our side this week. Have a wonderful Sunday!

2019 Week 35 Update

The Indian festive season has started and today is my favourite festival – the birthday of my ishtadev Lord Ganesh. Its during this time I really miss being in Mumbai and I hope that next year I manage to go there at least for a couple of days during the 11-day Ganesh festival and also make a side trip to Pune to see the famous Ganesh mandals there.

We had a good week because of BB and GG’s early admission offers, which means that a slight easure of the pressure that is on the children because of the O level exams.

Our stress levels are hitting the roof what with the O levels less than 50 days away. I am literally counting the days down. Another date I am counting down to is our holiday at the end of the year. I can’t wait for the exams to get over so we can finally relax!

To everyone celebrating, Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal Murti Morya!

Have a wonderful week people.

2019 Secondary 4 Week 35 Update

The week started on a fantastic note!

We spent the weekend and the morning of Monday on tenterhooks because Monday was the day the results of the Early Admission Exercise was supposed to be released. I was literally on tenterhooks and when 2 pm rolled out (the time the results were to be declared), I kept refeshing all the forums I was following to see if people were successful.

I knew that BB would be at tuition around the time of the results, but didn’t want to disturb him. So I texted him if he had received any email from the system. Then after about 10 minutes, BB called me. Before even saying “Hello”, I asked him if he heard something. I knew that it was either good news or horrible news. BB was so overcome with emotion that he took a full 10 seconds before he could make his voice work. He was estatic that he had received an offer for his first choice of course. This is his dream course, a dream he has had since he was around 4-5 years old. He will be studying Aeronatutical engineering and this will eventually lead to a degree in the same field. If you see my about post, which is around 10 years old, I have mentioned that BB wanted to become a pilot. While his dream of becoming a pilot has changed to becoming an aeronatical engineer, the field which he still has a passion for remains unchanged. He spent the rest of the week in smiles, he would randomly start smiling and I know it is because he was so happy!

GG was still in school and when she was done, she called me and I told her BB’s good news. I asked her to check her email and when she couldn’t connect to the site, I asked her for the password to the EAE portal. She was very worried that if BB has gotten the offer, its quite likely that she may not get one. After all what are the odds that both twins get an offer to a course of their choice. When I logged in, I could see her offer! When I told her over the phone, she could not believe it. The offer she got was for hrer third choice of school/course, but her first choice of course. She will be studying Accountancy, which she loved after taking it for the first time in Secondary 3 and doing very well in the subject.

BB’s best friends in school (they are called the three musketeers) also received offers, but not in the same polytechnic as BB, but that’s ok. A couple of other friends in BB’s school also received offers, so that is another piece of good news for us.

All in all, this week was dominated by the EAE offers which they both have now accepted. If all goes well and they meet the minimum entry requirements for the course (which I assume they will, since it’s only a pass for all subjects), they will get the confirmation when they get their O level results and will also not be able to take part in the joint admission exercise.

Anyway, have a great Sunday folks! GG still has her prelims while BB just finished his. We will start seeing his papers from tomorrow. Hope he has done well in the exams.

2019 Week 33 Update

This week was the usual week where nothing much happened. I am actually sort of pausing my job search from now till I am back from my long awaited India holiday at the end of the year because I don’t want to interview only to tell any potential hiring manager that I can’t start until the new year which will automatically put me out of the running. But if something comes my way (which I prefer in any case), then that’s a different story altogether.

Speaking about my trip, we’ve booked our tickets to India as well as the train tickets to the interiors from a major city in the south as well as our hotel accomodation there. I am also looking forward to meeting my maternal grandmother who is around 90 years old. I know that she does not have many years left, so I do want to meet her this year. The children are also excited to meet their only surviving great grand parent. We still have to buy our flight tickets from Mumbai to the southern city and back, which we will do soon.

In researching the places we will be visiting, I ended up watching train videos on YouTube and I found these so fascinating. I have been revisiting old journeys which we used to take when we were in school and seeing all the station names brought back so much memories. I now want to take the children with me to visit more cities in India.

Have a wonderful week folks and this week brings us to the end to the month of August!