The haze is back in Singapore! I really thought that we will be missing it this year, but it hit us this weekend, peaking on Friday and Saturday and then petering off on Sunday. Hopefully, this does not come back, though meteorological reports say otherwise. We’ll be having the PSI rising when the winds blow the hazy winds towards us.

September starts this week and it’s my favourite month of the year. BB, GG and I have our birthdays this month and it’s also the month with the birthday of my favourite God – Lord Ganesh which, this year, happens next week. It’s also the month which starts the countdown to the festival of Diwali, so all-in-in I really like this month. Hope this month turns out to be as special as I wish it to be!

Update on BB’s poonal preparations – the printer has still not sent me the mock-up of the card, he was to send it to me last week itself, but nothing yet. I waited till Friday to see if he would send it to me by email, and then gave up and called him. He said he was sick and so could not do it and said he would send it to me the same day or latest by Saturday. I now have to chase him later today. I also wrote to two photographers, whose contacts I got from friends and they’ve not yet responded too. Need to chase them too and finalise the photographer soon. Last I need to finalise where else in India we will be going after the poonal and book tickets for that place along with our Singapore-India plane tickets. Lots of work this week for me.

My Reading Challenge update – I’ve read 145 of my updated challenge of 150 (if you remember, my original challenge was 125 books in 2016). I’ve now updated my challenge to 155 books and every time I am 5 books shy of the target (until December), I will increase the challenge by another 5 books. I am hoping (really) to reach 200 books this year, lets see if I manage it!

Have a great week folks and happy September!

This week flew past, in spite of it being a normal working week. I am now very comfortable with being a SAHM and hardly applied to any new position this week. Now as I write this post, I wonder why?

This week was taken up with the planning of BB’s Upanayanam or Poonal as it’s called colloquially. We’re planning to do this in Mumbai in the early December and last weekend we were at my mother-in-law’s house to discuss how many people they want to invite. S then got the name of a printer locally and I reached out to them and this weekend we went over to finalise the invite. We’ve chosen a simple invite and have given the order for the invites to be printed. I also reached out to some friends to get recommendations for a photographer for the event. I’ll be reaching out to these contacts next week and finalise this too soon.

I’ve been hit by a major case of writer’s block. In the past two weeks, I’ve not written anything! I just don’t seem to dredge up the inspiration to write and if it was not for some previously saved drafts, this blog would be suffering this week. I am really hoping that this situation improves this week and I can write soon.

Have a happy Monday and a great week folks!

This week just flew past. Having a public holiday in the middle helped, I guess!

I’ve been feeling quite off this week, but I just can’t put my finger on why I feel like this. Headaches have also been plaguing me this week. I feel I was mildly depressed, and hopefully, I’ve managed to pull myself out of it. Job search is also at a standstill, and as the days pass, the less I feel confident of landing one soon.

Singapore celebrated its 51st National Day this week and I enjoyed watching the show on TV. I’ve always been drawn to national day celebrations, even as a child growing up in India and would pester my dad to let me watch the Republic Day parades, which no one else was interested in watching. The pomp and grandeur of the show always made me feel happy and when the national anthem was invariably played, I always get goosebumps!

Singapore also had another bit of fantastic news to round off the week. Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling upset the ‘greatest Olympian of all time’ Michael Phelps to win the 100 meters butterfly finals at the Rio Olympics to win the Gold and at the same time, created a new Olympic Games record of 50.39 seconds. This was Singapore’s first ever gold medal in the history of the Olympic games and the first time the national anthem was played during the victory ceremony.I was at the doctor on Saturday morning for my monthly medication and blood test and wanted to get home to watch the final. I didn’t get out of there on time, but by the time I got my medication, it was time for the match, so I, along with all the others in the clinic, watched the match with bated breath. We were all rooting for Schooling

I was at the doctor on Saturday morning for my monthly medication and blood test and wanted to get home to watch the final. I didn’t get out of there on time, but by the time I got my medication, it was time for the match, so I, along with all the others in the clinic, watched the match with bated breath. We were all rooting for Schooling and when he was first at the end of the 50 meters, it seemed that Singapore was destined for a podium finish. But when he came in first, almost a second ahead of the three silver medalists (including Phelps), everyone in the clinic was shouting, so much that the doctors came out to celebrate with us! I rushed home to see the victory ceremony and when Majulah Singapura was played, I literally got goosebumps!

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Today, my country of birth, India, celebrates her 69th Independence Day. Wishing all Indians, both in India and elsewhere a very Happy Independence Day. May the country grow from strength to strength.

Have a joyous and productive week folks!