Hello 2013!

The New Year began on a wonderful note for our family. For one, we took an unexpected holiday to Cape Town (easily convinced by my brother to join his family as he took his in-laws who had come from India). It was our first holiday as a family - and my first in many years in fact. Trying to think back now on why we never went on a holiday, we never even had a honeymoon! At the time, we always seem to have valid reasons: new job so no leave, just moved to a new city, we're pregnant, baby is too small for travel, and when ALL seems well - we're broke :)

Words cannot truly describe the beauty and splendour of Cape Town. An annual holiday by the sea is highly recommended - it lifts your spirits and you come back rejuvenated, ready for a fresh start. The Cape is all about the mountains, the ocean and the vineyards! The fresh sea breeze surrounds you constantly, making no room in your head for any negativity. You experience a state of bliss, a feeling that ANY thing is possible, a determination to wake up from the depressing slumber you were in and make a promise to yourself that things will be different. It emancipates you - from your former self.

How long this feeling will last I cannot say. But experience has taught me that I need to frequently uplift myself. Every human being needs to be surrounded by Nature's bounty - it is written in our genetic makeup. It is not quite the same as looking for beauty in what's in front of you - I do that too. We need Nature. We need social interaction. We need to appreciate, and feel appreciated. We do NOT need criticism. We'll accept the constructive kind from our loved ones, because we love them, and from our boss - because we owe it to ourselves to to the best we can at our jobs. But more than anything, going back to Nature, to the elements, exposes us to the truth - that in our pursuit of the perfect life, we forget we already have life perfected if we can breathe in clean air.

The first thing I ate as we crossed into 2013 was 3 different flavours of Haagen Dazs. Another kind of nirvana that is - put a huge smile on my face. We were at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront for the fireworks display but the throng of crowds kept us inside the mall. Suddenly, the long queue in Haagen Dazs ran outside for the final countdown. My better half and I pushed and shoved our way in with our sleeping baby, kissed each other a Happy New Year and ordered our ice-cream. It was the best New Year of my life! In my heart, I truly believe this trip is a sign of wonderful things to come. Else, in a time in our lives when a holiday seemed near impossible - why would God make it possible?

This is the view from Cape Point - the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Indian Ocean on the right.

Comments

  1. manuFebruary 22, 2013 at 7:20:00 PM GMT+5:30

    lovely post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ReflectionsJune 19, 2013 at 7:18:00 PM GMT+5:30

    I loved this post Jane....u reminded me of everything I knw I must make the effort to do. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paralysis

I feel so much has happened in the three months of my married life but never has there been an opportunity to put it down in words. Some times I start writing only to get easily distracted when I see a tag or a useless quiz on Facebook. I wish I could say I did "nothing" with my life these past 3 months - but that is not entirely true. Those who know me, know that I cannot sit idle, and that I thrive on my work. But now, having relocated to Hyderabad - I am happy to be a housewife because that is a whole new territory that I have never been exposed to. My mother was a working woman, and every childhood friend I have had, had mums who were working women. I am not trying to say that housewives do not work - in fact, I am trying to say exactly the opposite. There are so many minute details that go into running a household - I am in awe at how my mother did all that she did. That aside, we have an addition to the family - a 2-month-old male labrador, our baby - we have named him ...
Read more

A Picture Speaks

Image
I was tagged by Renu and the rules are: Pick the 6th picture of your 6th photo folder. Tell a story around it. Pass it on to six other people you like. So when I saw this a few days ago I was like: Oh my God please don't let it be a picture of me looking cross-eyed or something equally bad. Even before I checked to see what the picture was I was tempted to select any "cool" picture from one of my albums and pass if off as the 6th of the 6th. How ever, to be fair, I arranged my folders according to Name, and then looked. And this is what I found: These are my last set of college gal pals. I say last because I have been to 4 colleges so far in my life, and a degree and two post graduations later the greatest lesson I have learned is that GOOD friends are REALLY hard to find. (If my mother hears of this she would say "You didn't have to waste my money on college tuition to learn THAT - I could have told you for FREE!) This picture was taken when we went bowling -...
Read more

Friends Like Us

Image
Who, in a world with satellite television, does not know F.R.I.E.N.D.S? More importantly, who does not like them? I know I did, still do in fact :O) - even if Star World is over doing it a tad bit. Makes you wonder if they don't have ANY other sitcom they could air but this one. And trust me, there are some brilliant ones out there. When hubby comes home from work, the norm is to sit together with a cup of chai and watch the funnies on Star World. It usually coincides with the double episode of FRIENDS every evening, which we sit through just to watch what ever comes after. Today though, they played the last episode of Season 10 followed by the first episode of Season 1!!! I was hit with nostalgia as I travelled back in time to the nineties! I still remember the day in high school when all we could talk about was the previous night's episode when the Friends gang watches the prom night video (when Ross was supposed to take Rachel because her date ditched her). As a teen, we co...
Read more