Bubblistic Words!

Scene:
Wimbledon 2016 J.W. Tsonga (FRA) vs A. Murray (GBR) on TV.  S and I are cuddled up on the sofa, G cooking dinner or doing something in the kitchen.

Conversation:
S: Where is Tsonga from?
Me: France, see it says FRA next to him for France.
S: Oh, but Andy is English, right?
Me: Yup, see, it says right there... GBR for Great Britain.
S: So, why is it not GFRA?
Me: What?
S: GFRA, for Great France.
S said it with all innocence that I gave her a tight squeeze, related the story to G and explained to her that even I cannot figure out what the hell Great Britain, UK, England and all them rubbish stands for. And then this video came along to explain it all so nicely...yup, no one still gets it! Bunch of bollocks to confuse the world.

These guys stole the words from Babs head.

A Commonwealth ART

Katrathu Kai Mann Alavu, Kallathathu Ulagalavu

What you have learnt is only a handful and what you have not is the size of the world...I love this saying and everyday I realize that I will never ever know everything but I should be happy with everything I know. Else, my life will follow the path of misery...

I travel a lot, around the world, locally, here, there, everywhere. I am always up for a road trip. I am up for seeing new things. I am ready to jump on a train or a plane. Nature fascinates me, people amaze me, and the journey itself is enthralling. And yet, after all these years of roving, I realize that I have only seen a few places in the world in comparison to what all is out there.

The same realization occurs to me everyday at work. When I pick up on something that has existed for 1000's of years but only made its presence known to me now, I am in awe. There is an excitement in discovering ancient knowledge and the process of learning new things creates new vigor in life. So much more to learn, to do, to see...

And the best part is when you are learning with your little girl her school stuff and you accidentally stumble upon a different way to do simple math that had never occurred to you before. Most of the time I realize new things as I try to explain a concept to my daughter. When I am trying to break things down for her, I almost always bump into something fascinating. So much more to learn...

What Avvaiyar said gazillion years ago holds good forever...I keep adding a new feather to my hat each day but never heavy enough bring down my hat...

A knowledgeable ART

Time!

Typically at this time of the year we are off to our Euro Sojourn. Not this year. We are staying home, doing things around town, sending B to camps all 11 weeks of her summer break. I am not sure that she likes it but that is that.

The storms seem to have left Dallas after a very eventful spring. We saw about 5 or 6 hail storms and a few very damaging. Now our roof is getting fixed among other work around the house. One thing about owning a house, something or the other needs work to be done. When we finished the toilets the light in the closet went out, when we got that fixed the light at the entry blew out, and so on and so forth. You get the point.

Last weekend a friend of mine came home and made us get into the pool after 10 in the night. We were swimming and chatting in water past mid night. We had the music turned on and we relaxed as Saturday slowly turned into Sunday. It was my first time ever staying in our pool past dark. We also hosted G's aunt and niece over two weekends. B had her BFF spend a weekend with us. Yup, our house is rarely empty. G and I tease that if we were a hotel, we could show 80% occupancy.

G's aunt spent two weekends with us. We showed her and her wonderful daughter the fun side of Dallas. We ate out a lot, cooked in, went Downtown and showed off our beautiful Klyde Warren Park. Had late night chatting sessions and shopped. It was all super fun. I wish we had more family visiting us and spending time with us. And this is the best part about living in a house, we always have room for as many people as possible. We have stuffed it up so tight sometimes that we barely have room to breathe but it is still fun because we are all family.

And with so many activities going on summer came upon us very fast. We have more trips planned for the year and cannot wait to see family and friends! On the work front, life is hectic, something or the other keeps happening taking away peaceful nights from us. This is the life we have chosen and we grind our teeth and bear through it all.

A very Texas Hot ART

Babs Speak

Babs: So there is this girl in our camp...blah, blah, blah...
Me: Oh ok...hmmm...hmmm...
Babs: She is 15 and has a boyfriend.
Me: Is he also at the camp?
B: Nope, she was talking to him on the phone sitting next to me and guess what?
Me: What?
B: She told her boyfriend "I love you" before she hung up.
    Babs was all giggles as she said that while I exchanged a meaningful glace at G who was driving the car. We both had a slight smile on our face. Babs continued...
B: Well, you don't have to worry...
Me: About what?
B: About me saying those things at 15, I have a long way to go till I am 28 and have a boy friend.

G and I could not hold it in any longer...we burst out laughing.

Babs, I will hold you to these words...which is why it is being written here and immortalized...well at least as long as Google Blogger is around :P

Love the innocence and hope it never goes away.

Loving Mom ART

Two Women and I - In a Car!

I was in a car, with two other women heading to lunch. We were not similar in age or appearance. I was closer to 35 than 40 and they were above half a century. I was in a skirt and blouse and open toe heeled shoes, comfy in the Texas summer at the same time looking professional.

Lady 1 (L1): I wonder why people in this company (the one we had just visited) are so badly dressed.
Lady 2 (L2): Yup, looks too casual for a corporate HQ.
L1: If I were the boss, I would make everyone dress formal to work. Some days you are thrown out to meet the VP's and what nots and you always have to be ready to face the person.
L2: Agreed. I am very traditional when it comes to dressing. It has to be proper for work.
L1: Ya, my pet peeve is people coming to work in jeans and tennis shoes.
L2: I hate open toe shoes for work. It just seems too casual...

Arrgghh..umm...Rude...

And I was sitting in the back, not sure if she saw my feet or not. Regardless, I did not care. I was not going to fester sweaty smelly feet, plus our company policy had nothing against open toe shoes..and, the shoes looked good with the skirt.

Somehow I felt that the whole conversation was against the Indian community that worked at our client place. Most of whom chose comfort over fashion. And the last specific comment confirmed my suspicion.

If open toed shoes were the only thing that bothered her, she must be happy with what she wears. If I were her, I would have turned my closet into a bonfire...it was hideous...nope, not holding a grudge here :P

And every time I wear my open toe shoes to work, I remember this conversation.

Open-Toe Shoed ART :P