What a year 2014 has been!

I struggle to describe how this year has been – completely mixed bag of feelings; but change was never going to be easy and we both knew it when we took the plunge. Loads of great memories made – amazing time spent with cousins, old friends and made new friends on the way! Still getting adjusted to the work culture , different ways of working and getting to know the colleagues! Changes, changes, too many of them, especially at work! But hanging in there, sometimes loving it and sometimes hating it 🙂

Realised that the same place to a tourist and to a resident is probably equivalent to Dr.Jekyl & Hyde.

Loved and hated my train travels – read more books this year during my daily commute than I did during any year in Dubai – this place makes you fall in love with reading! Learnt the art of balancing the book or the kindle in one hand and embracing the eerie silence in a crowded tube. Also developed a new found respect and love for my Mumbai’s local trains. My wish list for 2015 is to have one day of tube travel sans the signal failures, trespassers on tracks and fire alerts!

Experienced 4 distinct seasons for the first time in my life – I would not trade anything in this world for London’s beautiful summer and spring! Did our best we could to travel around whilst we were settling into a new place – Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff, Cotswold ,Burton on Water and Southampton! How much we had missed the clear blue skies and greenery during our time in Dubai – it is so soothing to drive on these roads and travel by train; I cannot even describe the blissful feeling.

4 stadiums visited – few local grounds and parks visited! What a place to watch cricket – all the stadiums need is my loud, non-stop , enthusiastic , exuberant Mumbai crowd to liven up the atmosphere. Tickets cost a bomb but the cricket viewing experience is just surreal – I wanted to chronicle it but I really struggled to blog and put up my thoughts owing to busy days at work & DIY household tasks!

Our neighbours here! Oh we are so blessed on that aspect – our first neighbours in Dubai are now more dearer than our family and here we have pseudo parents! Our downstairs neighbours are the most adorable British couple I have met and they pamper us with love and food and thanks to my lovely 90year old neighbour I got to attend her lovely fun-filled English tea party on her 90th birthday we celebrated on our community lawns!

Missed Dubai loads – my friends and the food! I’m still not sold on the fact that London has great food – Dubai is still miles ahead in terms of quality, variety and value for money! London is also too huge and most eating spots are concentrated in central London ; missed our Dubai weekend routine of hopping into our car and getting away for a nice brunch, breakfast or exploring new eating places from your local cafeteria to 5stars! We hope to change that this year 🙂

Urrggghhh I hate how this place is expensive for nothing – movies and eating out – 2 things we absolutely love and were our weekly to-dos for last 5 years in Dubai. Here we watched 3 movies at a theatre last year – one is lack of time and two paying double the price we paid in Dubai! Yes, yes I will stop cribbing now !

Never thought I would hate the rains – London ensured I did! Does not even pour – just keeps drizzling and irritates the hell out of you! Wanted to whack the rain gods and tell them just pour your hearts out for once and leave!

My lovely 4 year old niece kept us occupied throughout this year – she makes me laugh, her vocabulary at this age amazes me, I love her Brit accent and clear diction , we love to fight and we love to make up and the best part is she tries out all my dresses & shoes because wants to dress up just like her Mavshi! She is the apple of our eyes and she knows it! Her best friend is her uncle and when he is not with me she gets upset, because no one plays with her as well as her uncle does and the rest of us are of no use to keep her entertained! I love the drama queen she is – but she is growing up too fast and I’m beginning to miss my little munchkin!

Managed a long visit to Mumbai and quick trip to Dubai – realised now I have two ‘maykas’ (mom’s house)! My Dubai friends and colleagues pampered me crazy when I was there and realised how much I missed not having them with me here, but I also felt nice that they missed me equally! I did miss not being able to visit Mumbai thrice a year – hope to make it atleast twice a year!

As a general observation of London – I love the fact that strangers smile at you randomly, don’t hesitate to start a small talk , come out to help you when you need it and are mostly polite! Finally getting a hang of the British humour and sarcasm – easier blending in if you are sarcastic 😉

I’m more busy at work and home and get very little time to be online or blog but like every year I will make the promise to do the best I can here on this space!

So 2015 is here and hoping it is a great one for everyone – London though has the tough task on hand of getting me to love her 😉 Staying here is not easy, I keep cribbing but you already knew that is what she says to me!

P.S: Got Sachin’s autobiography signed from the man himself – how could I not mention this!

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1 Comment

  1. Ashutosh

    Best luck for the new place. Lucky you – getting the copy signed by the master himself.
    My friends were gifted me the book 🙂 (was pretty straight forward for them)

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