So I've been a bit lax this week-blame it on the 'flu! It struck suddenly. I mean, Sunday I was fine going about my stuff as usual; and I wake up Monday morning with a frog stuck in my throat. And it hurt. A steady headache started and took residence in my head, creating waves of pain as if it had a reporting schedule. Ugh.
I quickly started the home remedies regimen because no way did I intend to sit in a doctor's waiting room and return with a long prescription of antibiotics and accessory meds. Oh well, sometimes that only prolongs the inevitable, but I prefer to take the chance every time, because there are times when the home remedies work.
And luckily, by this morning, I felt better. Well enough to go visit a friend and enjoy a fantastic afternoon. So grateful for friends and family-who rally around and weave that circle of love around me-because where would I be without them?
May has been an interesting month filled with gratitude
For one thing, I wake up every morning wondering if it is Saturday. Don't ask me why. No, not a diabetes haze. Just that having my son home feels like an extended weekend. And that's a wonderful feeling. Grateful he's doing his summer internship here, this year. Not sure how next summer will be, so holding this one close to my heart and loving it.
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His vacation also means lots of outings, aided and abetted by my technology woes. My computer continues to be a so-and-so and now my Internet provider has also decided to join that gang whose sole aim is to "stop Vidya from working" Bah! Not going to let that get me down, because I've had so much practice handling this now, I just laugh when I see the blue screen of death. Also, my MS Office hangs all the time, driving me to become more of a Google docs devotee than I already am. How am I handling it though?
Saving all my stuff on the cloud-accessible from anywhere
Going out more and spending time with friends
Cutting down on my workload. I love my work. It is so satisfying to shape and fine tune a manuscript and send it off for printing.
Spending time with son binge-ing on movies and TV serials
A trip to our favorite bookstore-what joy to while away the day with books
Walks on the terrace in the evenings
Grateful that I can continue to exercise regardless of the weather.
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Ah, I visited Mumbai for the launch of "Musafir" a travel coffee table book to which I contributed. It was so wonderful to meet fellow travel bloggers-I had a great time. It was a too-short day trip-going early in the morning and returning late at night, but I am grateful I could make it. Superb experience meeting fabulous women making a difference in this world. The NGO which launched the book also launched "Ab ek goonj" and initiative to empower women and I was happy to be there. I had fun hosting a talk show with a few chosen bloggers. All in all, a very enjoyable and memorable day!
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By the way, I've started contributing to Gympik, a health and fitness site. Here's my first post there, titled Best Workouts for Women with Hypothyroidism - Women's Health if you'd like to read.
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I've been cooking a lot and of course loving it. It is always a pleasure and even more so with my son at home. This week's achievement was baking okra fries - kurkuri bhindi. Opens up a world of possibilities!
The last week of May had every blogger scrambling to comply with the GDPR rules and I was no exception. After some information overload, I found compliance a breeze, if a little time-consuming, thanks to six blogs. Here's my shiny new privacy policy. I take data privacy seriously and always have. I wrote to my subscribers, but later realized it might have been enough to just inform everyone about the privacy policy. As it happened it was a pleasant experience that triggered enjoyable conversations with quite a few subscribers-I am grateful for this.
Which made me think...maybe I should start sending a newsletter? A fortnightly one with new post updates and fun stuff rather than the new post alert I send out now? What do you think? I'd love to know. Feel free to email me.
Let me wrap up this Gratitude Circle edition by saying I am looking forward to the pleasant job of going through my bookshelves by purging what we don't need. We'll donate or sell and donate the cash. The idea is to make space for that wall to wall bookshelf I have been planning for months now. So much more fun to do it with my son. Sure we'll while away a lot of time sitting amidst the pile of books poring over that particular favorite and reminiscing-but that's all part of the pleasure.
How was May for you? I'd love to hear it!
Special thanks to all of you who join me in celebrating Gratitude. ♥
