The walk

In her comment on my last post on commenting, JLT said "post maadi, jaldi!". I love the wonderful mix of three languages.

Why have I not blogged?

I'm being stalked by a lizard. The lizard must have been a snubbed romeo in previous birth, persistent as it is in popping up only when I'm in the kitchen. I'm quite tired of gingerly peeping into my dustbin before throwing any rubbish, or sifting through my laundry to avoid washing a lizard. And yes, the post of lizard chaser is currently vacant. My knight has returned his sword..err...broom.

This was not a reason for not blogging but irritating enough for me to include it here.

Vacations are on, the boys' days begin at 10, sometimes 11 (GASP!) in the morning and end forcibly at 12 midnight. I have no clue which day of the week it currently is. I do know that these kids of mine are having an awesome vacation, even though they think it could have been better!

Sometimes we go exploring. That's a fancier name for walking, in my son's unasked for opinion. One Sunday found us at the Mac Ritchie reservoir. Beautiful place, complete with water, dense foliage, tall trees, a monkey and humid, humid weather. There is a treetop walk (a walkway,250m, constructed over the natural canopy of trees) which we could not attempt because we reached a bit late. It closes at 5 pm. and we landed there half an hour before.
After much pointing fingers at each other for the delay we proceeded to walk on the 2.5km Prunus trail, a boardwalk which hugs the reservoir bank.

RUN! here comes the 'papa'razzi!

sigh...what drama!

G, of course, seemed more keen on freezing the beauty within his camera than earnest walking. Photography is his ongoing hobby. He is quite good at it, considering that he manages to make me look very presentable, which is a decent parameter to measure his skills by. On this walk, the boys as usual were keen on showing their backs, so i was the only convenient fixture he got.

It was "walking a few steps, stop, get photographed, take two steps to the right because he needs that tree, now continue" walk all the way, with him indulging his creative eye, completely! It sure is more difficult to be with a wannabe photographer than to be with a wanna be writer.

See the reflection? :)

All in all, we walked quite a bit, and I realised that nature walks and 11 yr olds don't go together, not if you are strong enough to take intermittent doses of gyan, given regularly, from the 11yrold.

Sample one such gyan : "I have a great idea. Take all the pics you want and photo shop us on everyone of the pictures, easy!"

Gyan 2: "good, i saw the trees, i saw the water, can we go now?"

Just to say that we have not yet learnt our lesson, we are coming back to walk the tree top ropeway soon!

cramping my style

Ever heard of the commenter's cramp? No?

Well, you've heard it now. I have it. Don't google it, though.


It starts with the pressure of writing a witty, sensible comment. Then it escalates with the overusage of nice, great and awesome, peppered with smileys all over. It sometimes culminates in a non comment.


I read many blogs, some because i know the person, a few because i love their writing and many because they make me aware. I generally follow a principle of trying to see the post from another's perspective. Commenting seems to be a tricky art to master. There is the pressure to be politically correct while commenting. If you want to disagree with the views expressed then you have to figure out the right way to do it gently without hurting anyone's feelings. It never used to bother me before but it does now.



If the post has touched me in some way or made me smile, like they usually do, then i have a problem expressing the level of excitement/sorrow, differently each time. I avoid using Lol, LMAO ROFTL, (the latter sounds like i'm barking). And if i do try to leave the blog without commenting, the feedjit indicator beckons me like a stern taskmaster getting an errant kid to do the job right. bah!



The commenter's cramp seems more difficult to overcome than my blogger's block. More so since i get such perfect comments from you all. That felt good! Nothing like shifting the pressure on someone else! So when i comment and its not up to your mark, you know the reason. If it continues, i better compile a blogger's dictionary and at least impress you with more adjectives like stupendous, marvellous, fantabulous, etc.

While this has cramped my style, my elder boy is going through a 'no snaps pls, i'm serious' phase. The younger one is torn between his wanting to pose and his desire to follow big bro. So, sometimes we have blurs and backs masquerading as our sons and sometimes we have this.

saying no to the 'papa'razzi !

Someone should warn G (the hubby) that if this boy is anything like me, then G better take it easy with his camera. The 'papa' could soon have a close up of his own nose or ear adorning his cell-phone.