Memorial Park in Spring

I am currently away from home doing a set of 4 nights - yesterday was, pun not intended, killer - but had it's good moments. Tonight has so far been a lot better.

The change of seasons seems to have thawed my brains from its long hibernation - I suddenly feel like writing and updating my blog more regularly again. What better way to update the blog than writing about our terrific weekend?

We had a terrific weekend. True, the weather wasn't very sunny, but it wasn't raining either. We didn't want to travel far, but didn't want to stay indoors either. The compromise we reached to was to go to the Memorial Park, we knew the park would be in bloom this time in spring. We weren't disappointed.

Short Film: Spin

Whoa, this independent video is just too cool for school - apparently having won 35 major Film Festival awards. Watch it and see why.

Icecreams by the Pond

Spring is such a wonderful season. After the cold winter, spring is like the finish line after a long marathon, or the breath of fresh air after a long dive. We are all just so happy to welcome this wonderful season.

The Thursday just past, after a particularly efficient and productive afternoon, the team decided to hold an picnic "audit discussion" in the hospital's pocket park. We even brought (my favourite icecream) Soleros, coffee and food to share outdoors. The team's morale was increased several hundredfold while we were gazing at the tadpoles and the water-snake in the pond, absorbing the sun and enjoying our icecreams and coffee, exchanging stories, jokes & anecdotes.

It was certainly a day to remember for years ahead!

PS

1. This picture is from last year, at the time we had the "audit discussion" I was so wishing I had my camera to capture the moment.
2. It was only when I got home that I remembered - I did have a camera; my mobile phone! D'oh.
3. Our code word for tea break is "journal club", and from now onwards our code word for "enjoying the sun outside" would be "audit discussion".
   

Emyr

In the off chance that you guys would like to follow my Fotopages, here's the latest image I uploaded of Auntie and Uncle De's son Emyr. I was telling over there how I enjoy taking pictures of both Emyr & Safiya; they both have incredible eyes, smooth and fair skin, and are both just so photogenic. Both are very well behaved too - especially Safiya.

This picture was taken during our recent stay at Auntie and Uncle Wa's house in Essex during the Easter holiday.

Link to my FP

Longford Park

Thanks to D and family for telling us the existence of Longford Park. I have heard of the park before, during my travels along the Coventry Canal - but today was the first time we've had the chance to actually give the park a visit.

All members of our family have been unwell recently with quite a virulent flu. Sarah had spent most of Saturday sleeping, and Amar spent most of today crying. As for me, I'm unwell as well but I've always felt better while at work. I thought that a day out for the family would be good for everyone. It turned out as a semi-good idea. The visit to town with Arep & Dina was spoilt by Amar's constant whimpers but in Longford park everyone seemed to perk up.

Here are some of the pictures we took:

Brighton

I've been brewing this post for a week now on my blogger, but so far the only thing I've managed to do is upload the pictures. Nowadays, I really find it difficult to find scraps of time for me to update both the http://ichi-mynn.fotopages.com site as well as this. On top of everything, I have been burying my face in books for the good part of the past 3 weeks (the bad kind of books - fiction, specifically Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy - I'm happy to discuss these books with anyone interested :)

Anyway, It is very rare when the elements come together so very nicely as it had last week. For the extended 4 day Easter holiday weekend, both yours truly and auntie De had been exempted from oncalls (rare). We had planned it for weeks before, and successfully executed - we all travelled to Brighton for an excellent visit. Even rarer still was how beautiful and hot the weather was - a phenomenon that lasted for only around 4 days before we got the all too familiar grey skies, and foggy days again.

I think the pictures would tell the story better than I ever could:

Last weekend - for Easter holidays - our families travelled together to Brighton, to visit the popular Brighton pier.

Puan Mama Sarah had been before, but I had always heard how wonderful Brighton is - and it has always been my intention to go. Brighton was even better than I expected - little could I imagine how packed, full of activity, beautiful and inspiring the carnival that is Brighton would be.

The seaside was absolutely PACKED with people. In fact, I dare to say I've never ever been to a beach this packed with people before. I calculated that around every 3 metres square would be filled by at least one individual - either human or animal. I also learned about the skeletal remains of the burnt down pier - seen in the picture above.

It was gracious of Uncle & Auntie De's family to accommodate us, and then accompany us the long (around 2 hours) journey to Brighton. I hope they had enjoyed it as much as we did.

I found out that the beach was not sandy. Walking on these pebbles bare-footed was quite a painful experience - akin to accu-pressure (or so I was told).

Sarah was initially afraid of the cold waters - but in the end both Sarah and I dipped our legs.

Even the normally tethered Amar enjoyed playing with the pebbles - sorting, gathering, stacking. In the end, it was him who was most upset when we had to leave.

--- commentary to be continued, for now sleep is priority ---

Happy Birthday Amar!

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